For a marketing manager, the greatest and most challenging task is to prepare the entire sales team to face an ever-changing market. If you want to survive, you must relentlessly improve your work, always keeping in mind this motto: "Good, better, best. Never let it rest until good becomes better, and better becomes best."
If you think becoming a marketing manager is an easy job, consider the lessons learned from seasoned marketing managers as they reflect on what they've learned, even if some of them sugarcoat their experiences.
Dave Anderson has something he wants to say to the first sales representative team he led 13 years ago: "I am extremely sorry now—I had no idea what I was doing back then." Like many newly appointed managers, Anderson was promoted due to his sales ability but had no clue about handling interpersonal relationships. As a result, while he held the sales representatives accountable, he could not communicate expectations clearly. He managed through coercion rather than motivation and guidance. Instead of coaching and training his team, he distanced himself, locking himself in his office to immerse himself in tedious administrative tasks.
"I could close deals and create sales forecasts, but when it came to leading a team, I felt afraid," he admitted. "I couldn't teach anyone anything; I managed through high-pressure control. I don’t know how people endured me or worked with me."
Today, Anderson has a deeper understanding of marketing management. In fact, he has written two books on the subject: *Marketing Above the Crowd* and *Bullsh*t Leadership*. Moreover, he serves as the president of LearntoLead, a company based in Los Altos, California, that provides marketing and leadership training.
Anderson's experience proves that being a top sales representative does not mean you can manage subordinates.
### Becoming the Master of Change
For a marketing manager, the greatest and most challenging task is to prepare the entire sales team to face an ever-changing market. "Every organization," Peter Drucker said, "must be ready to abandon everything it does." Great marketing managers are key players in change. Business has never been a predictable, comfortable, straight-line evolution with clear direction. Today’s business is the result of financial, technological, and economic revolutions. The ideal marketing manager will calmly face these disruptions, enthusiastically embrace change, and always adapt to any difficult challenge.
This is why great managers set such high ethical standards for themselves and can lead change management. Leilani Lutali, a sales representative at Comforce Technical Services in New York, believes her former manager Diana was such a person. "Diana had the same expectations for herself as she did for the sales team. She wasn’t worried about her sales representatives surpassing her. In fact, she encouraged it. Through her leadership, she helped us reach our highest potential."
"When we face change," says sales training consultant Tom Miller, "salespeople will realize the things they need to give up. For them, all change is perceived as loss. This is why, during painful trade-offs regarding sales gains, great marketing managers can add value. They help salespeople vividly imagine the raisins in a giant cake and then tell them that they will guide them through a numb closed zone to ultimately face a great cake."
### Winning the Trust of Salespeople
Salespeople don't pay much attention to what their marketing managers say—they judge them by their actions. Trust is the foundation of a good relationship. Trust means that your words are as valuable as gold, and salespeople don't have to guess anything you tell them because they trust you. Trust isn't a warning to your team but rather what you do when no one is watching.
This means that if you set rules, you must follow them yourself. Otherwise, you become a laughingstock to your employees.
Most importantly, sales representatives must trust that their manager is working hard for the team and can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them when needed. If you are arrogant, rude, harsh in speech, or caught lying or deceiving, you will lose their trust. Ultimately, the entire sales team will lose morale and enthusiasm.
When you make a mistake as a manager, don't avoid or hide it—admit it quickly: "I made a mistake, and I take full responsibility." Your honest response will appease critics and anyone who has made mistakes will understand and respect your honesty. If you are too proud to admit your mistakes, you will lose people's trust. Once trust is lost, your team cannot function smoothly, and your management skills will be impaired.
### Providing Feedback
When marketing managers fail to objectively evaluate salespeople's work, top performers stop trying. If salespeople don't bear the consequences of not meeting targets, and there's no reward for exceeding sales goals, performance will decline.
Great managers set clear sales objectives, provide sufficient feedback, and ensure salespeople understand their progress. "Delayed feedback leads to demotivation, so you should consistently provide feedback," Anderson says. "If salespeople know the standard, they will strive to meet it. If you don’t set a clear standard, how can you determine accountability? If salespeople don’t understand the standard, how can they know whether they're falling short?"
There's a true story about a company where the vice president of marketing was too concerned about securing his position and craved praise from the CEO. However, he showed little gratitude toward subordinates for effective work. Whenever regional managers met their targets, the VP would raise them higher, demanding more from the salespeople. Within a year, five out of twelve regional managers left his department, causing sales to drop. When the CEO changed, he was fired. Remember, balance criticism with graceful, positive praise.
