What makes the move from top-performing sales counselor to effective sales director so challenging? The transition seems logical; after all, you understand your product, you have great rapport with prospects, and you consistently exceeded goals.
Yet anyone who’s been promoted from seasoned sales counselor to new director quickly discovers that being a great sales manager requires an entirely different mindset than being a great sales counselor.
The journey from individual performer to effective leader can been eye-opening, and I’d like to share some insights about what makes the difference between success in these distinct roles, whatever the sales management position is titled at your community.
How Is Sales Management Different from Sales?
The most fundamental difference between great sales counselors and great sales managers lies in what motivates them. When I started as a sales counselor, I was primarily motivated by my personal bottom line, the commission structure that rewarded my individual performance. And there’s nothing wrong with that; we all genuinely care about helping seniors find the right living solution and fulfilling our community’s mission, but sales counselors’ success gets measured by personal sales achievements.
When I became a sales manager, my motivation had to shift dramatically. My success now depended entirely on how well I supported and enabled others to succeed. As a sales manager you may still have occupancy bonuses tied to the team’s performance, but you can only achieve them through the collective success of your counselors.
This motivational shift is precisely why some exceptional sales counselors struggle when promoted to management. They remain too task-oriented and personally focused, often taking over sales rather than coaching their team members through challenging situations.
What Great Sales Managers and Counselors Share
Despite these differences, great performers in both roles do share important qualities. The truly exceptional ones recognize both what they know and what they don’t know and aren’t afraid to seek information or ask for help when needed.
This self-awareness enables critical thinking in the moment when situations change unexpectedly, as they constantly do in senior living sales. Rather than being paralyzed by new challenges, the highest performing sales counselors and the most effective sales leaders quickly and freely acknowledge knowledge gaps and take initiative to find answers through conducting research, reading or reaching out to others.
This continuous learning mindset will keep you growing and will prevent you and your team from becoming hamstrung by unfamiliar scenarios. The next time they face a similar challenge, they’re better equipped … until something new emerges, starting the learning cycle again. Do you want to excel in either role? Practice these four magic words as the answer to many questions: “I don’t know … yet.”
Common Challenges for New (and Experienced) Sales Managers
1-Role Clarification Is Key
If I had to prioritize the most universal opportunity to improve a sales manager’s performance, it involves … your written job description! As mundane as that sounds, a crystal-clear job description is critical as a practical tool for time management. Breaking your competing roles into categories with defined time allocations helps sales managers (and the leadership team) understand how you prioritize your efforts for the good of the community’s financial strength. If you and the executive director haven’t formalized these priorities in writing, do so now and collaborate on:
- What percentage of time should be spent selling?
- What percentage should be devoted to administrative tasks and team management?
- What percentage should focus on outreach and relationship-building?
These allocations will shift based on team composition, current occupancy challenges and other factors—but having the baseline keeps everyone focused on the right priorities.
2-Community-wide Collaboration
The most effective sales managers recognize the importance of collaboration across departments. They understand that while each department has its own specialized focus, their paths frequently intersect.
For example: When sales and environmental services collaborate, both benefit. The sales team appreciates unit renovation timelines, while environmental services better understands how their work directly impacts occupancy goals.
When the sales department shares regularly, transparently communicates projections and expectations in a culture of teamwork, the environmental services team understands how getting a residence painted in two days can help reach quarterly goals.
3-Be Fluent in “Leadership Language”
To gain respect and influence with executive leadership, sales managers must speak the language of data. We need to translate all our activity into meaningful projections and results that demonstrate our impact on the community’s bottom line.
At leadership team meetings, be sure to project forward at least a quarter, explaining what current sales activity means for occupancy goals. This approach isn’t reporting for reporting’s sake; you are helping other departments make important decisions impacted by occupancy and understand how their support of sales can impact financial targets.
4-Establishing Standards and Structure
New sales managers commonly struggle in developing and maintaining clear standards, processes and structure that make work measurable, intentional and productive. Without effective standards, structures, CRM tools and metrics:
- Both managers and team members waste time being “all over the place.”
- Sales managers lose credibility with those leaders who rely on data daily, like CFOs and CEOs.
The most common shortfall and the easiest to fix I see is in how information is shared during sales team meetings: Always work from an agenda and standardized reports. This means that meetings provide transparency and efficiency and ultimately give you back precious time in your day. Well-structured, consistent meetings help everyone on your team understand expectations and how their contributions impact the bigger picture.
5-Listening Skills
The best sales managers are exceptional listeners. Ironically, top performing sales counselors get promoted to manager largely because of this skill. And yet, some managers stop listening effectively once they take leadership positions because the nature of the challenges they face has changed. In sales, you’re listening to build a relationship and lead a prospect to a decision to move. In your new role, you are learning to listen for other reasons. For example, you are assessing various options to make decisions yourself or support a staff member. The listening skills are still there, but the successful manager cultivates how to apply them to a host of new situations. I’ve found Otto Scharmer’s Levels of Listening framework particularly valuable for understanding where team members are coming from and what they truly need from me as their leader.
Embracing Continuous Growth
I hope these thoughts can help Life Plan Community sales directors keep their saws sharp and their professional development in full speed ahead. The senior living field is changing rapidly, yet it’s so easy to remain attached to “the way we’ve always done things.” To stay effective in this evolving landscape, sales managers must remain curious and never stop thinking critically about their approach. If you have thoughts or questions regarding these or any other challenges in sales team management, I’d be happy to be a sounding board. You can reach me at jkellykincade@loveandcompany.com. If you’re interested in hearing what programs Love & Company has to keep sales directors and sales teams in top form, you can schedule a time to discuss here.
