---
title: "Thirty Golden Rules for Sales Managers' Career Survival: How Many Have You Achieved?"
description: "This article outlines thirty golden rules for sales managers, covering responsibilities, human nature, problem-solving, team building, training, management, and mindset. It emphasizes that sales managers should drive their teams to be disciplined and successful, manage distributors effectively, and focus on standardization and control rather than relying on charisma alone."
author: "刘春雄"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2017-04-18"
language: "en"
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# Thirty Golden Rules for Sales Managers' Career Survival: How Many Have You Achieved?

> This article outlines thirty golden rules for sales managers, covering responsibilities, human nature, problem-solving, team building, training, management, and mindset. It emphasizes that sales managers should drive their teams to be disciplined and successful, manage distributors effectively, and focus on standardization and control rather than relying on charisma alone.

Responsibilities
Rule 1: The sales manager's duty is to make salespeople 'forced to be diligent.'
In ordinary companies, diligence is a praiseworthy virtue; in excellent companies, diligence is a natural habit. Salespeople in excellent companies are initially 'forced to be diligent,' but later become habitually diligent.
Most salespeople are ordinary people who want to sleep in a bit longer in the morning, have a drink at noon, chat online in the evening, and maybe play a few rounds of mahjong or 'Dou Dizhu.' Time is wasted this way, especially since salespeople are 'far from the emperor' when out in the field.
Excellent managers never let salespeople 'be out of reach of the emperor's command.' They have salespeople focus on the market and manage them centrally, with 'morning reports and evening briefings.' Even if a salesperson slacks off, they can only slack for one day; even if they make a mistake, it's only for one day. If salespeople have to work alone, they must 'manage every person's every task every day.' A strict reporting and supervision system makes salespeople feel that 'though far away, the law of management is everywhere.'
Rule 2: The sales manager's duty is to make salespeople 'forced to succeed.'
Excellent companies don't have a team of experts; they turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, making the average person 'forced to succeed.' With strict hiring standards, they may not always recruit experts, but they never hire fools. If a new hire can't work independently after systematic training, they become a 'sales assistant' to a veteran, placed in a team to be 'supervised,' not giving them a chance to make mistakes. By the time the newbie becomes a veteran, good habits are formed, and the veteran's experience is learned, making it hard to make mistakes. Even if they momentarily act out, the company's monitoring system will quickly catch it. Excellent companies typically have a 'paperwork' system that records every day's activities in black and white, making it hard to play tricks.
Under an excellent manager, you may have no chance to make mistakes or slack off. In the end, it's hard not to succeed.
Rule 3: The sales manager's duty is not to cultivate a few marketing elites, but to 'let ordinary people achieve extraordinary results.'
Successful management doesn't assume employees are moral saints but assumes they are ordinary people. They may not have malicious intentions, but they inevitably have self-interest.
Successful management doesn't plan to recruit a batch of marketing experts or elites. They know that in ordinary positions, experts or elites have only two paths: one is internal promotion, or they'll be poached by competitors. The truly stable sales force consists of ordinary people with average abilities. Marketing management is about getting these people to produce results.
The above two points are the premises of marketing management.
Marketing management is about using institutional construction and effective supervision to make those 'inevitably self-interested' people find no opportunity to make mistakes, thus becoming 'moral models' in terms of results.
Excellent managers never let salespeople 'cross the river by feeling the stones,' because many would 'fall into the river.' They use training, standardization, modeling, and process optimization to give ordinary salespeople a platform to achieve results beyond their inherent abilities.
Rule 4: The sales manager's duty is not to rack their brains for innovation, but to discover and promote innovation.
Marketing innovation doesn't come from brainstorming in the office but from flashes of insight on the front lines. This is the source of innovation for salespeople.
Marketing innovation can't rely on individual flashes of insight; it must become a process within the organization. This is the source of innovation at the enterprise level.
This is a dialectical understanding of two different levels of marketing innovation.
