You Didn't Promote Them. You Demoted Your Entire Sales Floor.

Just got off a call with a founder who made the classic mistake of promoting their best closer to sales manager.

As soon as they did, the close rate tanked (go figure). And all the new "manager" wanted to do was keep closing their own deals for the 10% commission.

The first problem should be obvious already. The business owner gave them a manager title but kept paying them to close. So what do you think they focused on?

Their deals. Not their team.

Closing is an individual sport. Management is a team sport. One is judged on personal production. The other is judged on the production of others. Completely different skill sets. Mutually exclusive.

But every company does the same thing... "Oh, they're our superstar. Let's make them the manager."

Then close rates get obliterated, the team can't stand their underqualified boss, and the "manager" just wants to keep ripping calls anyway.

You didn't promote them. You demoted your entire sales floor.

Whether or not they're wired properly for management aside, you can't expect your "manager" to care about team performance if their comp plan is still tied to closing. You have to incentivize what you want them to focus on and, assuming they possess the skillset, give them a REASON to lead.

Number one, stop rewarding great closers by taking them off the phones.

And number two, stop paying managers to compete with the people they're supposed to develop and support.