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:

Have you ever phoned a customer service department only to receive an attitude rather than help? Not a pleasant experience! It is quite obvious that person on other end of phone is not pleased with his/her job. This has a tremendous impact on your customers!

When you reached customer service rep with an attitude, what did you think? How did you feel? Did you question your decision to buy from that company? All these things come into play when your customers don’t receive excellent service… especially from Customer Service Department.

The problem can be caused by a number of factors such as:

·lack of ability to deal with stress ·lack of sensitivity toward customers ·overbearing or threatening voice ·impatience ·critical thinking ·easily excitable ·lack of job satisfaction ·and others.

But how would you know this employee would respond that way after you hired him/her? Applicants always put their best foot forward during an interview. How can you see past smiles and polish to truly know this employee will perform well as a CSR?

Most people who are customer service oriented fall into two categories within a profile called DISC Behavioral Model. They are:

Influence and Steadiness