Sales leadership is very different from sales management and much more effective.
Anyone with direct reports in sales has an obligation to lead by example and should take full responsibility for the performance and culture of their team.
Effective sales leaders have the following attributes: 1 - They are passionate about sales and pursue continuous learning 2 - They are strong in process 3 - They are great coaches 4 - They have experience and skills that they can pass on to their sales people Continuous Learning Do you commit 10% of your time to learning new skills, asking for feedback, studying the psychology of top performers, networking, attending seminars, reading articles or books and constantly trying to find ways of doing things better and smarter? Sales leaders proactively pursue knowledge and avoid getting stale.
Establish learning goals and work towards becoming an expert.
There is an infinite amount to learn across the vast subject area of sales including business development, networking, building relationships, preparing for meetings, prospecting and the list goes on and on.
Pick a subject area and dig-in.
Share your insight with your team and earn more respect and trust from them.
Process All high performers follow a sales process.
There is process around contacting customers and prospects including when you contact them, for what purpose and using what method.
There should be a process around networking so that sales people attain the maximum benefits from attending conferences, tradeshows and industry events.
When it comes to discovering needs and developing a solution for your prospects do you follow a process that ensures you are uncovering all of their requirements from both a business and personal perspective? Do you follow-up 100% of the time and do you take control of the sales process? When you win business do you have an ongoing contact strategy to understand where you can do better and also send them the message that you're thinking of them not only when they're buying? Coach One of the most neglected areas in sales leadership is in the area of coaching.
Coaching is all about inspiring your sales people to set their own goals.
The most important universal rule of coaching is to remember that you cannot want more for your people than they want for themselves.
Your main job is to uncover what drives them and to assist them in building their own plan to achieve their own objectives.
Do this now - it is the most important use of your time and is a much better use than setting the usual performance based goals, collecting and massaging data and issuing reports.
Spend time with your people and coach them! To do the job well, meet with them weekly or at minimum every two weeks.
Experience and Skills In order to be a truly great leader you also need to have the skills to help and train your people.
Sometimes you will identify gaps in their skill sets and it's your obligation to address that gap.
While the first course of action is to always have your sales people solve their own problems you should also be the sales expert when the answers elude them.
And this takes us back to the first attribute - continuous learning! Leadership is a responsibility that rests with many of us in the workplace.
When you achieve your promotion and ambition of becoming a manager remember that management does not inspire and is focused on what I'll call "old-school" thinking.
Break out of that mould and become a leader.
Learn, establish a process people trust, and above all coach your people to success.
Through pursuing this approach you will achieve a sustainable increase in sales performance.
Craig Rennick: Copyright 2010