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Creating Success as a
New Sales Manager
Keys Points to Effectively Managing
A Sales Team Initially
And For the Long Run
Steve Fawthrop
Linked4Biz
stevefawthrop@outlook.com
714-876-7062, cell
November 2018

Business in the “New Normal” economy
Growth for many businesses was challenging after the Great Recession hit in
2008. There has been a slow, steady recovery but with a combination of
lingering drags and new segments of growth. Some influences on businesses
and the economy:
• The Great Recession shrank Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two
years necessitating a long term recovery to get back to 2007 levels.
• More recently, the unemployment rate has dropped but lower total
employment exists relative to the available labor pool leaving some in
the population in long term unemployment or underemployment.
Total full-time employment in 2015 reached the same level as 2007 (121
million) but the total employable population has grown. Job growth, relative
to the total labor pool, has lagged, in part, due to higher productivity via
technology, skills gaps and outsourcing of jobs in a generally slower
growing economic environment.
• Disposable income shrank in most U.S. households then started
modest growth since 2010, limiting a more robust growth compared to
other historical recovery rates.
GDP shrank 2008-2009 and the highest growth since then was 2.6% in 2015.
Growth in 2016 was 1.5% and in 2017 2.3%. Fortunately, 2018 is projected
at 3.1% then projected to taper again after benefit of tax cuts play out.
• Shifting and competing political priorities for social programs, debt
spending and tax policies affect the lending market and social benefit
programs further into the future at the federal, state and local levels.
For businesses that survived since 2008 they have seen positive growth even
if slower than desired. For companies on the leading edge of shifts in the
economy, there has been some with tremendous growth:
• Amazon reflects the continuing high growth rate of e-commerce while
traditional retail has been flat and going through huge structural shifts.
Amazon finished 2017 at nearly $178 billion revenue while in 2008 it was
just over $19 billion.

In contrast, traditional retailers Macy’s, Sears, JC Penny and Kmart, along
with many specialty retailers, instituted significant store closures in recent
years. Toys R Us went bankrupt.
• Apple’s iPhone, introduced 2007, seeded growth of the smartphone
market and all the related apps to it. The mobile market, including
tablets, now has a broad cultural impact that affects business
opportunities including, for example, an accelerated shift to more
investment in digital marketing vs. traditional or “legacy” media.
• The “sharing economy”, with companies like Uber and Airbnb,
represent altering business structures including the relationship of
management and labor to each other.
Most companies are not high profile or seen as selling products or services
that are leading edge, yet they have a key role in the economy to fulfill needs
in consumer and business markets. For a company to succeed in a growth
economy or one that is flat, a sale must be made.
A competitive product or service still needs to be sold—really now more
than ever because there are many quality providers in all industry segments.
The sales discussion is where the ideas, products, services, technology and
operational support systems of your company are leveraged into customer
value and value back to you in a sale, new revenue and profit.

Leading the charge to maximize value is the sales staff. A sales person is the
brand personification of the company and related products and services that
need to be represented and sold at the highest value.
As sales manager, whether at a team level or a higher director level, your
key role is to effectively work with the team to integrate the company
mission, financial goals, products and services into profitable operations
through the sales success and customer growth by the sales team.
In other words, you are leading, training, coaching and managing
successfully when you have a team working from the same playbook to
serve your customers to win in the marketplace.
I have outlined some of the basic mechanics and processes you should
address starting new in the sales manager position. These include evaluating
the current state of business, the activities of the reps and your role as
manager to set a foundation for a positive start and sustaining success.
These actions operate as part of an overriding need for each member of the
sales team to recognize changes in the market, embrace the offerings of the
company to help clients, commit to their own success and the success of the
company.
This outline focuses on the basics for a new sales manager with a tilt toward
two assumptions:
• You are operating as a manager overseeing and interacting with your
team on a daily basis.
• You are new to your position more likely coming into the position
from outside of the company.
I appreciate any feedback or additional ideas to improve the content.

