Read time: 5 mins
Sales Leaders seem to be juggling experts, the balls coming to them are heavier and more curved than ever before. We asked high performing Sales Leaders what their recipe for success is:
1. Know your team
Know them, as soon as they join, who is in their life, what do they care about, what’s their life picture outside of work? Do they swim, do they have a hobby, do they like mountains or sea, cats or dogs, bikes or cars.
When you are asking give that person your full attention. Take an interest. Be present. The biggest gift you can give is being present.
What are they doing the other 16 hours of the day?
- What did you do at the weekend?
- What was fun?
- Who was involved?
‘the biggest gift you can give is being present’
2. What motivates that person
Schedule one-on-ones, and make sure you turn up for them. All too often managers schedule one-on-ones with staff members, and then cancel them as soon as something else comes up. Maybe it’s a client meeting, or they’re just very busy that day, or there’s a workshop they want to attend. But they keep cancelling the meetings. That sends a clear message to employees: you are my lowest priority.
You should treat one-on-ones with your employees with the same importance that you treat a client meeting. If you schedule time, you need to stick to it on a regular basis.
‘treat one-on-ones with your employees with the same importance that you treat a client meeting’
3. Open door policy that has a closed door time
These leaders’ teams know when they can ask a question and know when their leader is planning, thinking, creating and in a ‘do not disturb’ space.
Leaders that have a ‘open door’ policy either run it well or terribly. The hardest cast is the reps who keep on coming asking everything. To counter this you need to empower them to be self sufficient, to recognise their skills and gaps and only on their ‘gaps’ or ‘stretches’ (when the skill required is not a skill they use repeatedly). This way they think for themselves and start to come a knocking for more complex situations.
If you have a needy member of the team it might well be that you created it. They came in, you were in a hurry you gave them an answer. Over time they got use to diverting decision making to you and now are not accountable or proactive but reactive and a messenger. To turn this around you need to say ‘if I wasn’t here what would you do’ to see where they are at. This shows you what they know and what they don’t yet know. Then you can coach them.
4. Recognise changes
Is Aaron normally bouncing around and today a bit slow to move? A bit grumpy, detached. A busy leader with a lot on their plate may just think ‘pull up your socks’ but here’s the difference, Aaron needs understanding.
Some people are open books and others are closed cupboards, your job as a successful Sales Leader is to have Aaron trust you so that he feels he can share and even if he doesn’t you are aware of the abs and flows of his life and that outside work factors effect inside work time headspace.
5. What makes them light up
Asking Susan to organise a Christmas party
6. Public or private shows of appreciation
Saying to someone in a weekly meeting ‘Sam, that meeting with John Smith from company A was really powerful, I was particularly impressed with …xzy’
This kills two birds with one stone. One, it gives the public show of appreciation. Two, it helps reiterate and embed the behaviours and actions you deem crucial, important, necessary to get the job done. Everyone gets to hear what you want to see and hear.
