Under-managing sales can lead to 9 hidden costs for a business: 1) Management headaches fall to the CEO without a sales manager, 2) High turnover costs as issues fester and employees quit, 3) Under-performance as nothing gets properly managed, and opportunities are missed, 4) Falling behind industry trends without someone keeping up, 5) Holes in the sales process never get fixed costing money, 6) Only being able to hire experienced and expensive salespeople without proper training.

1. 9 Hidden Costs of Under-Managing Sales

2. 1. Headaches
If you have a sales function, you will eventually have
issues and need some management. Without a solid sales
manager, these management headaches usually get
bumped up to the CEO.

3. 2. Turnover
With no one to mentor or manage salespeople, issues
will fester until eventually someone quits. Each of these
exits will cost tens of thousands of dollars in
recruitment and lost sales.

4. 3. Staff under-performance
You know the old saying, “What gets managed gets done.”
Well, if nothing is getting managed, nothing is getting done
(at least on some fronts).
Since an incremental sale here and there can put significant
money on the bottom line, a seemingly small misstep add up
to quite a bit of missed profit opportunities.

5. 4. Fall behind trends
Technology and sales have been permanently linked, and
someone in every organization needs to keep up with this
rapidly changing landscape. If it’s not the sales manager, then
whom? Missing out on a first mover advantage or getting
significantly behind a trend can really cost you.

6. 5. Holes in the sales process
never get fixed
Great sales process is the hallmark of great sales
organizations. However, every sales process has holes or
develops them. The sales manager is responsible for
keeping the selling process finely-tuned. Paying a team of
salespeople to use a half-broken process is like sending
loggers to cut trees with dull saws.

7. 6. Can only hire experienced
(and expensive) salespeople
Great salespeople are expensive to hire, so it’s preferred to hire an inexperienced
future star and train them. However, without someone specifically assigned as a
permanent mentor, these would-be stars will fail. Some companies have tried
assigning new salespeople to the old pros, but this only works for a while.
Eventually, the old pro realizes they are not getting paid for training (or the success
of the new hire) and returns to selling their own clients.
Add up of the lifetime cost of paying $25,000 - $50,000 per hire per year more
simply because there is no mentoring system. Over the lifetime of a company, this
could add up to millions of dollars.

8. 7. Old-timers get lazy
You cant fight human nature. With no sales management in
place, the seasoned pros will find the easiest way to hit their
targets and stop working hard. It’s not their fault, it’s just
human nature. We have seen organizations discover
salespeople working less than half the time, holding second
jobs, or delegating much of their work to kids/spouses if the
management is lax.

9. 8. Resources are stolen
from other functionalareas
Just because an organization lacks a sales manager
doesn’t stop the work of a sales manager from
popping up. When it does, someone has to do it.
People, most likely the CEO, are yanked from their real
jobs to fight the fire de jour. This reactionary
management cascades into different issues as problem
A is solved but creates problem B.

10. 9. Don’t know what you
don’t know
The function of sales adds the most profit to the
organization, so under-management is creates expensive
issues. These issues may not be readily apparent, but
they are there eating away at your profit.