Is Your Sales Leader a Rockstar or a Dud? Let's Take a Look...
Matt Lopez
We judge a sales leader based on their team’s output — how many deals they closed and how much money they made — but so much of what leads to that desired outcome occurs behind the scenes. Is the team full of rock stars and destined to succeed without this leader? Do you have OK people who continue to teeter between success and failure? Is this leader well liked, but their results continue to be mediocre?All of these are questions that many executives ask about senior and mid-level sales management but struggle with how to measure the qualitative attributes.
From my many conversations with sales teams, here were some of the common attributes that arose on how to spot issues (and how to recognize greatness) with your leaders.
(FYI, each leader has a mix of these traits and a few in the bad column is OK as we all have our quirks. The key is where do a bulk of their competencies lie…
A Bad Sales Leader…
- Highlights their success before the team
- Focuses on the pipeline and then people
- Leads from the back, directing orders rather than demonstrating, 100% of the time
- Asks more from their people than they are willing to put in
- Acts then listens
- Either much too “buddy/buddy” or much too closed off and “corporate”
- No patience
- Refuses to identify or doesn’t acknowledge weaknesses
An Average Sales Leader…
- Let’s people figure it out on their own
- Avoids micromanaging
- Shows sympathy vs. empathy
- Has trouble with difficult conversations
- Understands the people dynamics of sales
- Focuses too much on processes rather than action (great thinker/poor doer)
- Lots of energy but mediocre results
- Acknowledges weaknesses but does not work to improve them
A Great Sales Leader…
- Leads from the front at the right times and let’s their team lead at the right times
- Focuses on the people and then the pipeline
- Understands the lines between coach, dictator, and peer
- Does a good job of going to bat for their team but also finds balance
- Acknowledges weaknesses and works hard to improve upon them
- Requests guidance when needed
The next question then is, “What do I do about it?”
For the people with a majority of traits in the Bad category… it’s time to cut bait. A person who is focused on their achievements, isn’t interested in professional growth, and is not leading from the front is not worth your time. Perhaps this person could be a great individual contributor but won’t give you what you need as a leader.
The people in the average category can be the most difficult to handle as they exhibit traits of both good and great leaders — they’re worth keeping around, but there is plenty to work on.
The key to moving this group up or out is in one to one coaching and executive mentorship. Work with sales leaders in the average category on very specific goals around personal development and see what happens over a 3-6 month period. Are they achieving those goals? If not, and you are actually providing the right type of monitoring and mentoring, then you may just have an average leader on your hands that isn’t going to improve. They still might be worth keeping around, but understand their weaknesses and set your expectations appropriately.
The great category will respond well to conversations on personal development and you should work to continually provide clear expectations/goals and allow this person the leeway to meet those milestone. You can trust they are doing the right thing day in and day, but don’t forget that even the greats require guidance from time to time. Check in with everyone and reassess their goals and their progress on a regular basis, even if you trust that they’re doing a terrific job, as there is always room for improvement.
Have you dealt with sales leaders in each of these categories? How have you approached improvement when their results aren’t rockin’?
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