The Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast

As a sales leader, are you satisfied with the level of effort and output from your team? Are they making every post a winner, or are there some areas for improvement?vAre they committed to making progress & delivering tangible value to their customers? One thing that many sales leaders either don’t understand or don’t accept, is that the sales team is a direct reflection of them. And this applies to every aspect – whether it be planning, tactics, strategy, behaviour or attitude. So as sales leaders, a simple question that we must ask ourselves constantly is – ‘Am I being the Model of Excellence that I want to see in my team?’ 

I often share with leaders that leadership is not easy and it is not for everyone. And it is certainly not a popularity contest, and yet many leaders attempt to be popular with their team. We all have an innate need to be liked and to belong to something and this can sometimes hamper our ability to effectively lead, because the pull of the tribe can be overwhelming. With leadership comes great responsibility and when I’m working with leaders 1:1, I make sure we hone in on a number of key areas that will enable the leader to develop strong leadership credentials, and not focus on building popularity. This is what I cover in today’s episode.

When it comes to hiring sales people, many organisations take a very logical and measured approach to identifying ideal candidates – does the sales person have a track record of high performance, have they constantly met or exceeded targets, have they remained with previous organisations for a consistent period of time, or have they swapped roles on a regular basis? Do they possess a demonstrated level of technical knowledge & expertise that will allow them to integrate quickly into the organisation? All tangible and relevant areas of focus. When organisations are specifically looking for high performing ‘hunter’ salespeople, there are specific non teachable characteristics which can be identified, that will significantly improve the probability of the sales person being a successful hire. In today’s episode, I am very fortunate to have a conversation with Dr.Christopher Croner, Principal of SalesDrive LLC and creator of The DriveTest® to unpack the 3 essential non teachable traits that successful salespeople possess. To request access to a complimentary DriveTest® assessment, please go to https://salesdrive.info/ To connect with Chris on LinkedIn, please go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophercroner/

In sales, as in every walk of life, success leaves clues, as does failure! Many sales leaders are often looking for the secret sauce to propel them to super success, thinking it is some sort of special potion – it very rarely is. Sustainable success is built off strong fundamentals and whilst these fundamentals are not rocket science, if consistency is built around the habits, amazing things can happen. In today’s episode, I suggest 10 habits that can help sales leaders become exceptional.

How connected are you? An interesting question to ask as a sales leader, especially in terms of the connection you have with your sales team as well as key customers and partners. Unfortunately many sales leaders begin to lose connection when they are promoted to the role, as their focus is often on the internal mechanisms of the business, and the expectations placed upon them by senior executives. In this episode I discuss the importance of being connected, especially as it will help create an environment of high performance.

As a sales leader, how predictable are the sales opportunities flowing through your team? Are they highly qualified? Are you laser focused on specific customers and specific opportunities, or throwing mud against the wall hoping it sticks? Are you converting a high percentage of the opportunities? Are the closed opportunities highly profitable? In working with sales leaders, what I find fascinating is how unplanned and unprepared the vast majority are when it comes to sales opportunities. Instead of focusing on a specific problem and developing a strategic solution to that problem, they are heavily influenced by their product or service, and seek to retrofit the product into every opportunity. There is a better way.

In working with sales leaders and their teams, what is intriguing is that many of them do not have a consistent methodology when it comes to sales, and in some cases, no methodology. This often results in them not being able to identify, qualify and then convert significant business opportunities, which has a direct impact on their sales numbers, not to mention the bottom line profitability of their business. There is a better way. As a mentor with Sales Director Central, we work with sales leaders to help them implement a consistent and proven framework that not only significantly increases the competence of the sales team throughout the sales process, it also significantly increases conversions and bottom line revenue. In today’s episode, I provide a high level overview of that framework.

Who are you? On the surface, it may seem like a really obvious and somewhat simple question, and as a leader we can often fall into the trap of responding with our title, where we work etc. Just look at the vast majority of LinkedIn profiles which show the role title in the headline of the profile. As a leader, I want to challenge you to go deeper and really reflect on this question, who are you? That’s what I explore in today’s episode.

