It seems simple: Effective leaders lead effectively. For the sales leader, that typically demands getting top performance and superior results from sales team members. While leadership style matters — according to Daniel Goleman, a manager's leadership style can be responsible for up to 30% of a company's profitability — common traps often undermine sales success.
Here are five of the most dangerous sales leadership traps I've observed in the 30-plus years I've spent as a sales leader, sales consultant and entrepreneur:
Sales Leadership Trap No. 1: Leading Reactively
Certainly, progress demands motion. But if you favor a knee-jerk, "ready, fire, aim" approach, you will likely move backward as often as forward.
To avoid this trap, lead with a vision that is grounded in a strong sense of purpose, a firm set of principles and a clear sense of direction.
To lead proactively, work from a concise value proposition that serves as a future-focused declaration of what your company stands for and aspires to be. Translate your value into strategic plans and processes that win support from the top of the sales organization to the bottom. Make sure your team understands, embraces and uses the value proposition to guide every decision, process and customer interaction.
Sales Leadership Trap No. 2: Setting The Wrong Goals
Goals are good and necessary for sales success. After all, if you don't know where you want to go, you won't know how to get there or even recognize when you arrive. But beware: Goals can also be a trap if they're unfocused and unrealistic.
To avoid this trap, use SMART goals (those that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely).
To set the right goals, factor in your team's capabilities, as well as market and economic conditions and competitive forces. Use your customer relationship management system to provide meaningful data with forward-looking or "leading" indicators identifying strategic benchmarks. Above all, make sure your team turns quotas and goals into commitments for small- and large-scale success.
Sales Leadership Trap No. 3: Believing You Must Have All The Answers
Too many sales managers or sales vice presidents think they must be the sole resource for answers and solutions. They believe asking for opinions or insights from their team members is a sign of ignorance, and, therefore, weakness. This belief leaves good ideas and superior solutions unspoken and untried. An adage often attributed to Confucius says: "If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room."
To avoid this trap, heed the wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is also famously attributed with the saying "In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him."
To encourage additional insights, surround yourself with well-informed professionals in a variety of areas. Capitalize on individual strengths to elevate knowledge, skills and success for all. Encourage productive discussions and acknowledge you don't have all the answers. Listen, ask key questions and challenge everyone to share and take reasonable chances based on their knowledge and experience. Empower team members to try. Even if a strategic effort fails, lessons can be learned.
Sales Leadership Trap No. 4: Trying To Do Too Much
Personal and organizational commitments that don't align with your visionary purpose can pull you off your strategic course. This is true even for distractions that look like viable opportunities. They might be profitable in the short term but can lead to big-picture brand confusion, as well as a frustrating lack of focus within your organization.
To avoid this trap, play to your strengths and make sure all initiatives align with your value proposition.
To avoid doing the wrong things, do as Bob Buford, author of Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance, suggested: "Do what you do best; drop the rest." He recommended leaders delegate what they can "at work, play and home." And finally, Buford stressed the importance of knowing when to say no.
Sales Leadership Trap No. 5: Expecting Your Sales Team To Know How To Sell
Certainly, you should have skilled sales representatives on your team — sales reps with innate selling capabilities, experience commensurate with their role and a solid base of knowledge about your products and services. But if you think it's OK for their baseline knowledge and skills to remain static, you will quickly fall behind the competition.
To avoid this trap, place a high emphasis on continuous coaching and training throughout the employee's tenure.
To encourage constant learning and improvement, don't settle for training only during onboarding. Rather, always seek ways to enhance the sales rep's skill set and knowledge base. Challenge them to embrace continual learning and identify areas for improvement, personally and for the entire sales organization. Seek top-quality training when and where needed. Above all, adopt a coaching mindset and an open-door policy that encourages insightful dialogues.
The Bottom Line
Falling into any one of these sales leadership traps can jeopardize your company's sales team performance. Falling into more than one can put your career in peril and your company's survival at risk. To avoid these dangerous sales leadership traps, work from an inspiring value proposition, use SMART goals, surround yourself with an intelligent and insightful team, delegate strategically and keep your team well-trained. It will make a positive impact on your revenue growth.
