Get the sales team managed.
Practical answers for founders carrying the sales team, and companies between sales leaders.
Start with the situation in front of you.
Your VP of Sales just left. What should you do for the next 90 days?
Give someone explicit responsibility for managing the existing team while you decide what permanent leadership should look like. The recruiting process and the management job need separate owners.
You have five salespeople. Do you actually need a VP of Sales?
Team size alone does not determine the title you need. Start with the work that lacks an owner, then decide whether it calls for a manager, an executive or a fractional arrangement.
When should a founder stop managing the sales team?
The handoff becomes worth examining when sellers need consistent management that the founder can no longer reliably provide. The goal is to transfer responsibility while keeping leadership informed.
7 signs your sales problem may be management, not lead generation
Before buying more leads, inspect what happens to the opportunities you already have. These signs justify investigation; they do not establish that lead quality is healthy.
Sales manager vs. VP of Sales: what does your company actually need?
A sales manager generally owns the team’s recurring execution. A VP of Sales generally carries broader responsibility for the sales organization. In a small company the roles can overlap, so make the actual scope explicit.
Why hiring more salespeople may not fix a management problem
Additional sellers add capacity when the existing sales motion can support them. They can also add more coaching, coordination and review work to an already stretched manager.
How to manage a sales team during a VP of Sales search
Run a defined interim management arrangement alongside the search. Recruiting identifies a future leader; someone still needs to own the current team, forecast and customer commitments.
Why your best salesperson may be the wrong person to manage the team
Individual sales results are relevant evidence, but management requires additional abilities: developing others, inspecting work, giving feedback and addressing performance consistently.
Why sales teams lose accountability even when everyone is working hard
Accountability becomes difficult when commitments are vague, ownership is shared without clarity, or nobody returns to the previous decision. More pressure alone does not repair those conditions.
Are your salespeople unmotivated, or is the management system broken?
Investigate before assigning a motive. Unclear priorities, missing feedback, an unrealistic workload and genuine performance issues can produce similar visible results.
The founder-salesperson trap: when helping your reps starts hurting them
Founder involvement can be valuable on important deals. The problem appears when rescue becomes the default and sellers never gain responsibility for preparing, deciding and following through.
What good sales management looks like in a 3 to 10 person sales team
A small team needs a consistent manager, clear commitments and useful coaching. The rhythm should fit the work and leave sellers time to sell.