“Give to Get” As sales leaders I think we’ve forgotten this saying.
It’s is our job to give our sales directors, managers and their people everything they need to be successful. Our number one job is to make our people successfull and that’s not done by asking them for stuff, it’s done by giving them everything they need.
Too often sales leadership conversations center around getting everything they can out of the team. The discussions focus around questions like; getting that big new client, or stretching just enough to exceed plan, or getting rid of the few sales people who aren’t cutting it, etc. They don’t focus enough on giving to their sales teams. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard sales leaders focusing on questions like; what can I give my team that would improve their ability to be successful? What is my team missing or lacking that I could provide that would improve their numbers. How can I be an sale enabler, not just a sales measurer.
Sales leadership is responsible for a handful of things;
- Bringing in Revenue
- Developing sales strategy
- Building good strong teams
- Enabling those teams
- Coaching and developing the teams
- Reporting on how it’s all going.
Unfortunately, most sales organizations look like this.
- Sales Strategy
- Revenue
- Reporting
- Revenue
- Reporting
- Revenue
- Building good teams
- Enabling those teams
- Coaching those teams
- Revenue
- Reporting
Few sales leaders focus on what makes their revenue possible — the people. Revenue and reporting do nothing to improve a sales team. Revenue and reporting are the “take” part of sales leadership.
The majority of sales leadership should be spent enabling the team to be successful. It should be about sales leaders giving not taking.
For those of you who lead sales teams how much of your time is spent giving to the team rather than taking. If you spend more time going over “revenue” projections and reporting on what is happening; you’re a taker. If you ask your teams for reports, status updates, strategies, quarterly business reviews etc, more than you are offering them new tools, training, coaching, and enablement support, then your taking.
The goal for sales leadership is to give, empower, enable and support. Because that’s how you get revenue.
What about you? Is your sales leadership a giver or a taker?