The Balanced Sales Manager
How to Divide Your Time for Maximum Team Impact
I was just recently asked how a sales manager should be spending their time. What are sales management tasks and how should I think about the activity you do as a sales manager?
You could divide these into Daily and Weekly Tasks - like below.
Daily Tasks
Review sales reports and metrics
Hold team meetings or huddles
Follow up on high-priority leads or accounts
Coach and mentor sales representatives
Respond to customer escalations
Weekly Tasks
Analyze sales performance trends
Conduct one-on-one meetings with team members
Update sales forecasts
Review and adjust sales strategies
Collaborate with marketing on lead generation
Prepare reports for upper management
Evaluate and update sales collateral
Conduct or arrange sales training sessions
Sounds like something out of a bad job description…
Instead of specific daily or weekly task lists I put down my thoughts related to time allocation to different areas a sales manager is responsible for.
Here's a recommended breakdown of how I think sales managers should allocate their time (with all the usual caveats):
Sales Strategy and Planning (25%): Developing and refining sales strategies, forecasting (current month, current quarter), goal setting, and meeting planning.
Team Management and Coaching (30%): One-on-one meetings, team huddles, performance reviews, call coaching, copiloting calls, training. hiring and interviewing.
Customer Engagement (15%): Talking to customers, addressing escalations, and participating in important sales calls.
Data Analysis and Reporting (15%): Reviewing sales metrics, preparing reports, and extracting actionable insights - what are your daily and weekly numbers you look at to make sure your team is on track? How are you communicating that which those that need to know.
Cross-functional Collaboration (10%): Working with marketing, product, and other departments to align efforts.
Personal Development and Industry Learning (5%): Staying updated on industry trends, management upskill, and continuous learning.
You can obviously tweak it for your specific situation, but in general this is how I’ve spent my time in the seat.
Also not that the percentages change depending on the phase of the business… i.e. if you are in crazy growth mode – more time would be spent on hiring and onboarding.
What am I missing?
Happy selling
-Joe