Sales managers are far from the front lines and may lack the innovative flashes of salespeople. But sales managers must be adept at discovering individual innovations from salespeople and, through a certain process, turn them into enterprise-level innovations and promote them widely.
Rule 5: If distributors are managed well, they are 'angels'; otherwise, they are 'devils.'
Some people say high-sounding phrases like 'Manufacturers and distributors are one family.' It can be said that those who say this don't believe it themselves. But when someone says it insincerely in public, don't embarrass them. Manufacturers and distributors are close but are like lines that never intersect.
Some say, 'Distributors are not God.' Consumers are God, and distributors aren't even God's representatives. Anyway, Chinese people don't have the religious sentiment of Westerners; God is just a phrase. The reality is 'the big store bullies the customer, and the big customer bullies the store.' Whoever holds the dominant power is God.
Some say, 'Manufacturers and distributors are game opponents.' That is, they are like two players in a chess game, both interdependent and opponents. When it comes to making money from consumers, they are highly aligned; when it comes to 'dividing the spoils,' they are not. Distributors always demand: better quality, lower prices, bigger promotions, and more advertising.
Some say, 'Manufacturers and distributors are like a couple in the same bed with different dreams.' Marriage is a contractual relationship, while father-son is a blood relationship. Manufacturers and distributors also have a contractual relationship, and often one where the 'contract' isn't taken seriously. What sustains a marriage is 'love,' which is shared. What sustains the manufacturer-distributor relationship is 'interest,' which cannot be shared—hence, they are like a couple in the same bed with different dreams.
Some say, 'Manufacturers and distributors are tools for each other.' Tools are discarded once the goal is achieved. Enterprise development is actually a process of continuously eliminating and replacing distributors. Every marketing reform will take action against distributors. The so-called channel flattening is impossible without the determination to 'kill the big accounts.'
The realistic understanding of distributors should be: if managed well, distributors are 'angels.' If managed poorly, they are 'devils.'
Rule 6: Many salespeople are 'model workers turned politicians,' but be careful not to leave the 'post-model-worker syndrome.'
Many salespeople are promoted to sales manager not because of outstanding management skills but because of outstanding performance. Salespeople achieve results themselves; sales managers guide others to achieve results.
The post-model-worker syndrome is when sales managers have too much of a salesperson complex, always treating themselves as 'super salespeople.' Whenever they encounter a salesperson who doesn't grasp their intentions, they get anxious and want to do the work themselves, acting as the 'super salesperson' and relegating the salesperson to a helper role.
Human Nature
Rule 7: For excellent people, management is trust. For ordinary people, trust is management.
For those who are self-disciplined and capable, management is giving them the boundaries of freedom to let them shine. The larger the boundary, the more room to excel, and the more unexpected results.
For ordinary people, management is constraining their behavior within acceptable boundaries, making their behavior conform to company norms.
Rule 8: Humanistic management is not about being lenient. The greatest humanity is to make the other person succeed.
Humanistic management is not about indulging the other person and spoiling them with bad habits. The greatest humanity is to force the opponent to succeed. Therefore, when punishing employees, you must not be soft, and tell them: 'When I punish you, I do so with a kind heart.' Perhaps they will resent you at the time, but soon they will thank you. Ten years later, they might still remember you.
If you don't believe it, recall your student days. We've forgotten the teachers who indulged us, but we remember the strict ones.
Rule 9: A state of success is an irrational state and the most dangerous state.
People have the lowest IQ and are most prone to mistakes in three states: the state of being in love, the state of success, and the state of wealth.
The low IQ in the state of love is widely recognized. Mistakes made then affect life happiness.
The state of success exposes human weaknesses. Mistakes made then affect career success.
Problem-Solving
Rule 10: Problems that have been discovered are no longer problems; problems that haven't been discovered are the most important.
Once you find the problem, you usually find the answer. The key is: is the problem you found the real problem?