### Creating Passion
"I want to keep marketing people happy and busy," says Brad Knepper, CEO of All Copy Products. In the three years he has led the company, he increased sales revenue from $1.2 million to $11 million. He believes creative competition can maintain high spirits. For example, in a recent week-long survivor-themed event using palm leaves, grass skirts, and tiki torches, salespeople who earned enough points could call to schedule appointments and showcase products, while those who failed to earn the minimum points were kicked off their teams.
"I truly wanted the salespeople to embrace the theme, and they did," Knepper says. "Productivity soared rapidly, and people worked late into the night in the office. This contest reduced the distance between salespeople; they shared tips and ideas, and the competitive spirit became stronger."
If a company has gone through layoffs during recent economic downturns, maintaining high spirits becomes even harder. "We went through a very tough time," says a marketing manager at an online media company. "In one week, half of our entire sales team was laid off. After the initial shock, I decided to have a sincere conversation with each member. I told them no one could guarantee there wouldn't be more layoffs. But if we worked as a team, gave our best effort, and adjusted our approach, we'd have a chance to win. Over the next nine months, we turned things around."
### Personal Involvement
Many salespeople focus excessively on their efforts rather than results. They refuse to take full responsibility for their work and instead feel owed by their managers. Consequently, they become ineffective.
Management guru Peter Drucker once said, "A manager who focuses on performance and takes responsibility for results, regardless of seniority, embodies the essence of 'senior management,' because he personally assumes total performance responsibility."
The key to marketing management is personal involvement—maintaining frequent contact with your clients and connecting with your sales team. "Bad managers stay in the office all day. Good managers go to the front lines and show their subordinates how to get the job done," Anderson says.
Critical personal involvement by marketing managers at the client level can deeply root the sales organization in the market. Moreover, clients feel a closer connection to the company. For instance, at Ritz-Carlton hotels, we often see room managers or restaurant managers greeting guests at the entrance and thanking them for their patronage. Why? Studies show that when management appears, clients feel respected.
### Training and Developing Your Team
We live in a knowledge-based society where information spreads at the speed of light. The speed and volume of information transmission present new challenges. Although salespeople may encounter more knowledge within their own company than customers do, customers have a deeper understanding of their own situations. In the age of knowledge explosion, high-quality interpersonal communication has become a rare commodity. The best sales training encourages salespeople to spend more time understanding customer situations, then invest more time deeply uncovering customer needs and providing more suitable solutions.
Great marketing managers provide continuous training and growth opportunities for their subordinates. "You can't expect people to quickly excel after just two weeks of basic training. Sales training is a continuous investment," Anderson says. "Don't leave your employees to chance; give them a thorough plan and evaluate the entire process."
Great managers also distinguish between career development and skill development. While sales negotiation courses help salespeople grow in the short term, they won't improve long-term career growth. To promote career growth, expand salespeople's business acumen and judgment of people and business behaviors.
Finally, successful marketing managers must maintain a delicate balance between supporting each sales representative's personal growth and achieving company goals. This is more art than science.
### Leading Employees to Continuously Improve
Outstanding sales means every salesperson must fully commit to a never-ending process of continuous improvement. A new marketing manager may bring about some swift and effective changes to a company, but sustaining this momentum over the long term is not easy. Marketing managers often focus more on whether they achieve quarterly sales targets, which can lead them to prioritize innovation over continuous improvement.
There is a subtle yet significant difference between innovation and continuous improvement. Innovation involves big leaps, requiring breakthroughs and rapid results. Continuous improvement relies on small steps, adhering to traditional consensus, focusing more on processes, and gradually refining outcomes over time.
When business prospects are optimistic, marketing managers focused on innovation might introduce new CRM solutions, train all salespeople, or establish generous incentive plans. In other words, money fuels the drive for innovation. However, in today's challenging economic environment, continuous improvement might be a more ideal choice.
Marketing managers can continuously improve their work in the following five areas:
First, improve your evaluation methods. Start with sales forecasting and assess each salesperson's deal-closing rate. More accurate evaluations of various activities can better help you understand which factors lead to better results.
Second, improve your sales processes. Review each step and have your team find the best way to accomplish each task.
Third, examine your management processes. How much time do you spend with top-performing salespeople, helping them perform better and capture more opportunities? How much time do you invest in training underperforming salespeople?
Fourth, consider how you motivate employees. Ask your salespeople: "How am I doing? What can I do to help you succeed?" They will tell you what to do.
Fifth, dedicate yourself to endless improvement. Print the following statement on your notepad and distribute it to every employee: "Good, better, best. Never let it rest until good becomes better, and better becomes best."
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