With the online coaching and education industry showing no signs of slowing, more and more businesses are at a scaling phase.
That means these online businesses are growing, hiring and offering more opportunities. And while there is a lot of readily available information on the internet on growing a coaching business or learning how to sell, there is little in the way of sales management.
Or more importantly, people management.
Patrick Galang, from Setters & Closers, has spent the last 12 years managing sales teams ranging from 5 to 70 people. More recently, he’s spent the last several years focusing on the online coaching space consulting and building sales teams.
Patrick says that to be an effective sales manager, it’s important to understand the different hats one has to wear. Understanding this is the key to building a strong culture and ultimately gets results.
‘There are 5 different types of people you need to be’ he says. ‘And you have to fill those roles at different times.’
The 5 on the list include:
Manager
Leader
Mentor
Coach
Friend
He explains how each plays a part in effective management.
Manager – ‘Being the manager is all about the sales numbers, the data. It’s about keeping things like close rates, calls, meetings and all the metrics in check. Doing this will give you a good snapshot of performance. Holding them accountable is what a manager does.’
Leader – ‘Being the leader of the team means you are someone worth following. The best way to do that is to actually lead. Effective leaders show action and support while weak leadership hides behind statistics and metrics. That’s the difference between leaders and managers.’
‘Leaders walk and Managers talk. That’s the difference and you need to have both’
Mentor – ‘Being a mentor is someone a team member can go to for guidance and direction. It’s important to be able to mentor someone through their career journey to get the most out of their efforts’
Coach – ‘Being a coach helps impart a ‘way of thinking’ so that your sales team is empowered to make decisions for themselves. As a coach you’re helping them learn, rather than teaching.’
Friend ‘Being a friend can open up insights to your team and create a strong bond and culture. Being a friend is needed sometimes to show empathy and understanding to the team. However, be sure to have boundaries so that your team doesn’t push the friendship.’
According to Patrick, finding the right balance between all the different roles is a delicate dance. But once you have the right mix, the culture can take over from there and make sales management a much easier task.
For most online entrepreneurs, this can be a huge task. So when finding a sales manager, it’s best to seek out these traits.
Now, if there is one thing that can summarise all the roles of an effective sales manager, Patrick suggests that it is this – Empathy. Knowing the other person’s perspective can open up a new world of insight.
‘It’s common for business owners to run their own agenda, I mean why wouldn’t you, it’s your business right? But when you don’t tune in to your team member’s goals and the way they see things, you’re guaranteed to fail,’ Patrick says.
And with that, the importance of understanding effective sales leadership and management will pay dividends for your team and ultimately for your business.
