Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions: A Tactical Playbook for Managers and Executives

CHAPTER 5

The Seven Types of Sales Managers

THE SEVEN Ps

It was 8 A.M., Thursday morning, approximately one hour into the delivery of my newly revised Executive Sales Coaching program to a team of 16 senior managers and directors of GreenCorp. After identifying the essential qualities of a leader, we shifted the focus toward the cornerstone of the day’s program.

Throughout my years of coaching managers and executives, I’ve been able to identify seven types of sales managers. Using these seven types of managers as examples, we are going to cover some of the methodologies and critical competencies necessary to become an effective sales coach. It all starts with the way we communicate.

The disparity between a great leader and a mediocre one is in how they communicate. The way we communicate is what determines how other people choose to relate to us or engage with us. They decide who we are by what we say and how we say it.

Even though you may find characteristics in the seven types of managers that you see in yourself, you will be able to identify your one dominant style of management.

The following three chapters cover the lessons these managers learned. For the ones who executed these new strategies, these lessons directly impacted their bottom line. We begin by identifying each of the seven types of managers.

1. The Problem-Solving Manager

2. The Pitchfork Manager

3. The Pontificating ...