Get to Know the Staff, Their Clients and Key Opportunities
Step One: Face Time. Spend one-on-one time with everyone as soon as
possible to get to know them better and establish individual communication.
On an individual level the first goal is to develop trust and openness so you
can work effectively with those reporting to you.
Additionally, both in individual time and as a group, you want to get their
perspective on the state of the company, market and opportunities.
Approach each person with the attitude that everyone was hired
appropriately and can perform well in their position.
Since all have some track record, even if just a few months ahead of you,
you will have benefit of seeing results and perhaps can also get guidance
from upper management. For now, unless warned in advance of significant
problems, treat the staff with the attitude of optimism.
Step Two: Territory Tour. This will be “virtual” tour with the inside reps
and in-person, as appropriate, for the outside reps.
If it is beneficial to get a better understanding of the current outside reps
based on their geographic coverage at this point, then join them on a tour of
their territory as a general overview. Meet with five to ten key clients for an
introduction, update and presentation of one new idea. This shows customers
your interest in them, gives you the opportunity to meet clients and allows
you to observe the interpersonal dynamics of the rep with their clients and
prospects.

This is also a prime opportunity to see what offerings from the company are
being discussed. With a competitive environment—no matter what industry
you are in--and so many options for clients to use for suppliers (or the
challenge of getting their attention for consideration), it is critical to
determine how well the reps are connecting client goals and desires with
options and ideas you offer.
Step Three: Probe sales team product knowledge. Have the reps present
you information from PowerPoint presentations, collateral material and
other support tools they use. This will help you understand their working
knowledge, work habits (do they know the materials or not?), strength in
presentation and application of resources. It also accelerates your learning
process.
Ideally accomplishing the goals within the first month can be achieved.
If you are working with a larger staff or one geographically dispersed, it
may take longer but it is a critical early function in order to assess the
approach being taken by the sales staff in managing their prospecting
and sales relationships.

Know the Territory and Communities of Interests
Step One: Territory Analysis. In conjunction with the individual reps,
conduct a territory analysis (geographic, vertical or “virtual” for inside reps)
to clarify the current state of business for revenue to goals, understand trends
good or bad and learn overall territory structure. This will clarify the current
structure and, perhaps, help you measure how a structure may need to shift
for growth.
This helps you understand the activities and results currently taking place
and helps identify any gaps in the results for both the rep and you.
This also ties back to the points above about the reps needing to understand
the various products or services and using the knowledge to expand their
world of prospects by knowing more ways you can provide solutions.
The analysis will also help clarify the status of basic activities and results
like call volume, pipeline revenue, customer count, contract count and
“average” client revenue. Is everyone clear where you stand in these
measurement areas? What else needs to be measured?

Step Two: Expand the Customer Base. A key indicator of momentum is
looking at the percent of new clients as part of total revenue. You may need
to establish:
• Are enough new contacts and first appointments (phone or in person)
taking place to support a revenue pipeline to meet goals?
• How are new products or expanded markets being used to grow the
prospect base?
• Does the analysis show growth in the sale of new products or targeted
categories?
• Are the activities and results in line with the financial goals of the
company and of the individual sales and income goals of the reps?
After the evaluation clarify and update goals as needed. Reasons:
• While the rep may already have sales goals for revenue results, the
broader goals may also include specific activities or key selling
opportunities that exist or are pending.
• Setting the short term goals also establishes a clear agenda for follow
up discussions during regular update meetings or in spending time in
the field.
To be successful all the reps have to be more disciplined in their focus and
activity, flexible in working with their clients and creative in seeing how
new products and services can open doors to new prospects. This has to
happen within a well-organized operational structure.

