What do sales managers do?

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Sales managers typically do the following:

  • Oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs
  • Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service
  • Prepare budgets and approve budget expenditures
  • Monitor customer preferences to determine the focus of sales efforts
  • Analyze sales statistics
  • Project sales and determine the profitability of products and services
  • Determine discount rates or special pricing plans
  • Plan and coordinate training programs for sales staff

Sales managers’ responsibilities vary with the size of the organization they work for. However, most sales managers direct the distribution of goods and services by assigning sales territories, setting sales goals, and establishing training programs for the organization’s sales representatives.

In some cases, sales managers recruit, hire, and train new members of the sales staff. They advise sales representatives on ways to improve their sales performance. In large multi product organizations, they oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs. Sales managers also stay in contact with dealers and distributors. They analyze sales statistics that their staff gathers, both to determine the sales potential and inventory requirements of products and stores and to monitor customers’ preferences.

Sales managers work closely with managers from other departments. For example, the marketing department identifies new customers that the sales department can target. The relationship between these two departments is critical to helping an organization expand its client base. Because sales managers monitor customers’ preferences and stores’ and organizations’ inventory needs, they work closely with research and design departments and warehousing departments.

Sales managers must collect and interpret complex data to target the most promising areas and determine the most effective sales strategies. They need to work with people in other departments and with customers, so they must be able to communicate clearly. When helping to make a sale, sales managers must listen and respond to the customer’s needs. Sales managers must be able to evaluate how sales staff perform and develop ways for struggling members to improve.

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