Table of Contents
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts sales manager job demand will grow faster than the average for all occupations, increasing by 6% from 2023 to 2033.
But being a sales manager is not an easy job. The stakes are really high; quotas must be reached, and you have to motivate your team to achieve the impossible regularly. You must reach sales goals and KPIs to be a great sales leader.
An excellent sales manager should deeply understand the product or service they are selling, accurately identify the customer’s pain points, and provide tailored solutions to their needs. But leading a team of sales reps requires more than great salesmanship.
A study by Gartner found that 60.9% of Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) rate improving sales managers’ effectiveness as their top priority. In this blog, we will discuss the most critical sales manager skills you need to build to be the best at your job.
Who Exactly is a Sales Manager?
Their key responsibilities include setting sales goals, creating sales strategies, coaching sales reps, monitoring sales performance, and reporting sales results to the team and leadership.
Depending on the company's size and structure, a sales manager may also need to sell their company’s products or services themselves.
In some cases, sales managers also indulge in the hiring of the sales department.
A sales manager motivates, guides, and inspires their team to provide customer satisfaction and achieve sales targets.
They also troubleshoot sales-related problems, resolve conflicts with prospects or customers, and handle customer complaints.
So, a sales manager is a problem-solver, a strategist, and a mentor for an organization's sales department.
29 Required Skills to Become a Great Sales Manager
1. Relationship-building
Not all prospects will close at your first touchpoint. But building relationships with prospects is important as maintaining long-term relationships will inspire prospects to buy from you later as they move down the sales funnel. It will also help to generate referrals.
Creating relationships with your prospects and customers should be focused on the goal of developing your network. For those who aren’t yet interested, keep in touch with those in your sales network through regular contact, usually every one to three months.
You can build relationships with your prospects and customers by positioning yourself as an industry expert, a sales professional who helps customers achieve their goals and find a solution to their problems. Someone who’s not just self-serving and won’t waste the prospects’s time if they can’t provide the best solution.
Learn more about your prospect’s business, industry, interests, and life to deepen your relationship with them. Move toward being a friend rather than a stranger. Starting the conversation by focusing on your common interests will go a long way toward developing a stronger relationship.
2. Self Confidence
You need to project confidence for someone to feel comfortable buying from you. A salesperson who fumbles around and isn’t sure what they are saying makes the prospect question whether or not you are competent.
Confidence comes from knowledge.
You will be confident in selling your product or service if you have knowledge of your industry, product, your customer’s goals and challenges, and your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses.
And if you don’t have any of the above knowledge, now’s the time to start learning.
Thus, knowledge is a gateway to confidence. In sales, confidence is contagious, so if you are knowledgeable and communicate confidently, your prospect will feel confident working with you.
3. Prospecting
Prospecting calls for finding new leads and moving them down the sales funnel. Use different lead methods or sources to identify new prospects for your business and start a conversation with them.
Prospecting is about commitment and consistency. If you don’t do it regularly, your revenue will go up and down like a rollercoaster; some months, you will feast, and the next month, you will be famine.
“You Never Have to Like Prospecting, You Just Have to Do It.” - In the words of the Sandler Method.
Weed out people who aren’t a great fit as early as possible during prospecting, but that’s the secondary goal. The primary goal is to just do it.
4. Optimism
In sales, you will hear no far more often than yes. Hence, optimism will help you to persevere.
People want to buy from those who are positive. Thus, upbeat salespeople are more likely to close.
What you think affects how you feel. If you are struggling to stay positive, sift through your thoughts. Even though most of our thoughts happen on autopilot, taking control of them is powerful. Use the CTFAR model. The CTFAR model, or Self Coaching Model, is a technique that helps you analyze how your thoughts about a situation affect your emotions, actions, and results.
Also, take out five minutes every day to write what you are grateful for. It will shape your mindset positively for the rest of the day.
5. Time Management
According to Forbes, an average salesperson spends 35.2% of their time selling.
As a salesperson, you likely have a long to-do list. So, it’s extremely important to manage your time to ensure it isn’t wasted.
