What’s the difference between a sales manager and sales leader?

I think a sales manager is typically responsible for overseeing a team of sales representatives or salespeople. And their primary focus is on managing the day-to-day operations of the sales team, including setting sales targets, monitoring performance, providing coaching, and training, and ensuring that sales goals are met. Sales managers often have a more hands-on role in the execution and supervision of sales activities.

The role of sales leaders is not only managing the sales team, and they also play a key role in developing and implementing the overall sales strategy for the organisation. Sales leaders are responsible for setting long-term sales goals, identifying growth opportunities, establishing sales processes and best practices, fostering a sales-driven culture, and guiding the team towards achieving high-performance results. I think sales leaders should get to know salespersons and find out what drives and motivates them in their professional career and personal life. And this will make the sales leaders easier to focus on inspiring, motivating, and empowering the sales team to excel and exceed expectations.