Sales Leadership Starts With The Sales Rep

Sales leadership doesn’t originate with the C-Suite.

It begins with the salesperson.I read an article in a recent issue of Sky, the Delta Airlines inflight magazine, in which it said that Delta's inflight crews exhibit leadership by being able to adapt to changing circumstances. "Each of Delta's nearly 80,000 people around the globe have the opportunity to be leaders in how we handle unpredictable situations, how we use Delta resources, how we take care of each other and how we take care of you."To me that is also a great definition of sales leadership. Salespeople must be able to adapt to the changing requirements of the prospect and be able to help them by leading them to make a good decision. This doesn’t mean leading buyers by the nose. I’m talking about the classic definition of leadership that revolves around the idea inspiring others to take actions based on the actions of the leader. Or, as the great American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What you do speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say."

Leadership and the Customer

Too often we conflate the idea of leadership with management. But the battle in sales doesn't take place at that level. It occurs with the prospect; in that intimate setting of person-to-person selling. And it is the responsibility of the salesperson to inspire the prospect to follow the path to a solution that they have worked together to define.This inspiration comes in the form of serving the customer to help them to make a good decision quickly. Sales is not something you do to a customer. It is an interactive, iterative process you undertake in collaboration with the customer. The end result is a shared goal. If you are selling to a prospect in a conventional sense, then they will be painfully aware that your goal is all about the order. In other words, your goal is all about you. Buyers don’t like the feeling of being pushed to do something.However, when salespeople are invested in the process of helping their customer make good decisions quickly, then the customer will be fully cognizant of that and orders will be the logical and inevitable outcome.Sales opportunities are like snow flakes. No two are alike. Certainly, you should have a well-defined sales process. But, life rarely follows the script. It is what a salesperson does when they are forced to deviate from the script that demonstrates whether they possess the qualities of a sales leader or not. How do you react when the customer’s stated requirements change? Do you despair? Or do you roll up your sleeves, start asking new questions, work with the customer to understand their modified requirements and apply your knowledge, expertise and insights to synthesize these into an even better solution for them?

Note to Sales Managers

Lastly, in a separate note to sales managers, how often do you list "sales leadership" among the qualifications you include in a job description for a salesperson? Managers often list the stereotypical "heroic” qualities in job descriptions for new salespeople: hunter, closer, extrovert. But, the fact is that not one of those qualities will help you in your search for the extraordinary salesperson that can inspire customers to make decisions. Sales is a journey. Do you have salespeople who can inspire their customers to take that journey with them?