By
Simon Hazeldine
Being a sales manager is no easy task. Balancing competing priorities while striving to drive team performance and meet organizational targets can be overwhelming. But there’s an important question every sales manager must ask themselves: Am I simply managing my team, or am I leading them?
Sales management requires a delicate balance of leadership and management. Each plays a vital role in driving results, but they are fundamentally different. Understanding these distinctions—and knowing when to prioritize one over the other—can make all the difference in building a high-performance sales team.
This blog explores the key differences between sales management and leadership, what your team truly needs, and how to ensure you’re excelling in both roles.
The Purpose of Sales Management
The primary purpose of sales management is to ensure that your team delivers the required commercial results for your organization in an efficient and effective manner. Simply put, you’re responsible for your sales team’s performance.
But success goes beyond meeting quotas. Exceptional sales managers build cohesive teams that serve their customers, grow revenue, and drive long-term business value. Achieving this requires a combination of leadership and management skills, as well as a focus on the factors that most influence team behavior.
The 3 Factors That Drive 80-90% of Your Team’s Behavior
Research shows that 80-90% of employee behavior is determined by three critical managerial actions:
- What You Pay Attention To, Measure, Reward, and Control
Your focus signals to your team what’s important. When you prioritize customer satisfaction, meeting targets, or quality over quantity, your team aligns with those priorities. - Your Role-Modeling and Coaching
Your actions set the tone for your team. If you demonstrate discipline, resilience, and commitment to excellence, your team is more likely to follow suit. - How You Respond to Critical Incidents
Your reactions when things go wrong—whether calmly addressing the issue or panicking—send a powerful message about your team’s culture and priorities.
In short, your behavior as a sales manager or leader directly influences the behavior, activities, and results of your team. To maximize their potential, you must balance leadership and management to deliver what they need most.
Sales Manager vs. Sales Leader: The Key Difference
While many use the terms “manager” and “leader” interchangeably, they are distinct roles with different focuses.
- Management: Focused on logistics, processes, and execution. It’s about ensuring your team has the tools, resources, and systems in place to achieve its objectives.
- Leadership: Focused on vision, inspiration, and alignment. It’s about setting the direction for your team and motivating them to achieve their best.
Practical Definitions
- Leadership: Setting the direction for the team, aligning your people to this direction, and inspiring them to achieve success.
- Management: Organizing resources, processes, and plans to execute that direction effectively.
Leadership Contributions to Sales Team Success
To lead effectively, you must focus on the following key leadership activities:
1. Vision
Your team needs clarity on where they’re going. A vision doesn’t need to be lofty; it can be as simple as becoming the top-performing sales team in the company or increasing market share by 10%. The key is ensuring your team understands and aligns with this vision.
Action Step: Create a clear vision for your team and communicate it consistently in team meetings, one-on-ones, and strategy sessions.
2. Engage
Engaged teams are motivated teams. To engage your salespeople, ensure they feel connected to the vision, valued by the organization, and empowered to contribute.
Action Step: Regularly recognize and reward achievements, celebrate milestones, and solicit input to keep your team energized.
3. Build
Leadership is about building a high-performance team. This involves developing your team members’ skills, fostering collaboration, and ensuring the team operates cohesively with other departments.
Action Step: Invest in coaching, mentoring, and training programs to help your team grow.
Management Contributions to Sales Team Success
Strong management ensures the team is operationally efficient and organized. Core management activities include:
1. Planning
Planning involves setting clear goals and objectives, then creating actionable plans to achieve them. Without effective planning, your team risks losing focus and direction.
Action Step: Use data from your CRM to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals for your team and track progress regularly.
2. Organizing
Organizing means allocating resources effectively, whether that’s time, people, or tools. This ensures your team has everything they need to succeed.
Action Step: Streamline workflows and remove unnecessary obstacles so your team can focus on selling.
3. Controlling
Controlling involves tracking performance, providing feedback, and making adjustments when things deviate from the plan.
Action Step: Conduct regular pipeline reviews and provide actionable feedback to help your team course-correct when needed.
Does Your Team Need More Leadership or Management?
The right balance between leadership and management depends on your team’s needs. Here’s how to determine where to focus:
- If your team lacks direction, energy, or motivation: Prioritize leadership. Focus on providing vision, engaging your team, and inspiring action.
- If your team is disorganized or inefficient: Prioritize management. Focus on planning, organizing, and controlling to create a more structured environment.
Assess Yourself: Are You a Leader, Manager, or Both?
Take a moment to reflect on your current performance.
Self-Assessment Exercise:
Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = poor, 10 = excellent) in the following areas:
- Leadership:
- Providing vision.
- Engaging and inspiring your team.
- Building a high-performance team.
- Management:
- Planning goals and objectives.
- Organizing resources.
- Monitoring and adjusting performance.
Once you’ve rated yourself, identify one leadership activity and one management activity to focus on improving. Create a plan to strengthen these areas over the next 90 days.
Bridging the Gap Between Sales Manager and Sales Leader
The best sales managers are also great leaders. To achieve this balance, follow these best practices:
1. Be Intentional with Your Time
Set aside time each week to focus on both leadership and management tasks. For example, dedicate Mondays to planning and Fridays to team-building or vision-setting activities.
2. Leverage Technology
Use tools like CRMs (e.g., Salesforce or HubSpot) to streamline administrative tasks, freeing up more time for leadership activities like coaching and development.
3. Focus on Your Team’s Needs
Every team is different. Stay attuned to what your team needs most at any given time, and adapt your approach accordingly.
Key Takeaways
To maximize the performance of your sales team, you need to be both a manager and a leader. While management ensures operational efficiency, leadership provides the vision, engagement, and motivation your team needs to excel.
Final Thought:
The best sales managers don’t just manage their teams—they lead them to achieve extraordinary results. By mastering both leadership and management, you’ll build a sales team that is not only productive but also inspired to exceed expectations.
Additional Resources:
Book: “How to Lead Your Sales Team – Virtually and in Person” by Simon Hazeldine
“What Top-Performing Sales Managers Do Differently” (Harvard Business Review)
“Manager Versus Leader: What’s The Difference?” (Forbes)
“10 Steps to Building a High-Performing Sales Team” (Hubspot)
Good luck and good selling! ????
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About the author
Simon Hazeldine works internationally as a revenue growth and sales performance speaker, consultant, and coach. He empowers his clients to get more sales, more often with more margin.
He has spoken in over thirty countries and his client list includes some of the world’s largest and most successful companies.
Simon has a master’s degree in psychology, is the bestselling author of ten books that have been endorsed by a host of business leaders including multi-billionaire business legend Michael Dell and is co-founder of leading sales podcast “The Sales Chat Show”.
He is the creator of the neuroscience based “Brain Friendly Selling”® methodology.
Simon Hazeldine’s books:
- Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
- Bare Knuckle Selling
- Bare Knuckle Negotiating
- Bare Knuckle Customer Service
- The Inner Winner
- How To Lead Your Sales Team – Virtually and in Person
- Virtual Selling Success
- How To Manage Your People’s Performance
- How To Create Effective Employee Development Plans
- Virtual Negotiation Success
