Sales Management Tips
Becoming or bettering yourself as a sales manager
I’ve written about this before, but a Front Line Sales Manager may just be the hardest job in sales.
So why are there so few tips, pointers, posts on the things we can do to become, or even better yourself in this crucial and pivotal role?
Let’s change that.
In this week’s edition of Stretch Weekly -
Patrick McLoughlin joins the Force Management podcast and gives his Top 6 Sales Manager Tips
Using data and insights with The Sales Manager’s Playbook for Account Plans deliver repeatable wins
Plus - just between us - the only place you’ll find these scrumptious snippets to becoming or bettering yourself as a sales manager in SaaS.
THANKS for reading!!
-Grant
And lastly - as always, if you find this newsletter valuable- subscribe or share it with someone who might as well 👊.
STRETCH SHARES
Sales Manager Tips of the Day
I love the Force Management podcast for sales leaders. It always seems to have tactical and high value insights. This episode hit home - let me know if you felt the same.
If you want to be a great manager, it takes a different skillset than what it takes to be a great seller. After all, being a great player of the game doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a great coach.
Listen as Patrick McLoughlin gives his Top 6 Sales manager tips (and some great sales quotes too!):
Call 20 customers every month. Best time to build a champion is when you’re not in an active sales cycle. Ask them how things are going in their lives...
Don’t Yell at the Scoreboard. Put in context in the HOW. How should we close the deal, instead of telling what to do. Walk them through a story of HOW you’ve done this.
Be a learning team. “When you’re green - you’re growing. When you’re ripe - you rot”. Continually invest in you. Podcasts, industry blogs, THIS newsletter. 🙂
Better to sweat in practice, than sweat in battle. “An amateur salesperson will practice until they get it right. The professional salesperson will practice until they can’t get it wrong.”
Have the courage to keep it simple. Don’t make things harder than it is.
Spend time with your people. Travel. Get in the fields and weeds with them. Coach them. Dividends will be exponential.
Sales Manager’s Playbook for Account Plans
I am a fan of a tool we use called People.ai which brings together account/prospect insights, metrics, and even includes one of my favorite tools - PeopleGlass - as a way to view and update pipeline (Salesforce) in a fraction of the time it normally takes. (future post or something on sales tools is in the works)
Having no vested interest in People.ai other than I like the tool, I did find this well written piece on using data (whatever you have at your disposal - we just happen to use People.ai) to formulate an official account/ territory plan. The what/ why/ how etc.
Check it out below - but before you do - a couple of highlights:
48% of teams using account planning increase their chances of growing account. 94% increase likelihood of customers renewing.
Use Teamwork. Leverage marketing, sales development, sales and customer success to operate in sync.
High-effort outreach is a mush-have. Coordinated campaigns for targeted accounts is key.
Activity Data is key. Ex: Who are the most engaged people in the deal -- and what does that engagement look like?
STRETCH SNIPPETS
✅ Need a QBR template to borrow? Check out this one by Jay Fewks and Hubspot.
🤔 Sales leaders: If you are making a move, at least make sure it's to something better. Jason Lemkin says to Ask the CEO these 9 questions.
👉 “First and foremost, you need to be interviewing them 10x harder than they're interviewing you”. Collin Cadmus shares his 5 tips for a VP Sales Interview.
👏 He actually built a homework assignment for the hiring manager... Travis Janko shares this thread of a real life AE firing back. Can’t blame him eh?
💪 What makes a great frontline sales leader? Ian Koniak gives us his top 8 traits!
🧠 Mindset
Simplicity drives sales. If you want to sell more, make people think less.
-Dharmesh Shah, Founder Hubspot
Thanks for reading!
My hope is if you find this valuable, consider sharing it with a friend or signing up if you haven’t already.
— Grant 👋
About stretch vp: confessions, learnings, and insights from sales leaders in SaaS
Compiled and aggregated from a network of sales leaders in SaaS, Stretch VP showcases learnings, insights, and experiences as well as best practices to overcome common hurdles, obstacles, and setbacks in your quest for excellence as a sales leader in SaaS.
Are you a VP, Director, thought leader, or content producer in the SaaS space? We’d love to have you contribute. Just reply to this email and I’ll be in touch.
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