Great sales leaders know that driving the numbers is only half the job.
“Sorry I fired you ten years ago,” I said to Tiffany, a former sales manager in my company.
“You didn’t fire me, I quit,” she smiled but her tone had an edge.
It had been a decade since we last worked together but Tiffany and I agreed to grab coffee to catch up. She had been one of my top-performing sales representatives. She breezed past gatekeepers, danced through her demos, handled objections with ease, and crushed her numbers.
So I promoted her to Sales Manager, and 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.
Sound familiar?
I promoted Tiffany into sales leadership, based on her exceptional selling skills. But they are two very different things. Even quota-carrying, competition-loving, money-motivated sales professionals need human-to-human leadership. At least, they do if you want them to sell past their quotas and stay with you over the long term.
Tiffany ended up thriving and climbing the sales leadership ladder in another company because they gave her the time and opportunity to develop as a sales leader. With training and coaching, she told me she developed five core habits.
Habit #1: Giving Feedback
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. “Andy, I noticed you tend to jump right into the demo without any warmup. You should try to build a little rapport first…” But these same managers will withhold broader feedback to avoid confrontation. I can’t believe Andy keeps typing on his phone in our sales huddles. How disrespectful!
Truly great sales leaders have a habit of coaching immediately on all aspects of their team member’s performance. And they’ve made a habit of giving three-part feedback. Using the BIG acronym they first, mention the specific behavior. Second, they explain the impact. Third, they get agreement to change. “Hey Andy, in this morning’s CEO town hall you were sitting in the front row and looking down, typing on your phone. Even if you were just taking notes, to others it probably looked like you weren’t paying attention and could be viewed as being disrespectful to Ted. Do you see how that behavior could be viewed? Do you agree you should give others your undivided attention in meetings?”
Habit #2: Weekly One-on-Ones
The second habit of great sales leaders is the habit of weekly one-on-one meetings, or O3s. Many sales managers believe their weekly sales meetings and daily huddles are good enough. And they are for staying on top of the metrics and the funnel.
But truly great sales leaders use O3 meetings to build a connection—deepen their relationship—with each salesperson on their team. An O3 meeting is considered their meeting, not your meeting. It’s a chance to get caught up on anything going on in their personal life that they’d like to share, a chance for them to ask you questions or give ideas, and it’s time for any feedback that was already given.
Habit #3: Coaching Conversations
It’s easier to manage by metrics (e.g., “How come you only did 15 demos this week?”) than to lead the whole person. Great sales leaders think of themselves not as a manager, but as a coach. A coach who develops each salesperson to their full potential.
Great sales leaders use the GROW coaching model, or something similar, to provide consistent structured whole-person development. Help team members to set appropriate Goals. Get clear on the Reality of the present situation (ie, how big is the gap). Explore all Options for achieving the goal. And finally, create and move through an action plan as the Way Forward.
Habit #4: Leveraging Strengths
Marcus Buckingham has said, “Average managers play checkers, great managers play chess.” In checkers, all the pieces move the same way, they are interchangeable. But in chess, the pieces move in different ways, and you must understand the unique movement of each piece in order to win. Gallup research indicates that when leaders focus on and invest in their employees’ strengths, the odds of each person feeling engaged at work goes up eightfold.
Great sales leaders make it a habit to conduct strengths-assessments like Standout or CliftonStrengths on all their team members, and to continuously leverage the information. For example, using the Standout model, if Ashley’s greatest role is “Teacher” her manager may encourage her to use a more consultative approach with her prospects, and may also ask her to do some internal product training as a way to activate her strength. On the other hand, if Ashley’s top role was “Provider” her manager could leverage her strengths related to empathy and inclusiveness to bring her top prospects together with best clients. She might also be asked to be the onboarding buddy for new hires.
Habit #5: Show Caring
Yes, caring can actually become a habit—or at least showing that you care. Caring is one of the three primary drivers of trust (competency and integrity are the other two). Nothing happens without trust, and once you’ve earned trust, you can get a lot of other stuff wrong and your team will be forgiving and stick with you.
Average sales managers are metrics-focused and, in the pressure to hit ever-higher goals, they often look “through” the salesperson and communicate only about the tasks at hand. Great sales leaders know that the numbers matter, but you get your numbers with people. Great leaders greet each team member every morning. They address them by name. They take the time to learn the names of spouses and kids and inquire about them too. Great leaders will use their one-on-one meetings to ask about life outside of work, inquiring about hobbies or interests.
The Takeaway
You must remember that you can only achieve your team goals through other people. Your salespeople want to reach their quotas and reach the next rung on the career ladder; they want great pay and a greater purpose. As a great sales leader, you have the opportunity to coach people to their highest potential, which will drive ever higher results, and retain your best performers longer.
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Kevin Kruse is CEO of LEADx, the home of AI-powered Coach Amanda, offering hyper-personalized nudges, action plans, and coaching to great sales leaders.