As a sales leader overseeing a high performing team – hopefully, an exceptional team, we must continue to develop them. Provide training, mentoring and coaching. Unfortunately though, many sales leaders don’t make this a priority, and instead prioritise measuring performance, and focusing on the numbers. The result is often a plateau in performance. One of the key reasons for this is that the sales leader is not investing in themselves, and not seeking mentoring, coaching and development from others. The question for today’s episode is this – Who’s coaching you? This is a critical question.

Last week I posted about the importance of development and as a leader, becoming a development champion. Over the last few days, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the importance of this development as we celebrated the 2022 season with our female football presentations. What has become very clear is that whilst the success achieved by 2 of our female teams this season has been underpinned by the development of each of the girls, there is another key ingredient – character. And this equally applies to building high performing teams in business.

More and more companies today are tapping into the power of Influencer Marketing to spread the gospel of their products and services, leveraging off the credibility of celebrities, business people, sports people and the like. It is a very effective way to build market credibility and scale, especially in the consumer space. What is less common, yet is just as effective, is B2B Influence Marketing, where organisations can tap into the credibility of industry influencers and leverage this credibility to add value and drive sales. In today’s episode I had a fascinating conversation with Yash Chavan, founder of Saral-Influencer Relationship Management, on supercharging sales through influence marketing.

As leaders, at some point we will need to conduct a challenging or difficult conversation, even though we may want to avoid it, or we do not feel like having it. A core responsibility of a leader is to lean into that conversation, whether it be with a direct report, a peer, a manager, customer, external stakeholder, or even senior executive. Whilst we may never learn to enjoy it, we can develop competence and confidence by following some key principles and a simple framework.

As a sales leader, how important is critical thinking to your team’s success? It is an obvious question and yet many sales leaders do not create the discipline or even know how to become a critical thinker. In today’s episode I uncover some of the key characteristics of a critical thinker, share the 5 different thinking styles we can adopt to help us think more critically, as well as share a simple yet effective process for critical thinking.

If you have been following me for a while, you know that I am an avid fan of John Maxwell and his work. I especially love his core philosophy of ‘adding value to leaders who multiply value to others’ – this is all about servant leadership and underpins how I work with leaders. One of the key responsibilities that we have as leaders is identifying and then developing other leaders, and in today’s episode, I unpack the 3 E’s of developing Sales Leaders.

Yesterday was an incredible day. I had the privilege of watching 2 of our local female football teams play off in the Grand Final. Despite the nerves, despite the ferocious competition and despite the somewhat inclement weather, both teams came through to secure a Premiership victory. It was a perfect way to end the season and a tremendous reward for the hard work and dedication the girls have shown throughout the year. They have met every challenge thrown at them, have constantly challenged themselves and each other to drive excellent standards, and have above all, had fun, playing the game they love. I also cannot emphasise enough the enormous investment made by the coaches and key support staff to create an environment  which allows the girls to shine. And this is the key.

I absolutely love leadership development, whether it be working with groups or 1:1. This week, I wrapped up a leadership development program with a wonderful organisation after working with their teams over the last 4 months. Over the program, we covered numerous leadership topics, challenged the leaders’ thinking, conducted group coaching and individual coaching sessions, and observed significant progress, change and transformation in a number of leaders. In today’s episode, I reflect on this and the privilege of working with great leaders as part of their journey.

To be successful in sales, we must learn to develop a high level of expertise in pitching for business – in other words, presenting a message. We often say that leadership is influence and influence is leadership, and this is especially true in sales – we must be able to influence a customer to take a course of action that will either benefit them or will tangibly solve a problem. Unfortunately, many sales leaders and their teams dive head first into a pitch or a presentation without the necessary preparation, and often wonder why the customer is not buying. If only they invested more time up front planning their pitch or presentation. If we are to pitch to win, we must develop a high level of competency around planning the pitch. This is the core topic of today’s episode.

