Fundamentals of Sales Management: For the Newly Appointed Sales Manager

The Challenges of Being on Two Teams at Once

One of the issues faced by a new sales manager is the fact that the manager is now a team player on the management team as well as the team leader of the sales team.

This dual capacity creates some distinct loyalty issues—especially in times of conflict—between the salespeople and others at the corporate office. But your new position has at least two pluses. The first is that you now have an opportunity to change some of the decisions that seemed inappropriate when you were in a sales position. Maybe there was a communication problem from corporate headquarters, or maybe there was a lack of coordination between departments. Whatever the issue, you now have an opportunity to address and find ways to ...