Manage Smarter 160 — Kevin F. Davis: How and Why Sales Managers Fail

BY Audrey Strong
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Kevin F. Davis is the founder and president of TopLine Leadership. Over the past 25 years, more than 20,000 sales managers from many of the world’s most successful companies have attended his 2‑day workshop on sales management leadership. He is also the architect of SalesFuel's Sales Manager Training program and a facilitator as well. 

Kevin is the author of three books: Getting Into Your Customer’s Head; Slow Down, Sell Faster!: Understand your customer’s buying process and maximize your sales; and The Sales Manager’s Guide to Greatness: 10 essential strategies for leading your team to the top. 

In this episode, Audrey, Lee and Kevin discuss:

  • The simple, common mistake sales managers make when working with AEs that block productivity
  • What is the #1 reason sales managers fail
  • How to have difficult conversations with your team 
  • Sales and marketing alignment strategies

Most leaders have a mindset that they are doing everything right. So when things go wrong, instead of looking at themselves, they blame others. I’ve seen this a lot with sales managers. Unfortunately, this attitude bleeds over to the sales rep.”

Kevin F. Davis

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