Are your Sales Managers measured on how well they grow their people – or just how much they sell?

In many sales organizations, the KPIs are crystal clear: hit the number, manage the forecast, close the quarter.

But here’s the question:

Who owns the responsibility for building the next generation of high-performing sales talent?

🔍 Research tells a compelling story:

McKinsey highlights frontline leadership as one of the most critical levers for team performance, engagement, and retention.

Yet Gallup shows that only 20% of managers are naturally skilled at developing others – and most receive little structured support to improve.

Still, few Sales Managers are measured on:

• Time spent coaching reps in real deals

• Growth in individual capabilities and confidence

• Their own leadership development journey

We say “sales is a people business” – but do our metrics reflect that?

When we don’t measure development, we get:

– Managers spending more time in spreadsheets than in field coaching

– Sellers plateauing in potential

– Promotion pipelines running dry

Imagine if we instead tracked:

• Frequency and quality of field coaching sessions

• Development progress in key sales skills (e.g. negotiation, value-based selling)

• How Sales Managers model learning and reflection themselves

This isn’t about soft KPIs. It’s about building the capacity that sustains commercial performance.

👉 As a Sales Leader – are you building your team’s skills, or just tracking their numbers?