The Secret to Becoming a Well-Respected Sales Leader
The Secret to Becoming a Well-Respected Sales Leader
Ever since I was first promoted from sales representative to a sales leadership role, I’ve tried to become the leader I would admire if I remained as an individual contributor.
Taking my own experience into account and speaking with others who climbed the career ladder to executive positions, I’ve come to the consensus that after proving sales acumen as a top performing sales representative the next steps to becoming a truly respected sales leader among the entire sales staff are leading by example, listening sincerely to your team members, and maintaining a high level of integrity.
Leadership by example means a lot more than showing a sales rep that they can sell a product or service because you just did it yourself. In fact, that approach can backfire, especially when the sales leader stacks the cards in their favor with primed customers or easy targets. The takeaway then for the sales staff is that the sales leader “thinks he’s better than us.” Instead, leadership by example means never asking any salesperson to do what you wouldn’t do yourself in their position. It means rolling up your sleeves at the risk of embarrassing yourself to learn what your team members have to experience daily. Your team members will respect you for the effort and honest attempt.
Sales representatives have a lot to say, and many can be extremely creative. The trick is separating the petty and personal from the enterprise conversations that may move the needle. Those discussions that qualify need to be taken seriously because they may greatly impact the growth of the business, improve upon existing conditions to help overall sales performance, and at the very least make the rep feel empowered. Listening without distraction, taking notes, and asking questions illustrates your willingness during the conversation. Most importantly, following up with the sales representative or sales manager after the conversation is paramount, even if the follow up is a decision against the proposed improvement. As a third step, regardless of whether it’s adopted or not, give credit for the idea to the person. Under no circumstance should the sales leader take credit for someone else’s idea. That’s the fastest way to lose credibility.
Here it is in action.
At the international company where we were experiencing accelerated sales growth, we had a large number of creative reps, so we assembled an advisory council comprised of these reps. They would also speak on behalf of certain reps in their region and give credit where due.
This group would meet twice a year and bring issues and proposed solutions to our attention for consideration. Usually, we adopted some of the proposed solutions at least in part. But one time, everything was truly in left field. The issues were not really things that required attention since we had proof they were exaggerated. The proposals were unrealistic (and costly).
The advice I received was to stay quiet and not address any of it. Instead, I reached out individually to each person who was credited with raising the issue and explained as tactfully as I could the reason the issue wasn’t on the radar and why we would not be implementing that solution. The response was a genuine appreciation that I took the time to explain and seriously consider what was proposed.