Hiring a Sales Manager The best person for the job probably isn't a current employee.

When looking to hire a sales manager, promoting from within maynot always be advisable. Keep in mind these distinctions betweensuccessful salespeople and sales managers before making anydecisions:

• The sales manager's job is to motivate, not overwhelm. Bigegos, a characteristic of many salespeople, don't fit well withmanagerial roles.
• Sales managers should be leaders with mentoring skills and lotsof patience.
• The aggressive, winning drive of a sales manager should be morecompany-focused than that of the salesperson.
• The sales manager must be able to delegate in order to getthings done through others.

Excerpted from Entrepreneur magazine, August2001