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Download (use 'right click' then 'save as') On Barrett’s 25th anniversary, Sales trend 9 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trend Report for 2020 explores the evolution of Sales Leadership over the past 25 years and highlights what excellence in Sales Leadership looks like now.
This is a condensed version of Sales Trend 9, to read the original version you can download the report for free.
By guest author Don Sutherland, National Sales Director
Paul Keating was at the helm in Australia. Bill Clinton resided in the Oval Office and John Major kept the seat warm in Downing Street. OJ Simpson was found not guilty. Carlton won the AFL flag and the NRL had not yet been formed. The F1 Grand Prix careered around the leafy streets of Adelaide and the best sales reps were promoted to sales manager….
The year was 1995 and those listed facts are now all but a distant memory. Aren’t they?!
Back to our promoted top rep. Twenty-five years ago, I was aware of an individual whose first sales leadership role was to take over from an ‘unsuccessful’ manager who had been thrust into the leadership position because he had previously been the “Million Dollar Rep.” The lure of an increased pay packet together with a padded chair in the corporate head office persuaded him to put down the product sales bag, no longer complete 25 sales calls per day and cease to order-take his way through his working week. Instead, he assumed his position of authority and, putting his best – somewhat naïve – foot forward, he instructed his equally inexperienced sales team to, literally, pick up their product sales bags, commit to consistently completing 25 sales calls per day and ensure they took every order that their clients were willing to place. Of course, the approach was floored and his tenure was somewhat short-lived. Who knew?
So, who’s to blame? The rookie manager? The under-performing sales team? Or the company who promoted him to the role, offered absolutely no in-field coaching and no formal training program? Sure, both the manager and the sales team should own some of the responsibility but the lion’s share rests at the feet of the company who hung him out to dry. Appointing somebody to a position of sizably increased responsibility without any training, coaching or guidance borders on being commercially immoral.
That was 25 years ago. Of course, that doesn’t happen anymore today.
The great sales leaders know their results, they know how they were achieved and they know what they and their team(s) did differently to improve them over prior year. In times of relative sales famine, I have heard sales managers bemoan the economic downturn, the lazy sales rep and the aggressive competitor; but in times of relative feast, oftentimes the plaudits are unrelated to economy or competition but more aligned with me, myself and I! Surely, we can’t have it both ways? Great sales leaders know the strengths of their sales teams, their sales managers, their competition, their market and, most importantly, how their current and recent past performance will see them fare in a predictable future. Unfortunately, we live and function in a somewhat unpredictable sales environment and so it is critical that leaders ensure their teams are equipped to continue to outperform expectations. Complacency is the bedfellow of failure.
“Some people make things happen; some people watch things happen; some people wonder what the hell happened.”
Great sales leaders make things happen. And, because they’re great, they’ve worked extremely closely with their CEO, keeping them informed, consulting with them on a regular basis, bouncing ideas off them and gaining their approval of critical initiatives – well in advance of a CEO knocking on the door, demanding solutions to current problems. They’ve also included their peers in the senior executive team, harnessing and leveraging the strengths of the parallel departments that help deliver exemplary sales results. Such lofty results arguably cannot be achieved without the support of very high-functioning teams in Operations, Procurement, IT, Customer Service, Human Resources and Finance – to say nothing of the extremely powerful marriage between Sales and Marketing! When these two teams click, when they recognise how valuable one is to the other, that’s where the magic happens!
So, what’s changed over the last 25 years that might impact sales leadership?
Arguably, the most dramatic shift of the last quarter of a century to the previous quarter has been the electronic world of data accessibility and speed of reaction. Hand-in-hand with the technology boom came data. All sorts of data. In almost whatever format one desired. On paper, electronically or now, housed in something called a cloud.
Today’s salespeople – led, coached and championed by today’s sales leaders – are adorned with not one, but multiple, hand-held, electronic devices. Some provided by the company; others, personally owned. Data is available at a click via email, text, websites and apps. Interpretation of data is so timely that this morning’s information can change or alter this afternoon’s activities. Data stored in dynamic CRM programs means sales teams are far more knowledgeable about their clients than they ever have been. And it works both ways: clients are far more knowledgeable than they were 25 years ago. A high – and ever soaring – percentage of their buying time now does not involve consultation with a salesperson. The expectation is that salespeople do not ‘sell’ to me. They instead become my invaluable resource and my provider of excellent service, pre and post purchase.
The advancements in technology have also radically transformed the mediums available for training. Classroom-based training and training manuals are becoming ever-increasingly replaced with the world of on-line education, so efficiently flexible that assignments can be completed at the right time, rather than at the mandated time.
This technology boom has driven the best sales leaders to adopt radically different leadership styles.
Today’s great sales leader is dynamic, nimble, informed and accessible. Their valuable time is spent coaching, in the field collegiately engaging with clients. They’ve emerged as champions and cheerleaders of their people, offering guidance and support – and then getting out of the way. They understand that coaching isn’t preaching, that effective coaching can only occur when effective learning has been sustainably proven. I have often stated that my definition of successful leadership is that, when you leave, no-one notices. Your influence has been so powerful that you have created an environment of knowledge, trust and activity (finely balanced between quality, direction and quantity) that your absence goes un-noticed. Today’s great sales leader favours humility over fame.
Great sales leaders know that investing in the personal and professional development of their people is not an event – it’s culturally part of the way we do things around here. They share the tangible successes of the most recent people investment and clearly map out the future investment pathways which will be required to take the business to the next level, and the next level beyond that. Those cautious few whose default thought aligns more closely with ‘saving our way to protecting what we’ve got’ need to see the clear vision – and ROI – that shows that continued investment will lead to a brighter, more prosperous (and sustainable) future.
Today’s great sales leaders – in harmony with their CEOs and senior peers – are recruiting the right salespeople, via a structured, competency-based approach to Recruitment.
They are ensuring that Remuneration is commensurate with performance expectations, not paying peanuts and expecting unprecedented sales results.
They have adopted a systematic approach to catching their people doing things right. They know that open Recognition of the value and the worth of their people pays dividends.
They have worked hard to attract great talent and great clients – and they’ve remembered to implement a Retention policy in order to keep them.
And, finally, they are investing in their people. Not simply so that they can frame participation certificates and mount them on their walls. But they are providing education and training of such high quality that it is almost Revolutionary Education.
These traits are true of today’s great sales leaders and, regardless of any additional boom in technology or data, as long as there is still a need for a sales leader, these are the traits that great sales leaders will demonstrate across the next 25 years.
Related topics
12 Sales Trends for 2020 – The Time is Now
Sales Leadership – the power of preparedness, curiosity and courage in times of flux
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