Sales Manager
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The Sales Manager is primarily tasked with assisting the Store Manager with the achievement of sales goals and objectives. He builds, leads, and inspires a team that is passionate about maximizing on the market’s potential, delivering sales, and generating revenue for the business. The sales manager lives the vision and values and inspires the same in the sales.
The Sales Manager will create an environment that fosters continuous learning within the sales department and provides unparalleled motivation in order for the department to reach its targets. He is responsible for training, coaching, and monitoring the sales team’s performance and ensuring sales objectives are not only met, but surpassed.
Objectives and Responsibilities of the Sales Manager
Management: The Sales Manager, as is suggested in the title, plays a junior managerial role in the sales department. In this role the Sales Manager oversees all junior-level sales activities and is accountable for achieving and exceeding the business’s sales targets, generating targeted revenue, and controlling sales expenses.
The Sales Manager is in charge of driving results through junior sales personnel and managing this team and holding it accountable against business metrics. The Sales Manager additionally oversees the management of the available advertising inventory in order to ensure that the department drives the most profitable sales.
In this capacity, the Sales Manager plays an important role in recruiting, hiring, training, and disciplining junior sales personnel as a measure to ensure optimum performance in this sales level.
Strategy: The Sales Manager also plays a strategic role in the business by directing sales activities and processes that lead to the generation of new business opportunities and the deepening of existent relationships. The Sales Manager is also tasked with translating the business’s market targets and strategies into specific actions for the generation of sales and revenue.
In addition to this, the Sales Manager also plays an active role in setting goals that drive junior personnel’s actions and processes, he ensures that these goals are detailed, realistic, comprehensive, and aligned with the department and business’s overall objectives.
At this capacity, the Sales Manager also allocates resources and time across the junior-level sales department and obtains, adjusts, and allocates operations resources in a manner that will enable the achievement of sales and service goals. The Sales Manager strives to see through the sales vision and goals as well as the achievement of the business overall goals.
Analytics: The Sales Manager also plays an analytical role that ensures that the sales team takes an exhaustive approach to each task. The Sales Manager conducts comprehensive and in-depth analyses, planning, and implementation for all junior personnel sales efforts and every work effort, and forwards his findings and insights to senior sales management for further consideration and incorporation into the wider sales strategies and approaches.
The Sales Manager also reviews and adjusts the product mix targets, sales territories, and conducts competitive analyses all in an effort to find the business’s strengths and opportunities for capitalization while giving the business a competitive edge. The Sales Manager also utilizes relevant databases to gather consumer and market information necessary for conducting analyses and generating accurate and timely results.
Relationships/Opportunity/Closing: The Sales Manager is also responsible for the creation and maintenance of relationships with the business’s consumers, regularly attending sales events and trade shows in order to promote the brand and establish meaningful and lasting relationships with existing consumers and all potential consumers.
At this capacity, the Sales Manager is responsible for the identification and closing of new business opportunities. He is also tasked with keeping the business ahead in the market by keeping up with the latest sales, consumer, and market practices, which will keep the business at par or even ahead of other players in the market.
Collaboration: The Sales Manager’s role is also a collaborative role in which he works closely with the human resources department on matters of sales personnel recruitment in order to guarantee quality hires. The Sales Manager also works closely with the senior sales management in deciding on new sales targets and appropriate strategies that will drive optimal performance and enable the achievement of the business overall goals.
Other Duties: The Sales Manager also performs other duties as assigned by the Sales Manager, Senior Sales Manager, Head of Sales, Director of Sales, Chief Sales Officer, or the Employers.
Required Qualifications of the Sales Manager
Education: The Sales Manager must have a bachelor’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Business, or any other related filed. The equivalent of the same in working experience is also acceptable for the position.
Experience: A candidate for this position must have has at least 3 years of working experience in working in a sales or marketing position, preferably as junior marketing personnel. A suitable candidate will also have had a proven and successful track record in aiding the achievement of a sales department’s goals in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
He will also have a strong understanding of sales, marketing, and promotion standards. A candidate for this position will also demonstrate an ability to identify business’s sales and revenue opportunities as well as experience in community relations that enable a business to attain or exceed sales performance targets. As a bonus, the candidate will also be extremely proficient in CRM programs and approaches.
Communication Skills: A Sales Manager must also possess exceptional communication skills both in verbal and written form. These skills will be especially useful in facilitating smooth and effective communications with consumers and potential consumers, bringing out a positive and likable image of the business in the eyes of the consumers.
The Sales manager will also need to have great communication skills in his managerial role where the performance of junior sales personnel will depend on the clarity or communications from the Sales Manager. Communication skills are also essential in the in his interactions with senior sales management and in the drafting of reports and presentations for research-based strategic proposals and approaches. These reports have to be clear, simple, and easily understandable.
Ms Office: The Sales Manager must be extremely proficient in Ms Word and PowerPoint, which are necessary for the creation of visually, and verbally engaging reports and presentations for senior sales management and junior sales personnel.
Research and Analytical Skills: The Sales Manager must also possess exceptional research and analytical skills. He must be capable of digging out sales and market information and processing into actionable insights, approaches, and strategies that will further the sales department’s agenda and lead to achievement or surpassing of the sales department’s targets. The Sales Manager will be proficient in dashboard management and reporting through Sales force as well as having proficiency in SaaS.
Interpersonal Skills: The Sales Manager has to have certain personal attributes that make him more suited for the position. Therefore, a candidate must have excellent organizational ability, have an ability to multitask, prioritize and meet tight deadlines. The candidate must also be comfortable working in a fast-paced and dynamic environment, have excellent decision-making skills, be detail oriented, have excellent coaching skills, model positive energy and inspire the same in junior personnel, be a creative and strategic thinker, and have an ability to handle stressful situations calmly.
People Skills: The Sales Manager must also possess exceptional people skills that will be especially useful in enabling quality interactions with the business’s consumers. The Sales Manager must be an approachable and relatable individual who portrays the same image of the business, hence, making the business appealing to consumers and potential consumers.
The Sales Manager will also need people skills in his management over junior sales personnel, making it easier for them to follow in his direction and for senior management to give credit to his insights and judgments.
