An outline for how to approach staring new in a position as a sales manager to establish a strong start and sustaining success leading a sales team. June 2020 update.

1. Creating Success as a
New Sales Manager
Keys Points to Effectively Managing
A Sales Team Initially
And For the Long Run
Steve Fawthrop
Linked4Biz
steve@linked4biz.com
714-876-7062, cell
Revised June 2020

2. Business in the “New Normal” economy
Growth for many businesses was challenging after the Great Recessionhit in
2008. There was steady recovery, though, with some lingering drags and
new segments of growth like:
 The continual rise of e-commerce
 The progressive shift in media to digital consumption
 Smartphones and apps becoming a part of daily life
 Other software platforms being more integrated with personal and
business activities
 Evolution of the “sharing economy”, represented by companies like
Uber and AirBnB.
Total full-time employment in 2015 reached the same level as 2007 (121
million) and the pace of growth increased in more recent years. In 2019 total
employment was over 130 million.
Now the economy has been turned on its head with historic unemployment
levels created by a broad shutdown of business activity due to health
concerns from Covid-19.
Businesses have to figure out how to be successfulin a different and still
emerging new environment.
Most companies are not high profile or seen as selling products orservices
that are leading edge, yet they have a key role in the economy to fulfill needs
in consumer and business markets. For a company to succeed in a growth
economy or one that is flat, a sale must be made.
A competitiveproductor service still needsto be sold—reallynow more
than ever because there are manyquality providersin all industry
segments.
The sales discussion is where the ideas, products, services, technology and
operational supportsystems of your companyareleveraged intovalueto
customers and valueback to you in a sale, new revenue and profit.
Leading the charge to maximize value is the sales staff. A sales personis the
brand personification of the company and related products and services that
need to be represented and sold at the highest value.

3. As sales manager, whether at a team level or a higher director level, your
key role is to effectively work with the sales team to integrate the company
mission, financial goals, products and services into profitable operations
through the sales success and customer growth by the sales team.
In other words, you are leading, training, coaching and managing
successfully when you have a team working from the same playbook to
serve your customers to win in the marketplace.
I have outlined some of the basic mechanics and processes you should
address starting new in the sales manager position. These include evaluating
the current state of business, the activities of the reps and your role as
manager to set a foundation for a positive start and sustaining success.
These actions operate as part of an overriding need for each member of the
sales team to recognize changes in the market, embrace the offerings of the
company to help clients, commit to their own success and the success of
their teammates and company.
This outline focuses on the basics for a new sales manager with a tilt toward
two assumptions:
 You are operating as a manager overseeing and interacting with your
team on a daily basis.
 You are new to your position more likely coming into the position
from outside of the company.
I appreciate any feedback or additional ideas to improve the content.

4. Get to Know the Staff, Their Clients and Key Opportunities
Step One: Face Time. Spend one-on-one time with everyone as soonas
possible to get to know them better and establish individual communication.
On an individual level the first goal is to develop trust and openness so you
can work effectively with those reporting to you.
Additionally, both in individual time and as a group, you want to get their
perspective on the state of the company, market and opportunities.
Approacheach person with the attitude that everyone was hired
appropriately and can perform well in their position.
Since all have some track record, even if just a few months ahead of you,
you will have benefit of seeing results and perhaps can also get guidance
from upper management. For now, unless warned in advance of significant
problems, treat the staff with the attitude of optimism.
Step Two:Territory Tour. This will be “virtual” tour with the inside reps
and in-person, as appropriate, for the outside reps.
If it is beneficial to get a better understanding of the current outside reps
based on their geographic coverage at this point, then join them on a tour of
their territory as a general overview. Meet with five to ten key clients for an
introduction, update and presentation of one new idea.
This shows customers your interest in them, gives you the opportunity to
meet clients and allows you to observe the interpersonal dynamics of the rep
with their clients and prospects.

5. This is also a prime opportunity to see what offerings from the company are
being discussed. With a competitive environment—no matter what industry
you are in--and so many options for clients to use for suppliers (or the
challenge of getting their attention for consideration), it is critical to
determine how well the reps are connecting client goals and desires with
options and ideas you offer.
Step Three: Probe sales teamproduct knowledge. Have the reps present
you information from PowerPoint presentations, collateral material and other
supporttools they use. This will help you understand their working
knowledge, work habits (do they know the materials or not?), strength in
presentation and application of resources. It also accelerates your learning
process.
Ideally accomplishing the goals within the first month canbe achieved.
If you are working with a largerstaff or one geographicallydispersed, it
may take longerbut it is a critical early function in order to assessthe
approachbeing takenby the sales staffin managing their prospecting
and sales relationships.

6. Know the Territory and Communities of Interests
Step One: Territory Analysis. In conjunction with the individual reps,
conduct a territory analysis (geographic, vertical or “virtual” for inside reps)
to clarify the current state of business for revenue to goals, understand trends
good or bad and learn overall territory structure. This will clarify the current
structure and, perhaps, help you measure how a structure may need to shift
for growth.
This helps you understand the activities and results currently taking place
and helps identify any gaps in the results for boththe rep and you.
This also ties back to the points above about the reps needing to understand
the various products orservices and using the knowledge to expand their
world of prospects byknowing more ways you can provide solutions.
The analysis will also help clarify the status of basic activities and results
like call volume, pipeline revenue, customer count, contract count and
“average” client revenue. Is everyone clear where you stand in these
measurement areas? What else needs to be measured?

