Office for National Statistics
The Accidental Sales Manager
Book

The Accidental Sales Manager

How to Take Control and Lead Your Sales Team to Record Profits

Chris Lytle
Wiley, 2011

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

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  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Companies have no guarantee that a sales superstar will succeed as a sales manager. Selling goods or services is completely different from managing salespeople. Most new sales managers start with little understanding of the inner workings of their firms’ sales operations and scant expertise in managing people – huge drawbacks for a new manager. Sales trainer Chris Lytle’s information-packed book comes to the rescue to help novice sales managers quickly get up to speed.

Summary

Successful salespeople do not necessarily make successful sales managers.

Being a sales manager is tremendously challenging, particularly in today’s unsettling environment of constant change. Because of this flux, what worked in sales yesterday may not work in sales tomorrow. 

New sales managers face a steep learning curve and the risk of failure. Most people promoted to sales manager earn their career boost by being great salespeople. Executives often assume that sales superstars know how to manage a sales team; often, they do not. Having been a successful salesperson doesn’t guarantee sales management glory. Experience as a salesperson does not equal experience as a sales manager, and success in sales doesn’t automatically translate to success in sales management. A new sales manager has a lot to learn.

New sales managers need training and coaching.

The executives who promote salespeople to sales managers often make false assumptions and have false hopes connected with this change. These executives fall prey to the “forgotten rookie syndrome;” that is, when they put a new sales...

About the Author

Chris Lytle trains salespeople and sales managers.

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