Master the Internal Processes/Resources
You need to identify what working knowledge and administrative
information is needed to be effective in your own role and to help develop
the team. This includes:
• After evaluating the current sales success, decide how the talents of
team members can be further developed to be better contributors.
• Determine how reps can best apply themselves to use their strengths
more productively in their individual sales efforts and to the benefit of
the team as possible.
• Related to this, learn what tools exist to support the sales team and
you that did not come up in initial discussions. If there are gaps in
knowledge or training then you need to make use of available
resources as soon as possible and clarify additional resources needed.
Additionally you need to cultivate effective, collaborative working
relationships with others in the company. This includes:
• Administratively be clear about necessary reporting. When does it
need to be done and how does it need to be delivered?
• Just as you will work with the sales team to have an effective work
style with them, it is also necessary for you to understand the desires,
needs and styles of your immediate boss, upper management and
those in any other departments with whom you interact.
I appreciate the opportunity to share this and hope you find it of value. If so,
please share it with others.

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress;
working together is success. --Henry Ford
“The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins
This summary has iterated from one initially drafted in 2009.
A significant addition is resource information from the book “The First 90
Days” by Michael Watkins, published by the Harvard Business Review
Press.
The book addresses new positions at all levels. The core elements are
certainly applicable to those in sales leadership and I recommend the book
as a timely read as you step into a new position.
At 300+ pages it goes into more depth about individual elements of a new
position, including up to CEO level.
To prep you, linked are resources related to themes addressed in the book.
Included:
A two minute video from the author touching on how to start correctly with
early wins:
https://hbr.org/video/2363556825001/establish-credibility-in-a-new-job
A Harvard Business Review article “How Managers Become Leaders”:
https://hbr.org/2012/06/how-managers-become-leaders
Below is a summary of the book that strips away the case studies and
highlights the common considerations. Unlike my overview, Watkins’ book
gets much deeper into the distinction of proper onboarding as someone new
to a company (or distinctly new business unit within a company), or in-
boarding to a new position within an existing employer. The summary:
http://papensouth.org/PDF/The_First_90_Days.pdf

Additional Resources
I have written a number of blog posts on LinkedIn related to sales,
management, leadership, personal development and other topics.
Some related to sales and management:
Commentary on some key points in the book “Fanatical Prospecting”:
http://bit.ly/2joWaPI
6 biases that may be holding back your success in closing more sales, from
"The Challenger Sale": http://bit.ly/1MnjyrC
Trust and the Leadership Gap: http://linkd.in/1zxvI60
Know the difference between management and leadership. Observations
from Dr. John Kotter of Harvard: http://bit.ly/2yTxNDk
Ego vs. Healthy Debate. Keep the focus productive: http://bit.ly/2fDnY26
Understanding talents and strengths: http://bit.ly/1VKEMUN
From others:
Harvard Business Review blog on seven personality traits of a top sale
person: http://bit.ly/1Ofd1Rs
Stephan Schiffman on sales coaching: http://bit.ly/20iswMu
While older, I recommend his books “Getting to Closed” (emphasis on
territory management) and “Ask Questions, Make Sales.”
For recruitment and hiring:
The high cost of hiring mistakes: http://bit.ly/1P34i57

About Me
I have been a sales professional in advertising, marketing and media as a
career. This has included managing my own territories, selling jointly with
others and managing sales teams.
I was born and raised in Seattle and graduated from the University of
Washington with a B.A. in Communications, in Advertising, and a minor
emphasis in business and economics.
My professional sales career started in Seattle with the Puget Sound
Business Journal, but a significant portion of my professional time was in
California—19 years split between Los Angeles and Orange County. I
returned to Seattle late 2012.
Since my return I have worked in a series of contract positions under my
sales consultancy, Linked4Biz, for new client development. Some selective
client work is noted on my LinkedIn profile.
My most recent work, since March 2017, has been on behalf of LeadScorz, a
lead scoring and predictive analytics start-up based in Seattle:
www.leadscoz.com
You can reach me personally via InMail on LinkedIn or:
stevefawthrop@outlook.com
714-876-7062, cell
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefawthrop

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