For example, when a new product fails, the typical conclusion is 'the new product doesn't meet consumer needs.' This might be a false problem. The real problem might be that 'the new product was rejected by the sales force before it even hit the market.'
For example, people often think 'new product development is to meet consumer needs.' In reality, in channel sales, new product development is more about meeting distributors' profit needs.
Therefore, when you're racking your brain for answers, spend more effort thinking about what the real problem is.
Rule 11: The instinctive reaction to a problem, even if not wrong, is usually ineffective.
There are no simple answers without thought; truly effective answers often lie around the corner of thinking.
For example, when summarizing why a product isn't selling, people often say 'the brand isn't strong,' as if once the brand is strong, sales will be solved. This is simple instinctive thinking. A slight turn of thought reveals this answer is questionable: all well-known brands started as unknown brands; how did they sell when their brands weren't strong? Further thought reveals: what's most worth learning from excellent companies is not what they do after success, but what they did before success. That is, how they went from failure to success.
For example, if someone isn't doing well in a position, the instinctive thought is to replace the person. In reality, the problem might not be the person but the job design, because the position might be an 'impossible position,' a 'position only God can fill.'
For example, what to do when sales decline? The instinctive reaction is usually to cut prices, promote, or advertise. Sales managers might then think: who doesn't know that? Any normal adult can think of that, so such instinctive reactions are usually ineffective.
Rule 12: Admitting a problem takes courage; solving it takes wisdom.
Discovering a problem isn't hard, but because problems are tied to responsibility and capability, admitting them becomes difficult.
Having a problem and not admitting it is the biggest problem.
When a problem is discovered, the first reaction is to cover it up rather than solve it. People tend to solve problems privately rather than publicly. At this point, the problem might be worsening.
When admitting a problem means denying oneself, the problem is no longer just a simple issue.
Whether you dare to admit a problem is a true test of your self-confidence. It's precisely because many lack the courage to admit problems that the following phenomenon occurs: only when a manager is transferred does the problem fully come to light.
Rule 13: The process for handling problems should be 'first rescue, then hold accountable.'
It's common to see serious market problems with no department or individual stepping up to solve them. Everyone thinks: whoever steps up might be seen as admitting responsibility. To avoid responsibility, the best approach is 'don't stick your neck out.'
Some companies' problem-handling procedure is: first find the responsible person; whoever caused the problem solves it. Since some problems aren't easy to pin on one person, or multiple people are responsible, the process of finding the responsible person worsens the problem.
The correct process should be 'first rescue, then hold accountable.' 'First rescue' means prioritizing customers and the market; don't delay rescue because of accountability.
Case: Most hotels have rules that guests must compensate for damaged room items, and if the attendant doesn't notice, the attendant must compensate. So we often see: when the hotel asks the guest to compensate, the guest denies it, and the attendant insists the guest damaged it, leading to a heated conflict.
According to the customer-first principle, if there's no concrete evidence and the guest firmly denies it, the lobby manager should sign off. Because the attendant's thinking is: if the guest doesn't pay, I have to. Offending the guest isn't my responsibility; not noticing the problem is my responsibility. So even without full evidence, they insist because it's the best way to avoid responsibility.
Team
Rule 14: A team is a new substance formed when members merge, sublimate, and undergo a chemical reaction.
If your team members don't divide work and cooperate, each working alone, even if they're all brilliant, they aren't an excellent team.
A true team requires each person to 'need' others and 'contribute' to others. That is, members must 'coordinate' and be 'indispensable to each other.' Team formation is a chemical reaction, not a physical one. A volleyball team of six spikers isn't a team; a football team of eleven forwards isn't a team. Similarly, a group of salespeople working alone isn't a team.
A team isn't just a simple aggregation of people. An effective team must have four elements: common goals (team goals take priority over personal goals, and personal behavior helps achieve team goals), organizational identity (psychological identification with the team, behavioral compliance), effective organization (mutual division and cooperation), and a team leader (who commands the team's respect). Only then can a team achieve '1+1>2,' and the team's goal is precisely to achieve 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.'
