Most business leaders agree that, at minimum, sales managers and directors must have sales experience. Furthermore, most hiring executives require that prospective sales leaders have successful sales experience in the industry for which they are hiring. “Selling experience within the industry you’re applying to, was requested by 72 percent of listings.” says Jay Ivey, a market research associate at Software Advice, a website that offers sales enablement software comparisons.
Additionally, we have to look for salespeople who are clear about how they work and why they’ve been successful. It’s this awareness that allows them to be good coaches, strategists and the best sales leaders. “What makes top sales performers different from the rest is that they know why they win and can repeat it.” says Irene Bjorklund who was my Area General Manager at Hewlett-Packard.
Bjorklund is now President of T-Bar Construction and says, “Some salespeople succeed for a while by utilizing their knowledge, relationships, timing and luck but people who are consistently top performers know how to win repeatedly.” Basically, great sales people act purposefully and don’t rely on luck.
My dad used to say, “Luck happens but it’s hard to repeat.” He was referring to athletic pursuits but this is a good truism for anyone in sales.
Trait 1: Purpose and precision – The best salespeople engage in each sales situation with a clear purpose that leads them to more precise actions. This clarity allows them to repeat success and, more importantly, it allows them to coach others, which makes them successful sales leaders. When looking for sales leaders, ask people how they succeed and what they do consistently in every sales situation. The ones who can become great sales leaders give you enough clarity that you know it can be replicated.
Interestingly, this same study from Software Advice research found that previous management experience, while important, was not as required as often as successful sales experience. “Most companies require management experience, with 55% of listings explicitly requiring it. People management is a very different skillset from sales. So even if a candidate has years of experience surpassing quotas, you can’t predict how well that person will be able to lead a team.” says Ivey.
Trait 2: Leadership experience – We’re looking for people who can guide teams to be cohesive, collaborative, and consistently productive with co-workers and customers. A reason management experience is less of a requirement is that leadership skills can be learned by means other than being in sales management roles. Leadership skills can be learned from experience in things like sports, military, community, etc. So while specific success managing in your industry is preferred, look for other leadership experiences that salespeople may have had outside the business world.
Sales leaders come in all shapes and sizes. Stereotypes that depict salespeople and sales leaders as attractive, extroverted, smooth-talkers are wrong. Yes some will fit this description but most will not. The best sales people are smart and, methodical in their actions. Perhaps, most importantly, they can adjust their sales approach and dialogue to fit many personality types.
Trait 3: Flexible relationship skills – This is a common trait of great salespeople and sales leaders. They develop deep, genuine relationships with a very diverse set of people and you’ll see this through their interactions both in the work environment and their social circles. The emphasis is that their approach to relationships is genuine – they don’t build diverse relationships to advance an agenda. They build diverse relationships because they enjoy the learning they get from understanding different perspectives. When you find salespeople who have strong, genuine relationships with a diverse set of people, you’ve found someone with a key trait to be successful in sales leadership.
Find salespeople who act with purpose and precision, have successful leadership experience and who display flexible relationship skills, and you have found people who have the components to be future sales leaders for your organizations.
©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC
