Sales management · The sales manager's job
Ask the people who work with your manager how well they lead.
A sales manager skills 360 is a short rating of a manager on six core skills by the manager, the reps, peers and the boss. The gap between self-rating and everyone else's is the finding. This page ends with a development plan of two or three actions.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A sales manager skills 360 is a short rating of a manager on six core skills by the manager, the reps, peers and the boss. The gap between self-rating and everyone else's is the finding. This page ends with a development plan of two or three actions.
Farah is the sales manager at a diagnostic lab chain in Hyderabad, with eight collection-centre reps. Farah believes the morning call to every rep counts as coaching. The reps call it checking up, and two have stopped mentioning lost customers.
A 360 puts the two views side by side. Six skills, rated one to five, by Farah and by those around Farah. It takes fifteen minutes per person and one hour for the private debrief.
In a small team the problem is honesty. A rep will not give the boss a low score if they can guess who wrote it. So the answers go to someone outside the team, such as an adviser or a friend of the firm, who adds them up and reports only averages.
The owner sponsors it and sees the report. It follows the audit and the promotion matrix, and it is the cheapest way to find out whether a new manager is getting better.
Where this sits
Topic 1 of 14 in sales management: the sales manager's job. What the manager or owner is actually responsible for, and how to check it.
- The topic after
- Sales planning and goals
If you want this done for you
Training happened once, and the habits it was meant to fix did not last the month.
The work
What this is actually like.
“Anonymity needs five or more raters”
With three reps, everyone can work out who said what. Include peers, the owner and a senior colleague from another department until you reach five. If you cannot reach five, use a spoken debrief with the whole team and drop the scores.
“The gap matters more than the score”
A manager who rates themselves 4 and is rated 2 has a bigger problem than one who rates themselves 2 and is rated 2. Self-awareness is the first thing to build. The gap column is the one to read first.
“Micromanaging looks like diligence”
Daily check-in calls, forwarded-to-me emails and approval for every discount feel like control. Reps read them as distrust. Add one line to the sheet asking whether the manager coaches or checks, and read those answers before the others.
“Enthusiasm is a skill with a cost”
A manager who is flat on a bad week sets the team's pace. Rate it, but do not turn it into a lecture. Ask raters for one situation where they saw it, because a behaviour can change and a trait cannot.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The six-skill rating sheet
Six rows: leadership, communication, seeing the big picture, managing oneself, ethics, and enthusiasm with empathy. Each has a one-line meaning in plain words and a 1 to 5 scale, plus one open box for an example.
Result: Finished when a rep can fill in the sheet in fifteen minutes without asking what a row means.
The rater table
Who rates, in what role, collected by whom. Keep at least five raters. The collector, an outsider, gives each rater a unique blank sheet.
Result: Finished when the manager cannot tell who wrote what.
The 360 report
Averages per skill, the manager's own score beside them, the gap, the lowest skill, the highest, and a list of examples with names removed.
Result: Finished when the report is one page and uses averages only.
The private debrief notes
A one-hour conversation between the collector and the manager. Read the strengths first, then the largest gap, then ask what surprised them. No rep is quoted by name.
Result: Finished when the manager can state the biggest gap in their own words.
The development plan
Two or three actions with a date and a way to check each: a standing one-to-one slot, a named mentor outside the firm, one change in how discounts are approved. Reviewed with a short repeat survey after six months.
Result: Finished when each action has a date and one observable sign it happened.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Will reps really answer honestly?
What if the manager gets a poor report?
Can the owner be included as a rater?
Is a 360 useful for a team of four?
Does this replace a performance review?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
The rest of the sales manager's job
Or read all of sales management.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.