The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Are you tired of watching sales managers struggle and then resorting to a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) only to see little to no improvement? 

It's time to break that cycle and set your sales leaders up for success with a Sales Leader Success Plan.

As a sales leader, it’s your job to analyze the market and make decisions based on the data available. You must then pass your wisdom and experience to your sales team to develop their skills and motivate them toward success. 

Sales leaders must understand product fit, as well as the company vision, mission, and culture, to lead their teams to success. 

Here are nine tips to help lead your sales team to success in the coming year.

If you are like me, the idea of your sales team working remotely was beyond your imagination. Every once in a while, you might hear a rumor about a salesperson that worked from home a couple of days of the week, but they were more like myths than reality. Oh, sure, they are "working from home," and I saw "Big Foot" run across my backyard.

However, with the pandemic, the world changed seemingly overnight.  

You went from a team that worked 100% in the office to a team that worked 100% remotely, and now that COVID is "over," you have a team that works in a hybrid model. 

Have you changed your management style to match the new reality of a hybrid sales team?

Things you can control around you are countable within the parameters of a single digit.

Did that line stress you out?

It's true, though. In a perfect world, you're in charge of every action that affects your life. However, the reality is strikingly different. So what is your contingency plan when things are not mirroring that vision board you have built so passionately?

Continuous improvement is dependent on feedback, and in most situations, we feel confident in the feedback we are giving and receiving.

However, sometimes people will tell you what they think you want to hear, and the feedback is not very useful or effective. In order to garner authentic feedback from your employees, and return the favor, the stage needs to be set for open two-way communication.

Being a great manager is tougher than being a great salesperson.

Think back to when you were a new manager, what was one piece of advice you wish you knew back then, that you now know?

Here’s what a few of our experts at The Center for Sales Strategy said.

Recruiting top-performing sales leadership for your organization is harder than ever. The quality of the sales organization is directly associated with the quality of sales leadership.

When looking for top-performing sales leaders, you can’t just look for great salespeople. You need someone who can coach, go in the field, watch, and understand the sales process. Here are nine qualities to consider when you’re evaluating sales management talent. 

Tom Brady is one of those figures that draws emotional responses ranging from adoration to outright disdain, often depending on whose team has had their playoff hopes crushed by him during his long tenure in the NFL. 

But, say what you want, there is plenty for all of us to learn about how to be an effective leader by observing what Tom Brady does. 

What he accomplished on Sunday is indeed one of the most profound successes in professional sports as he transformed a young, talented team in Tampa Bay that had been underperforming for years into world champions in one season, learning a new team and a new system all without the benefit of mini camps and preseason games. If you look beyond the hype, here is what you would see.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

John Quincy Adams

1 out of 3 employees say that the boss doesn’t care about the staff. Until recently, leadership has always been about position and power rather than empowerment.

A simple secret to leadership that no one ever talks about is that if you genuinely care about your people, everything else will take care of itself.

Showing empathy and compassion doesn’t classify you as a pushover. It doesn’t mean you’re not focused on results, sales, and company growth. What genuinely caring for your team means is that you prioritize your time to ensure you focus on communication.

It takes time and attention, but the impact is worth it.

Highly engaged employees describe their company as authentic because they are who they say they are. They live their core values, rewarding those who demonstrate them and not tolerating those who don’t.  

It’s no secret that when your employees are engaged, they are emotionally committed and willing to give their best at work. That’s because engaged employees feel as though they have a stake in the game and a sense of purpose which makes them willing to give it everything they’ve got to achieve success. Employee engagement has a major impact on business success, proving to reduce turnover, increase performance, and retain key customers.