The Unhappy Sales Manager
Good Selling Starts With Great Sales Managers
Why I Wrote The Happy Sales Manager, The Comprehensive Guide To Successful Sales Management
I’ve been in sales for almost 40 years, 14 of which I’ve spent analyzing sales organizations and learning about their sales managers. What I’ve learned over my career is that most sales managers never receive any guidance or training so they can lead their teams to be successful. They are expected to know what to do, either because they were excellent salespeople, or have been in management in other disciplines. But the reality is, most of them have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. The job is completely different from what they did before, and they’ll find themselves scared, overwhelmed, alone, and unable to execute.
I wrote The Happy Sales Manager specifically for this reason: I want sales managers to know that their jobs are FREAKING HARD, but with the right tools and guidance, it doesn’t HAVE to be. So often we overlook the profound difference that great leadership and proven systematic practices can have on the ability to lead. And it all starts at the top.
You might think to yourself, ”Gretchen, you must have been destined to be in sales!” To which I would respond, “Absolutely not! I was not born with that innate ‘it’ that people always think about when it comes to being in sales.”
I almost gave up on sales entirely very early in my career when I started working for an intimidating organization that nearly destroyed me. I’m talking, of course, about the Girl Scouts Of America.
I have nothing against the Girl Scouts, in fact I love the organization. It was the thin mints that scared me, specifically, selling them. They’d have these contests to see who sold the most Girl Scout cookies, and the pressure I felt to perform was simply tremendous. I had no guidance; there was no proven process to follow, just troop leaders and moms with zero sales management experience. “Just go out and knock on them doors, girls!”
A good sales manager, and a little bit of guidance, could have helped me identify my problem early on. I cared so much about selling cookies and winning the competition, I failed to appreciate the real purpose of what I was doing: trying to make someone’s day or make them feel happy. It wouldn’t be until years later that I truly understood this lesson. So I quit after just one year. And that was the end of my sales career.
Or so I thought.
When I graduated College, I got back into sales when I sent in a half-assed resume to Procter & Gamble. I was floored when they actually called me in. As expected, I HATED that job. Why? Because I was still focused on trying to sell stuff. And guess what I was selling at P&G? Cookies! Life just kept throwing cookies at me, but I was still not getting the message.
It took me years to realize that selling is not about "convincing" someone else to do something, it’s about helping others achieve what they want. Soon after I figured that out, I became a great salesperson, and then, WHAM! I found myself promoted to sales manager.
I’d love to tell you that I was an awesome sales manager, that I just GOT IT and hit the ground running. Alas, the reality is I SUCKED at sales management. The number of pillows I screamed into when I came home from work every day....
As a newly- minted sales manager, I thought I was simply supposed to know what to do. What I found out was that I had no clue. I quickly began to lose confidence and doubt my abilities. What was I doing wrong? Is it me? Why does it seem to come so naturally to others? I had become such a great salesperson; why isn’t this translating to sales management?
Somebody throw me a cookie!
I eventually retreated back to sales as the easier route, but I knew deep down inside I could make a greater impact as a sales manager/leader. Now back in sales, I was fortunate to have a great mentor who would open my eyes on how to manage a sales team at the highest level.
Eventually, I founded Braveheart Sales in 2009 with the goal of tailoring a solution for mid-market companies to address all their sales issues, including the fact that most companies do not have the infrastructure to adequately coach and train the people in sales management. 14 years later, here I stand: confident, knowledgeable, and armed with a proven formula to take a company’s sales management (along with their entire team) to the next level. And now I want to share my expertise with you.
I knew that writing The Happy Sales Manager would be the greatest way for me to reach and engage with the most people to teach, inspire, and motivate. I want YOU to become the best sales manager you can possibly be. The Happy Sales Manager is a comprehensive guide for every overworked, overwhelmed, and under-appreciated sales manager (like, all of us??). It is a blueprint for you to excel at your profession without the unnecessary stress and frustration.
It is the easy button for the sales managers out there who were promoted into the role from sales. Or those general managers or operations managers who took on the role from sales. Or for those CEOs and owners who are trying to lead a sales team.
It is designed for managers in companies who seek to improve and feel confident in their job. It is for those DIYers out there who just need a book to point them in the right direction in order to execute at a higher level. It will pacify your doubt, build up your confidence, and provide you with the skills and knowledge that will make you a powerhouse in this profession.
There’s a huge misconception out there by owners and CEOs that salespeople are the reason sales are not growing at the rate desired. But, performance starts at the top, and the bottom line is this: most sales managers have never been taught how to be effective at their job.
Companies will waste boatloads of money on tips and tricks for salespeople (I hate tips and tricks). They will train the team but will ignore the fact that sales managers need far different skills from salespeople to drive sales and be successful.. Also so many CEO/owners have been the best salespeople for their company but struggle when they either need to manage a sales team or help a sales manager be successful managing their the sales team. I can relate!
So this book is really a culmination of my last 23 years of work, both prior to Braveheart and after I founded Braveheart. It is a complete self-help book for sales managers, addressing both the core competencies and tactical elements of their job as well as the mindset they must possess to be optimally effective, and authentic while enjoying the job. By writing this book I am hoping to make it easier for those sales managers just doing the best they can and not really knowing what they need to do to get their mojo back.
The book is short by design, because I know you sales managers have short attention spans! That’s why I also created a companion workbook to go along with it to help you more easily put into practice the ideas in the book. And guess what? It’s short, too!
There are always two things that come up over and over and over again that are the reasons salespeople fail:
They don’t do enough of the right “stuff”
They do enough of the right stuff, but aren’t very good at it.
It’s the sales manager’s job to ensure that systematic practices are in place so that their salespeople will do the right “stuff”, get better at doing the right stuff, and ultimately, never fail.
I may not have been “born” to be in sales, but now, as an award-winning salesperson, keynote speaker, founder of Braveheart Sales, and self-proclaimed “sales nerd” with almost 40 years in the business, I can say with confidence, I know what I’m talking about.
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Happy managing everybody!
