The Point: When it comes to Sales Leadership, we started asking ourselves here at Tip of the Spear Ventures “What separate good sales leaders from bad ones?” Consider the business failure and success that relies on sales (after all, does anything else matter?) If most leaders could rely on their gut/first impressions, perhaps your sales problems would be solved! So in this post, we’ll explore sales leadership regarding what separates the strong from the weak along with 7 tips… Enjoy!
7 Tips that Separate the Strong from the Weak in Sales Leadership
Preconceived notions cloud the mind, and perhaps the most difficult “terrain” to conquer as a sales leader is the roughly 6-inches between the ears. The mind can play tricks on even the most logical thinkers! So what makes a strong sales leadership and weak sales leader (especially when considering those that hire salespeople in your organization?) High production of sales is the key to your business growth, as is good/strong sales leadership. With this in mind, here then are 7 tips or characteristics of strong sales leaders:
Tip #1: They have a consultative approach
Tip #2: They are recognized for their expertise
Tip #3: They create confidence
Tip #4: They ask quality questions
Tip #5: They bring their sales conversations to a high level of business
Tip #6: They solve problems instead of selling products or services
Tip #7: They are affirming themselves positively
So in my experience I believe that if you want to avoid weak sales leadership you have to put more emphasis on developing these 7 skills so as to change the results of the leader and salespeople under management.
Relational Competence
Strong sales leadership is more result-oriented in focus than the weak sales leadership. In this approach, unlike traditional applications, it is not only a question of identifying what makes the sales people perform, but also of seeing whether these factors are also present in the less efficient ones. This makes it possible to really distinguish the factors of success. The reflection of the sales-cycle that separates the strong sales leadership from the weak sales leadership therefore become evident.
The problem with an approach where the representative focuses on the relationship is that it is impossible to predict the outcome, or that they provide “excuses” for not achieving their sales goals (for example, “XYZ organization had a really bad summer… Too hot/humid for them to really achieve any sales of our products). Annual market’s result of your business to calculate the total sales is an action to utilize the more effective strategies. The sales are then purely transactional and based on price. In addition to preventing any form of sales forecast, selling in a transactional manner is accompanied by a lengthening of the sales cycle.
Influence when Recruiting Vendors
If you want to improve the quality for your sales recruitment, do not rely on the relational aspect of your process, bet on the predictive factors of success in sales instead. The each member of your team is the strength in your business development leadership, so make sure to produce the greatest returns on investment (ROI) for a stronger stability of your business in the future.
SUMMARY
In this post we’ve explored the sales leadership topic of what separates the strong from the weak, along with 7 tips or characteristics of strong sales leaders. While no application can be a guarantee of success focus, some productive business strategies and positive implementation can separate your business development leadership as strong sales leadership allowing for more sales accomplishments than misses.
Sam Palazzolo
PS – If you or your organization is challenged as a result of Sales / Business Development activity, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line and request future post titles! Here are a few other titles that are currently in the works:
- Improving Business Development Leadership Skills – 3 Tips!
- Is the Art of Business Development Prospecting Overrated? 3 Tips!
- Sales Leadership: 7 Lies Your Sales Staff Tells That Will Get You Fired!
- Rеѕроndіng tо Emergencies
- Identifying thе Strеngthѕ and Weaknesses in Representatives
- Dеvеlоріng Strаtеgіеѕ fоr Rеvеnuе Grоwth
- Developing Effесtіvе Cоmреnѕаtіоn Pans
- Hоldіng Sales Rерrеѕеntаtіvеѕ Accountable fоr Pооr Pеrfоrmаnсе
- Learning tо Motivate and Inѕріrе Sales Representatives