In 2022, there is information coming at us at a rate faster than in any other time in history. Whether it be the print media, visual media and especially social media, companies and individuals are screaming ‘look at me’ to advertise their products and services.  It is difficult to look at any social media platform today without being bombarded by ‘Influencers’ spruiking something and it is equally challenging not to be sucked in to the comparison game. Photographs of ‘successful’ people standing next to their luxury car, or standing in front of their massive house, private jet, motor home or yacht. Sometimes we can look at these people and what they ‘have’ and begin to feel a little envious. (Question- do they really ‘have’ what they show?) We can also often fall into the comparison game within our own industry or our own company, especially when our organisation promotes internal competition through sales incentives and the classic ‘sales scoreboard’. This only promotes comparison behaviours. Is this healthy and does this promote exceptional performance?

Belief is a very powerful phenomenon and is very often incredibly difficult to change. All of us have beliefs that have been formed through our formative years, via our upbringing, where we lived, who we surrounded ourself with, even what school we went to. The beliefs become rock solid and heavily impact everything we do, and they can either be resourceful beliefs or unresourceful beliefs. Interestingly though, the beliefs are not necessarily true, but appear so. As sales leaders, we must be incredibly conscious of our own beliefs, not only about ourselves, but also about our people, and ask whether the beliefs we have are helping or are they hindering.

Leadership is not easy and is not for everyone. It comes with great responsibility, and a fundamental responsibility is to create and maintain a high performance culture and a culture that people want to be part of. In driving this culture, sometimes we have to have some difficult conversations, which leaders often do not feel like having. We must have them anyway.

In the sales game, the vast majority measure success by the numbers. Either you hit the sales target or you don’t and sales leaders can be very laser focused on the scoreboard and lead according to what the numbers are saying. But this does not always tell the full story. It has often been said that sales is a numbers game and interestingly, sales leaders who focus entirely on the numbers tend to lead teams which achieve outcomes within plus or minus 10% of the sales target. Each conversation and each review is based on the year to date or month to date position against the target.  Exceptional sales leaders are fully aware of what success looks like and what the target is. They also have the ability to remove themselves from the outcome and instead focus their attention on fundamental behaviours and progress against these.

Are you ruthless and uncompromising when it comes to your standards of excellence? Are you focused on the key principles and disciplines that will create an environment of sustained success? If not, why not? As leaders we must be ruthless around the standards and expectations that are set as well as relentlessly measuring performance against these.

When it comes to strategic selling, especially in the enterprise space, the expectations placed on the sales person to drive tangible value and differentiation have never been higher. The sellers who are able to think differently about their customer, challenge their own organisation to think differently, and begin to focus their attention on the customer’s customer and what problems need to be solved, are the ones who will eventually win, and be known as true trusted advisors. In today’s episode, I enjoyed a fantastic conversation with Douglas Cole, the author of the brand new book ‘The Sales MBA – How To Influence Corporate Buyers’ around the 3 core pillars that exceptional sales leaders and their teams excel at in today’s market. I hope you enjoy listening to the conversation as much as I enjoyed having it. To connect with Douglas, go to: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sholtodouglas/ Website – https://www.thesalesmba.ca/ To purchase Douglas’ book, click here.

In professional golf, there is a well known saying – ‘Drive for show, putt for dough’. The professional golfer who achieves sustained success is the one who is able to convert the opportunities when they count, especially when the pressure is on. And whilst a pro golfer has a high level of skill set across their entire game, the elite performers are exceptional in the art of golf within 100 metres of the hole. They double down on their zone of genius. So it is in sales and sales leadership. Whilst there are many facets of sales that can create results, the sales people and sales leaders who identify their zone of genius and then double down on it, are the ones who separate themselves from the pack.

Whilst the vast majority understand the importance of clarity in communication, I’m still amazed at how many people cause confusion through the inability to create that clarity. In sales, we understand that a confused mind will very rarely buy, and yet, we do not spend near enough time asking ourselves whether we are being crystal clear, nor asking others the same question.

