This is a question that came up several times last week and twice this week already. First was from a current client who is a salesperson at a small but growth focused technology company. Like many other small and growing companies, there is a small sales team (less than 5) and one member of the team is also the “sales manager”.

The other time came from a referral who was trying to decide whether they needed to hire a full time trainer for their growing sales team, or a coach. Like our client, their teams were broken up into small pods, with one person as the “leader” of the pod but who also had to sell as well.

For the record, until very recently, I was not against sales managers who sold. In fact, like some others, I believed that sales managers who sold kept their own skills sharp so they knew first hand what worked and what didn’t, the manager also gets the respect of the team from being in their shoes, and they can be the example to their people.

Wrong. For so many reasons. Here a few that I have discovered.

4 BIG reasons why sales managers should not still be selling:

1- Conflict of interest. 
If you are a manager who sells, you are essentially competing with the very people you are supposed to be managing and developing. There will be the thought in your team’s mind that you are cherry picking. An under performing salesperson who has a manager that still sells now has the easy excuse; “you took all the good leads, territory, etc” and will not improve. In the sales role your focus on is your buyer, your activities, and your objectives. But in the management role is all about developing the team. You can either be Jekyll or you can be Hyde, you can’t be both at the same time.

2- Lack of time.
A sales manager’s time, like a salesperson’s time, must be closely guarded. When your attentions are on two different goals, every effort you take requires you to shift focus, mindset, skill set, etc. That kind of high level multi-tasking means that everything will take longer and not get done as well as it should have. How do you decide which is more important and prioritize your time accordingly?

3-Takeover temptation.
When we are in a crunch for time and someone comes to us with a question it is very tempting to either just tell the person what to do or give them the answer (and expect that now that they ‘know it’ they should ‘get it’ and just ‘do it’.) or do it for them (this way they can ‘see how it is done’ and ‘follow your example’). This can only destroy the confidence of the salesperson and prevent them from learning how to solve problems for themselves.

4-Compensation confusion.
Who gets compensated for what? Isn’t it difficult enough to figure out the right compensation strategy- never mind between two totally different roles? I can not imagine a bigger headache.

Having sales managers or leaders who still sell is a disaster that is happening today. Just last week I talked with several sales managers who are still selling. I also spoke with the reps whose managers still sell. This post is their words, not mine.

And yeah- I understand that in smaller companies where multiple people wear multiple hats having a sales manager still sell seems like a good idea- but it’s not. What kind of culture does it create where your salespeople can’t rely on their manager because they don’t have time or can’t trust their manager because they take over or pick the best opportunities for themselves?

What kind of turnover can you expect from salespeople/managers who burn out? If you still need a sales manager to produce, then maybe you don’t need a sales manager? Maybe you need better salespeople who can manage themselves and as you grow they grow into a sales management role?

In other cases having a general manager or CEO do the sales management might make sense, but that has it’s own challenges.  Having another person who has other responsibilities and is also charged with managing and leading the sales team only exasperates the problem of not enough time and in some cases, not enough expertise or experience in sales or sales management to know what to do and how to lead. The front line sales manager role is too important to business growth to leave it to whomever has room on their calendar for it.

So what to do? What have you done? How has it worked, or not worked? Share your comments below to be included in the next post about how to handle the challenge of the sales manager who still sells.

Are you unsure how to effectively coach your salespeople? Or are you a salesperson hoping for some real help? Can you think of a specific scenario or have a recorded call? Send it to us and we may use it on our next video!