Closing the Training Gap for Frontline Sales Managers

Summary: Most companies are falling short on one of the most critical levers for improving seller performance — training frontline managers. Roughly 40% of teams have no dedicated sales manager training program. Of those that do, just a third deliver training to all managers consistently.

Teams that have dedicated sales manager programs typically see higher rates of sellers achieving quota – as much as seven percentage points more - and are more likely to consider their managers as effective at managing sales performance.

We recommend four actions enablement leaders should take now to close the gap on manager training and increase the effectiveness of the frontline:

1. Stop allowing short-term priorities to serve as obstacles to training sales managers.

2. Treat managing sales performance and sales coaching as distinct and address both for effective manager training.

3. Devote time to technology training to ensure productivity gains from new technologies are fully captured.

4. Don’t rely on coaching playbooks as the sole reinforcement mechanism; use job aids, content refreshes, and process enhancements built into sales tools and CRM.

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