Challenger reps already spend a third of their time creating their own marketing materials. What
they need is a sales manager who can provide significant thought to the reframing article/idea and marketing materials.

Innovation is one of the most important skills for a sales manager. A good manager needs to be able to look at the situation, figure out creative ways to help their sales reps move deals forward, and then coach their sales reps on how to do that. Coaching counts for 73% of the effectiveness of the sales team.

Here are the top three skills to be an effective sales manager:

Investigate

Effective sales managers spend a good amount of time investigating and learning. They talk with their sales reps, clients, and prospects, seeking out those potential obstacles to sales and learning more about the problems that often come up in conversation. They gather feedback about what is and isn’t working and identify ideal business outcomes.

Create

The best sales managers are always innovating. They gather feedback about what is and isn’t working and then come up with solutions that resolve customer and sales rep pain points, teaching their team to be better problem solvers along the way. They identify new ways for their team to position offers, helping create resources, and sales & marketing materials that really work so their reps don’t have to spend time creating their own. They are constantly defining and exploring new sales solutions and developing best practices.

Share

Once these managers have determined the best practices and tactics, they set up time to share what they’ve learned with their team. They develop cross-functional relationships with others throughout the business, so they can share news and information within the business but also filter that news and information back to their team.

If you take control of the marketing by creating a series of reframing articles and a world-class sales pitch at the company level, you can really empower your sales team. It’s really hard to come up with a more dramatic way to improve the sales of your company.

Learn more by listening to our B2B Word of Mouth Marketing podcast episode, Pillars of the Challenger Rep.

All the best,

Bill Bice
CEO

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