I’ve been around long enough to know that in the offsite construction world, we love a good blame game. Reps blame the factory. The factory blames the rep. Everyone blames permitting. And when a deal dies, it always seems to happen “just before the buyer was about to sign.”
But there’s one role that rarely gets called out loud and clear when a sale goes sideways: the Sales Manager.
Now before any of you Sales Managers out there start composing a rebuttal or plotting to bump me off the next panel discussion, hear me out. I’m not saying you’re the problem. I’m saying you’re either the key or the lock—and which one you are makes all the difference.
The Key
The best Sales Managers are the ones who help unlock possibilities. These are the folks who don’t just sit behind spreadsheets or echo policy from the boardroom—they get their hands metaphorically dirty right alongside their reps. A great Sales Manager knows their job isn’t just to supervise quotas but to develop their team, strategize smartly, and knock down roadblocks before the rep even sees them.
They don’t need credit for every win, and they don’t hover like a drone over every sales call. Instead, they’re the quiet power behind the curtain—stepping in when a deal stalls out, when the builder needs some honest factory insight, or when it’s time to get the big decision-makers on the phone. They understand how the factory works and how the field thinks, and they know how to bring the two together without letting either one get burned.
In short, they don’t just push paperwork. They push momentum.
The Lock
Then there’s the other kind. The Sales Manager who might mean well—but ends up being the jammed lock in the doorknob when the rep’s trying to close the deal. They overmanage the wrong things and underdeliver on the stuff that actually helps. Instead of empowering reps to act with confidence, they make them feel like kids asking for permission to use the grown-up phone.
If your pricing process takes three internal meetings, five approval emails, and two weeks to generate a revised quote, you’re not managing—you’re clogging the drain. Some of these managers unintentionally become the reason a customer walks away. Not because the product was bad, but because the rep couldn’t get a timely answer or a straight quote.
And then, when the deal disappears, these managers often shrug and say, “Well, they weren’t a serious buyer anyway.” That’s not strategy—that’s damage control.
The Real Problem
The truth is, offsite sales reps already deal with enough headaches on their own. They’re expected to explain modular to customers who think a prefab is still a mobile home, work around local officials who act like factory construction is a threat to civilization, and keep the client calm while waiting on a state plan approval that’s now entering its fourth month.
If their own Sales Manager becomes another layer of confusion or delay, it’s more than frustrating—it’s fatal to the deal. No rep wants to sell with one hand tied behind their back and a manager who’s only available after three scheduling emails and a nap.
Sales Managers should be the clutch player—the one who can walk into a tough call, reframe the conversation, and give the buyer a reason to believe again. They should be mentors, motivators, and occasional magicians. And when things go sideways, they should be the first to step in—not the last to hear about it.
So, Which Are You?
If you’re a Sales Manager reading this and your team keeps apologizing for slow responses, vague pricing, or internal delays, maybe it’s time for a little self-inventory. You may not be the reason deals fall apart—but you might not be doing much to hold them together either.
The best managers make themselves useful, not just visible. They build bridges, not speed bumps. And they never forget that their job is to make the rep look good in front of the client—not the other way around.
Because at the end of the day, you’re either the key…
or you’re the lock.
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With over 9,000 published articles on modular and offsite construction, Gary Fleisher remains one of the most trusted voices in the industry.
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