Success in selling was once a sure-fire route to a senior sales management post at many companies. But today’s top salesmen may now lack the skills to become effective managers, according to the EEF Sheffield Association.
In fact, some salesmen may even need a period back in the classroom for management training before any promotion is considered.
The Association, concerned at the growing gap between a successful salesman and a successful manager, is now providing specialist training to help solve this promotion conundrum.
Gordon Scott, Association Chief Executive, explained: “A good salesman must have the mental ability to concentrate totally on winning business. Often, they have little time for outside concerns.
“However, a good manager cannot afford such single minded concentration on a single objective, he or she has to be able to constantly assess the overall direction of the company, and how to help steer it through what is a period of rapid change”.
He said that many successful salesmen had been rewarded by a promotion to senior sales management, but that such a move later proved to be fraught with problems.
“The main difficulty they can face is a lack of appropriate management skills – the broader vision necessary to handle change not just in the context of sales, but as part of a company’s response to new business patterns and accelerating technology”, he said.
The two day intensive course now being developed by the Association would give salesmen a basis of broader management skills, ranging from identifying trends and market conditions to competitor and customer analysis. Emphasis would also be placed on motivation and team working as well as management theory.
“We can’t turn a good salesman into a good manager in two days, but we can try to open their eyes to the much broader range of skills they will need to develop if they are to make a successful move into senior management”, said Mr Scott.
Further information: Gordon Scott, EEF Sheffield, 0114 268 0671