7. Step Two:Expand the CustomerBase. A key indicator of momentum is
looking at the percent of new clients as part of total revenue. You may need
to establish:
 Are enough new contacts and first appointments (phone or in person)
taking place to supporta revenue pipeline to meet goals?
 How are new products orexpanded markets being used to grow the
prospectbase?
 Does the analysis show growth in the sale of new products or targeted
categories?
 Are the activities and results in line with the financial goals of the
company and of the individual sales and income goals of the reps?
After the evaluationclarify and update goals as needed. Reasons:
 While the rep may already have sales goals for revenue results, the
broader goals may also include specific activities or key selling
opportunities that exist or are pending.
 Setting the short term goals also establishes a clear agenda for follow
up discussions during regular update meetings or in spending time in
the field.
To be successfulall the reps have to be more disciplined in their focus and
activity, flexible in working with their clients and creative in seeing how
new products and services can open doors to new prospects. This has to
happen within a well-organized operational structure.

8. Master the Internal Processes/Resources
You need to identify what working knowledge and administrative
information is needed to be effective in your own role and to help develop
the team. This includes:
 After evaluating the current sales success,decidehow the talents of
team members can be further developed to be better contributors.
 Determine how reps can bestapply themselves to use their strengths
more productively in their individual sales efforts and to the benefit of
the team as possible.
 Related to this, learn what tools exist to supportthe sales team and
you that did not come up in initial discussions. If there are gaps in
knowledge or training then you need to make use of available
resources as soonas possibleand clarify additional resources needed.
Additionally you need to cultivate effective, collaborative working
relationships with others in the company. This includes:
 Administratively be clear about necessary reporting. When does it
need to be done and how does it need to be delivered?
 Just as you will work with the sales team to have an effective work
style with them, it is also necessary for you to understand the desires,
needs and styles of your immediate boss, uppermanagement and
those in any other departments with whom you interact.
I appreciate the opportunity to share this and hope you find it of value. If so,
please share it with others.

9. Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress;
working together is success. --Henry Ford
“The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins
This summary has iterated from one initially drafted in 2009.
A significant addition is resource information from the book “The First 90
Days” by Michael Watkins, published by the Harvard Business Review
Press.
The bookaddresses new positions at all levels. The core elements are
certainly applicable to those in sales leadership and I recommend the book
as a timely read as you step into a new position.
At 300+ pages it goes into more depth about individual elements of a new
position, including up to CEO level.
To prep you, linked are resources related to themes addressed in the book.
Included:
A two minute video from the author touching on how to start correctly with
early wins:
https://hbr.org/video/2363556825001/establish-credibility-in-a-new-job
A Harvard Business Review article “How Managers Become Leaders”:
https://hbr.org/2012/06/how-managers-become-leaders
Below is a summary of the bookthat strips away the case studies and
highlights the common considerations. Unlike my overview, Watkins’ book
gets much deeper into the distinction of proper onboarding as someone new
to a company (or distinctly new business unit within a company), or in-
boarding to a new position within an existing employer. The summary:
http://papensouth.org/PDF/The_First_90_Days.pdf

10. Additional Resources
I have written a number of blog posts on LinkedIn related to sales,
management, leadership, personal development and other topics.
Some related to sales and management:
Commentary on some key points in the book“Fanatical Prospecting”:
http://bit.ly/2joWaPI
6 biases that may be holding back your success in closing more sales, from
"The Challenger Sale": http://bit.ly/1MnjyrC
Trust and the Leadership Gap: http://linkd.in/1zxvI60
Know the difference between management and leadership. Observations
from Dr. John Kotter of Harvard: http://bit.ly/2yTxNDk
Ego vs. Healthy Debate. Keep the focus productive: http://bit.ly/2fDnY26
Understanding talents and strengths: http://bit.ly/1VKEMUN
From others:
Harvard Business Review blog on seven personality traits of a top sale
person: http://bit.ly/1Ofd1Rs
Stephan Schiffman on sales coaching: http://bit.ly/20iswMu
While older, I recommend his books “Getting to Closed” (emphasis on
territory management) and “Ask Questions, Make Sales.”
For recruitment and hiring:
The high costof hiring mistakes: http://bit.ly/1P34i57

11. About Me
I have been a sales professional in B2B sales with my emphasis on
advertising, marketing and media. This has included managing my own
territories, selling jointly with others and managing sales teams.
My professional sales career started in Seattle with the Puget Sound
Business Journal, but a significant portion of my professional time was in
California split between Los Angeles and Orange County. I returned to
Seattle late 2012.
Since my return I have worked in a series of contract positions under my
sales consultancy, Linked4Biz, for new client development. Some selective
client work is noted on my LinkedIn profile.
Most recently I worked with LeadG2, an inbound marketing and sales
enablement agency. I focused on new client development, including a start-
up effort geographically for the Greater Seattle market. That work concluded
January 2020. The agency is a HubSpotPlatinum-Certified Solutions Partner
and is part of The Center for Sales Strategy.
I was born and raised in Seattle and graduated from the University of
Washington with a B.A. in Communications, in Advertising, and a minor
emphasis in business and economics.
I am community manager for the LinkedIn group Seattle Sales, Marketing
and Advertising Professionals, which has 4200+ members, and one of the
first million members of LinkedIn (2004).
Additionally, I am a current volunteer and have served as board member
(2013-2019) for The Friends of the Seattle Public Library.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefawthrop