3 key tips for new sales managers - Tony Hughes - Talking Sales

Interview with sales leadership guru Tony Hughes (No. 341 in the TALKING SALES Series )

WHAT TIPS HAVE YOU GOT FOR A NEW SALES MANAGER?

A friend of mine has recently been promoted to sales manager of a team of seven and a mentor of his told him: "What made you a successful salesperson may cause you to fail as a sales manager". Do you agree? What tips do you have for her?

In this recent video interview I asked Tony Hughes what tips he had for anybody moving into a new sales management role.

Here are some of the tips he shared.

YOU NEED A MINDSET CHANGE

"Being a manager and a leader is all about 'Servant Leadership''. You need a "mindset change - It's no longer about you - it's now all about others". "You need to go from artist to engineer. You need to go from being self-centric to being others centric".

BE BRUTAL ON RESOURCING YOUR TEAM

"You need to learn to make the really tough decisions early, otherwise it'll be the end of you in your role as a manager".
"You need to be compassionate, you need to be inclusive, but above all you need to decide who really belongs in your team and then making those tough decisions".
"Most managers wrongly focus on trying to lift the bottom, to be the middle. If they are drowning at the bottom and let them go and move them out and go
and find people to replace them.
Instead, performance manage the bottom and put your energy into coaching and lifting the middle so they can be great".

MANAGE ACTIVITY NOT OUTCOMES:
Key to success is understanding that "You can't manage the result. You can only manage the activities that feed into the objectives that secure the result".
"Stress comes from not feeling that you're in control". And you cannot directly control the outcome.
"Don't let people off the hook"

What tips would you add?