Also, your prospects and customers are likely as busy or busier than you are. Hence, you can show them that you value their relationship by valuing their time and schedule as well.
Here are the top tips to improve your time management skills:
- Start your day with a plan. Create a list of tasks at the start of your day or the night before, and plan when and how you will complete them.
- Say “no” when you need to. Because Having too much on your plate will make you less productive overall. Say no to as many tasks as possible that don’t align with your sales goals.
- Use a calendar. While meetings and events will inevitably be on your calendar, blocking out unstructured time will help you get more done. This includes sending emails, calling clients, researching, and exercising.
- Remove distractions. Mindless scrolling, phone calls, and interruptions can all slow down your productivity. Put on headphones, close the door to your office, and silence your devices to get more done.
6. Buyer Research
Personalization is important in sales. When you know who your prospects are, the trends in their market, and other existing market solutions to their problems, you will be able to craft the most appropriate pitch.
Begin researching using your CRM and analysis tools.
Also, when you can show you understand the prospects you are talking to, and not just their company, you will be better able to form a long-term relationship. When prospects feel that they have something in common with you, they are far more likely to take you seriously.
For example, 81% buyers prefer talking to someone who shares the same mannerisms. So, similarities matter!
7. Storytelling
Storytelling sparks emotion, and people buy emotion.
Storytelling appeals to both logic and emotions and increases the odds of prospects deciding to act.
Make sure to:
- Keep your story simple
- Answer the question: “Why does my product exist?”
- Every story should have a clear beginning, middle, and end. For example, what was another prospect’s life like before using your product, what led them to decide to buy your product, and what the results were?
- Studies show that people retain only 5% to 10% of information and that consists of statistics alone. But when they hear a story, their retention jumps from 65% to 70%.
8. Asking Questions
Asking questions is a great way to connect with your prospects, understand their desires and needs, and showcase your own expertise.
Ask thoughtful questions to follow up and listen carefully to their answers. The prospect's first response is usually just the tip of the iceberg. Keep digging for more information, especially in case of more complex topics.
Prospects are not intentionally concealing information, but it may take some back-and-forth to be confident that you understand their full thoughts clearly.
An acceptable rule of thumb is to aim for 80% of the time them talking and you talking for the rest 20% of the time. Later in the sales process, you will have to do a good portion of the talking, but always ask high-quality questions and be a good listener.
Ask open-ended questions to your prospects, as this will help your prospects share more information. From there on, ask follow-up questions to dig for more details.
Here are some open-ended questions you can ask your prospects during an initial sales call:
- Can you tell me about your company and how we might be able to help?
- Who are your customers, and how do they find out about you?
- What are your desired outcomes after using our product or service?
9. Collaboration
A variety of sales jobs exists, including:
- Sales development representative
- Sales support representative
- Business development representative
- Account manager
- Outside sales representative
These roles work together to push a prospect down the sales funnel. Your sales team will perform their best if you are a team player who’s generous with resources.
Sales itself is inherently collaborative. You are constantly working with prospects and customers to ensure their needs are being met. Learning to set boundaries while being responsive and collaborative will serve you well.
10. Comfort With Technology
Going well beyond CRMs, sales uses technology of all kinds. Sales tech falls into various categories, such as:
- Data networks
- Buyer enablement
- Sales enablement or engagement
- CRM software
- Communication
- Performance management
…and more
While it’s unreasonable to expect every sales rep to know every tool, familiarity with the latest technology and the potential to learn new tools quickly is necessary. This shouldn't be too challenging if you have grown up in the digital age.
When you are presented with a new tool, be curious and tinker with it to understand its full potential. Don’t expect feature-rich technologies to make perfect sense to you right out of the box.
You should commit your time to learning how to use technology to increase your efficiency and output, especially your CRM. This will guarantee your return on investment.
11. Deep Product Expertise
You need to know your product better than anyone else to create the best and most convincing pitch possible. This includes features, benefits, and even its weaknesses. You should also know how these directly improve the lives of your prospects.
Communicating this product knowledge will show prospects that you are an expert. This builds their confidence as people trust experts.
