Have you ever considered a Career or Job as a Sales Manager ? Whatever the industry or sector, the basic skills and Job requirements are the same.
Speaking from experience I would suggest you give it considerable thought. Mangaging a business, customers, service levels and performance are the easy bit but managing a team of people can be something quite different.
I started my career as a Sales Executive, responsible for a 60 mile radius territory and about 200 trading customers. I worked alongside a keen, enthusiastic and relible indoor sales person, we made a good team and were reasonably successful in a fast moving, competative logistics environment.
I noticed that the existing Sales Manager was struggling a bit, a good sales person and closer of business but not a people person. Our weekly sales meetings were not structured, not prepared, not motivating and frankly quite boring. I said nothing of course and carried on doing the best that I could in my own position.
It was not long before he came unstuck. His lack of communication, encouragement, personal development of staff and general management resulted in him leaving the office on a friday night and not returning on a monday morning.
The rest of us carried on for a couple of weeks under a temporary manager sent from head office who did not want the role so eventually I was encouraged to go for promotion. I was apprehensive but thought I would give the opportunity a go. What a big mistake !
The colleagues I had worked with for 3 years suddenly were not my pals and did’nt involve me in any office banter. I sat in my little office preparing budgets, review performances, weekly targets and monitoring call levels and performances from the rest of the sales team. I became responsible for the major clients only.
None of this was stressful but managing the team was. On a daily basis I was dealing with the ringing in of the sick, personal problems, team arguements, staff dissatifaction of everything, the ones who took the extra long lunch and arrived late for work, the ones who constantly sat texting their friends or surfing the internet. Managing the business soon became managing the staff issues alone and I began to really hate it. I was no longer one of the team but the one they all hated.
My advice would be, if you enjoy the buzz of selling, enjoy providing a good service to your customers and the general role of a sales executive then stick with it. Not everyone has to aim for a promotion. I was happy doing my role and performing well
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