A good sales person AND a good sales manager - can they be both?

The Shift Control Sales Podcast

In life, some things can be both "good" and "bad" and in the middle of the drama to get things attended to we often only see them as simply 'bad' or 'good.' It's hard to find the time to work towards a balanced opinion and so we go for the position that seems the most logical at the time and with the evidence we have. Social media and smart phones are a decent example - they can be both a curse and at the same time extremely beneficial. (Try finding a dumb alternative your smart phone and see where big tech - and clearly customers - both sit in this discussion.) A constant theme in sales teams is the failed promotion from within - the high-performing sales person, promoted to sales manager because of exceptional sales performance, only to not cut it at management level. It happens a lot. Not a great result for the new sales manager, the existing sales team and it can have a serious impact on sales performance in the short term. In sport, great footballers don't make great managers within the same season - it's just not possible and yet the burden of expectation on sales person to make that transformation quickly can kill off any ambition or possibility of success. How can this transition be made easier for everyone concerned - how can you move a mindset from 'closer' to 'coach'??