Here are some qualities to know well:
- How best to use your product
- Competition and your competitive advantage
- Pricing and which pricing plan is suitable for which target audience
- History of company or product
- Models or versions of products available
It’s also important to know what your product doesn’t do and who won’t benefit from using it. This information will help qualify customers who shouldn’t be talking to you in the first place (and also won’t end up buying from you anyway). Being honest about this builds trust while qualified customers (who will benefit from your product) hone in on exactly why they are an excellent fit.
12. Active Listening
Active listening refers to hearing what another person is saying without the intent to make your own point. You want to be attentive, fully engaged, and empathetic.
To practice active listening:
- Focus on what your prospects are saying, and don’t let your mind wander.
- Don’t think about what you will say next. Let it come naturally and focus on the other person while they are talking.
- Avoid redirecting the conversation and keep the conversation on track.
- Avoid interruptions, even empathetic or excited ones. Let the other person finish.
- Maintain eye contact and don’t yawn or fidget.
- You can show that you are listening by using softening statements for phone calls.
Use the following statements after the prospect says something or asks you a question. They will show the prospect you are listening to them and help build rapport. Examples of such statements include: “I’m glad you asked that,” “Good question,” or confirmation statements like “absolutely” or “exactly.”
You will avoid missing crucial cues or bits of information by actively using these techniques. They will also help you build relationships and prove you care about your prospect’s needs.
13. Communicate With Clarity
While you should deeply understand your product and its benefits, your prospects are still in the learning phase. As a salesperson, it’s your job to explain how your product can alleviate their concerns and solve their problems.
Do your best to communicate simply and clearly. Don’t make any assumptions about what your prospect already knows.
Start by treating your prospects as if they don’t know anything about your product. Break everything down, and be receptive to any questions they have.
This way, your prospects will be able to get a detailed understanding of the solutions your product provides.
14. Social Media Savvy
In this social age, social media has become a business tool. Knowing your way around platforms like Instagram, X, and LinkedIn will help generate business and conversion.
Build a relatable personal brand across different social platforms that emphasizes your expertise. It’s an excellent way to build your network and increase your authority.
If your (positive) brand reputation precedes you, it will help you close more deals, close deals faster, and even generate new prospects.
Without social selling, 47% of salespeople can fill their sales pipeline, which jumps to 65% for those who deploy it.
16. Negotiation
Negotiation is an important skill to learn if you are going to be effective in sales.
Chris Voss, the author of “Never Split the Difference” and perhaps the most famous negotiator, outlines two types of negotiation:
- Distributive negotiation: Both sides believe they will either lose or win and that they must take it all to win.
- Integrative negotiation: Both sides think they can reach a mutually beneficial solution. All involved parties feel they can add value to the other, and everyone can walk away happy.
Study this type of negotiation and learn how to use it in your sales skill set.
15. Resilience and Grit
Sales is a hard career path. Developing grit and resilience is important to any sales professional’s long-term success.
According to Hubspot, nearly half of all sales professionals (48%) never make an attempt to follow-up, but the first follow-up email can increase reply rates by 49%.
Start seeing every “no” you hear as one step closer to “yes.”
16. Trainable and Coachable
Many sales reps see sales training as a waste of time. But statistics say otherwise. Companies with dynamic sales coaching programs have 28% higher win rates.
Sales skills can be improved with proper coaching and time. No matter how experienced you are as a sales rep, you will always benefit from discussing strategies and techniques with your peers. It’s critical that sales professionals stay receptive to feedback and willing to learn.
17. Composure
Successful sales professionals should be both enthusiastic and composed. Composure makes other people feel more comfortable. It communicates that the sales rep knows what they are doing, which instills confidence. It also helps them deliver a pitch that is concise and easy to follow.
Composure differs from self-confidence in the sense that you can be confident without remaining composed. Composure comes from having an established and well-rehearsed sales process that becomes second nature with experience. Comparatively, if you decide to “wing it” daily, it will be much harder to remain composed when meeting with a prospect.