Rule 15: An effective team can achieve 'one Zhuge Liang leading three cobblers is better than four Zhuge Liangs.'
Three cobblers will always be cobblers, never Zhuge Liangs. Zhuge Liang represents a level of excellence that cobblers can't reach even in numbers.
One cobbler leading three Zhuge Liangs equals four cobblers. This is like 'a bear leads a bear's den.'
Three Zhuge Liangs are worse than one cobbler. Without complementarity and coordination, team members' efforts can cancel each other out.
One Zhuge Liang leading three cobblers is better than four Zhuge Liangs. A team's organizational structure can only multiply value if it meets these conditions: first, division of labor; second, complementarity; third, a pyramid structure.
Rule 16: Excellent teams constantly produce talent; pay special attention to sending talent to excellent teams for training and selecting talent from excellent teams.
The best training is team assimilation. Being exposed to an excellent team is better than a carefully designed training course. The team leader's hands-on guidance is the best training method.
Training
Rule 17: Never scold your subordinates as 'a bunch of idiots'; otherwise, you're the 'big idiot.'
If only a few subordinates are idiots, the responsibility might be theirs. If all subordinates are idiots, the responsibility is definitely the manager's.
Calling subordinates idiots only shows you're 'blind' and can't select talent.
Calling subordinates idiots only shows you can't cultivate talent; those who follow you are 'out of luck.'
Rule 18: Training isn't just the HR department's job or the subordinates' job; the manager is the primary person responsible for training.
Parents don't shirk the responsibility of raising children, and managers shouldn't shirk the responsibility of training employees.
The HR department is just the organizer of training, not the responsible department. Training is a basic function of every manager and part of the manager's job. If training isn't done well, don't blame the leadership or HR; reflect on yourself.
Rule 19: The hardest part of training isn't changing people's minds but changing their behavior.
What determines behavior isn't knowledge but habit. 'Knowing is easy, doing is hard' is always a challenge.
Changing one person's habit is hard; changing a group's habits is even harder.
Habits can't be solved through training; they can only be solved through daily management correction. So, trainers can't solve the ultimate training problem; only managers can 'turn training content into corporate behavior.'
Rule 20: Training doesn't increase employee loyalty; on the contrary, it might accelerate turnover.
When companies offer training as a reward, employees might not appreciate it. If employees grow faster than their bosses and the company, training only accelerates dissatisfaction, which speeds up turnover.
Managers are the ceiling for employee growth. When employees hit the ceiling, they either stop growing or seek new growth space. Therefore, training should start with managers; train managers before training employees.
Previously, sales managers might say: 'Our employees are too poor; they need training.' Now, sales managers should say: 'Our employees' quality is too low; managers need training.'
Management
Rule 21: There's no 'don't do it again' in management; only 'take this as an example.'
Chinese managers are often too lenient, not punishing first-time violators or punishing lightly, then sternly saying, 'Don't do it again!' Little do they know this is a dangerous precedent.
The correct approach is to punish according to company rules without compromise and set the precedent: 'take this as an example.'
Those who habitually say 'don't do it again' usually have three mindsets: first, 'Everyone makes mistakes; punishing for one mistake is too harsh'; second, 'Give people a chance to reform'; third, 'Maybe the violator didn't know the rules; it was an unintentional mistake; this lesson will make a deep impression.'
These mindsets may be well-intentioned, but the consequences are dire.
The first violator is under public scrutiny, and how they're handled sets an example. 'Don't do it again' is an example that tells people: rules are flexible, don't take them too seriously, at least not for the first offense. 'Take this as an example' is also an example that tells people: don't gamble; follow the rules seriously! Otherwise, you're next.
Rule 22: 'Use people without doubt; doubt people without using them.' This is an agricultural society's view. The modern commercial society's view is: 'Use people with doubt; doubt people can be used.'
