Every Inside Sales Team Should be Supported by More Than One Manager
I have been seeing a lot of blogs and articles out there recently asking the question, “What should the Manager to Rep ratio be when it comes to inside sales teams and how many reps can one manager support effectively?” It’s hard to identify one correct answer to this question because every organization is different. Whether you are managing 5 or 15 reps on your own, something you might want to start investigating while figuring out what your ratio should be is the idea of adding another manager to help support your team (or possibly a senior team lead). This is a methodology that has proven to be extremely effective at our organization and I suggest others try it as well and here’s why:
- It allows for the extra bandwidth that you as one manager can’t support. Sometimes as a manager you can’t focus your attention as much as you’d like on your reps because of the extra small tasks that arise throughout the day. Before you know it, the day is gone and you tell yourself “Oh I will make sure to listen in on calls tomorrow morning because I didn’t get to it today.” A few days later, you find you are telling yourself the same thing all over again. As an inside sales manager, face time with your reps should be your number one priority, and there is no excuse for not achieving as much of it as possible. With the help of an extra manager or senior team lead, they can help you with things like data and list issues while you clear your calendar for one on one time with your team.
- It provides coverage/back up if one manager is out of the office so that the team doesn’t lose momentum. I have been part of inside sales teams where the manager goes on vacation and productivity suffers for a week as a result. If a manager or team lead can hold down the fort when the other is out, your team will feel as though they still have someone there to answer specific questions whether it’s surrounding list issues, training on messaging or email templates, etc.
- It creates another job position to encourage growth within your company. If your inside sales team is anything like mine, you probably hear this question from your inside reps frequently, “I really want to move up in the company, what can I do to get there?” This is a question I love to hear and creating a second manager/senior team lead position can create a new opening at your company that will excite your reps. Furthermore, it will also allow you to answer this question better for potential inside reps that you interview as you grow your team. I know I get asked the question a lot during the interview process of, “What is the potential for growth at the company?” While some candidates are interested in taking on an inside sales role to eventually move to an outside role at the organization, some are looking to eventually take on an inside sales management role, and if you can present them with this potential position for the future, the job will be more appealing to them.
Adding a second manager to each inside sales team at our organization has dramatically increased results from an inside sales perspective over the last few years. If you haven’t considered adding this position or a senior team lead to your team, I suggest you check it out to optimize your results too!