What You Need to Know About Exceptional Sales Managers

#MattMcDarby, author of #TheCadenceOfExcellence and I explore the key habits, beliefs and values of excellent sales managers. Matt's distinguished career as a top performing salesman and sales manager; he cut his teeth and evolved into a world class sales manager at #Huthwaite under #NeilRackham, creator or the #SPINsellingsystem. He trains, coaches and offers interim sales leadership to his tech and professional services clients and is often brought into turnaround situations. This interview is dripping with usable insights and practical advice from start to finish. Make sure you have a pen and paper handy and listen more than once. We discuss why to role of sales manager is precarious, and why sales managers are so depressingly undertrained and exposed by senior leadership. We explore recruitment, onboarding, training, coaching and accountability with a no holds barred. We discuss the toughest and most common challenges managers face routinely; some self-inflicted, some inflicted upon them by leadership who don't understand the role of sales manager. Sales Manager's time is stretched, they have to learn how to prioritise and put first things first, and one of the most divisive mistakes leadership makes is to have player-managers who will naturally focus on hitting their personal quota over helping their salespeople hit theirs. Manager's need to spend 80% of their time coaching, in role plays, in the field, on the job with their salespeople NOT jockeying spreadsheets or in an ivory tower. Managers have 4 critical functions: Hire the best salespeople Get the best out of them Ensure they have the tools and resources they need to do their best work every day Protect your salespeople from the idiocy of senior leadership (e.g. CFO's refusing to pay commission, changing the comp plan, setting stupid targets without giving any thought to HOW the target might be achieved) We dispel the myth that salespeople are primarily money-motivated and why salespeople who profess that their primary motivation is to make money are likely to make poor hires. Matt's response to sales managers who say they're in it for the money is priceless. Leaving talent management and recruitment to chance or making it a secondary activity is an act of gross misconduct on the part of sales managers. Easier said than done when senior management is ragging on the manager to "drive results" which focuses managers on the wrong end of the problem. If you want to get in touch with Matt his LinkedIn Profile is: linkedin.com/in/mattmcdarby His websites can be found at: specializedsalessystems.com  (Company Website) mcdarby.net  (Personal Website) -- If you are the owner or CEO of a technology company in the £10m-50m revenue range, and your goal is to grow your business and achieve real, sustainable hypergrowth with highly engaged and highly productive employees and clients who stick with you year after year, let’s schedule time for a brief conversation. To book a 1 to 1 with me or check out my 250+ podcast interviews with some of the best salespeople, sales leaders, sales psychologists, founders and entrepreneurs, trainers, coaches and authors click here - https://linktr.ee/marcuscauchi   And if you want to become part of our global community #SalesAForceForGood #SAFFG, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected]. You can track down events and posts by following the hashtag #ProCustomer #BuyerSafety