Your sales manager has a significant impact on your company’s ability to sell. Their approach, relationships with sales reps and their ability to motivate your sales team will influence your sales numbers and bottom line. Choosing the right sales manager during the hiring process is not something to rush or overlook. Finding the right sales manager who fits within your company culture and has the experience and skills to sell in your industry is essential.

So, how do you ensure you hire the right sales manager? You need to ask the right questions during the interview process. Here are some important questions you should consider including as part of your job interview:

1. Are you a numbers person?

Data analysis is a very important part of the sales manager role. People who can accurately forecast projections, identify sales trends, and accurately report performance will be successful.

2. Why do you want to be a sales manager?

Understanding a person’s motivation for wanting to make the step up from rep to manager is important. Do they want a larger role? A new challenge? Is it the next step in their career progression? Or are they just looking to do something new?

3. What do you think motivates reps?

How do you motivate them? Being a great motivator is one of the most important skills for sales managers to have. Pick their brain to understand what they think are major motivating factors and how they would approach motivating their sales team.

4. How will you continue your success as a sales rep to your role as sales manager?

Being a sales rep is very different than being a sales manager. Success in one area does not necessarily equate to success in another. Try to gain insights into how a potential candidate will manage their team and help reps be as successful as they were.

5. Define your vision for a successful sales rep coaching session:

Understanding how a candidate will approach training and coaching reps will provide you great insight about whether or not they will be a good cultural fit and have the ability to develop reps’ skills.

6. Why will you make a good leader?

Not having leadership skills can be a deal breaker. If a potential candidate does not have the skills or desire to lead others, it will hurt your sales team’s ability to be successful and meet sales targets.

This is only a small sample of the types of questions you should include as part of your sales manager job interview process. Remember, hiring is your opportunity to improve your company. Take the time to make the right decision.

SalesForce Search is a sales recruiting company which specializes in the recruitment and placement of sales professionals. We recruit sales people in every sector of the economy including, software, manufacturing, financial services and medical devices. Find the right sales person for your organization, start your search here.