18. Adaptable
Customer demographics, engagement channels, and tools constantly change. If you have to succeed in sales, you must adapt to new tools and practices.
Even your industry and markets are constantly changing. Some competitors get better, others become worse, and new ones can pop up overnight. You must shift your approach accordingly.
Flexibility and versatility are the two components of which adaptability is made up. The latter means you are able to adapt, and the former means you are willing to change when the circumstances call for it.
19. Presentation Skills
Sales presentations and demos demonstrate your command of what you are selling and build trust with your customers. Being clear, engaging, and articulate will help you better sell to prospects.
There are many techniques for mastering sales presentations. Here are some highlights:
- Send the presentation to the prospect before your call to review the material and come prepared with meaningful questions.
- Focus on solving their problem rather than your solution. This will give prospects the feeling that you understand them and position you to pitch your solution better when the time comes.
- Leave the price for last. Often, a prospect will want to discuss the price early in the call. Try and leave this to the end. You can say something like, “Let’s go over the details first so that we both are on the same page about your needs and then go over pricing. This way, we can be sure that the price accurately reflects your needs. Does this work for you?”
20. Empathy
If you have ever come across a sleazy sales rep after your money, you know how unpleasant the experience can be. The best salespersons out there genuinely want to solve a prospect’s problem.
While you should be proud of your product and excited to talk about it, your reason for pitching is buyer-centric. Empathy is contagious. So the more your prospects see that you care about them, the more honest and transparent they will be with you.
21. Understanding Human Psychology
The best minds in this world have a strong understanding of human psychology. They know what makes people tick. This is useful because sales are based on how the prospect feels emotionally about your offer rather than objective facts.
Pushing a prospect to buy makes them push back harder. And when this happens, no one makes any progress.
Hence, instead of pushing your prospects in the direction you want them to go, just try pulling them away from it and then let go. Your prospects will swing back the other way, like a pendulum, toward the direction you want them to go.
This works well with cold prospects who don’t give you positive signs on a sales call. Send them a negative but polite comment like “Correct me if I’m wrong, but it doesn’t look like you think you would benefit from my product at all.”
Their instinctive reaction will be to respond with a positive statement. This will also help disclose a concern leading to their demeanor that otherwise wouldn’t have surfaced. For instance, they’ll respond by saying, “Well, I think your product is great, but I’m a bit worried about your customer support.”
Now, you are making progress and can handle that objection accordingly.
22. Value Downtime
A fairly common theme among all successful people is that they work hard and also switch off sometimes.
Slow down and recharge the batteries physically and mentally. Spend valuable time with family and other people you care.
A sales rep who is refreshed will be far better prepared than one who isn’t. It might seem counterintuitive, but constantly pushing yourself will only make you less successful in the long term.
Always take time to sharpen the saw because the risk of burnout is real.
23. Public Speaking
Public speaking skills are related to presentation skills. Although public speaking is an important sales skill, it doesn’t always come naturally.
Here are some tips to improve your public speaking skills:
- Talk slower. People become nervous and talk quickly. This makes it difficult for your audience to absorb all that you said.
- Maintain eye contact. While looking at the presentation on your feet is tempting, remember to look out at your audience. This conveys confidence.
- Stop fidgeting. When we get anxious, our bodies can start doing nervous ticks, such as tapping our feet, swaying back and forth, or wringing our hands. Monitor your body language. Be as natural as possible.
- Rehearse. You can never over-practice. Come demo day, your presentation should be second nature.
- Practice while distracted. If you can nail a presentation while you are cleaning the house or when the TV is on, you can do it while focused on your audience on the actual day.
24. Organized
The sales team undertakes many tasks. Staying organized is the only way to get it all done.
Some of the many tasks include:
- Market research
- Monitoring competitors
- Prepare strategies and action plans
- Develop client referrals
- Lead generation and qualification
- Follow up with prospects
- Negotiation with prospects
- Ensure happy clients and positive relationships
Create systems for managing tasks. If you try and commit everything to memory, your tasks will fall through the cracks. In sales, this means money will fall through the cracks.
