Blog

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Sales Leadership

Sales leadership takes a special type of person – someone who can lead and teach interchangeably. A successful sales leader needs to know how to sell, inspire, and coach. A sales leader relies on his or her team to chase growth and convert prospects to clients on a never-ending trajectory. There are always new deals to close, and more revenue to chase.

How does a successful sales leader keep a team focused and motivated? Setting the tone is key. It is crucial that a sales leader – be it the head of sales, a regional vice president, or territory manager – commits to the continuous improvement of each salesperson. With a focus on personal improvement, a sales leader can encourage collaboration, talk openly about what’s working well and what is not, and help sales professionals reach personal goals. In fact, when a sales leader commits to continuous improvement, the impact reaches all areas of the organization. Everyone wins.

Win / loss research is a vital tool for successful sales leaders. Win / loss has many objectives, but increasing a team’s win rate is the ultimate goal. The process can help sales leaders acquire valuable perspectives such as:

• Why prospects buy or reject the company’s products and services
• How the company is perceived relative to its competitors
• What aspects of the sales process need to be strengthened
• And finally, how the sales team should be organized and trained

Win / loss results also can be used as a coaching tool with individual salespeople. Sales managers can become a fly on the wall in each and every deal there is a debrief for, and can use the voice of the prospect to provide precise and accurate feedback on how salespeople are doing their jobs.

Reading and hearing candid feedback from clients and prospects is invaluable for a salesperson because it enables him or her to make adjustments and calibrate his or her sales techniques to the evolving competitive dynamics of the marketplace. Successful sales leaders know that win / loss research actually improves sales teams’ performance and win rates. In fact, win / loss clients generally experience substantial increases in their sales performance.

Brian Tracy, renowned author and sales coach, puts it best: “Your life can only get better when you do. Do something every day to improve your key skill areas.” Win / loss research helps sales leaders do just that.