I often ask leaders why they are in a leadership position. The answer to that question will very often indicate their frame of reference and how successful they will be. Many jump into a leadership role for the prestige, the perceived power, the status, and even the symbolism that they believe the role represents, and whilst these leaders may start out by adding some value to the team, very quickly they become divisive and subtract from the team. Leaders who have a servant’s heart, who seek to create an environment for their team to first survive, and then thrive, will very quickly transition from adding value to multiplying value. And the results become exceptional.

It is amazing how events happen and situations present themselves to test attitude. And I have certainly been tested over the last 24 hours. What I have had to remind myself though is that nothing that happens has any meaning until I allocate meaning to it, and so it has helped to reframe some stuff that has taken place. I also reflected on the great words of Zig Ziglar – “it is your attitude and not your aptitude, that will ultimately determine your altitude”. So true.

Many people set themselves ambitious goals to become a leader at some stage in their career, however, don’t necessarily think deeply about the characteristics they will need to form & embrace in order to become an effective & successful leader. They are drawn to the allure of the leadership role & the expected profile, status & prestige that they believe comes as part of the deal.  For many, when they step into the leadership role, they quickly find the role not to be what they expected, & a key reason for this, is they have not undertaken enough preparation or given the leadership role rigorous thought. Hence, they often second guess themselves, & turn their back on the role. Leaders who become exceptional operate differently. They do not become exceptional the moment they step into the role. They work on it, & they are intentional. They develop certain characteristics over time and continue to work on these daily. In this episode, I discuss these characteristics.

I love working with sales teams exploring sales techniques and best practice. And when it comes to sales effectiveness, learning to deal with sales objections are close to the top of the list. What’s interesting though is the number of sales people who are taught that sales objections need to be overcome, and to close the sale at the earliest possible opportunity. Hence many sales people see objections as challenges, or as even as rejection, and become quite defensive. In this episode I explore how objections are actually opportunities.

I have observed a number of teams in recent weeks in relation to their performance and their culture, and irrespective of the industry they are in, there is a common theme that is weaved amongst the teams which are not performing to their ultimate potential. This theme is the team & its members are more focused on what is in it for themselves, rather than focusing on what contribution they can make to the team. As a result, culture begin to fracture, engagement begins to wane and performance ultimate drops. And often this is reflective of the behaviour and focus of the leader. In this episode, I explore the concept that great leaders are givers. They are not takers.

In many organisations, high performing sales people are often gifted with sales leadership responsibility based on their level of performance and level of potential – they sit in the ‘top right’ quadrant. It is often the next logical step in their sales journey. The challenge though is many high performing sales people are not prepared for the opportunity when it presents itself, and as such, feel thrusted into a leadership role without the transition blueprint or game plan. Many of them had not consciously considered a sales leadership role, and often find themselves floundering, especially in the first 90 days. It is why many sales leaders end up deciding that sales leadership is not for them, and instead, they return to an individual contributor role. The real reason though, is they have not yet developed their ‘Why’.

One of the key responsibilities of a sales leader is to encourage their team to get back on track when performance starts to dip. Unfortunately many sales leaders simply look to the surface level fixes such as making more calls, attending more meetings or growing the opportunity pipeline even further. This rarely works. There can be a whole host of reasons as to why a sales person’s performance wanes, and it is the responsibility of the sales leader to identify the core reasons, and seek to assist the sales person to get back on track as soon as possible. This is what I explore in today’s episode.

One of the key differentiators in modern day selling is authenticity. We know that people buy from people they know, they like and they trust. We also know that the product or service is not what the customer is looking for – they are looking for a solution to a problem. Whether you are in enterprise sales, SME sales or in fact in the start up phase of a business, authenticity is a critical key to your selling success. And in today’s episode, I enjoyed a fabulous conversation with Brendan McAdams on this very topic, amongst others as well. Hope you enjoy listening to the episode. To connect with Brendan, go to: Email – [email protected] Website – https://www.kiinetics.com/ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanmcadams/ Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/lets-chat-sales/id1615392593 To purchase a copy of Brendan’s book ‘Sales Craft’, click here

I absolutely love the leadership philosophies of John Wooden – the most successful college basketball coach in history. Not only did he create and maintain a super successful and engaged team culture, he also became a mentor and coach to many highly successful sporting coaches and business people over his lifetime. In today’s episode, I reflect on John’s 5 keys to exceptional team performance. So simple when you see it on paper, and yet so powerful when it is implemented.

