Make The Leap from Good to Great

Are you a good sales Leader or a great sales leader? Do you want to make the leap from good to great?

What makes a great sales leader?

I have found that the two most important critical success factors to being a great sales leader are:

1. Top sales leaders build winning teams by coaching, engaging and being a BOLD leader.
2. Develop a sales culture by hiring top performers, executing with excellence, and establishing cadence and accountability.

Many Sales Leaders are doing a very good job in both areas. However, they could probably sharpen their skills with some coaching and training.

What is stopping you from making the leap?

The biggest obstacle to becoming a great sales leader is not a lack of skill but a lack of focus. Many leaders are overwhelmed with electronic communication, meetings, and the daily grind of minutia.

They lack the time and energy to focus on what they need to do to succeed.

If this sounds like you, you are not alone.

It is time for massive change in where you focus your time and efforts.

Being BOLD and taking decisive action on what you should focus on is the first step.

5 Steps to Make the Leap from Good to Great

1. Focus on saying NO to time-sucking activities

Many sales leaders complain to me about attending too many meetings. Part of being BOLD is saying that you will not be attending. You can ask for a copy of the minutes, which you can read in 10 minutes, versus attending a 60-minute meeting. Say no to requests for unimportant things. Your time is your only finite resource. Time lost to minutia can never be regained.

2. Focus your time on your leadership and culture

One of the techniques I learned is called Focused Time. Focused Time is a simple technique of blocking time in your calendar. If your goal is to work with each of your reps two times per quarter, the best way to achieve this is to book all your field time in your calendar for the next 3 months.

3. Focus on the three critical success factors that will drive your business

Many leaders/companies try to implement too many programs or tactics. As a result, they do a lousy job executing. I coach sales leaders to focus on 3 critical success factors and do each exceptionally well. The key is setting metrics for your critical success factors and measuring how well your team is executing.

4. Establish cadence and accountability to avoid micromanagement

Your role is to lead and manage the business. Too much time spent managing data and calling reps out on little things leads to micromanagement. Establishing and booking monthly and quarterly review meetings allows you to deal with performance issues at these meetings. It will also prevent you from constantly looking at the data and sending panicked emails.

5. Focus on coaching and developing your people

Great sales leaders are vested in developing their people. The fact remains that the #1 sales management activity that drives performance is coaching. Great coaching has been shown to have a 19% impact on performance. What else do you do that will have such a positive impact?

Are you ready to take the leap from a good to a great sales leader? Start by taking the Sales Leadership Self-Assessment. If you want to discuss your results, I would be happy to book a 15-minute laser-focused review call.