Seven features of outstanding sales leaders!

Seven features of outstanding sales leaders!
The sales of Chinese enterprises today are quite different from those of 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. China's sales team has also made great strides. However, there are only a handful of managers in China who can be a good sales leader. Why? First, the concept of Chinese people does not regard sales as a profession, let alone a great profession. If sales is regarded as "selling" in concept, it is difficult to have a good sales leader. Second, even if some people accept the sales profession, they still lack the psychological qualities and characteristics of being a good salesman. Not everyone who cannot find a job in the office can sell it! This kind of psychological quality and characteristics can be cultivated by the day after tomorrow. Finally, you can become an outstanding sales leader only by loving this profession and cultivating and developing yourself as a good salesman.
What is the difference between a sales leader and a sales manager? Sales leaders make the sales team energetic and motivate them to achieve seemingly impossible goals. Sales Managers only ensure that the sales process works properly. Sales leaders have a strong sense of mission and purpose; sales managers only ensure that the access reports are completed on time. Sales Leader is dedicated to innovation; Sales Manager is dedicated to management.

"Today's global competition is fierce, with similar products. 98% of your successes or failures are in the hands of your employees, "said Herbert greeberg, founder and chief executive of caliper, Inc. The company studied the characteristics of 172 sales managers. "The quality of the sales team is ultimately the quality of its leadership. Generally, the sales manager only ensures that the system is operating normally, while the leader can promote the development. They make people around them better ."

Kaleber's research found out seven key features of sales leaders:

* You must be brave. A superior sales leader knows when to adopt a strong attitude. They know how to stick to their rights. "Being brave is the pillar of leadership," D. a. "Weak people will not be good leaders," said Stuart marcrum, vice president of Stuart."

Sentrol Inc. raymond McDermott, vice president of senro, found that a sales manager was not able to spend enough time traveling with his sales representative because he wanted to spend more time with his family. "I took him to the office and told him clearly that it was very important to know how well my family was," madermo said. "But I also reminded him that this is his job. If he needs the salary and prestige, he must join the sales representative on the front line to complete the work ."

The sales manager did not like this conversation, but he wanted to retain the position, so he accepted it. "He is doing what I want now. We have no quarrel or resolution ." Said medmo.

* You must have an internal driving force. Sales leaders are not only interested in persuading customers, but can also drive themselves to motivate sales representatives to take actions.

Famous salesman under Dennis kinard, vice president of regional sales, GBS printed products & Systems Inc. He has been doing well over the past 13 years, but now his sales performance has declined mainly because of the bankruptcy of several of his major customers. Instead of developing new businesses, the salesman lamented the bad fate and heard the sharp decline in performance. Kenard agreed with him to summarize the performance. "I invite him to have lunch together. I didn't emphasize that his performance has declined, and he may face a crisis, "Kenard said." On the contrary, I told him that you have the ability to do better ,"

The sales representative made a positive response to this approach because he did not feel attacked or devalued. The talks achieved immediate results: Two months later, the sales representative's monthly sales volume reached the highest point in two and a half years.

* You must have internal tenacity. When a sales representative fails to make a sales promotion, he must have an inner tenacity to stay optimistic and start a new sales visit. The sales leader has another task: not only must he be able to get rid of failure, but also ensure that his sales representatives can also get rid of failure.

Timm Hayes (heys), the national sales manager of stuts, and one of his regional sales managers, a sales representative, and a product manager lost a $2.5 million ticket. "We are very frustrated, and we are heartbroken," heys said. On the day of rejection, heys and his team members met the potential customer and asked them why they failed. "I want my sales team to develop this habit, that is, it is not ridiculous to ask why I failed ."

