Why Your Best Salesperson Might Be Your Worst Sales Manager
One of the biggest mistakes CEOs make is assuming their top performers will make good managers. Your best salesperson might be your worst sales manager.
Table of Contents
The Role Shift
As an individual contributor, the job is clear. Reach out to prospects. Close deals. Hit the target.
Management is a completely different job.
A salesperson wins by being exceptional themselves. A sales leader wins by making other people better.
What Leadership Requires
That means:
- Reviewing calls and spotting patterns
- Designing comp plans that drive the right behavior
- Training the team so performance improves without them in the room
None of that is required to be a great closer.
The Double Problem
Promoting someone purely because of performance usually creates 2 problems at once:
- You lose your best individual contributor
- You get an untrained manager
The result looks like “leadership issues,” but it’s really a role mismatch.
Different Roles
Some people create output. Some people create environments where output compounds.
Both are valuable. They’re just not the same role.
Conclusion
Your job as CEO is to place the right people in the right position. When you promote based on performance alone, you risk losing a top contributor and gaining an unprepared leader. Recognize that creating output and creating environments where output compounds are two distinct skill sets.
The best leaders understand that management requires a completely different approach than individual contribution. Before your next promotion decision, consider whether you’re matching the person to the role or simply rewarding past performance.
If you’re a CEO looking to scale, start by evaluating whether your team members are in positions that match their true strengths.