5 Techniques for Sales Leaders to Excel

Leadership is one of the most exciting roles to “wear.”

Leading a team of winning sales managers and sales people is the ultimate high. The wonder and beauty of people in sales is their energy.  They are hardy, enthusiastic, dynamic, embrace challenge and usually love what they do and how what they sell changes things for their customers.

Nothing is more fun than participating in the high energy when your team is “hitting their numbers.”  Finishing strong means awards, celebration, appreciation and acknowledgement for you and your team!

Inspiring your leadership team when things are doing well is easy.  Because there are extreme highs in sales, the opposite also exits – those extreme lows when some contract doesn’t come through after months of hard effort, loss of a big account or the challenge of aggressive goals for the coming year.

This is the stimulating and challenging part of leadership that gives you your moments to shine!

What’s a leader to do?  A few simple ways to keep growing!

1. Prevention

By having a policy in place where you enforce the need to continually resell your existing customers you can keep business and often prevent loss.  Focus existing customers on the benefits of being with your company and prove that you value them.  Are the benefits increased satisfaction or greater effectiveness, an overall savings in intangibles, greater value to their customers?  Drop in on some of the customers yourself as a way to extend appreciation and value.  People are mobile today and building loyalty is transferable in a big way. Create your list!

2. Support

As the leader your availability to teach, coach and advance skills is one of the best ways to build a high performing team that keeps growing each year.  Build a promotion track with cross-training and mentor programs.

3. Listen

When you work with your team ask questions about their needs, the needs of the customers, what they want from you as their leader.  Highly effective leaders take the ideas, concerns, and suggestions and act on them.  Your credibility increases exponentially when you carry out one of those great ideas.

4. Relentless Effort

Demonstrate unwavering resolve.  Encouraging your team to keep going in the face of adversity, or the big “no” brings rewards.  This builds resiliency and perseverance needed when it’s their turn to lead.

“Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter the situation.” Jack Nicklaus

5. Possibility

Engage in possibility thinking with other leaders in your company.  Ask what values and policies they put in place in addition to the ones from corporate that are giving them greater success.  Utilize the knowledge that is available to you.  Stimulate the innovative and creative side of yourself and others to come up with ways to grow the business that gives you an edge.  Do this monthly.

A last note from “Tribes” by Seth Godin –

“The secret of leadership is simple – do what you belive in, paint a picture of the future, go there…people will follow.”

These are just a few simple, straight forward methods.  I’d love to hear some of yours!

What are some of the ways you successfully led year after year? How do you reduce the complexity of retaining business, gaining new business, and developing the next leaders? What are the key characteristics you value on your team?

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Kathy Holdaway is the CEO of Kathy Holdaway Ventures.
She helps maximize leadership, sales, and business growth possibilities
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