This archive report was first published on 13 September 2019.
Driving sales numbers is a crucial aspect of any sales leader's job, but it's not the only thing that matters. As Tiffany, a former sales manager, pointed out to me during a recent coffee meeting, "You didn't fire me, I quit," she said with a hint of edge. It had been a decade since we last worked together, but Tiffany and I agreed to catch up and discuss her experiences as a sales leader.
Tiffany had been one of my top-performing sales representatives, known for her exceptional selling skills. She could breeze past gatekeepers, dance through her demos, handle objections with ease, and crush her numbers. However, when I promoted her to Sales Manager, she failed after just a year. Her team's revenue was flat, activity metrics were average, and worst of all, the best sales rep on her team quit and went to work for the competition.
Looking back, I realize that I promoted Tiffany based on her exceptional selling skills, but I didn't give her the time and opportunity to develop as a sales leader. She eventually thrived and climbed the sales leadership ladder in another firm, where she developed five core habits that helped her succeed.
According to Tiffany, the first habit great sales leaders have is the habit of giving immediate, effective feedback. As the TSA says, "if you see something, say something." Most new sales managers find giving feedback easy when it relates to selling, but great sales leaders take it a step further by coaching immediately on all aspects of their team member's performance.
They've made a habit of giving three-part feedback: mentioning the specific behavior, explaining the impact, and getting agreement to change. Many sales managers believe their weekly sales meetings and daily huddles are good enough, but great sales leaders think of themselves as coaches who develop each salesperson to their full potential.
Great sales leaders help team members set appropriate goals, leveraging their strengths to achieve success. As Marcus Buckingham said, "Average managers play checkers, great managers play chess." In checkers, all the pieces move the same way, but in chess, the pieces move in different ways, and you must understand the unique movement of each piece to win.
Great sales leaders also show caring by greeting each team member every morning and addressing them by name. Nothing happens without trust, and great sales leaders know that the numbers matter, but you get your numbers with people.
