Seven Steps to Success for Sales Managers

Master today’s breakthrough strategy for developing and sustaining high-performance sales teams! Long-time sales team leader Max Cates shows how to go far beyond "old school," "command and control" sales management, unleashing the full power and energy of your salespeople through a participatory management approach that works. Drawing on 36+ years of sales and sales management experience, Cates presents proven tactics for:

• Developing your own mental toughness, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and promotability
• Becoming a true servant leader in sales: providing the right structure, challenges, respect, involvement, and support
• Hiring more effective and productive salespeople – including expert tips for interviewing, recruiting, reading body language, using data, and choosing amongst candidates
• Building winning teams that meet sales objectives and delight customers
• Empowering sales reps and teams in decision-making that increases sales productivity
• Measuring individual and team performance towards objectives
• Keeping people on target without micro-managing them
• Promoting team growth and continual improvement
• Leveraging Six Sigma and the Deming Cycle to sustain success, morale, and performance
• And much more

Seven Steps to Success for Sales Managers presents proven sales management tactics in a "bulletized" format that’s easy to read – and just as easy to use. Cates combines decades of in-the-trenches experience with cutting-edge research on the latest sales trends and tactics. Whether you’re a working sales manager, VP of sales, account team leader, executive MBA program participant, or aspiring sales manager, this guide will help you build an outstanding team, empower it, and lead it to sustained success.

Max Cates received a bachelor of science from Missouri State University and a master of arts from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He began his professional career with United Telecommunications (America’s third-largest telecommunications company at the time) as Advertising Coordinator. After three years, he joined AT&T and served for 10 years in progressively responsible corporate leadership positions in advertising, corporate communications, and marketing management.

Cates’s next leadership position was with Associated Electric Cooperative, a $2 billion electric power utility. After two promotions there, he became the youngest Division Director in its history, reporting to the CEO. His responsibilities included leading marketing, advertising, and corporate communications, as well as directing consumer sales strategy. During his tenure at Associated, he also completed Executive Development at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

After 11 years with Associated and a number of national awards, Cates returned to AT&T, serving in sales and sales management positions, progressing from Internet Sales Manager to Telemarketing Sales Manager, to Area Sales Manager. Following an award-winning career with AT&T, which included the prestigious CEO Club Award, Cates joined Access Media, where he managed the sales force. He also served as a sales management professor at Webster University.