The 7 Dichotomies of Sales Leadership

1. Sales leadership is both an art and a science.

2. You must empower your people while requiring results.

3. You must provide support while demanding accountability.

4. You can’t allow staff to take advantage of you, but you should

never lead by fear or intimidation.

5. You must be a provider of data and forecasts as well as a

teacher and counselor.

6. You must be strategic and big- picture oriented but still

accountable if your department allows details to fall through the cracks.

7. You must produce impressive results while maintaining ethical

standards.

How do sales leaders wrestle with these dichotomies and ultimately enjoy successful careers?

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Strategy vs. Tactics

Effective sales leaders focus on developing strategy and casting vision. To do this, they must create rock-solid systems of organization within the sales department. It makes sense to automate as much of the process as possible. For that portion of the sales process that can’t be automated, you need talented, committed sales managers who can supervise daily tasks.

Hire the Right People

Speaking of Jim Collins, he is also known for saying, “Get the right people on the bus.” When hiring sales professionals, always look at their frequent past behavior. It’s the number-one indicator of future performance. Go deeper in your due diligence on each prospective employee. Avoid being blinded by great talent. Just because someone is smart, extroverted and good-looking doesn’t mean they will do a good job of focusing on client value.

Put People First

Too many sales leaders barricade themselves behind closed office doors and barely glance away from their CRM screens. While keeping up a firm grasp on sales data is important, don’t be analytical at the expense of your people-oriented responsibilities.

Regarding CRMs, it is important to enforce policies and procedures requiring sales personnel to update client and account information. Obviously, the reports generated by CRM programs are only as good as the data entered. Tat said, sales leadership requires you to strike a balance—make sure your people use the CRM properly, but never make them feel that serving the CRM is more important than serving clients.

Power to the People

Great leaders never micro manage their people. Sure, they set expectations and demand that people perform, but they leave the “how” to individual sales reps. Want to know one of the most common reasons why leaders micromanage people? Managers feel intimidated. Don’t let your ego get the best of you. If you surround yourself with people who are smarter and more talented than you are, you will eventually succeed.

In the end, if you want to be a high-producing sales leader, find good people, figure out what motivates them, give them the preparation, tools and resources they need, stretch them beyond what they initially believe they can do and support them along the way.

If you do that, you will balance all the ambiguity and dichotomies that come with being a sales leader.

Jeff Beals is a professional speaker and award-winning author, who helps companies increase their profits and associations achieve their missions through effective sales and personal branding techniques.

TPI Turf News March/April 2017