In the next week, heys held a meeting with his group to summarize what they thought they were doing right and what they could have done better. Heys believes that whatever the case, the key to making the Sales Representatives correctly handle failures is to help them treat failures correctly as soon as possible. "I told them that we must summarize our performance and move on," he said ."
* You must take risks. In the fierce market competition, victory is usually a result of leaders who are willing to "boldly try, not afraid of failure", said Mr. Green, of kaleber. "In the sales field, sales leaders are always taking risks. Should I hire this person? Should I do this ticket? In a market where this product is similar, the leaders who think twice and do not dare to take risks can only get rid of the world ."
Sometimes developing a new customer is also an adventure. Pace Analytical Services Inc. greg Whitman, marketing and customer service manager, witnessed six senior managers of a customer company resign to start their own environmental consulting company. "At the beginning, none of the other labs were willing to do business with them without credit investigation," said Tom. However, he saw the opportunity where others did not dare to get involved. He has dealt with a partner of the new company and therefore trusts the partner. "I sold our services to a new company in just one week with trust in him because I knew he was trustworthy," he said.

The bet was the right one. The new company settled the bill within 30 days and continuously requested the company to provide services.

* You must be innovative. Adventure and innovation are inseparable. Outstanding leaders know that "old approaches" are not always "best practices ". This is especially true in an ever-changing market.

Paul Dyne, a sales representative under heys of stuts ). He has established close relationships with a major account. The customer expressed his intention to do business with multiple global branches of stuts. Dai en asked heys if he could become the manager of the customer because the customer was developed by him. This suggestion sounds good, but there is a problem: stuts's sales staff are divided by region. If Grace manages the customer's sales in other regions, sales staff in other regions will feel compromised.

Heys's solution is to take charge of initial business dealings with the customer. Then, he will hand over the business to the local sales staff. The company increases the reward for all of his businesses. "This is a reward for his startup of this business relationship," heys said. "If we say, a few years ago, we will say," No, it's not your field, we must follow the regional division principle '. But we decided to break the regular because we saw an opportunity to help the company develop. As a result, this manufacturer became our major customer ."

* You must have a sense of urgency. Sales leaders know that "immediate" actions are critical to business continuity. "A sense of urgency is like a huge gap that separates outstanding leaders from general managers," says markelon of stuttent.

Pesi's Analysis Service Company won a big project to test groundwater for joint ventures of the two oil companies. After receiving the task, she sent a sense of urgency to the employee. "I told my sales representatives and project managers that this project has a big impact and is highly competitive," said Tom. Prior to delivery of groundwater samples, she completed other laboratory work and set up a one-day, two-shift system. This is unusual in Pez. As a result, the lab completed the project in five days. The customer thought it would take 10 days.

The move is a treasure to the White Paper: the customer gave the company a new business, and the project also set up new speed and efficiency standards for the lab. But she also warned against pressing the issue. "Not everything is pressing," he said. "It's urgent for customers, not necessarily for us ."

* You must be considerate of subordinates. Sales leaders are tough, active, and bold, but they also have a heart. Their sympathy is not less than their competitive enthusiasm.

At the beginning of last year, Paula gerhold, sales manager of Walt Disney attractions Inc. (Editor's note: Disney entertainment), met two new sales representatives at the company's national sales conference. The two sales representatives wanted to talk about their idea of advertising in a travel magazine with a regional travel agency. They are very enthusiastic about this project, but they have not considered it carefully. For example, they didn't even have any basic information to start the project: the publisher of the magazine, the deadline for making advertisements, and the technical specifications.

"A bad sales manager may give them a hand because they do not know the information ." Said gerhood. However, she adopted a more gentle approach. Gerhood told them that she wanted to do the same thing as they did, but they needed to collect more information and list all the information they needed.

Shortly after, the two sales representatives came to see gerhood with a detailed Ad Promotion Plan. "I think they have a very good idea and I don't want to suppress their enthusiasm," gerhood said. "The problem is that sales representatives are sometimes enthusiastic and do not pay enough attention to the details. As a compassionate subordinate leader, we must be good at listening, understanding, and helping employees understand ."

But ghood also pointed out that "being compassionate to subordinates also means that you must make people move ."