what is a sales manager?
As a sales manager, you drive the company's revenue by building and nurturing a high-performance sales team. You guide the sales force to hit revenue targets and build customer relationships to foster loyalty. Aside from training sales reps and motivating them to achieve their goals, you also have administrative duties in the sales department. For instance, you set the monthly targets and sales goals for the year for every sales representative. You also analyse data on past performance and study the market trends to predict future performance.
Sales managers play three key roles in a company: people management, customer management and business management. As a people manager, you empower account executives through training and regularly checking their progress to ensure they meet their targets. As a sales manager, you are the primary liaison between the company and its clients.
You are responsible for building and fostering relationships with various clients and customers. Since you regularly interact with customers, you find new business opportunities and identify ways to grow account revenue. You also ensure the company's products are delivered on time and provide good after-sales services.
Working as a sales manager involves a mix of sales and customer service duties. Some of your sales duties involve creating new business opportunities and guiding clients through the purchase process. Your customer service role comes in when you manage your clients' portfolios and maintain good relationships.
Would working as a sales manager suit your relationship-building and customer service skills? Then read on to find out what competencies and qualifications you need to thrive in a sales manager role.
sales manager jobsaverage sales manager salary
Sales managers in Greece take home an average salary of €65,000 per year, while you can receive an average bonus of two to five salaries. Your compensation package will fluctuate based on various factors, including experience and the size of the sales team you manage. As you gain experience and expand your sales team, your compensation package gradually increases, and you take home over €70,000 annually.
how to increase your salary as a sales manager
Sales manager careers are result-driven, and most companies offer extra incentives for meeting targets. For instance, you are likely to earn bonuses for increasing the company’s revenue or customer base. If you want to increase your earnings, consider working for a larger marketing team. For instance, working with a large company improves your earning prospects since you manage a larger team and can negotiate a higher salary. The industry you work in may also influence your earnings. For instance, selling technology products or high-end luxury items may pay higher commissions and bonuses than selling other items.
types of sales managers
The types of sales managers depend on the positions they occupy in the company, including:
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junior sales managers
As a junior sales manager, you handle small client accounts for the company. For instance, you deal with individual clients like businesses or customers. You assist your clients with the purchase process and ensure they receive the products or services they require.
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senior sales managers
As a senior sales manager, you often handle business-to-business (B2B) clients. That means you build relationships with other companies to supply them with your products and services. Your job is to negotiate contracts and find upselling opportunities for clients.
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regional sales managers
As a regional sales manager, you manage a sales team in a particular region. That means you set targets for the region and create sales campaigns suitable for marketing the company's products and building brand loyalty.
working as a sales manager
Working as a sales manager is an exciting role with promising growth opportunities. If you are interested in the role, check out the duties, responsibilities and work environments associated with sales managers.
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what does a sales manager do?
Some of the duties and responsibilities of a sales manager include:
- Overseeing the sales team: as a sales manager, you work closely with sales teams to promote the company’s products. You set individual and group targets and create performance plans for sales representatives. Your duties also involve coaching sales reps to improve their performance and conducting performance reviews to track their progress.
- Managing relationships with clients: as a sales manager, you build long-term relationships with clients. You liaise with your clients and stay in touch with them to build strong and personable relationships. Becoming a contact person is the best way to promote a good relationship with your clients. Your job is to answer client queries, complaints and questions.
- Providing customer service: as a sales manager, you oversee the provision of various services to clients. Your job is to organise product delivery to ensure you meet the agreed service levels negotiated in contracts. You also provide after-sale services like transport to deliver the goods.
- Maintaining the account status: as a sales manager, you update client accounts with the relevant reports. You record key account metrics and potential business opportunities for existing clients. You also use customer relationship management (CRM) software to track sales from existing customers and identify new business opportunities.
- Presenting business ideas to clients: as a sales manager, you prepare and pitch presentations to clients. You make presentations for new and existing clients and provide ideas for business growth. Your job is to increase client account spending by upselling and cross-selling various products. It is also important to negotiate new deliverables and prices with clients when they show interest in new business opportunities.
- Maintaining sales quotas: as a sales manager, you determine and assign sales targets, quotas and goals. You also set the targets for sales professionals and forecast annual, quarterly and monthly revenues.
