Behind a successful sales team is a remarkable leader. These leaders ensure that the company is constantly moving towards growth and success. Smart and highly-effective leaders are the prime movers of every business, institution, and organisation. They are deemed as the icons and the top-notch deliverers of profits.
Whether your team is selling products, services, brands, or concepts, you are responsible for the success or failure of the entire team. Your personal traits and professional skills are essential factors that directly influence the performance of your organisation as a whole.
Here are the seven attributes of effective sales leaders that you need to cultivate:
- Leadership mindset
Leadership is a broad term, but basically, it revolves around the ability to influence others to achieve business goals. Leadership mindset means seeing every situation and setback as doors of opportunity. It is about believing in your team members’ capability, trusting their judgment and motivating them constantly to adopt the most effective strategies and reach their sales quota.
A leadership mindset is vital to the changing times. As a leader, you must lead with a strong vision and conviction. Do not be afraid to take calculated risks and reinvent yourself to meet the new standards. The high-visibility position you have entails bigger responsibilities that require your wisdom, expertise, and dedication. At its core, a leadership mindset is how you define your role, do your essential tasks, and motivate your team to grow.
- Results-oriented
All forms of sales are volatile. It requires consistent action to produce results and profits. The most effective sales leaders are deadline and target-driven. They inspire the whole team to meet the set quota before deadline and implement plans that remove or resolve potential obstacles. They also block distractions that might sidetrack the team and boost their morale to work as one.
Lead your team by being on the front line, applying appropriate resources, and implementing the best strategies with a sense of urgency. It is vital to establish relevant, attainable, and realistic sales targets. To avoid overwhelming your sales team, it’s best to identify and set incremental milestones to attain the main sales goals.
- Sales intuition
Sales and marketing are mentorship-based professions that require knowledge, skills, and mastery to dispense tactical strategies and meet sales goals. As managers, sales leaders must possess a keen intuition when, where, and how to strike best deals. In sales intuition, practical knowledge comes from the participative experiences in various sales cycles while managing the team. Your previous experiences, positive or negative, become the crucial differentiators that can help you map out the best methods to hit your group’s quota.
Intuitive leaders are visionary, thinking in the long-term. If you want to win the game, learn to think strategically, and balance the short-term performance with long-term vision. You need to have a clear picture of where you and the team are going.
- Accountability
Effective sales leaders are accountable for the team’s failure to meet their goals. They also cultivate the team’s accountability by leading by example and being visibly responsible for their actions. When things do not go as planned, they are quick to find alternative options and solutions to prevent or lessen the negative impact.
Transparency with stakeholders and your team is crucial because it promotes trust and respect. Your team should know that when things go wrong, you will not ditch anyone because of the negative result. Instead, you would encourage everyone to pause, review, and reflect on any unfortunate situations.
- Command instinct
Successful sales leaders know how to exercise their power over their subordinates without alienating them. They establish a firm command to hold them accountable and inspire them to be passionate about their tasks. They create a positive and interactive work environment to make the sales team more motivated to prove themselves, resulting in above-average or monumental performance.
To eliminate complacency, it is necessary to create a healthy peer-pressure and attention-seeking culture in the workplace. As a team leader, make sure that achievers get their share of recognition and praise, while the underachievers are encouraged to double their efforts to get similar rewards.
- Control orientation
The best leaders make time to review the daily output and performance of the team. They do not wait for the team’s report or wait near the target time to quantify the achievements. They always base their vital decisions on the given data and solid evidence.
To stay at the top of your game, you need to adopt a control orientation and learn how to leverage the data to optimise the sales funnel. Analyse the data that is relative to the problem and make intelligent decisions to gain more clients and sales. Moreover, it is also necessary to control your schedule and prioritise your activities to maximise your working hours.
- Interpersonal skills
Remarkable sales leaders have strong self-awareness. They build positive sales relationships, fully understanding the diversity of marketing and selling styles. They shift their style to suit every stakeholder or client.
Self-awareness will help you create an empowered team that’s equipped with the necessary skills and training to meet the varying levels of the clientele. When you can handle and manage your own thoughts and emotions, you are better equipped to help your team handle the pressure, conflict, and stress that come from selling to people of different ages, education levels, experience, and buying profiles.
In summary
Sales is a unique and challenging field that requires more than these seven attributes. The most effective sales leaders know that everyday is a busy day, so it is essential to keep everyone motivated to reach their targets. Their primary role is to ensure that everyone is doing their jobs and focusing on winning. This is why picking the right people to be part of your sales team is crucial because they can help you beat the odds when times are tough.