The 8 Types of Sales Managers
Your sales manager can make an enormous impact on your sales career. Some managers are amazing, and will support you and help you become the best salesperson you can possibly be. Others can get in your way, or actually make it more difficult for you to succeed.
While not all managers are the same, they typically fall into one of eight categories. And like a great sales manager, Spiro can help you stay motivated and make more money. Here are the eight types of sales managers you’re likely to work for:
1. The Driver
This type of sales manager is focused only on the sales goal and pushing his or her team to achieve it. There is nothing else that matters for this sales manager, especially if it doesn’t have to do with producing results. The Driver is demanding and can be difficult to work for, but will push you to get results, which will mean a bigger paycheck for you.
2. The Friend
The Friend is a type of sales manager that is more concerned with being everyone’s buddy than with managing the team. The friend wants to be liked, and shies away from confrontation and demanding too much from anyone. This type of sales manager will make your social life at work wonderful, but isn’t likely to push you any further than what you’re comfortable with.
3. The Jerk
This type of sales manager is not very good with people. The Jerk usually has a bad temper and isn’t concerned with how anyone on the team perceives him or her. In addition to being very abrasive, the Jerk tends to kill team morale and drives valuable employees out of the company with aggressive and punitive behavior. Avoid working for the Jerk if you can.
4. The Hands-Off
This type of sales manager basically leaves you to your own devices. The Hands-Off relays communications from upper management, and will answer any questions you ask, but that’s where it stops. You could go days without talking to the Hands-Off, and no one really knows what they do all day, but one thing the Hands-Off does do is leave you alone.
5. The Professional
This type of sales manager is great to work for because you always know what you’re going to get. The Professional does everything by the book, and shows up ready to do the job to the best of his or her abilities every single day. The Professional is supportive, inspirational, and a great role model. The only downside is the Professional usually moves on to bigger and better things relatively quickly.
6. The Politician
The Politician is a sales manager who approaches managing similar to holding elected office. This type of sales manager builds alliances in the office and diplomatically relays upper management’s instructions as if they’re giving a state of the union address. Working for the Politician isn’t a bad thing, but remember that most politicians are ultimately out for themselves, and will throw you under the bus if it means they can win reelection.
7. The Saboteur
One of the worst sales managers to work for, the Saboteur is usually threatened by the success of his or her employees. It might sound counter-intuitive, because it is. The Saboteur secretly doesn’t think that he or she deserves a management role, and worries that a high-performing underling will replace them. There are very few saboteurs in the sales world, but they do exist, and if you find yourself working for one then you need to quickly learn how to make them happy or start looking for another job.
8. The Reluctant
This type of sales manager was promoted against their will. The Reluctant never asked to become a sales manager, but was chosen by management for whatever reason. The Reluctant would rather just be a sales rep and worry about their own pipeline, and instead stuck managing a sales team. Working for the reluctant is fine, because they’re usually very competent, but sometimes they will look at you with envy because you only have to worry about managing your own pipeline, unlike them.
Good sales reps are able to adapt and work with several of these types of sales managers (although some are more difficult than others). What type of sales manager do you have?