People are unreliable, including God. Years ago, Americans wrote a book called 'The President Is Not Reliable,' which merely acknowledges a basic fact of a system-based society: people are unreliable, and a social mechanism must limit and regulate their unreliable behavior.
'Use without doubt, doubt without use' essentially sets aside systems and rules to talk about morality and ability. In an agricultural society, this might work because the survival radius is tiny, and moral and ability risks are high. Modern society is a migratory society with high mobility, making it costly to deem someone 'without doubt.' Therefore, use with doubt. At the same time, with a good system as a guarantee, you can make it hard for 'doubtful people' to find opportunities and limit their behavior within acceptable bounds.
Rule 23: 'No excuses' might be the excuse of incompetent managers.
The phrase 'no excuses' implies a crucial premise: effective organizational support and effective leadership from superiors. Without this premise, simply demanding 'no excuses' from subordinates is just an excuse for incompetent leaders to shirk responsibility.
Do what leaders should do first, then you can demand 'no excuses' from subordinates. Don't use 'no excuses' to brush off subordinates' objections after assigning tasks.
Rule 24: Better not use execution as a shield. If subordinates lack execution, it's because the manager lacks management and control.
Execution is first a goal management issue: 'what to execute.' All work should be planned, and everyone should have goals; doing only what's planned is the beginning of execution. Otherwise, you're asking for 'creative execution.'
Execution is a management system issue. If you can manage people 'to every person's every task every day' and manage materials 'to which product is sold to whom at what price,' marketing execution naturally emerges.
Execution also involves work processes. Execution isn't doing whatever you want but following predetermined processes and standardized procedures.
Execution requires a closed-loop feedback system so managers can know at any time whether execution is truly in a healthy state. Otherwise, adjustments must be made to ensure execution.
Execution also needs to address the motivation for execution. Those who execute effectively should be rewarded; those who don't execute or execute ineffectively should be punished.
Execution has strict requirements for personnel quality. Employees must be willing and able. Those who 'won't do' or 'can't do' should be trained or eliminated.
Execution is a management style and a leadership quality. U.S. Secretary of State Powell is called the most execution-oriented manager because of his firm will and perseverance.
Execution needs cultural support. Haier advocates 'quick response, immediate action,' which is a positive execution culture. Too many 'don't do it again' and 'let bygones be bygones' are negative execution cultures.
So, the responsibility for poor execution isn't with subordinates but with managers themselves. Or, if one subordinate lacks execution, the responsibility might be theirs. If all subordinates lack execution, the responsibility is definitely the manager's.
Rule 25: The highest level of marketing management is standardization.
Ordinary people think marketing is an art, only to be understood, not explained, and hard to replicate. Excellent managers see marketing as a science and standardize it as much as possible. Only standardized things can be replicated. Only standardized things can make more people succeed.
'Crossing the river by feeling the stones' is often misread. In ordinary companies, everyone is feeling the stones, and most fall into the river, so ordinary companies have more lessons than experiences. In excellent companies, they never let ordinary people feel the stones; that's the work of a few excellent ones. Once they've crossed, they turn the experience into standards, and others follow the standards. So excellent companies have many standards.
Excellent companies always have many 'standard operation manuals.' When encountering a problem, first check the manual; if it's not there, seek supervisor support. Things like Coca-Cola's '1.5 times safety stock' and 'clockwise customer visits' aren't things ordinary salespeople can figure out; they're the crystallization of collective wisdom.
In ordinary companies, experiences and lessons belong to individuals; in excellent companies, they belong to the corporate wealth.
Rule 26: Only with inheritance is there accumulation; only with accumulation can you grow. Marketing and management need inheritance, and inheritance requires 'paperwork.'
When you compete with Procter & Gamble, you find you're not competing with current salespeople but with P&G's 160-plus years of history. The marketing wealth accumulated over 160 years isn't comparable to younger competitors.
