Developing the will & skill to be


a leader SELLING POWER EDITORS If


you look for quotes on leadership, you’ll find hundreds upon hundreds of them going back thousands of years. This leads to an inevitable conclusion: Lead- ership has been a hot topic ever since people gathered in groups. So why is it that no one has yet come up with a universal definition of leadership that explains precisely what it is, how to get it, how to use it, and how to control it? To find out, Selling Power spoke to a variety of experts, managers, and authors on the subject and compiled a broad view of what it takes to lead and what it means to sales managers and their teams. Here’s the consensus of what you need to be an effective leader.


LEADERS, NOT MANAGERS First of all, even if you never intend to move into the corner office – or into sales management – leadership is a critical skill for sales professionals. As a


salesperson, you lead clients through the buying process, spearhead cross- departmental teams in support of cus- tomers, and muster the various experts on your sales force as needed. The stronger your leadership skills, the bet- ter you’re able to serve your customers and get your job done. “But I’m already doing great on this


front,” you may say. “I’ve got a handle on my schedule, my clients are happy, and I’ve got a great working relation- ship with my co-workers.” That’s wonderful – but it’s not lead- ership, according to Donna Frederick, vice president of sales for a provider of back-office solutions for digital merchants. She says the two catego- ries are quite different: Management is about day-to-day tactical manage- ment of resources, while leadership has to do with the creation of new strategic ideas and visions. Skill in one area doesn’t necessarily mean skill in the other. “Great manag- ers may not be great leaders,” adds Chad Mullins, a sales management consultant and author.


To help you focus on the charac- teristics of effective leaders, we’ve created a list of critical skills and then selected a “poster child” for each. We wrap up each quality with tips on how to incorporate these skills into your everyday work life and finish with some suggestions for positioning yourself for greater leadership opportunities.


LEADERS HAVE VISION Ask for a success story from the Internet world, and Amazon is sure to come to mind. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of the ultimate in one-stop online shopping, is almost synony- mous with the Internet. But the dream did not start out that big. In 1994, Bezos gave up his job as a VP of a New York investment firm, packed up a used car, and moved to Seattle with his new wife and a vision – to start an online business selling books. Of course, the idea was wacky. Of course, everyone told him he was nuts. Of course, he faced many obstacles along the way – and, of course, he


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