People will follow a strong leader but often resent a strong manager. Let me share six strategies to help you develop strong leadership skills.
1. Reward and acknowledge efforts, attitude, and achievements.
Sales leadership is about being generous with your time, feedback, and rewards when leading your sales team.
When you consistently go out of your way to reward and acknowledge your team, they will reward you with more sales. If you are generous with your praise, support, and time, you will establish yourself as a natural leader.
2. Don’t necessarily practice the golden rule.
We all know the Golden Rule, “Treat others as you would like to be treated.” Effective leaders break this rule and don’t assume everyone is just like them. They discover how each individual salesperson wants to be trained, coached, and rewarded and individualize their approach and reward for each member of their sales team.
3. Know when to celebrate and when to coach.
When in doubt, celebrate. Celebrate every success, no matter how small. If you mix celebrating with coaching, it often comes across like a lack of appreciation. Set up opportunities to celebrate with your sales team, even if it’s a small celebration. It’s these small gestures of respect and celebration that build loyalty.
4. Provide written expectations and minimum standards.
The most successful sales teams are the ones who are involved in setting goals and have committed to attain those goals for their own reasons. Provide each member of your sales team with written expectations and minimum standards that will ensure they attain the goals you have mutually set.
Provide metrics that focus on results and the specific activities that produce results. Do not overwhelm your sales team with excessive reporting and detail. Strong sales leaders focus on the metrics that matter the most to your business model.
5. Develop the natural talents and abilities of your sales team.
Your big billers understand they have a marketable talent and will resign if not treated well. Our profession is filled with ducks, so when you find an eagle be their greatest champion in helping them attain their personal and professional goals.
Traditional sales management techniques using intimidation, threats, or control which leads to low morale and high turnover. True sales leadership is a partnership between the sales team and the sales leader.
Together identify problems in your sales process and seek solutions:
- Be a strong advocate for the growth and development of your team.
- Devote a team for training, coaching, and developing talents.
- Engage your team in decisions – they have answers.
6. Hold yourself and your team accountable.
Accountability is the ability to identify and prioritize actions to achieve goals set. Consistently review and measure your sales process. Engage your team members in setting up how to measure accountability. When you establish accountability, your team will establish and retain goals that are relevant, realistic, and attainable.
Agree with your sales team members on daily results needed to achieve their goals and make it your focus to make the agreed upon results happen. You are responsible to stay on target to hit production goals. Your team will attain agreed results for their own reasons – not your dreams or aspirations.