Despite sales people possessing incredible talent and reporting to a Sales Leader who believes in them, it is staggering to observe the number of sales people who lack confidence. A lack of confidence –  To identify tangible opportunities. To reach out to Senior Executives within their portfolio. To make new connections in a target Account. To challenge the status quo and think outside the square. To take action outside of their comfort zone. To ask the difficult questions of their customers, their Sales Leader and the organisation. A great sales leader will not allow this to happen. They know that the only way to develop confidence is to take affirmative action.

It is fascinating the number of sales leaders who find it very difficult to delegate. Many of them feel they can get things done quicker if they do it themselves, or it will be done more effectively, and in many cases they do not have a high level of trust and confidence in their team to get things done to the level of satisfaction required. Great sales leaders understand that a key to becoming exceptional is to develop independence in the team, and one of the best ways to do that is through delegation.

Sales is a fascinating study in human behaviour and psychology and can often be 100% predictable. So many sales leaders and their teams get caught up in how good they think their products and services are, that they literally get drunk on their company Kool Aid, and yet wonder why their sales results are not where they could be or should be. Exceptional Sales Leaders do not – they understand that it is not about the products and services, it is about the problems that need to be solved. They also understand that at the end of the day the customer is not interested in their product or service.

When it comes to negotiating, many sales teams and their leaders are hell bent on jumping into the detail up front, often based on either inferred pressure or direct pressure to get the deal done. When this happens, often the deal that gets done is not as good as it could have been, and sometimes the result is no deal at all. Having worked with sales teams for many years, negotiations need not be onerous. There is a simple process to follow and some key principles to be aware of. That’s what I explore in today’s episode.

If you have been in sales for any length of time, you would have come across the slick sales person and sales leader – constantly operating with a sense of urgency and focusing on closing, closing, closing. Whilst they are hungry to get the deals done, they also have more of a short term focus, almost instant gratification. If the deal can’t be closed today, it won’t be closed at all – move onto the next deal. And how does this make the potential customer feel? Potentially like a pawn in the salesperson’s game, and unlikely to seek to engage in the future. We see this everywhere in society today – buy now, pay later, don’t wait, get it now, whatever it takes. And we certainly see it in organisations where the senior leaders drive unrelenting focus on short term results, whether that be month to month or quarter to quarter. Why? In many cases, it is because their short term bonuses are linked to the short term results. Hence this drives behaviour. There is a different way and there is a better way.

When it comes to leadership there are many theories and many perspectives. A lot of people like focusing their attention on leadership strategies, emotional intelligence, building trust, coaching and mentoring, to name a few. Unfortunately not enough leaders focus their attention on identifying and then demonstrating core characteristics of leadership, and yet wonder why they are not achieving the desired results. When we are crystal clear on the characteristics of a leader, it becomes a filter through which we do everything.

Many sales leaders, when they transition from individual contributor to sales leader, continue the same behaviours they demonstrated as a sales person. They love the hunt and get excited by the prospect of winning the deal. Very often this can lead to disengagement & de-positioning of the sales team.  When it comes to leading your team, do you find yourself solving the team’s problems, believing that through solving the problem, you are serving them?  I certainly believed that, until I discovered that solving the team’s problems for them was actually creating an environment of co-dependency. As a result, I was not serving them at all. The key is to develop independent thinking within the team.  Great sales leaders recognise there is a better way – servant leadership. Serving their team so that the team has the opportunity to be sustainably successful. Are you a servant leader?

