With all of the movement in the sales world, it is not unusual for sales leaders to move from organization to organization. Sometimes it’s moving up from being a regional leader to a vice president role or even higher. For others, it’s about moving up within one organization. But, at the end of it all, you lead the team and set the course for all of the sales managers who report to you.

Now what?

One of the most common observations I hear from the sales leaders we work with is that they can’t do things quite the way they did before. As you move up in an organization, your role becomes less about selling and more about strategy and overall performance. In a recent Entrepreneur post, the author points out that there is a balance between what your team needs and what the organization needs. This is very true for sales leaders. On one hand, you are responsible for enabling and accounting for the revenue quotas for each salesperson. On the other hand, you know that organizational goals are heavily weighted. This can affect training budgets, compensation, and how you handle getting each salesperson to perform at their best.

What is needed in this crucial role?

This balancing of advocate and manager is more akin to a CEO role than a head of sales. Like a CEO, one of the key realizations is that there are different demands on your attention and time as your organization grows in revenue and sophistication. As we have written previously, when the emphasis and pressure on the sales function grow, so does the role of the sales manager in leading the company’s revenue generation.

It becomes more necessary to be able to:

• Analyze and solve problems
• Think strategically
• Lead positively and from a coaching perspective
• Use your business acumen
• Be able to communicate well with your sales team as well as the C-suite
• Be ready to interact with customers as a sponsor rather than as a salesperson
• Be familiar with the technical aspects of your service or product

So, now that you’re here…

Some interesting work by Jim Holden points out that sustainably successful sales teams emphasize sales leaders using assessments that pinpoint areas and salespeople that need specific training, as well as using coaching throughout the management process. This means that the sales leader looks at her team management from a “perfecting the craft” perspective.

Developing the “perfecting the craft” perspective

With the ever-changing behavior of buyers and the business environment, there are key things that sales leaders must incorporate into their repertoire to match the status quo and surpass it. Whether you are the sort of person who seeks out self-understanding on a deep level or not, there are probably skills that you would like to build up so you can be the best leader of your team. The specific areas you might target for improvement are frequently tied to the business goals. That saying from Marshall Goldsmith, “What got you won’t get you there,” is a good reminder that each stage of your career growth will teach and enlighten you. Simply put, old behaviors don’t always get the same results and can even lead to failure. These four questions are a good conversation to have with yourself:

• Who am I?
• Where am I going?
• Why am I going there?
• Who is going with me?

Becoming a leader is an evolutionary process. Discovering how your thinking and feeling grows and adapts over time makes it easier to notice which skills need attention.

Take these first steps

You are like a CEO: you plan, analyze numbers and trends, motivate others, and provide resources. Without developing yourself and your skill set, you could find yourself struggling with a team that may see you as an intruder or ineffectual.

• Get a coach– It cannot be said enough how effective coaching is for executives to get past systemic hurdles, gain insight, and boost confidence, plus an opportunity to test or rehearse potential actions.
• Write down what you want- One of the toughest questions is, “what do you want?” Write down why you took on the sales leader role and what you want to accomplish. Getting it out of your head makes it easier to identify the next steps to make it real.
• Learn from everywhere and everyone- Read fiction and nonfiction. Listen to podcasts. Listen to what people tell you in conversations. Consequently, notice how people engage with you when you are the buyer. There are teachers everywhere.

Congratulations on your new job

You have worked hard to get this position, and kudos to you! The next stage of your career will be interesting. It will be a mindset shift for you to let go of what you used to do and spend your time on what’s next. Understanding your thoughts and emotions will help you effectively manage and guide sales managers and teams. It’s time to set the course for the sales culture in your organization.

When you think about sales effectiveness at your organization, does it seem like you are close but just missing those unique elements that give you that competitive edge? Looking for a way to understand how your buyer thinks, decides, and reveals information? At The Nova Consulting Group, we believe that professional selling is a craft. With the Advanced Sales Conversation©, you have those missing elements that move your salespeople from competency to mastery. With our deep understanding of what makes and sustains high-performance organizations, we provide integrated solutions that do not replace your sales methodology and yet advance a progressive selling mindset. Be bolder, more insightful, and get results. To learn more about how to master the craft of sales and encourage sustainable high performance, call  (617) 933-7249 or email info@novaconsultinggrp.com.

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