The role of a Sales Leader is challenging, especially when you are leading a team of individual, high performing, high demanding sales executives. Each of them are striving to achieve and hopefully overachieve their numbers and with this, the demand on you as the sales leader is immense. As you look at your ‘To Do List’ for today, how long is it? And how many of those items are the Big Rocks versus the small pebbles and even sand? Then throw in the demands and expectations you have from your senior executives , key stakeholders and customers, it can be quite understandable if there was a feeling of overwhelm.
With only so many hours in the day, your ability to not only plan, but to prioritise, becomes critical. And often, your planning and prioritising can be thrown sideways when a senior executive throws in an even higher priority item (his or her priority!), leaving you at the end of the day with the To Do List longer than it was when the day began.
I experienced this first hand many many times over my sales leadership career, and whilst I always focused on getting the best outcome possible for the business, the customers and my team, I was often frustrated by my day and my priorities being either cast aside or usurped by ‘more important priorities’. Somedays it got so bad, I felt as though I was merely a ‘puppet on a string’. I knew then that something had to change, because otherwise the pattern of behaviour would continue, and I could see that eventually my to do list would be 100% filled with other people’s priorities and not my own. It was time to channel Shakespeare – ‘To Be, or To Do – That Is The Question!’
I realised that I had a choice to make, and really the only choice available was to make a stand, to begin focusing on my ‘To Be List’, instead of placing all of my emphasis on my ‘To Do List’. And honestly, when I did that, everything changed. I still understood that I needed to get things done, so I still had to maintain a To Do List, however, after becoming crystal clear on my To Be List, the To Do List became more meaningful and more impactful. Here is what I started to focus on – this was my ‘To Be List’ :
- Be Calm and Assured – Operating in a fast paced and high pressured environment can lead to you as a sales leader always having a sense of urgency and being in a hurry. I found that the more I was in a hurry, the higher the probability that mistakes could be made – not an ideal outcome. I recognised that in order to hurry up, I needed to slow down, become more calm and more assured. This meant that instead of reacting immediately to what was happening, I took some time to analyse and then plan my response. Interestingly, becoming more calm, actually helped my decision making and this flowed on to the team.
- Be Patient – In sales, people and customers can very quickly test your patience, because not all decisions (in fact very few) are rational. I needed to also understand that there is such a thing as a sales cycle and no matter what I did, or how hard I did it, the natural sales cycle could not always be sped up. When I developed a higher level of patience, I could begin to see situations from a different perspective, which then enabled me to become a better decision maker. I also noticed that the quality of the conversations with the team and customers increased, which led to better outcomes.
- Be Curious – I know it sounds like a cliché, but when I became curious like a 5 year old child, everything changed. Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that every question I asked began with ‘Why’, however, the mindset meant that I became more inquisitive. I began to ask higher quality questions, more open questions, enabling others to share information with me more openly and combined with me becoming significantly better at active listening, the relationships with my team improved and hence the culture improved.
- Be Approachable – I will never forget the lesson my very first Sales Manager taught me, and that was to be approachable. No matter how busy he was, when he was in and around the team, he was always approachable, and he demonstrated point 3 above really well, actively listening and asking great questions. And because he was so calm, you always knew he would offer the voice of reason – he made you feel very comfortable and never ever would make you feel as though you were being judged. This is a huge quality for sales leaders – if you can not only be visible to your team, but also approachable, this can have a massive impact on your team’s engagement, the culture, and ultimately the results.
- Be Uncompromising & Disciplined – One of the key attributes of a good sales leader is to understand what you stand for and what your criteria & standards for success are. Once these are defined, it is critical that you are disciplined and uncompromising in your demonstration of these standards. Ineffective leaders often become like a boat without a rudder, moving in different directions based on the wind and the tide, because they are not clear on their standards. Being disciplined and uncompromising will actually encourage your team to become the same, to push the limits and do it in an environment that breeds confidence and doesn’t break confidence. This will also enable you to have more defined and direct conversations with others who are seeking to push their priorities onto you.
- Be Consistent – One of the biggest qualities sales people want to see in their leader is consistency. Consistency of message, consistency of behaviour; consistency in everything they do. The sales executives have enough to contend with without having to worry about whether their sales leader is having a good day or a not so good day. Even if sometimes the message from the sales leader is not positive, as long as it is consistent, it will build credibility and maintain a strong culture. This means that as a sales leader, you must be 100% certain of your values and your success criteria, and then stay true to them, all the time!
- Be Proactive – It is also really important as a sales leader to be proactive, to make the first move, to show the team the way, even if you as the leader are not certain of the outcome. The example you set your team by being proactive will enable them to model you, to take chances, to push some boundaries, and to develop. It is through expanding beyond the comfort zone that enables us to grow, and this can only happen through being proactive.
As a sales leader, I know that right now, you have a massive To Do List. That will never change. The question I want you to ask yourself though is do you have a To Be List? If you don’t, please create one and make it a priority, because the art of great sales leadership is to focus intently on the To Be, which will only enhance your ability and effectiveness with your To Do. Remember, To Be, or To Do – That Is The Question!
To your continued sales leadership success.
Darren
If you want to know how you can better lead your sales team, send me an email at darren@darrenmitchell.com.au
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Thank you for taking the time to read this post – I greatly appreciate it, and welcome comments and feedback. Please feel free to comment below, to follow me on LinkedIn, or to connect via Twitter, or Facebook.
Darren is a Sales Leadership and Sales Performance Coach, Facilitator & Speaker. He is an experienced and committed coach with a background of sales leadership success in large organisations. He applies a genuine focus to coaching and developing high performing sales leaders who are looking to unleash the potential of themselves and their teams.
