Boost Sales Manager Effectiveness

How sales leaders can relieve sales manager burden to drive commercial impact

High levels of sales manager burden can trigger double-digit declines in team quota attainment

The frontline sales manager is a critical lever in driving sustained commercial performance for any sales organisation. Successful sales managers have to balance many tasks to scale commercial impact across their teams. However, significant changes in today’s buying environment and the internal organisation have grown to a point where the job’s complexity brings about real, negative consequences.

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    Boosting manager effectiveness is not just an individual challenge, it has to be an organisational initiative at the same time. Sales leaders must give managers air cover to focus on the activities that help them scale commercial impact.

    Brent Adamson

    Distinguished VP, Advisory

    Unlock greater sales manager performance

    Chief sales officers (CSOs) can work with Gartner to understand the set of manager activities that have a disproportionate impact on commercial success to rescope the role and build an organisational environment that reduces internal burden to unlock greater sales manager performance.

    how the top 25% of sales managers spend their time

    Insights you can use

    Gartner performed a three-part study to gain a 360-degree view of the sales manager role with the key question: What should be the focus of the frontline sales manager role in today’s complex work environment? Our research identified three critical action areas to help you support sales manager effectiveness and achieve world-class sales performance. Use our insights and tools to focus manager time, the manager role and coaching activities.

    Learn how the best managers focus their time

    Sales leaders must reduce manager burden, effectively rescoping the sales manager role to a single mission: scaling commercial impact. Gartner can help you effectively prioritise your sales managers’ focus and reduce unnecessary burden so you experience significant gains in quota attainment.

     Burden, caused by internal processes, can negatively impact a sales manager’s overall quota attainment by 18%.
    High-Performing Versus Low-Performing Manager Time Spend Focus

    Understand what trends are adding complexity to the sales manager role

    The frontline sales manager serves as a critical connection between organisational strategy and field-level execution. While CSOs agree that the role is crucial, the growing complexity of the job has forced managers to cope by making trade-offs that unintentionally compromise their ability to scale commercial impact. Gartner can help you understand what trends are adding to this complexity and how to react.

    Learn how the best sales managers focus their coaching efforts

    Sales leaders collectively agree that coaching is one of the mission-critical responsibilities of frontline sales managers. Even with significant resources going toward improving sales coaching capabilities, managers’ coaching outcomes can become muted if their efforts are not focused correctly. Gartner can help you leverage technology and training design principles in your virtual sales training to improve learning retention, increase engagement and measure effectiveness.

    Distribution of Relative Seller Performance by Coaching Effectiveness

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    Gartner topic experts

    Gartner’s sales experts span the globe to support sales leaders with their most important initiatives, no matter where they are. Meet a few of our leaders.

    Brent Adamson
    Distinguished VP, Advisory

    Doug Bushee
    Senior Director Analyst

    Brian Cain
    Director, Advisory
    Scott Collins headshot

    Scott Collins
    VP, Team Manager
    Tom Cosgrove headshot

    Tom Cosgrove
    Senior Director, Advisory
    Matt Dudek headshot

    Matt Dudek
    VP, Team Manager

    Cristina Gomez
    Managing VP
    Shayne Jackson headshot

    Shayne Jackson
    Senior Director Analyst
    Rick Karlton headshot

    Rick Karlton
    Managing VP
    Danielle Mckinley headshot

    Danielle McKinley
    Director, Advisory
    Nick Toman headshot

    Nick Toman
    Distinguished VP, Advisory

    Gartner is a trusted advisor and an objective resource for 15,000 organisations in 100+ countries.

    Gartner for Sales provides sales leaders with the insights, advice and tools they need to address their mission-critical priorities.