The Best Sales Manager I Ever Had

Good Morning. Today is National Beer Day and National World Health Day, two holidays that mix about as well as sales reps and Friday afternoon sales calls with prospects who will never buy. If you figure out how to celebrate both today, let me know. Now, let's get into today's Follow Up. (:

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The best sales manager I ever had made my job enjoyable.

That’s rare. Like, really rare.

I would have run through a wall for him. And every rep on our team felt the same way.

But he didn't come from a Fortune 500 company or Ivy League school, or even an impressive career.

Looking back, it came down to three things. And according to some research I found later on, those three things are exactly why managers account for 70% of the reason why a team is engaged or checked out.

Here’s what they are.

When I look back, this is the one that made the biggest difference.

I was a hard worker, stayed coachable, and applied the feedback he gave me. And I knew he'd fight for me with senior leadership when I wasn't in the room.

That feeling changes everything about how you work. Google studied over 180 teams across the company and found that ‘psychological safety’ was the single biggest factor in team performance.

In other words, the feeling that your manager and your team have your back is what every employee craves.

In sales, that means knowing your manager will advocate for you on territory disputes, comp plan issues, and when leadership starts questioning why you missed quota this quarter.

Reps who feel that kind of support sell with more confidence and don't spend half their energy watching their own back.

It’s hard to trust a fat personal trainer or a skinny chef.

Same goes for sales managers.

It's hard to respect a sales manager who has never carried a quota on their back or sold anything remotely close to your product.

I once worked for someone who went straight into management after 3 months in jewelry sales. Mind you, I was selling B2B software. You could feel it in every coaching session. The advice was surface level, like: "Make more calls. Follow up faster." They were great at pulling reports, but never once picked up the phone, sat in on a deal, or told me something I didn't already know.

Gallup's data says companies choose the wrong person for the management role 82% of the time. That tracks. The best manager I had could sit in on a call and give me one specific thing to change because he coached from experience.

Your manager doesn't need to have sold your exact product, but they need to have sold something, struggled at it, and figured it out. That credibility is earned.

The worst managers correct everything.

And I’m not just talking about micromanaging what you do.

When it feels like they want to change every email, proposal, or call you make, eventually, you stop trusting your own judgment.

You just start waiting for their approval on everything you do, and they create a bottleneck.

Great managers let you take swings and sometimes miss. They give you the framework, set the guardrails, and then get out of the way. When you make a mistake, they coach you through it after the fact instead of jumping in to take over.

There’s a major value difference between a rep who can think on their own and one who can only perform with a manager whispering in their ear.

If you're a rep, the best thing you can look for in a manager is someone who's been where you are, fights for you when it matters, and is invested in you enough to let you figure things out on your own.

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