One of the biggest principles of leadership is trust – without it, it is impossible to lead and achieve exceptional results. In today’s episode I delve into an element of trust, reliability, and share some insights on personal branding and trust when reliability is not up to the mark. It is from personal experience, and goes along way to answering the question in the title of the episode!

Over the last week, we have seen a number of high profile sportspeople getting themselves into the spotlight, many of them for the wrong reasons. With a high profile comes big responsibility and unfortunately a few of them will look back on the last week with a level of regret. Many people look to these sportspeople to role model great behaviours all the time and when they don’t, the ‘knives’ come out as does the criticism. Despite their young age, the expectations are huge, and through their actions, reputations can be severely impacted. Unfortunately some choose to either deflect attention, or attempt to justify their actions, and in the process, fail to take responsibility. The positive aspect of the last week has been the way the vast majority of these sportspeople have stepped up and taken full responsibility. Not making excuses, not trying to justify and not trying to blame others.

A key question that sales leaders and their teams often overlook to ask is ‘What makes their customers attractive?’. On the surface this may sound like an obvious question & I often hear sales leaders saying things like ‘we have a great relationship’ or ‘this customer is always happy to attend events’. We need to go deeper. We need to plan upfront and really consider what characteristics of a customer would we consider to be attractive and then measure them. That’s what I cover in today’s episode.

Last week I spoke about the importance of understanding key stakeholders within your customer’s organisation, as part of your Account Plan, so that we can identify the formal hierarchy, as well as the informal decision & influencing hierarchy. Today, I cover the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of your customer’s business by looking at your customer through 4 different lenses. If you would like a copy of the template I refer to in the episode, please send me an email at [email protected]

Coaching for many sales leaders is a real challenge – predominantly because either they do not know how to effectively coach, or do not have access to a simple structure to follow. For sales leaders who are dedicated to driving exceptional performance with their team, coaching is non-negotiable and a priority. And utilising a simple yet powerful coaching model only enhances their ability to unleash the potential of their sales team.

In looking at what drives outstanding sales performance, irrespective of industry, it is very easy to look at the surface level metrics, such as conversion rates, sales numbers, even the quality and experience of the sales executives. Whilst these metrics may be legitimate indicators of performance, we can often ignore key triggers that enable sales leaders to unleash the potential of their sales teams. In looking at the exceptional sales leaders, who oversee teams that drive outstanding and sustainable results, there is one discipline that they prioritise-which is a non negotiable. And whilst ‘every’ sales leader can specialise in this area, the vast majority of sales leaders will focus on this for a short time, and when the results start to roll in, they start to roll back on their focus. Not exceptional sales leaders. They make this discipline a key part of their daily agenda.

In working with sales leaders and their teams, I’m amazed at how many leave their sales success to chance. Whilst some find themselves catching lightning in a bottle, where they come across a customer just at the right moment, and in the right step in the buying process, the vast majority do not. In selling, especially strategic selling, it is crucial that we plan, and not just a selling strategy, but develop an Account Plan. This is macro planning, and an investment of time and effort up front, can bring unbelievable rewards at the pointy end of the sales process. In this episode, I cover one aspect of Account Planning that is a must for all sales teams.

If there is one certainty in leadership it is that change is inevitable and will only continue to accelerate, and as leaders, it’s critical that we understand change and continue to adapt to it. A key element of this is understanding and becoming intentional around our leadership shadow, essentially the impressions we are creating every single day. Is our shadow a shallow one, or are we casting a long shadow based on our actions, our role modelling and our consistency. That is the topic for today’s episode.

When the results are flowing, and it feels like everything we touch is turning to gold, sales and sales leadership is super exciting. It can often create a feeling that the results will simply continue, and that we are unstoppable. This can create a false sense of security. And this can lead to a drop off in discretionary effort – it only takes a few percentage points in reduced application to start to impact the results. Exceptional sales leaders are fully aware of the dangers of complacency. They are also fully conscious of the Law of Polarity, and so never ever take their results for granted. They know that if they do not ‘maintain the rage’, the results can very quickly change.