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FEATURESTORY

What Are Great Sales Managers Made Of?

The answer is as intangible as the definition of leadership itself

by Paul Nolan

Leadership is defined so broadly that it’s often up to each individual to decide what constitutes a good leader. The best leaders may be most easily identified by the performance of their teams.

“The most successful leaders transcend personality to develop a follower’s loyalty to the organization’s goals,” says author and management consultant Aubrey C. Daniels. “Measuring the effectiveness of leaders can be done by examining the behavior of their followers. Leadership is defined not only by a leader’s behavior, but also by the behavior of a leader’s followers.”

People differ on what constitutes great leadership.

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, for example, continues to reap the rewards of what people around the world considered stellar leadership in the days and weeks following 9/11. Some, however, have argued that Giuliani, who was completing his second term as New York’s mayor at the time, was a benefactor of a horrific circumstance and that he did little more than stand by the rescue workers while they turned in the true Herculean and heroic efforts.

That in itself is good leadership, argues Bill Catlette, a speaker and consultant who specializes in building effective corporate cultures. Letting people know that you know they’re working hard to make you look good oftentimes is all that’s needed.

The complexities of modern business make it difficult (some would say impossible) to encapsulate what great sales managers are made of. That didn’t stop us from trying, however. In our opinion, there are no wrong answers and the “right ones” change as rapidly as the business arena itself.

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Think Big, Act Small
The best managers think about the big picture and act on the small ones. “Select your choices firmly and decide the small things promptly” says management consultant Ted Pollock. “By getting them out of the way, you give yourself more time to think through the things that really count.”

Now Hear This
Too many mangers overlook suggestions from their employees. The good ones know this is a costly mistake. Authors Curt Coffman and Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina of the Gallup Organization say contributing to overall strategy makes employees feel valued and results in more engaged – and productive – employees.

Talk It Out
Be candid. “When it comes to communicating with your workforce, PR should take a distant back seat to honesty,” says Bill Catlette, a specialist in building better work environments.

Capturing Hearts
“Often, motivating teams to take the right action requires first spending time building a common identity,” say authors Yamashita and Spataro. Recent research on emotional intelligence indicates that acknowledgement and the expression of emotions – in an appropriate manner – can contribute to productivity in groups.

Put It In Writing
Great leaders place importance on writing down their vision, their ideas, their central driving purpose – and then sharing them with others. “First articulations are difficult to create, but painfully necessary,” say Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro, authors of the brilliantly simple business book called Unstuck (Portfolio, 2004). “Force yourself to pen a speech, a brochure, a film, or, if you must, a PowerPoint deck that helps you recount your team’s vision. You’ll immediately recognize your idea’s vulnerability and can rework its expression until it can fully withstand slings and arrows.”

Reward Often
Sales managers should be cheerleaders for the success of their sales organization by continually encouraging their own teams through monthly and quarterly recognition opportunities, says Don Gray, president of Sales Engineering Group.

Measure Everything
Measuring sales performance must be done in a manner that makes sense. It’s more than just hitting numbers. Use technology to track each step of the sales process and analyze the data to see where your sales process stalls and to target the most profitable market segments and customers.

Feet On The Beat
Perhaps the biggest single factor in effective leadership is your presence – among employees and customers. “You have to muddle in the muck,” says leadership guru Jack Welch. “People have to see how calm you stay in a PR crisis, how decent you are to new employees who don’t have the hang of things, how much you sweat during a tough deal, and how hard you work on a deadline without bitching and moaning.”

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