To be an effective sales leader, it’s not about your experience and talents as a salesperson.
It’s about your ability to provide a clear process, the tools to be successful, and the ability to effectively convey that to your sales sales team. By doing that, you’re going to generate a number of benefits.
First…your sales team is simply going to sell more.
Why?
Because they are laser focused on a repeatable, scalable process that you’ve created for them. Once a team really understands it, you’ll find that they’re going to follow that process.
It’s not about just about getting more “at bats”, even though that’s critical. But the key thing is more quality “at bats”. That should be the focus of any sales prospecting strategy.
The other piece is that their sales cycle times will in fact, decrease. Why? Because we’re streamlining that process. We’re using specific tools, ideally that integrate with some of the other components we’re using in our sales process, such as a good CRM. By separating the wheat from the chaff, the team isn’t wasting time focusing on opportunities that aren’t high probability and high value.
Another key benefit of having a consistent sales process is that your pipeline is going to be more accurate. When the entire team is following the same process, they will generate consistent data that rolls up into a meaningful pipeline report.
By having a consistent process, you’re going to be a more impactful sales leader. If you became a sales leader because you started in sales, it’s key to remember that your job isn’t to be the individual contributor, “top of the board”, star salesperson anymore. You now need to create strategies, pro
According to Webster’s dictionary, here is the definition of “lead” (at least in the context of being a sales leader).
Summary
As a sales leader, it’s up to you to provide that scalable, repeatable roadmap, as well as all of the components and tools they will be using. They’re going to do the work…but you need to provide that direction.