Brian Tracy on Sales Management
Brian Tracy
AMACOM (2015)

The essentials of how to recruit, manage, and motivate a team of high-performing sales professionals

This is one of the volumes in the The Brian Tracy Success Library, all published by AMACOM. Tracy has already written one or more books of greater length and depth that examine these and other major business subjects. What he has now done with each of the volumes in the series is to condense with consummate skill the most valuable information, insights, and counsel within a 100-page format, in this instance the most valuable lessons he has learned about marketing.

Briefly but substantially, Tracy covers essentials of that include selecting and recruiting sales champions or those who have the potential, develop a sales game plan, inspire individual commitment with singleness of purpose, select appropriate incentives, nourish team members’ self-image to boost sales, demonstrate respect and appreciation, brainstorm sales solutions, conduct game-changing performance reviews, and lead by example. He selected 21 specific subjects or themes most relevant to effective sales management and devotes a separate chapter to each. Briefly but substantially, Tracy covers these and other essentials of sales management.

I agree with Brian Tracy: “The sales manager is one of the most valuable and often one of the least appreciated executives in a company. It is the sales manager who sets the standards and quotas for the salespeople and ensures that they achieve them. The development of excellent sales managers is an essential requirement for all successful business enterprises.”

Achieving and then sustaining business success (however defined) depends almost entirely on nailing the fundamentals every day at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise. In this book, Tracy focuses on the fundamentals in sales management. Mastering them and then applying them with high-impact is the challenge you now face. I urge you to embrace it with passionate tenacity and rigorous self-discipline. He explains how and why an effective sales manager “must be a friend, a counselor, a confidant, a stern taskmaster, and an efficient business-oriented executive, all at the same time.”

These are among Tracy’s key points of greatest interest and value to me. First, he explains how and why salespeople and their manager should spent at least 75% of their time in the field, in face-to-face contact with current and prospective customers, and spend no more than 25% of their time in their office completing paperwork. He also discusses what great sports teams and great sales teams share in common and suggests how to identify high-potential salespeople among those interviewed for a position. In fact, citing “The Law of Three,” he recommends that (a) at least three candidates be interviewed for each position, (b) prime candidates be interviewed at least three times, (c) at three different locations, and (d) that at least three people be involved in the process.

It is important to keep in mind that the best sales managers must bed both effective leaders and effective managers. They must think strategically in terms of organizational goals, priorities, and resources but they must also think in terms of ABC: Always Be Closing. They close on the candidates they want to hire and they inspire salespeople to be self-motivated generate leads, close on sales, cultivate relationships, and recruit their customers as evangelists,” as an extended salesforce.

Presumably Brian Tracy had two different readers primarily in mind when he wrote this book: those who are sales managers now, and, those who aspire to become sales managers. This book can also be of substantial value to those entrusted with responsibility to fill a sales management position, either with a hire or a promotion. As is also true of each of the other volumes in The Brian Tracy Success Library, the price at which Amazon now sells it ($8.43) is not a bargain; it’s a steal.

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Brian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations. His goal is to help as many people as possible to achieve their personal and business goals faster and easier than they ever imagined.

To learn more about him and his work, please click here.