Eyes On The Prize Thinking about making your top salesperson a department manager? You'd better look beyond the obvious.

Selecting a sales manager may be the second most importantdecision an entrepreneur will ever make, right after deciding to goit alone. Sound like an easy undertaking? It's not, because ofone common misconception: The most obvious candidate--your topsalesperson--isn't necessarily the right one.

Why? First, great salespeople don't necessarily make greatteachers. They're often better at selling than explaining theprocess. "They're like baseball players who can hit butcouldn't tell anyone else how to do it," says Jeffrey Foxof Fox & Co., an Avon, Connecticut, sales and marketingconsulting firm.

Second, salespeople often have big egos. They love to getorders--the tougher, the better--and receive all the credit.Working behind the scenes, mentoring and explaining the processgets in the way of selling. "It's not that they'rejerks," says Fox. "They just prefer to go out and sell.That's what they love to do and it's what they dobest."