The activities of a sales manager are pretty varied. The skills that you need to perform this job are also quite broad. Let's touch upon the skills that you need. Leadership skills. Leadership skills are the strengths and abilities individuals demonstrate, that help oversee processes, guide initiatives, and steer their employees towards the achievement of goals. Valuable leadership skills include the ability to delegate, inspire and communicate effectively. Other leadership traits include: honesty, confidence, commitment, and creativity. Communication skills. Being able to communicate effectively is one of the most important of all life skills. Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place to another. It occurs primarily vocally, that is using your voice, or written using printed, or digital media, or non-verbally, using body language, gestures, and the tone and pitch of your voice. How well this information can be transmitted and received, is a measure of how good our communication skills are. The need to see the ''big picture'', many say the ability to see the ''bigger picture'' is an extremely important skill of managers. The essence of this quality is encapsulated in the classic Stone Cutter short story. So, one day a traveler is walking along a lane, and he came across three stonecutters working in a quarry. Each was busy cutting a block of stone. Interested to find out what they were working on he asked the first stonecutter what he was doing. ''I am cutting a stone,'' the person said. Still not wiser, the traveler turned to the second stone cutter and asked him what he was doing. The person said, ''I'm cutting this block of stone to make sure that it is square, and its dimensions are uniform, so that it will fit exactly in its place in a wall.'' A bit closer to finding out what the stonecutters we're working on, but still unclear the traveler turned to the third stonecutter. He seemed to be the happiest of the three, and when asked what he was doing, he replied ''I am building a cathedral.'' Doesn't this story beautifully illustrate a key leadership quality. It's seeing the ''bigger picture''. All three stonecutters were doing the same thing, but each gave a very different answer. Each knew how to do his job, but what was it that set the third stonecutter apart? Perhaps, it was knowing not just how and what to do, but knowing why. That third stonecutter had the ability to see significance in work beyond the obvious. Next scale would be the ability to manage oneself. Self-management refers to our abilities to control our feelings, emotions, and activities. To self-manage means to take responsibility for our actions and behaviors. Another skill is a high level of ethical and social responsibility. Simply put, ethics involved learning what is right and wrong, and then, doing the right thing. But the right thing is not nearly as straightforward as conveyed in a great deal of the business ethics literature. Most ethical dilemmas in the workplace are not simply a matter of ''Should Bob steal from Jack, or should jack lie to his boss.'' Social responsibility involves respecting the individual and cultural differences, finding admirable qualities in others, especially those who appeared to be quite different physically, mentally, or in personality. These are all the acts of being a responsible person. Next skill is empathy and enthusiasm. Would you want to spend time, sometimes a significant amount of time in an environment where you are not 100 percent? Where people are dreary and restless? Some of you may may familiar with the children's story, Winnie-the-Pooh, remember that? Two of the characters in Winnie-the-Pooh is Tigger and Eeyore. You remember like Eeyore walks around moping, always sad, very dreary, and Tigger of course, is like the life of the party. Do you want to be an Eeyore, or do you want to be a Tigger? Sales managers have to be Tiggers. It's important for sales professionals to have a sales manager that is enthusiastic about their work. Now, their skill is empathy, and empathy is demonstrating an understanding of someone else's situation, or feelings because you've been in a similar situation yourself. Both concepts are important in managing the sales function.
