The Sales Manager
a.k.a. Revenue Manager · Sales Lead · Head of Sales
Owns sales performance and pipeline discipline.
Who they are
Half-desk, half-truck, the sales manager.
Owns sales performance and pipeline discipline.
Software relationship: daily
Goals · what “good” looks like
- ▸Higher close rate quarter over quarter
- ▸Predictable pipeline conversion
- ▸Clean handoffs to ops
Who shows up · how they think
Demographics & mindset.
Demographics
Typical MBTI types
the temperaments we keep meeting in this seat
A day with the sales manager
Wake to bed.
12 waypoints. 2 peak-stress hours.
Pipeline pull
Coffee at the kitchen island. Pulls the pipeline export on the laptop before the kids are up — forty-two open deals, eight without a next-action date, three sitting in 'proposal sent' for over two weeks. Flags the eight for the huddle.
Drive in
Voice-memos two coaching points for the ride-along with the new advisor this afternoon. Texts the Service Manager to confirm the handoff conversation at four — last week's sold job hit ops with no equipment notes.
Sales huddle
Five advisors and two estimators around the conference table. Walks the board: stage, next action, date, confidence on every deal over ten grand. Calls out the eight stale ones by name, owners commit to a touch by end of day.
Forecast update
Updates the rolling thirty-sixty-ninety in the spreadsheet she keeps open on the second monitor. Pulls win rate by lead source for the Marketing Coordinator's review — paid search converting, the home show leads still cold.
Discount approval
Estimator pings Slack asking for a fifteen-percent discount on a furnace replacement to match a competitor quote. Holds the line at eight, asks for the competitor's scope on paper before going further. Reminds him the warranty carry is the lever, not price.
Deal review
Sits with the senior estimator on three proposals over fifty thousand. Rewrites two of the option sheets — good-better-best instead of one number, financing on the first page, equipment specs on page three.
Lunch desk
Salad from the fridge. Listens to two recorded calls from yesterday at 1.5x — one advisor leading with price, one leading with the diagnosis. Notes the pattern for the Friday role-play.
Ride-along
Rides with the new advisor on a heat pump replacement quote. Ninety minutes in the home — lets her run it, takes notes on the napkin, doesn't interrupt even when she misses the financing question. Customer signs the mid-tier on the spot.
Debrief in the truck
Parks at the gas station on the way back. Walks the new advisor through three things she did well and one to fix — she went to price before she went to need. She nods, writes it down. Reminds her his first solo close was worse.
Ops handoff
Sits with the Service Manager and the Project Manager on last week's botched handoff. Adds a required-fields check to the sold-job template so equipment model and access notes can't be skipped.
Close out
Logs the ride-along in the CRM, updates the forecast with the signed deal, marks six of the eight stale deals as touched. Two pushed to tomorrow. Texts the new advisor a thumbs-up before closing the laptop.
One more pass
Pulls the dashboard on the phone after the kids are down. Close rate up two points week over week, AR aging on sold jobs creeping up — flags it for the GM in the morning note.
What they own · where they slip
The job, frankly.
Core duties
what’s on their plate every week
Where they trip
watch for these, they’re common
What makes them a champion
Pipeline Monday morning with every deal having a stage, next action, date, and confidence score.
Career map · the ladder in and out
Where they came from, where they’re headed.
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