Sales Manager Job Description

Key skills

Responsibilities

• • Lead, coach, and develop a team of sales representatives to consistently hit quota
• • Build and enforce a repeatable, measurable sales process and methodology
• • Manage pipeline health and produce accurate, defensible revenue forecasts
• • Hire, onboard, and ramp new sales reps to productivity quickly
• • Run effective one-on-ones, deal reviews, and pipeline inspections
• • Set territories, quotas, and targets in partnership with leadership
• • Coach reps on deal strategy, objection handling, and negotiation
• • Partner with marketing on lead quality and with customer success on handoffs and expansion

Requirements

• • 5+ years in sales with a track record of quota attainment, including team leadership experience
• • Demonstrated ability to coach reps and improve their performance measurably
• • Strong command of pipeline management and forecasting accuracy
• • Experience implementing or operating within a structured sales methodology
• • Proficiency with CRM and sales analytics to manage by data
• • Excellent communication, leadership, and motivational skills

Nice to have

• • Experience selling in the same industry or buyer segment as your business
• • Background hiring and scaling a sales team through a growth phase
• • Familiarity with sales enablement and rep-onboarding program design
• • Experience with both inbound and outbound motions

What to look for in a great Sales Manager

The skills that make a great rep are not the same as those that make a great manager — look for evidence that the candidate scales results through others, not just personal heroics. Ask how they coach a struggling rep and listen for a structured, diagnostic approach rather than vague motivation. Strong sales managers forecast honestly and inspect pipeline rigorously; be wary of those who only talk about closing big deals themselves. Hiring instinct matters: ask about their best and worst hires and what they learned. A manager who protects team morale through downturns and celebrates the team over themselves is a keeper.

Interview questions to ask a Sales Manager

Ask the candidate to describe how they would coach a rep who is hitting activity targets but missing quota — this tests diagnostic coaching ability. Probe their forecasting approach: how do they inspect pipeline and how accurate have their forecasts historically been? Ask about a time they had to manage out a rep who was not performing and how they handled it. Present a scenario where the team is behind target mid-quarter and ask what specific actions they would take. Finally, ask how they would design the first 30/60/90 days of onboarding for a new rep.

Where to source Sales Managers

Top sales managers are most often sourced through referrals and direct outreach to high-performing reps and team leads at peer companies. LinkedIn is effective when filtered by quota-carrying leadership experience in your segment. Sales communities such as Pavilion, RevGenius, and Sales Hacker surface engaged leaders. Promoting a proven senior rep with coaching instincts can work well, paired with explicit management development. For senior hires, references from former direct reports are the highest-signal check available — ask whether reps would work for them again.