If you’ve ever been in a position to interview and hire a department manager, I’m sure you understand what a complicated task this must be. However, aside from specific information needed to manage a particular department (such as sales, production, quality control, etc.) there are many general characteristics a successful department manager must have.

Regardless of particular area of company, each department manager must be in immediate contact with people under their charge. They are supervisors who are on “the front lines” and oversee and hold people accountable to company goals. However, their position also requires them to coordinate efforts of many people directly, be available to their numerous team members, and be flexible when dealing with change. They must also act in capacity of liaison between upper management and their employees.

For this reason, department managers must possess certain behavioral traits in order to be effective in their role. A few of these traits include:

Problem solving Results-oriented Authoritative

Persuasive People-oriented Encouraging

Organized Dependable Adaptable

In my years of coaching and consulting I have found one similarity when it comes to hiring sales managers. Often times, when opening for a sales manager occurs, many automatically assume that most successful sales rep is best choice for promotion. However, this is often a poor choice. Here’s why.

Sales managers are a rather complex breed. They must possess many of attributes of sales representatives while, at same time, possessing attributes of a department head or executive. Considering that many of these are opposite characteristics, your job in hiring and placing a sales manager may be more difficult than you first thought.

Let’s look at a few of qualifications most sales managers must have, and then we’ll use DISC Behavioral Model to determine what would make a “perfect fit”.

Most often, sales managers are responsible for: