How do you Become a Sales Manager?

Being a sales manager is a job that carries a great deal of prestige as well as responsibility. Sales managers have experience and education in management and business practices. Let's take a closer look at what it takes to become a sales manager.

Educational Requirements

The position of a sales managers usually requires a bachelor's or master's degree, depending on the company and the job duties. The educational requirements may not be as strict if you have significant work experience as a sales representative. But a solid educational background is definitely needed.

Experience

In most cases, employers prefer candidates with solid work experience before making them sales managers. The course of a long training experience should offer you the following benefits:

• Experience in meeting or exceeding your company targets as a sales representative.
• Continuous education through attending workshops, seminars, conferences, and conclaves in your field.
• The ability to communicate your thoughts effectively and influence the various levels of the organization with your words and actions.
• Ability to lead the sales plan from its inception to closing.
• A strong sense of business and a sense of how the industry works.
• Be able to provide mentorship and advice to your subordinates and guide them through the sales process.
• Have the ability to negotiate effectively, put your finger on customer needs, create sales plans, build relationships, manage a sales team, acquire the latest market technology, create a budget and manage staff.

Qualities Needed for Effective Sales Managing

There are a lot of qualities you will need if you wish to become an effective sales manager:

Patience

You will need to spend a lot of time going over figures and reports, and deal with new recruits seeking your time and counsel. All of this will require you to be patient and focused.

People Oriented

You need to be good at talking to people and convincing them to become customers. You will also need to keep the needs of your team and superiors in mind.

Go-Getter Attitude

You need to act quickly to grab fresh opportunities and turn them to your advantage.

Committed

Building sales takes a long time, and you need to be in it for the long haul if you're looking to create steady sales growth over long periods.

Reliable

You need to ensure you are always on hand to attend to your customers, sales team and the company managers, especially in times of crisis.

Flexible

Be able to adapt to changing market factors to stay ahead of the curve. You need to be able to change your sales strategy as and when it is required.

Communicative

In order to be an effective leader, you need to be able to communicate with your team in a manner that encourages honesty and positive results. Be open and honest about your strategies to your superiors and to your team.

Job Responsibilities

Being a sales manager carries with it many responsibilities, which include:

• Determining the company's annual unit and profit strategy through your marketing plan by analyzing market trends.
• Creating a sales objective after forecast analysis and developing annual sales quotas for all the company's regions. Creating a sales projection for expected sales and the profit margin.
• Implementing a sales program that encompasses multiple company regions by creating effective field sales action plans
• Maintaining the sales volume and product mix. Keeping the selling price stable by keeping the supply and demand balanced.
• Keeping an eye on changing trends and monitoring the competition.
• Adjusting selling prices based on observations of the market, costs and competition.
• Creating schedule and employee assignments based on individual work results.
• Recruit, train and provide orientation to new recruits to make them an effective addition to the sales team.
• Providing counseling and discipline to the employees. Monitoring their work and providing effective feedback.
• Planning workshops and conferences for the sales team to provide them with the latest tips and techniques from the field.
• Establishing a network of effective communication with experts in the field who can provide valuable insight of trends and new opportunities by maintaining a publication, blog etc.
• Overseeing the accomplishment of related results needed to add to the team effort and bring in more sales.

Salary and Expected Growth

As long as companies exist, there will be the need for sales managers to sell their products. The median salary, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), for the position is an annual $113,860. The BLS also predicted to be a growth rate of 5% for the job from 2014-2024.

Do you think you're a good fit for a sales manager position? If you're interested in earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, consider ECPI University for the education you need. For more information, contact an admissions advisor today to discuss your future.

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