Navigating Your New Role as a Sales Manager [Webinar Recording]
Navigating Your New Role as a Sales Manager
[Webinar Recording]
Sales Manager Training
#GirlsClub: A Program for Rising Female Sales Leaders
Congratulations to the 50+ women who certified from #GirlsClub last week! You may know that I founded both companies, but you may not know how Factor 8 and #GirlsClub are intertwined.
Here it is: Factor 8 eLearning and live training classes ranked as the #1 and #2 favorites of #GirlsClub Generation 2 participants!
Of this I’m tremendously proud. To have the “required management skills” come out on top with a program that includes mentors, famous guest speakers, intimate interviews, speaking opportunities, and more… it tells me we’re doing something right over here.
While we’re on the subject of good news, a few more “#GC” stats I hope you’ll help me celebrate:
- Over 85% of the women who started the program graduated and certified
- About 40% started as managers (the other 60% aspiring managers) and over 60% ended as managers – 24 promotions and counting in under 6 months!
- Over 13,000 learning “shots” consumed in The Sales Bar over 6 months (AKA pieces of content)
- Average test score was 95%
- 8 awards given
- 425 people in 225 companies and 18 countries registered for #GirlsClub Summer Camp by Level 11. This is a free 3-month program sample to connect us during the pandemic and replace our finale conference in Scottsdale, AZ (now scheduled for 2021, sign up now!)
This is our second generation of female managers to graduate and certify. So far we’ve helped over 60 women achieve promotions at work, and that’s our mission: changing the face of sales leadership by helping more women earn leadership positions.
So how’s #GirlsClub different from the training you already know from Factor 8?
- We train in cohorts that cross companies, industries, and even countries.
- It’s all 100% virtual and the content isn’t customized for any particular company.
- We assign the participants (called “proteges”) to work with their leaders on activities, customization, and application – bottom up instead of top down.
- We add curriculum around confidence-building & risk-taking.
- Each protege gets a mentor (most are other females, but our male mentors are also super popular).
- We do “spotlight” opportunities like LinkedIn takeovers, blog posts, speaking, and more.
Conversely, with Factor 8 programs, your sales team is your cohort. It allows for more customization and deeper dives into situations and needs, customized curriculum and activities, and hands-on coaching for managers and reps. Factor 8 programs usually last a year and can also include certification (with a bit more stringent requirements of demonstrating skills).
We also don’t include all the confidence building and community portions of #GirlsClub in The Sales Bar for Factor 8 clients. In short:
Factor 8’s goal is to move the number and change lives.
#GirlsClub’s goal is to build confidence and change lives.
We don’t mean to be disclusionary to the guys (in fact we award our favorite “ally” male supporter each year). But I chose to keep #GC women-dominated to create a safe space.
Studies show women won’t speak up in male-dominated environments nor will they take a risk until they feel 100% confident. So we talk about that stuff. We ask female role models about discrimination, wearing beachwear on company award trips, and yes, even sexual harassment (folks, nearly EVERY woman has had a story). Yuck.
There is a day in the future where my two companies will blend more and I don’t confuse people with my double persona. But for now, what we’re doing with #GirlsClub is really working and I’m not messing with it.
Get it now and want to help or get involved?
#1. Identify female talent and encourage them to get into management. They won’t feel ready. Send them to us. Applications for Generation 3 open October 2020. Training starts January 2021. Learn more at 
#2. Sign up to mentor (1 hour / month & 6-month commitment) + free access to the entire program and community. Contact us to learn more about being a mentor 
How to Develop New Sales Managers
This week I did a live mangers-only “Happy Hour” on The Sales Bar. What a treat. Working with newly-promoted managers may be my very favorite thing. Maybe that’s because the pain I remember in their position is still a bit fresh (albeit over 20 years old…)
The transition from rep to manager is tough. It’s also risky for both the company and the new manager. Companies lose top-performing reps and serial high-achievers sign on to feel NOT successful for a good six months. I’ve seen some sad stories of new managers flailing, flat-lining growth, or simply quitting in their first year. It’s sad for the manager and it’s a double loss for the company. They lose a manager AND top performer.
So how do we develop and support new managers to help them feel more successful sooner?
