The CEO as Sales Manager: Asking the Right Questions

In growing small and mid-sized companies, the CEO is often the company’s best salesperson. As the company grows, so does the sales team, but the CEO seldom is able to totally abdicate a role in sales.

Our sales pipeline guide offers tips for:

• Sales hiring
• CRM implementation & optimization
• Lead generation
• Expectation setting
• Key performance indicators

Whether you’re acting as the sales manager or about to hire a sales manager for the first time, one of the most important skills is asking great questions. You should have visibility into:

• What’s the pipeline value?
• What’s the seasonality of the customer’s buying cycle?
• When do deals close?
• At what stage are deals getting stuck?

For each opportunity, your sales team should be able to answer:

• Who owns the next step?
• What’s the customer’s decision making process?
• Does the customer have a budget or are they seeking a budget?
• What is the decision date? Contract start?

Questions like these set the stage for truthful, supportive discussion, collaborative problem solving, and process-oriented action, which helps cut out false optimism and can give you a truer sense of your revenue forecast.

Download the Sales Pipeline Guide for more tips on building a productive sales organization.