Sales Management Capability Framework

What are Sales Management Capabilities?

Sales management capabilities are the combined skills, strategies, knowledge, and resources that managers use to succeed in their roles. These capabilities are essential for helping managers build a strong sales culture, coach with excellence, drive growth using data, motivate reps, and provide useful feedback and recognition.

Richardson's Sales Management Capability Framework

Richardson’s Sales Management Capability Framework is a complete collection of 4 sales management capabilities supported by 23 leadership behaviors managers must master to enhance their team's commercial selling outcomes. They build competencies that enable your managers to perform effectively in their roles to achieve strategic business goals. The Sales Management Capability Framework is brought to life through our Accelerate Sales Performance System, a comprehensive capability-building solution that brings clarity to the most critical skill gaps you need to address to move your manager's ability to deliver against business goals.

Each capability is underpinned by specific leadership behaviors that map to modular, high-impact digital learning assets. Personal learning recommendations are delivered based on real-time performance metrics and capability assessments. Sales managers experience both digital and live training experiences and can access content across multiple formats including video-based modules, knowledge checks, assessments, and real-world practice scenarios to deliver optimum outcomes.

Richardson’s Sales Management Capability Framework is rooted in best practices from Richardson’s deep, broad, and proven curriculum that has been curated over 45 years, is science-backed, and isolates the skills needed to improve results.

Click on the interactive graphic below to take a deeper dive into the capabilities and behaviors we help our customers build.

Sales Management Capabilities

Sales management capabilities fall into five categories, each tied to a specific aspect of effective sales leadership:

• Coaching Excellence

• Providing Motivational Leadership

• Building a Sales Culture

• Sales Management Discipline

These capabilities are supported by 23 specific behaviors. Here, we explain each capability and the behaviors that support them.

Coaching Excellence

Coaching excellence is the capability of sales managers to support sales team members in their professional growth by planning and facilitating tailored coaching conversations designed to improve their skills and capabilities. To achieve coaching excellence sales managers must master the following behaviors:

• Prepare for Coaching: Prepare to lead an effective coaching conversation that inspires growth
• Open the Coaching Conversation: Set the tone for a productive, open and collaborative coaching conversation
• Analyze and Address Root Issues: Help the salesperson self-discover the root issue of a performance gap and own the decision on action to address it
• Assess the Current State: Get the salesperson's opinion of their strengths and gaps before offering your own

• Master Feedback: Give and receive feedback in a way that is supportive and clear

• Close the Coaching Conversation: End the coaching conversation with a clear commitment to specific behaviors and actions that will strengthen the salesperson's performance
• Maximize Coachable Moments: Taking advantage of coaching opportunities even when time is limited
• Maximize Remote Coaching: Adapting your coaching approach for remote coaching interactions

Richardson's Accelerate Sales Performance System is more than a solution for training your sales managers, it's also a solution that helps them get better at coaching. When the solution is rolled out across each level of the organization managers can use intuitive dashboards to monitor the capability gaps at the team and individual level, enabling them to more precisely coach their team to their next level of success. Find out more by clicking here.

Providing Motivational Leadership

Providing motivational leadership requires managers to inspire, encourage, and energize team members to achieve their personal and professional best. To provide motivational leadership sales managers must master the following behaviors:

• Motivate Sales Professionals: Gain insight into each salesperson's motivation to tailor actions to drive desired behaviors and outcomes

• Manage Different People Differently: Assess and leverage the individual needs and preferences of each salesperson to personalize your management approach
• Reinforce and Inspire through Praise: Give positive feedback on a specific accomplishment by a salesperson.

Building a sales culture requires the capability to cultivate a work environment that fosters collaboration and accountability by shaping the values and practices that drive sales. To build a sales culture sales managers must master the following behaviors:

• Embed Coaching into the Culture: Create an environment where coaching practices become a natural part of day-to-day interactions within the team
• Orchestrate a Winning Team: Ensure the team has the right balance of people to achieve short and long-term goals
• Strengthen the Sales Culture: Establish sales discipline and accountability among the sales team to create a stronger sales team culture leading to increased results
• Lead Sales Team Meetings: Lead team meetings that inspire participation, focus on recognition, and engage team members in valuable activities
• Drive Sales Person Accountability: Hold salespeople accountable for their commitments, actions, activities, and ultimately, the business results
• Coach in the Field: Use real customer meetings to observe and coach a salesperson to improve performance
• Conduct Strategic One-on-ones: Focus on a strategic issue to convert challenges into actionable plans that increase each salesperson's success
• Conduct Vital Conversations: Address recurring issues with a salesperson before disciplinary action is needed

Sales Management Discipline

Building sales management discipline requires the capability to establish and consistently maintain a structured, well-organized approach to overseeing the sales process, managing the sales team, and driving performance. To develop a sales management discipline sales managers must master the following behaviors:

• Analyze Sales Metrics: Track and analyze key performance indicators to inform action to boost sales performance
• Optimize Pipeline Production: Organize, monitor, and optimize the flow of opportunities through the stages of the sales process at both team and individual levels
• Improve Forecast Accuracy: Maintain accurate team forecasts as per the organization's schedule
• Conduct Opportunity Reviews: Evaluate key opportunities with a salesperson to validate the current status and agree to action to increase win-odds