Talk in detail about the expectations of the new job.
Top reps are competitive, self-centered, and aggressive (said with love folks). Margaret Arakawa, Outreach CMO said it best in a panel last week. I paraphrase, “Moving from top rep to manager is like leaving the role of the lead actress on stage to become an executive producer.” Exactly.
Successful Managers focus on:
- Developing their team
- Solving problems
- Creating atmospheres for motivation
- Prioritizing work
- Managing admin to clear selling time for reps
What they don’t do is:
- Close sales
- Maintain customer relationships
- Win contests
- Count on themselves alone to get the job done.
- Zero spotlight
Be frank that disappointment is OK
Most new managers talk to me about their utter disappointment in their first year. Not with the job (exclusively) but with their team. They aren’t used to relating to reps who aren’t as dedicated and passionate as they were. Help them see that this is normal and talk about strategies for dealing with the frustration.
Ultimately the buck stops with them and their success is getting the most consistent and high-level performance from these people. Set some expectations! For example, talk about how a sales manager’s success is judged not just by the number but also:
- Reduced time for new hires to hit quota
- Percent of the entire team to quota – not just overall percent
- Reduced attrition
- Rep promotions
Each of these requires a focus on the people, their success, and their development. Sure we want managers focused on the “W,” but it needs to be a Team W, not their personal commission check. Hearing this advice from a leader they respect can help them focus on the right things early and find new ways to get daily wins.
Go beyond HR
If you’re lucky, managers have access to some generic management skills about communicating with others, approving timecards, and giving feedback, etc. Helpful stuff. Not job training. Get them sales management skills like:
- The management cadence: what meetings they need on their calendar and how often.
- Time management for sales managers: Which is first? The line at your desk? The upset customer? The request for a report from the boss or the deal discount to close a sale? This skill will make or break a new leader. Prevent burnout before it happens!
- Translating sales goals and driving sales performance: New managers struggle to get beyond managing activity. Help them learn to translate strategy and the big number into monthly, weekly, and daily activities for reps.
- Performance 1:1 meetings: Help managers communicate the goal, the performance to date, motivate reps to succeed, and build relationships with their teams during this meeting.
- Call coaching: Call coaching isn’t natural behavior for high-achievers. It takes an extreme amount of patience, customer focus, and a set process to be successful. Without skill training on coaching, they’ll either skip it or maybe even demotivate their team. Help teach them to do it right before they wind up a statistic.
- Find them a mentor: A mentor becomes a safe space to vent, ask questions they’re afraid to ask their Director, and frankly a lifeline. And if you’ve promoted a woman, work to find her a female mentor. Yes, it does make a difference. #GirlsClub can help here if you’re lacking female sales leadership talent.
Apply to #GirlsClub. Stop Doubting.
Ladies, lean in.
Sometime in the last two months, you heard a voice. No, not the crazy hearing voices kind of voice, but the future you, inspired you, the you-can-DO-this-and-you-SHOULD kind of voice.
I call it my little voice. And every once in a while, she puts her foot down and she says, “MORE.” Not more please. Not more if there’s some left after everyone else gets some. More NOW, DAMMIT.
More. . . because I deserve it.
Sometimes this is in a whisper.
You want more out of your career, and I built #GirlsClub to do EXACTLY that.
Now it’s time to apply. This is NOT a time for doubt. NOT a time to postpone. NOT a time to be afraid to raise your hand internally and ask for the time and/or the budget to do this. Rise up. Fill out your application and book a meeting with your manager right now. Seriously, right now.
Explain your aspirations. Give him or her a program information packet you downloaded. Ask for his or her support. Sit tall and ask.
That is step one.
It’s a big one. But it’s critical. And it is time to do it NOW.
YES, there are scholarships available. I’m working my tail off so that you don’t have to ask for the full-boat budget.
How about we meet halfway?
You submit the application. You ask for the budget. You let them know everything it includes and why it’s worth it. Let’s keep moving forward, and if we both get “no’s”, we will pull out.
But please, don’t quit now. I need you to work as hard as I am to get you this new gig.
I can’t WAIT to see your application and your smiling face in this program.
Apply today!
Need help explaining the program? Download the participant and mentor overview here.