There are many common mistakes that new sales managers make. When you take charge of a new sales team, or have been promoted to sales manager, don’t make these mistakes: • Mistake #1: Trying to overcontrol your sales force. Most sales managers get to where they are because they’re excellent salespeople. And as salespeople, they had control—over their territories, their customers, their selling style, and so on. Out of habit, they may try to control their new sales force the same way. Learn to accept the fact that your performance will now be judged by the performance of your team—and that there are a lot more variables over which you have no control. • Mistake #2: Mistaking activity for accomplishment. The salesperson’s job is filled with activities that have an immediate result. They can count the number of contacts they made, orders they filled, cold calls they made. As a manager, you no longer have these activities to keep you busy; your job isn’t laid out for you. As a result, many sales managers start doing activities that appear productive, but are really only taking up time. Or they start micromanaging—calling on accounts themselves, shuffling territories, and so on. Resist the urge to do something just to be doing something. —Adapted from Dartnell Corporation’s Good Selling Web site
