4 Qualities of Great Sales Leadership: Take your Team to the Top
Your sales leader is the heart and soul of your organization. They are the ones that lead your troops into battle day in and day out and are largely
Your sales leader is the heart and soul of your organization. They are the ones that lead your troops into battle day in and day out and are largely responsible for hitting revenue targets or not. With such an important role in your company, how do you know if you have a great sales leader? These are 4 key qualities of a great sales leader that we look at when hiring for a VP or EVP of sales:
1. Self Awareness
Great sales leaders are very much aware of both the strengths they bring to the table and the weaknesses that they possess. Rather than trying to cover up their weaknesses, they embrace them and openly admit to them. It leads to credibility with their sales team because they aren’t afraid to make mistakes and own up to them. They expect the same from their salespeople and helps in creating rapport with both clients and internal staff.
2. They have their own definition of Success
While important, money is not a huge motivator for a great sales leader. They define success on their own terms whether that be hitting financial targets, motivating a sales team or improving the performance of sales reps. They have an internal fire that motivates them to do great things everyday.
3. They love what they do
Great sales leaders love their jobs. They get up every day and can’t wait to get to work and coach and motivate their team and this energy is contagious. This has a tremendous impact on the morale and attitude of the sales reps on their team and helps to get the most out of them.
4. Courage
These individuals have the courage to try new things and take risks even if it means failure. That’s how one becomes great. They learn from their failures and don’t dwell on them and have the courage to try something else new. This again gets fed down into the culture of the sales team.
Great sales leadership is not something that is nice to have in an organization…it is critical to your company’s success. If your company isn’t hitting your sales targets, ask yourself if the sales leader meets the above criteria. If not, it might be time to look for a new leader.
Rhys Metler
Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.
