When sales leaders are buried in crap, they can’t be effective!
Sales Leaders, your jobs are non-stop. Especially now. There’s so much to do as we navigate a “new norm,” and there’s so much pressure to get sales, increase margins, complete reports and the list goes on. It’s easy to get caught up in all this and end the day without ever helping your team advance sales.
BOTTOM LINE:
If you’re buried in crap and focused on the wrong activities, you’re not going to be effective. Think about it, if YOU don’t focus on sales, who else will? No sales = No business. And how can you create a culture of peak performance if your sales team doesn’t see you focused on the key levers that drive sales? So you have to protect your time and focus on those activities that move the needle. After years of managing sales teams and coaching sales leaders, I am firmly convinced that these are the most critical activities of a sales leader.
The TOP 3 income-producing activities of the most effective sales leaders:
Conducting one-on-ones with the sales team members to review prospects and drive sales, manage performance and inspire greatness. And these one-on-ones can be held virtually.Observing sales people when they’re in-action with customers, so you can coach them and up-level their skills, remove barriers to selling, and develop the sales team into self-reliant achievers. This is harder to do virtually, but absolutely possible. I’ve spoken to many sales managers who are observing from Zoom while the prospects are in the room or who are attending meetings on Zoom with the sales person and the prospects. It’s working. If you haven’t tried this, you’re missing a great opportunity.Leading sales team meetings and training workshops to educate, inspire, and energize them to peak levels of performance. Again, this is also happening via Zoom. It take more preparation, but it’s essential to keep the team engaged and motivated, especially today.
So how do we get out from under the crap to focus on the above activities? It’s all about proactively taking control of your time so you can be effective.
“Effectiveness is the constant elimination of the non-essential.”
How to eliminate the non-essential and increase your effectiveness. For every task, ask yourself, can you:
Ignore it? Is it not so important and not so urgent? If so, then it’s not a priority and can be placed on the back burner, and if it’s really important, it will come back to you.Shelf it? Is it important but not so urgent? If so, shelf it. Make a plan to monitor it and/or set yourself a note to address it later. Delegate it? Is it urgent but not so important that YOU have to do it? If so, then delegate it. Who else can complete the task in less time? Can you use the delegation as a tool for development?Do it! Is it urgent and important? If so, you might just have to get it done. That’s fine, especially if you’ve been able to remove several other tasks. OR Just say NO! Is it something that someone has asked you to do, but it’s really not important? Can you just say no and protect your time. Is it worth your time and causing you to get home late? Is it worth attending the meeting, or can you just get the notes? Sometimes saying NO is the most effective thing to do.
Sales leaders. Your time is invaluable to the operation. Become a master at eliminating the non-essential and prioritize, plan, delegate and most of all, practice saying no.
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For more guidance on coaching your sales team and developing the systems to create rockstars,
Kathy is a sales and leadership coach specializing in helping builders and real estate companies develop brilliant sales leaders who foster a healthy, high performance sales culture. Kathy’s transformational sales leadership programs help sales leaders learn the systems and strategies to not just survive the demanding role of the sales manager, but to THRIVE.
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