The best sales managers do things differently, think outside the box and go the extra mile. Find out what best practices you need to implement to take your sales management to the next level!

1. 12 Things Every Sales Manager
Must Do
Brought to you by InsightSquared
and Geoffrey James

2. Geoffrey James
writes a widely-
read, daily sales
column for
Inc.com. He has
also written
several
books, such as
Business to
Business Selling:
Power Words
and Strategies
from the World’s
Top Sales
Experts, Success
Secrets from
Silicon
Valley, and The
Tao of
Programming.

3. We at
InsightSquared
are big fans of
Geoffrey James
and regular
readers of his
blog. We were
inspired by a
post he wrote on
“How to Be an
Extraordinary
Sales Manager”
to create this
presentation of
the 12 things
every sales
manager must
do.

4. 1. Coach
Just like a sports coach, you need to help your team
members to understand their strengths and
weaknesses.

5. 1. Coach
Then, you can work together to fix their weaknesses
and grow their strengths.

6. 2. Teach
Like a schoolteacher, you are responsible for teaching
both basic skills and larger concepts.

7. 2. Teach
Make sure your salespeople fully understand how the
product works and how it fixes the business issues
that your clients face.

8. 3. Mentor
To be a mentor for your sales reps, draw from your
own experience.

9. 3. Mentor
Help them anticipate problems before they occur. Also
help them develop strategies for unique selling
situations.

10. 4. Marshal
For the sake of your team, you need to be a smooth
politician. Navigate internal politics to get what you
and your team need.

11. 4. Marshal
This is the only way to marshal the internal resources
required to move forward with your leads and reach
your goals.

12. 5. Communicate
To be in any sort of management position, you need to
be an expert communicator.

13. 5. Communicate
Be consistently clear with your sales team and with
other departments. Make sure everyone knows
what’s going on and what needs to happen.

14. 6. Prioritize
It’s up to you to set your team’s priorities. They will
not be able to read your mind and guess what you
want them to do first.

15. 6. Prioritize
Let them know which opportunities are most
important so that you can use your resources most
effectively.

16. 7. Recruit
Always be looking for new people who could become
useful additions to your team.

17. 7. Recruit
Continue to interview promising candidates to keep
your team fresh and ever-improving.

18. 8. Trim
In addition to adding new high-achievers to your
team, you need to cut out the underachievers. Like a
surgeon, be delicate so you don’t upset the others.

19. 8. Trim
If you keep low-performers on your team, they will
waste your resources and drag the rest of the team
down with them.

20. 9. Predict
To guide your team, you must be able to predict the
future to some degree. But you don’t need magic to
make an accurate prediction.

21. 9. Predict
Use a combination of analytics (based on historical
data), observation, and intuition to get an idea of
what to expect.

22. 10. Coordinate
Like a conductor, you need to make sure that your
team works harmoniously with the rest of your
company.

23. 10. Coordinate
Work especially hard on coordinating the sales and
marketing messages so that interactions with
customers are consistent.

24. 11. Debrief
Meet with your team to discuss both wins and losses.

25. 11. Debrief
Make sure that they learn from both – understanding
what went well and what went poorly, so that they
know which behaviors to repeat and which not to.

26. 12. Share
Be a diplomat. Share credit for both the wins and the
losses amongst all contributors.

27. 12. Share
Don’t let anyone become a hero for the wins or a
scapegoat for the losses.

28. Thank you for viewing our presentation!

29. You can visit our website at
http://www.insightsquared.com/ and our blog at
http://www.insightsquared.com/blog/

30. Photo Credits
“OMExpo 2011” Courtesy of CPX Interactive
“Cross Country Coaches” Courtesy of John Brooks
“Olympic Week-Teacher for a Day” Courtesy of Chicago 2016
“Tech Mentors 2012” Courtesy of Keri-Lee Beasley
“SCA CEO Jan Johansson and CFO Lennart Persson shaking hands” Courtesy of SCA
Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget
“Mentors Meeting” Courtesy of Michael Coghlan
“EuroFoo schedule” Courtesy of Matthew Langham
“01 (161)” Courtesy of Victor 1558
“Clean colors” Courtesy of Zdenko Zivkovic
“The Wizard” Courtesy of Sean McGrath
“Conductor” Courtesy of Rob Swystun
“India mission press debriefing” Courtesy of Maryland GovPics
“DSC_0059” Courtesy of Maarten Dirkse
“Salman Ahmad inspires the audience to sing and clap along” Courtesy of M. Elizabeth
Williams, Girl + Camera LLC, and TEDx NJLibraries