Sales Manager Goals: How to Drive Revenue Growth This Year

How many sales managers are optimistic about sales growth this year? 31%. That data point comes from SalesFuel’s Voice of the Sales Manager survey and reflects the opinion of nearly 300 sales managers across the U.S. At the same time, 24% of managers expect their department budget to increase significantly. This misalignment means sales managers will be required to accomplish more with less funding.

How to achieve sales manager goals

We asked these managers about their optimism for the coming year. Around 31% expect their sales growth to increase significantly. Another 45% anticipate a slight sales increase. This mismatch holds true regardless of firm size or verticals.

How can sales managers close the gap between what they want to accomplish and being allocated fewer resources? There are multiple ways to develop yourself and your team. But I believe it comes down to reducing turnover, hiring the right people and using AI wisely.

How can sales managers reduce turnover?

The typical sales manager reports 29% average turnover. Reducing that turnover should be among the top sales manager goals. Each person who leaves will need to be replaced and trained. It often takes a year or more to find a good replacement and get them up to speed.

What can a manager do to reduce turnover? Managers believe that sales training (50%), sales coaching (47%) and goal setting and accountability (46%) are the skills they need to be most effective in their role.

Our research shows that nearly 80% of surveyed reps give their sales manager a 4 or 5‑star rating. As much as they like and respect their managers, they’re always looking for the next opportunity. Higher compensation and PTO that they can realistically take are two ways that a competitor could lure away your talent.

Reps are also looking for high-​level positions (42%) and opportunities for advancement (40%). When managers actively talk with their team members in one-​on-​one meetings, they should mention these possibilities. This strategy can help to retain key talent.

How can sales managers hire the best candidates?

When the sales manager is actively hiring a new rep, they need to use the best tactics and tools. One of the top sales manager goals should be to improve hiring outcomes. Around 45% of managers ask their candidates to take a sales skills assessment. And 27% use behavioral/​personality assessments to evaluate their candidates.

Assessment data can help to improve hiring decisions. A comprehensive psychometric assessment platform, like TeamTrait^TM offers a complete profile of a candidate. And this tool also allows managers to measure a candidate’s fit with the position they are trying to fill. With TeamTrait’s Four-​Fits^TM framework, hiring managers can see how well they will fit with a prospective new hire.

Once they onboard their new hire, managers don’t have to guess at what to train the rep on. The assessment data will score the rep’s critical sales skills. Hiring managers can avoid wasting resources on unnecessary training and coach the new employee to faster productivity.

How to deploy AI tools wisely

Sales managers are well aware of the benefits AI tools can bring them. As they race to improve outcomes with fewer resources, relying on AI makes sense. Over 75% of sales managers already use ChatGPT, and 56% are Google Gemini users. For nearly 40%, the top AI uses are improving their writing and solving business problems.

25% can already see that AI technology is helping them get more done with fewer people. They’ve trained their sales teams to use AI for client support (36%) and connecting with prospects (30%).

In the year ahead, sales managers will face headwinds regarding AI use. For starters, 13% of sales reps believe AI will take their jobs in the next five years. A top sales manager goal should be to train their reps to use AI to take over the routine part of their jobs. Nearly 30% of sales managers admit a lack of training and confidence in using AI.

They should make the initial investment of time to learn which tools will benefit their team. The additional education will help the 20% of managers who are also concerned about job displacement connected to this new technology.

Accomplishing more with fewer resources is never easy. But when working smarter is among the top sales manager goals, everyone in the business benefits. 

Image by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels.