A sales manager is someone who is responsible for leading and guiding a team of sales people in an organisation. They set sales goals & quotas, build a sales plan, analyse data, assign sales training and sales territories, mentor the members of his/her sales team and are involved in the hiring and firing process.
Sales Managers ultimately drive a company’s revenue engine. They create and nurture high performing sales teams, and guide them in customer service, and lead them to generate hit revenue forecasts.
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Responsibilities
A Sales Manager will ultimately play three key roles:
- Managing other people who they will recruit, build and nurture into an ambitious, sales generating team
- Managing customers to increase engagement and service standards
- Managing the relevant business, steering it in the right direction to increase growth and revenue
Breaking down responsibilities, it might look more like this:
- Oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs;
- Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service;
- Prepare budgets and approve budget expenditures;
- Monitor customer preferences to determine the focus of sales efforts;
- Analyse sales statistics;
- Project sales and determine the profitability of products and services;
- Determine discount rates or special pricing plans;
- Plan and coordinate training programs for sales staff.
Other responsibilities might include:
- Setting targets;
- Planning and implementing sales programs;
- Counsel support and discipline sales reps;
- Developing a scalable sales process and ensuring reps adhere to it.
Qualifications
Typical qualifications for a Sales Manager will include:
- Demonstrated track record of meeting/exceeding goals as an individual contributor;
- Successful experience building a territory from little or nothing;
- Skilled at building rapport, opening doors, and understanding business requirements of senior decision makers.
Skills
The types of skills that would be relevant to a Sales Manager role might include:
- Ambition;
- High-achieving;
- Results-oriented attitude;
- Innovative and problem solving with lots of ideas;
- Strong decision maker, basing your decisions on fact, figures and data analysis;
- Following the rules set out to you;
- Attention to detail, methodical and organised;
Average salary
Morgan McKinley set out the typical salary in 2018 for a Sales Manager working in London. The table below shows how the salary could vary depending on experience:
| Role | 0-2 years | 3-4 years | 5-6 years | 7+ years | Head of |
| Sales Management | * | 40,000 – 50,000 | 50,000 – 70,000 | 70,000 – 150,000 | 80,000 – 150,000 |
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