25. Post-Sale Skills
Closing the deal is not the end of the process. Maintaining healthy relationships with your prospects will lead to more sales in the future.
To help encourage further sales, prioritize maintaining a good relationship with your customers. If you are only around when you are trying to sell something, the customer will easily sense that your relationship is not authentic.
Hence, keeping in touch is a good idea, even after the deal closes. Because when the time comes, your customer will be more likely to agree to another deal.
If you want to achieve this, check with customers after you have sold your product to get feedback or see if they have issues. Many sales reps don’t do this nearly enough, but it’s a cheat code for those who do, and customers love it.
26. Closing the Deal
Closing a sale means:
- Get expectations aligned by asking questions about your prospect’s budget and more to ensure they are ready to buy your product.
- Pitch your solution. So, instead of pitching your product, focus on your prospect’s problem and how your product can solve it.
- Respond well to the prospect’s concerns. Listen to what your buyers say, don’t argue over objections, and respond calmly and reasonably.
- Convey reasonable urgency. Urgency ( of either time or money) helps push a deal along.
- The final steps include finishing the paperwork and offering your new client with resources so they can get the most out of your product.
27. Growth Mindset
Successful sales professionals are receptive to feedback and learn from their mistakes. This is known as a growth mindset. Sales skill takes time to develop, so get into it expecting to learn and grow.
28. Conflict Management
Sales are full of complaints, conflicts, and rejections. As a salesperson, it’s your job to handle these swiftly and politely, even though it might seem unpleasant to you. Your goal is to keep your client happy.
There are 5 different conflict management approaches:
- Accommodating
- Compromising
- Avoiding
- Competing
- Collaborating
When handling conflict, focus on the facts, maintain focus on the client, give everyone a chance to voice concerns, and be empathetic rather than confrontational.
29. Customer Service
While sales managers don’t directly handle customer service, they play a key role in ensuring accounts receive the right attention. By regularly checking in, addressing concerns, and coordinating with support teams, they build trust, foster loyalty, and pave the way for repeat business.
Maintaining strong relationships post-sale also helps sales managers uncover opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, or securing referrals. By ensuring customers feel valued and supported, sales managers not only enhance satisfaction but also contribute to long-term revenue growth.
10 Qualities of a Good Sales Manager
1. Charisma
A great sales manager is someone who can charm prospects and compel them to believe in what they are selling. This isn’t to say that you must be a natural-born charismatic person. But it definitely helps to become charismatic!
2. Persistence
Most successful sales managers know how to handle rejection and keep moving. They know that not every lead will close, but they don’t stop trying. You need to be persistent if you want to be a successful sales manager.
3. Drive
The best sales managers have a strong drive to succeed. They always look for ways to improve their sales skills. If you are not naturally driven, that’s okay! You can still become successful by setting goals for yourself and working to achieve them.
4. Passion
Great sales managers are passionate about what they are selling. This passion is contagious and helps them convert more leads into customers.
5. Good Listening Skills
An excellent sales manager knows how to listen to their customers and patiently understand their needs to offer them a solution that meets them.
6. Empathy
Understanding another person's feelings is important for a sales manager as it helps them place themselves in their customer’s shoes to understand their needs. Only then will they be able to offer a solution to their customers that truly helps them.
7. Problem-Solving Skills
A great sales manager is also an excellent problem-solver. They know how to find creative solutions to their customer’s problems that meet their needs. This skill not only helps them close more deals but also builds long-term relationships with their customers.
8. Confidence
Confidence is important in sales. The top sales managers believe that their product is the best in the market and are not afraid to sell it. They are also confident in their expertise to close deals, giving them the edge to succeed. When making sales pitches, learning how to speak confidently makes all the difference.
9. Knowledge
Good sales managers always keep up with industry news and trends and look for ways to improve their sales skills. This knowledge helps them understand their customers better and find solutions that suit their needs.
10. Positive Attitude
Last but not least, a successful sales professional has a positive attitude toward sales success. They see every lead as a potential convert and approach every interaction with enthusiasm. This positivity is contagious and is one of the most important qualities that sets successful sales managers apart from the rest.
