Your Sales Team Has No Manager, and It Shows

You have three salespeople, maybe five. They sell. Some months are good. But you are still on every big call, because without you the deal stalls. You are the closer, the manager, and the owner, all at the same time.

Nobody runs the team. Each rep sells their own way. The good month and the bad month look the same from the inside, and you cannot tell what made the difference.

What that costs you

Your reps make the same three mistakes every week, and no one is there to catch them. A deal you were sure of slips, and you only find out when it is already gone. You cannot say how many sales are coming next month, so you cannot plan a hire or a cash call with any confidence. The whole thing runs on your memory and your weekend.

What a sales manager actually does

A manager fixes this with a rhythm, not a rescue. Three things, every week.

• One look at every open deal. Not "how is it going." Four questions on each one: what is the next step, who owns it, by when, and what would make it slip. Deals die in the gaps between calls. A weekly review closes the gaps before they cost you.
• One coaching session per rep, built on a real call you both listen to. You are not grading them. You pick one thing to fix this week, then you check it next week. That is how a habit changes.
• One scorecard the team can see. A few numbers, the same ones every week: calls that became meetings, meetings that became quotes, quotes that became a yes. When a number drops, you know where to look before the month is lost.

How you know it is working

You know it is working when the forecast starts matching the result. When a rep fixes a mistake without you in the room. When you are no longer the only person who can close. That is the goal. Not one hero month, but a team that holds the line when you are not on the call.

Keep reading: more from the GoStartr blog.