A sales manager just does not report to his superiors but also manages a team of sales reps. Salespeople encounter so many rejections, that they become cynical. To keep them focused and motivated is a great challenge for a manager.

Generally, the star seller is promoted to the position of sales manager, and he often mistakes his new role just an extension of his previous one. Whereas, managing a team is very different from selling products or services. Sometimes they believe their style of selling is the best one, hence everyone in the team should try to copy them. They also get a false sense of security, by reporting figures to their bosses.

The job of the sales manager is not just conveying targets down, but to help his team achieve them. Every individual has a different style of approaching a customer, building rapport and trust with him and finally getting business. The sales manager has to work on the strength of each rep, turning them into stars.

Sales manager shows them how the entire process is to be completed without interfering in the reps’ approach. He cultivates the unique selling ability of his team member.

The sales manager has to work with a lot of data. He has to sift through them to get the information that is usable by his team.

He also has to streamline the processes across different department and coordinate the activities to meet the requirement of customers on time. He also collects feedbacks from customers and presents it in a constructive manner to his superiors to devise price policies, plan product designing and development.

Lastly, a very important challenge is to deal with financial accounting. Sales managers who lack prior training in the subject are rather terrified by the beast called “Accounts”.