6 Sales metrics that managers should watch daily
1. Lead Response Time
According to Harvard Business Review, businesses that respond to leads within an hour are seven times more likely to qualify the lead than those who respond after an hour, and businesses that respond within five minutes are ten times more likely to qualify the lead than those who respond after an hour.
Your conversion rates are critically influenced by the promptness of your team’s response to new leads. A fast response time signals to your prospects that your sales team is customer-focused and responsive, greatly improving the chances of conversions.
Tools like HubSpot CRM and Salesforce offer features to track the time taken to respond to leads. HubSpot CRM has a default property called "Lead Response Time" for each contact. This property measures the time between when a contact is assigned to an owner and when there is first engagement.
2. Sales Forecast Accuracy
Accurate sales forecasting is fundamental for resource allocation and strategic sales planning. It helps predict cash flow and inventory management, ensuring that your operations meet market demands. Regularly measuring these forecasts' accuracy also helps refine your prediction models, which is important for maintaining competitiveness and operational efficiency.
Zoho CRM's forecasting modules help users directly compare projected sales figures (based on their forecast pipeline) against the actual sales achieved to provide a clear view of how well the sales team is performing against their predicted targets.
3. Conversion Rate through the Pipeline
Understanding the conversion rate at every stage of your sales pipeline is important for identifying weak links and identifying where prospects tend to drop off. This metric provides insights into the success of your engagement strategies at each step. For instance, a sudden drop in conversion post-initial contact might suggest a need for more engaging follow-up communications.
Pipedrive presents the sales pipeline in a user-friendly visual format with customizable stages to track conversion rates at each step of the sales funnel and pinpoint potential bottlenecks within the process.
4. Connect Rates Across Outreach Methods
Different outreach methods, such as calls, emails, and social media, will have varying success rates depending on the complexity of your product and your target audience. Tracking connect rates for each method will pinpoint the most effective channels for you. Analyse which outreach methods yield the best connect rates for you and double down on those. This way, you can allocate resources more efficiently and focus on the most productive sales strategies.
Close CRM can track connect rates across multiple channels, including emails and calls to help optimize your outreach strategies.
5. Lost Deals Analysis
Regular analysis of lost deals will help you understand why prospects choose not to buy. Whether it’s the sales approach, the pricing, or the features of your product, understanding common factors in lost deals will help you refine your pitch, adjust your product offerings, or improve customer interactions.
Salesforce’s win-loss analysis feature provides a detailed analysis of lost deals. Users need to document the reasons for lost deals, which Salesforce will then use to generate reports highlighting patterns and areas where sales processes can be improved.
6. Email Engagement Rates
Email is an important tool in the sales process. Tracking how prospects engage with your emails will provide direct feedback on your communication stratgies. High engagement rates (open and click-through rates) suggest that your email resonates well with recipients, whereas low rates indicate a need for adjustments in your messaging.
If your engagement rate is low, A/B test different subject lines and messaging and keep refining based on the data.
Yesware integrates with email platforms like Gmail and Outlook and helps users to track key metrics like open rates, reply rates, and link clicks by providing a comprehensive view of how recipients engage with their emails. It will also help you understand which email content performs best to optimize your email outreach strategies.
How MeetRecord can Help Improve the Skills of your Sales Team?
MeetRecord, a Revenue Intelligence platform, empowers sales managers with actionable insights to drive team performance and revenue growth.
By automatically recording, transcribing, and analyzing sales calls, it uncovers patterns, tracks objection handling, and highlights areas for improvement. Sales managers can deliver targeted coaching, optimize deal progress, and identify risks to keep pipelines on track.
Top-performing calls also serve as resources for onboarding and role-based learning, reducing ramp-up time for new hires. With engagement metrics like talk-to-listen ratios, MeetRecord helps reps improve active listening and customer interactions.
By combining sales coaching, deal intelligence, and conversation insights, MeetRecord enables managers to enhance team skills, close deals faster, and achieve consistent revenue growth.