SURVEY
following five areas: • Understanding the customer • Establishing sales management cadence
• Implementing better sales training • Understanding the sales process • Implementing a new sales process In other words, sales leaders need to make sure to get these right!
WHAT THE LEAST SUCCESSFUL DID WORST
Participants rated the least successful new sales leaders weakest in the fol- lowing five areas: • Empathizing with frontline reps • Establishing sales management cadence
• Understanding top performers • Updating the sales coverage model • Implementing a new sales process • Modeling expected behaviors If a new sales leader is struggling with any of these, they need to start improving!
How New Sales Leaders Achieve Success and Avoid Failure
DARIO PRIOLO, SALES PERFORMANCE INTERNATIONAL AND GERHARD GSCHWANDTNER, SELLING POWER
Although few roles in a company are more important than the sales leader, this role – with an average tenure between 22 and 32 months – can be fraught with risk. And, if the sales leader fails, the company may face a long recovery curve with tremendous distractions to ongoing productivity. If the next sales leader fails, the situation may become dire. What can new sales leaders do to beat the odds of failure? To answer this question, Sales Performance International (SPI) partnered with Selling Power to exam- ine what sets apart successful new sales leaders from those who fail and
also examined how the sales leader can avoid failure. We conducted an online survey that had nearly 1,000 responses. We asked salespeople and managers to reflect back on an expe- rience with a new sales leader, share what that new sales leader did and how well they executed, and report their level of success. You can learn more about the details of the study and in-depth find- ings by reading the full report.
WHAT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL NEW SALES LEADERS DID BEST Participants rated the most success- ful new sales leaders strongest in the
30 | SEPTEMBER 2016 SELLING POWER © 2016 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
OUR NEW SALES LEADER SUCCESS ROADMAP Based on the detailed research find- ings, we’ve created a roadmap of eight steps that should be done first and done right. 1. Be humble, demonstrate empa- thy: Recognize that people have suffered and solid performers will be skeptical of your ability to turn things around, so you’ll need to win their confidence. Take stock of your leadership and communica- tion style – and that of the team. Better understanding means bet- ter alignment and adaptation.
2. Understand your buyers: This goes beyond superficial knowl- edge of their industries. Quickly learn your “buyer’s journey” and competitive differentiators. Get first-hand knowledge by speak- ing directly to customers. This information gives a foundation to build sales strategy, align sales processes, and prioritize your sales improvement initiatives.
3. Understand what makes your top performers successful. Take time
HARISH MARNAD /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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