How to get promoted to a sales manager?

For the most professional b2b sales operatives it's really difficult to make the first big step on the career ladder. This difficulty is rooted in many reasons, personal and non-personal. Here is a list of some factors which, from my perspective, play an essentiall role in getting promoted to the first leadership role.

1. The right timing

Indeed, the timing must be right. Meaning, the market should be in favour of your business, a sellers market, when business is going smoothly and margins are going up. Your managers will have more time to thing about their team, rather than worrying about business and how to keep the sales numbers stable. Also, the perspective for budget increases is realistic. If your company is struggling or even your team is struggling, chances for being promoted are not promising. The only really possible way is to hope that your manager will leave the company and you can take over his or her position. The probability for that is rather low. In situations like that upper management hires rather managers from outside.

2. The right manager

There are managers and there are managers. And you need to have the right one. How do you know? Ask yourself: When was the last promotion within your team? Why was this particular person promoted? Was the person promoted to a managerial position? How is the turn-over within your team? Is the development of team members regularly discussed? You need to find out how your manager ticks concerning the goals of the team, the growth of the team and the team’s mission. How does your manager want to achieve the goals? More hours per capita or more hires, investments in the team?
Red flags: Last promotion in your team is more than 5 years ago, people are complaining about a high workload, understaffing is a constant issue, the manager delays promotions, arguing with standard phrases like “Not ready yet”, managerial positions are handed to external candidates.
What does your manager think about motivation within his team? What are his or her intentions to retain team members?
You see, in order to find out whether your manager is promoting people, you need to ask yourself a set of questions. Important: Be honest with answering them to yourself, be rather too strict than too naive.

3. The right personality

Let’s be honest: Leadership is NOT for everyone. The first step of my promotion into a leadership role was the simple question of my manager: “Would you like to become a manager?” Not everyone really likes to take responsibility, because that is exactly what it means, responsibility and commitment. All of a sudden, you are not simply participating in meetings, you are leading the meetings. Sometimes you have to confront your colleagues with inconvenient questions. You need to guide, lead and sometimes to micro-manage. You are setting the values within the team, the team culture and you are the one to motivate and to build trust.
With all that being stated, ask yourself, are you Braveheart? Can you inspire? If you are 10 or more years into your career, and you are still afraid to ask questions in group situations or speak up during meetings, then leadership might not be the right path for you. At this point just be honest to yourself, otherwise you risk to leave the company. Why? Because once you are promoted and you find out, that the role is not really for you, it might become difficult to go back without a damaged image within your present company. The smell of failure will most likely follow you to your old cubicle.
If you like to speak in front of people, if you are more of an extrovert than an introvert, if you think goal oriented and if YOU LIKE TO WIN and HATE TO LOSE, then leadership might be just the right role for you.

4. The right achievements

You are great in sales, you could sell sand in the desert for Christ’s sake! Your sales numbers are hitting the roof and meeting the quarterly targets is a piece of cake. After a while you start to dream about your promotion, and when the time comes, poooof, the colleague in the cubical next to your’s is getting it. All of a sudden all motivation is being replaced by a huge chunk of disappointment, and you are asking yourself, why?
Well, the answer is quite easy: You showed you can sell. But what else did you show? Did you excel in taking responsibility, in motivating the team, in engaging strategical talks? Did you show that you support the vision of the company and that you are willing to lead the rest of team towards this vision?
At the end potential candidates for managers and leadership positions should shine in areas which are not necessarily related to operative sales. Yes, you will need to go an extra mile for this and maybe investing time in these activities will reduce your sales numbers. But it’s worth it. If all other three requirements are met and you achieve success outside the normal sales role, especially in typical leadership tasks like motivation, then getting the promotion should be not a big deal.

5. The right communication

Let’s face it: Even if everything above is in place it’s still not guaranteed that you will be considered in the next round of promotions. Why? Well, let’s put it like that: Nobody can read your mind! You need to communicate your ambitions. The simple fact that you are doing something doesn’t mean that your manager will put the right frame around it and set the right context. Yes, you are helping to motivate the team, you are mentioning the mission and vision in important meetings. So, make sure to speak to your manager and state your ambitions. If he is interested in the development of his team, as a good people manager should, you stating your personal goals will make his life even easier, because it will give him a clear picture of what you expect and how you both can achieve it.