Link: http://www.astd.org/Publications/Magazines/TD/TD-Archive/2012/06/Your-Guide-to-Developing-Sales-Managers.aspx

Featured Article: Your Guide to Developing Sales Managers: How to Effectively Maximize Neglected Talent

By Michelle Vazzana and Jason Jordan

In “Your Guide to Developing Sales Managers: How to Effectively Maximize Neglected Talent,” the authors set out to change the formula for how excellent salespeople are turned into mediocre sales managers. Vazzana and Jordan first identify the problem with today’s sales manager training, and then define a plan to revolutionize it.

Excerpt taken directly from “Your Guide to Developing Sales Managers: How to Effectively Maximize Neglected Talent” by Michelle Vazzana and Jason Jordan

You know the routine:

Step 1: Invest heavily to develop your frontline sellers.

Step 2: Promote the best salespeople to the role of sales manager.

Step 3: They struggle to succeed in that sales management role.

Step 4: Repeat as needed.

This pattern of turning star salespeople into mediocre managers is one that is recognized by most companies with whom we work. But interestingly, the observation is commonly accompanied by a casual shrug of the shoulders and the defeated concession, "That's how it always happens. I guess that's just the way it is."

Sadly, that is the way it is—or at least that's how it has been for more than a century. But more and more companies are coming to recognize the real source of the problem: Sales managers have been neglected and generally misserved from a training and development perspective.