Activating Sales Performance Through Learning: Key Findings

It’s no secret that when organizations need to raise profits, sales managers are often put in the spotlight. The extremely critical task of motivating and directing the revenue generation efforts of sales representative teams who represent a diverse range of personalities, backgrounds, and work habits falls on sales managers.

But are sales managers sufficiently equipped to handle their responsibilities?  And what is the role of the talent development function in providing the necessary preparation? ATD Research and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) explored these questions in our new research report, Developing Sales Managers: Activating Sales Performance Through Learning.

To obtain the data for our research, we surveyed 168 learning and sales leaders. We also conducted in-depth interviews with sales training leaders from organizations including EMC Corporation, a Fortune 500 company with about 7,500 sales employees, and BuzzFeed, a young internet startup with 45 salespeople.

Key findings

The research found that sales managers are much more likely to have mastery in selling and account maintenance than in areas related to managing others. Of survey respondents, 62 percent reported that sales managers have expertise in creating and closing opportunities, but the rate for expertise in managing was only 34 percent. This finding is especially concerning given that, at more than 80 percent of organizations, sales managers have, on average, three or more direct reports. At 15 percent of organizations, they have 10 or more.

What accounts for this shortfall in managing expertise? The typical recruitment process for sales managers may be one cause. We found that the number one recruiting channel for filling sales manager openings is internal promotion within Sales. Moreover, when promoting representatives to sales managers, only about a third of organizations look for some management experience, but nearly twice that many look for top sales performers.

So if the typical new sales manager is a former superstar representative who lacks management experience, are learning functions providing training in crucial managing and coaching skills? Unfortunately, 52 percent of organizations do not have training targeted specifically at new sales managers, and general sales training is light on hours devoted to management and coaching.

One theme that emerged from our interviews was that new sales manager training is of great value, but before launching such programs, learning leaders should identify specific skills that are needed now and in the future. This may involve gathering input from not just executives and sales leaders, but also sales representatives and individuals that work closely with sales managers, such as sales support or production. As one learning leader explained, “you assume as a trainer you know the problem without due diligence.... Reach out to the sales representatives and ask what they need \[from their managers\].”

Want to learn more? 

I encourage everyone to join us for a free webcast hosted by ATD Research on December 8, 2014 at 3:00. We will discuss the report’s findings and feature insights from Kristen Gleason, sales enablement training manager for Sophos. 

The full research report, _Developing Sales Managers: Activating Sales Performance Through Learning_or is available for purchase online. Members have complimentary access to the whitepaper.