Sales Manager Advice

I would be more concerned about the conflict of interest that can occur when he/she can make more on personal sales. All of a sudden, potentially big or profitable accounts "become" his creating a rift between them and their reps. The only accounts I would give the Sales Manager are pet or problem accounts and I would only pay him what he would have earned had one of his reps sold it. I other words, his sales become part of the team sales of which he gets a percentage. I assume there would be some sort of base salary and the salary would be justified by the "house" sales they would be responsible for. If they aren't willing to babysit house accounts without getting big commission checks, then you have hired the wrong person.

Take it from me. I've got a "selling manager" and he's a good sales person and a good manager, however I'm a firm beleiver that you can't do two things at once and excel with both of them.

I'm the only tenured rep on my team. I still have many questions after being in the business for 31 years, such as policy, pricing, ordering, and many others and most of my needs and wants are more complex than the "newbies", thus I find myself taking a back seat waiting for information or direction longer than I should. For the "newbies", well their needs and wants are not as complex and a good job is done with directing them.

I had the talk today....I fel that if that person was just managing that my information would come quicker. Plus the fact the accounts that the manager is handling could be spread to the four reps (including me). The manager could then focus more on calls with the "newbies", close sales for them, and keep them in the right state of mind that they are prospecting and closing business even if the manager is doing most of the closing. The manager is happy because the team numbers are there, they reps are happy becuase they are closing deals with help and the "newbies" feel a sense of accomplishement and I feel will stay longer and not give up on the industry. My benefit, is that I'll have a manager that will be able to respond quicker to my needs and thus I'll close more business and won't get fustrating waiting on items.

It's a fine line to sell or not to sell.

Hope this helps!!

I don't think you could have a selling sales manager who also (actually) manages 6 people.

Selling sales mangers are great in areas that need someone in charge but the number of reps do not justify a manager (usually 2-3 reps).

If you want someone to hire, train and actually manage people, don't give them a quota for individual sales. If you want someone to answer a few questions and turn in the month end paperwork without really "managing" anything, go with a selling sales manager.