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work environment of a sales manager
A sales manager works from the company's offices. As an in-house account sales manager, you can work in various industries. You provide account management services to various clients when you work for a consultancy firm. Since it is an office job, you spend hours working at your desk. The role involves off-site travel to visit existing and prospective clients and to close sales deals. Sales managers can also work from home or manage a hybrid team from a remote location.
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who are your colleagues?
Working as a sales manager involves interacting with professionals in various departments. You work alongside sales executives, account managers and sales representatives. You also liaise with marketing managers, marketing executives and digital marketing managers to generate leads. Since you organise the delivery of products to customers, you work with logistics coordinators, accountants and customer service representatives to assist customers.
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sales manager work schedule
As a sales manager, you commit between 35 and 40 hours per week to your work. Regular business hours are common in full-time positions, but part-time positions are also available in some companies.
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career opportunities as a sales manager
You become a sales manager by working your way up from a junior sales or account executive role. Sales administrators also become sales managers before progressing to a higher role, such as a key account manager or account director position. As a sales manager, you can also become a marketing manager or sales director after gaining additional experience and qualifications.
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advantages of finding a job as a sales manager through randstad
Working with Randstad offers you a range of benefits.
- always a contact person you can fall back on and ask for help
- a range of jobs in your area
sales managers skills and education
While most employers emphasise sales skills when hiring sales managers, you require the following qualifications:
- Education: most employers require a bachelor’s degree in sales, marketing or business administration to become a sales manager. If you have a degree in a different field, you can pursue an executive diploma in sales management to learn managerial skills. If your job involves selling machinery and technology items, you require a technical background in engineering or information technology (IT).
- Experience: to work in sales, you require extensive experience selling to customers. Your sales and relationship-building skills help you run the sales team. You also need knowledge of using CRM software and Microsoft Office applications, like MS Word and Excel.
competencies and characteristics of sales managers
The main qualities and sales skills of a sales manager include:
- Active listening skills: as a sales manager, you rely on active listening to understand the client's needs. Your active listening skills help you understand client problems and develop useful solutions. If you want to build your listening skills, try minimising distractions and reiterating what the other person is saying to acknowledge that you understand.
- Time management: as a sales manager, you require time management skills since you handle various responsibilities. You need organisation skills to maintain regular contact with existing clients and develop new campaign ideas. Time management skills also help you plan sales campaigns and prioritise clients based on their value.
- Relationship-building skills: as a sales manager, you nurture good relationships with existing clients to generate recurring businesses. You require relationship-building skills to develop and maintain strong relationships with long-term clients. The best way to build a rapport with clients is to understand their needs and provide high-quality customer service.
- Communication skills: as a sales manager, you liaise with various professionals and perform duties that require excellent communication skills. Your ability to communicate is valuable when negotiating with clients, making presentations to stakeholders and delegating duties to other workers. Your communication skills foster a great work culture since you can brainstorm sales ideas.
FAQs
Here, you will find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about the profession of a sales manager.
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what is the main responsibility of a sales manager?
As a sales manager, you manage the company's sales team. You recruit sales reps and sales executives and train them on how to find new clients and customers for the company. You also create sales plans and analyse data to make informed decisions that drive revenue.
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what do sales managers do daily?
As a sales manager, your daily duties include reviewing the performance of sales reps and developing new sales strategies to help them sell the company's products. You track daily sales and analyse the overall performance metrics.
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is sales manager a good role?
Sales manager jobs in Greece have lucrative compensation packages and provide great opportunities for career growth. Besides improving your sales and leadership skills, working in a challenging and competitive environment improves your experience.
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what are sales manager skills?
Sales managers require good communication skills to give instructions to sales reps and explain sales reports to company stakeholders. Relationship-building skills are useful for developing long-term relationships with customers.
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how can I be a successful sales manager?
To be a successful sales manager, it is important to know how to sell the company's products and find the best people for your sales team. You should also inspire your sales team to succeed by defining a sales process.
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how do I find a job as a sales manager?
Finding a job near you as a sales manager is easy. Search our job offers. Have you found what you're looking for? Then submit your application using the ‘Apply’ button top right on the page.
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