Creating a Career Development Program
As the director of learning and development, you have been tasked with creating a career development program for the senior sales team of your organization. You currently support five individuals on the senior sales team. Each team member has aspirations of becoming either a senior sales manager, sales director, or vice president of sales. None of the team members have any experience in leading a team, but they show some potential for management. Choose one of the roles above (i.e., senior sales manager, sales director, or vice president of sales), and create a PowerPoint presentation outlining a career development program for the employee. In your PowerPoint, please include the elements below.
Describe skills needed to be successful in the desired role.
Discuss three to four training and developmental interventions needed to gain the skills to be successful in the desired role, and provide a timeframe of completion for each intervention. For example, a job rotation program should be completed in 60 to 90 days, and an apprenticeship should be completed in 2 years.
Explain the outcomes of each developmental intervention. For example, “Through this job rotation exercise, you will be able to effectively manage a virtual team.”
Sample Solution
A sales manager directly influences the revenue-generating potential of a company. It is common to assume that someone with the highest sales record is most eligible for a senior sales manager role. However, that is far from the truth. A sales manager`s role has more to do with the ability to lead, mentor, and motivate a sales team to achieve or exceed an organization`s sales goals. Companies value sales managers who can successfully meet their customer acquisition and revenue growth targets while keeping the business innovative and competitive. With that in mind, here are the top skills for a senior sales manager that determine the success of a sales department: ability to forecast sales goals based on analytics; strategic thinking and planning skills to implement sales plans; ability to coach, mentor, and motivate salespeople; and ability to delegate responsibilities.
