Sometime... Often, when we promote our top Salesperson to Sales Management, we end up shooting ourselves in the foot.
Why? Two key reasons:
1. We take one of our best Salespeople off the road... at least for a significant part of their time.
2. The characteristics and attributes that make a GREAT Salesperson 'SELDOM' create a great Sales Manager.
We see examples of his frequently and we find ourselves feeling disappointed for business owners who felt they were doing a good thing. While it makes some sense that having direct selling experience should help you to understand the rigors of the sales job and how to coach others, this nice idea seldom converts into results.