Do you often struggle with time management?

Do you always have way too much to do?

Do you ever feel buried in work?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, you may not be delegating as much as you should.

Delegation is one of the talents that separate the best from the rest in sales management and is crucial to developing the strengths of others, yet it’s often something leaders don’t think about on a regular basis.

To Be a Great Leader, You Must Delegate

Sales managers and leaders who are naturally good at delegating not only give responsibility to others, but they’re able to put the right work in the right hands.

They do this by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of their people and delegating responsibility to the person who is best equipped to do the job. They’re good at assigning accounts to the right salespeople by thinking about the talents necessary for success.

Aligning talent to task allows them to run a more productive department and develop the strengths of their people. This is a difficult task for many, but there are tips and tricks that make it easier and more effective.

How to Improve Your Delegation Strategy

Whether you’re a sales manager, team leader, or entrepreneur, delegation is a major key to maximizing productivity and keeping yourself organized through tight deadlines or large workloads.

Here are 3 tips on how to implement a delegation strategy to improve sales performance.

1. Establish Your Priorities

Whether you use the ABC Method of setting priorities or find other ways that work best for your to-do list; establish a firm system that helps you delegate tasks efficiently.

Look over your checklist each week and force yourself to delegate the bottom 3-5 things on your list.

2. Know Your Team’s Strengths

Don’t give work to the person who is available.

Instead, assign work to the person who has the talent for the task. The first person you see may not always be the best person for the job.

Write down your team's top two or three strengths and spend time thinking about the strengths of each person you manage. Keep that list nearby, and when you are assigning accounts, projects, and tasks, give the work to the people who are best suited for the job.   

3. Let Go – Teach and Coach

Get out of the office and coach people more.

When you try and do all the work yourself, you spend too much time behind your desk, and not enough time in the field coaching people. Commit to a certain amount of time in the field each week and block off time on your calendar. You’ll realize that things actually get done in the office, even when you are not there.

Delegating isn’t easy, and the process isn’t always clear or perfect. But when you commit to the time it takes initially to hand off tasks; you'll find that it saves infinitely more time in the long run. Plus, you'll develop a stronger team as a result.

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men (and women) to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it" - Theodore Roosevelt