Everyone's marketing experience is corporate wealth. Whether employees serve one company for life or leave, their experiences and lessons should be left behind. If predecessors have crossed the river, successors shouldn't have to feel the stones again.
How is marketing and management inherited? The most common method is 'paperwork.' That is, all transactions and sales records should be documented in writing.
With 'paperwork,' market handovers become simple, no longer requiring painful recollection.
With 'paperwork,' problems can be easily traced.
With 'paperwork,' no one will say at year-end, 'I'm busy every day, but I don't know what I was busy with.'
Rule 27: The ability managers most often lack isn't planning but control.
Planning is the primary function of management; control is the final function. Control ensures the completion of plans.
What is control? Control is taking effective measures to ensure plan implementation when results deviate from the plan.
Mindset
Rule 28: Successful managers usually 'think like outsiders, act like insiders.'
The basic meaning is: in thinking and decision-making, dare to break through and innovate, unconstrained by traditional thinking; in specific actions, be professional and meticulous.
Decision-making requires judgment, not expertise. Even if the decision-maker is an outsider, with sufficient judgment, they can effectively evaluate and decide on proposals from insiders. Entering an unfamiliar industry, you might not be an expert or understand the situation. But as long as the decision-making process is correct and you have enough judgment, you can make correct decisions by relying on the process. As long as you have no preconceptions and dare to ask 'why' about trivial issues, innovative decisions are easier.
After 3-4 years in an industry, you might feel you can handle all problems with ease, decisions are made quickly out of habit, and you might lose the courage to ask 'why' about trivial issues. Previously, you 'thought like an outsider, acted like an insider.' Now, you 'think like an insider, act like an insider.' Efficiency improves, but effectiveness decreases, and innovation diminishes. If the environment changes, what was insider behavior in the old environment becomes outsider behavior in the new one.
That's why Chen Yuxin, general manager of Huaxi Hope Group, proposed to 'always maintain an outsider's mindset.' How thought-provoking!
Rule 29: Successful people may not have profound knowledge, but they have unique thinking patterns.
Successful people are always a minority, so their thinking must not be mainstream.
Whenever you think of a solution, ask yourself: 'Would others think the same way?' If the answer is yes, then the solution's feasibility is questionable. Because effective solutions are usually 'unexpected but reasonable.'
Marketing is a competition, and competitive thinking is 'opponent thinking,' meaning the primary consideration isn't what you think but what the opponent thinks. Zhuge Liang always outsmarted others because his thinking wasn't self-centered but 'opponent-centered,' deciding strategies based on the opponent's thinking.
Rule 30: To secure your position as sales manager, instead of trying to read others' minds, make others try to read yours.
If a sales manager tries to 'please both sides' between the boss and salespeople, the end result is pleasing neither.
Sales managers face pressure from two opposing forces: the boss and frontline salespeople. The boss's expectations are work-focused, like executing company policies and systems, supervising frontline work, and not being too lenient. Salespeople's expectations are mostly emotional, like caring for their needs and psychological satisfaction. They want the sales manager to be their spokesperson, to convey their grievances and wishes to higher-ups, and to cover up their misdeeds. The conflict from both sides focuses on the sales manager, putting them between two opposing pressures, like 'a mouse in a bellows, getting squeezed from both ends.'
If the sales manager plays the 'smooth operator' or 'peacemaker,' trying to appease both superiors and subordinates, sometimes abandoning principles, the result is usually dissatisfaction from both.
Anyone who survives by 'pleasing' usually ends up 'not pleasing.' As long as you're irreplaceable, your boss might even 'please' you.
A sales manager's position is solidified not because they're liked but because they're the best fit for the role and can fulfill its duties better than others. So, instead of trying to read others' minds, make others try to read yours.
Final advice: If you don't have enough charisma, be professional enough; if you're not professional enough, lead by example; if you can't even lead by example, don't be a sales manager.
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