Lead From The Front

Originally posted on LinkedIn Apr 9, 2018:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lead-from-front-rich-stone

One running joke among front line sales people about their sales leadership is that they like to get on their high horse about what things were like "back in the day" when they were selling and how many calls they used to make, how many deals they used to close and how great they were. Don't be that sales leader. Rather than talk about what you used to do, be about what you can still do now. Don't ask your team to adhere to a standard that you wouldn't yourself. Lead from the front.

My mentor (also my uncle) was SVP of Global Sales and Services at EMC back in the late 90s after spending his entire career there prior as a rep and in various sales management positions. Needless to say but I have heard many stories about him over the years. One that always stuck out to me was about how we would prospect on the phone consistently throughout his sales management career despite his title at the time and position within the organization. That story (among others) continues to inspire me to lead from the front.

What is one of the best ways to lead your sales team from the front? Pick up the phone! The most blue collar (and arguably essential) part of the sales process is prospecting, qualifying and accelerating deals via the phone. It is so much easier to get to the root of your customer's pain points, goals and desired outcomes during a phone conversation than via an email exchange. Show your team how effective the phone is by picking it up yourself on the sales floor. This accomplishes a few things: it helps create and foster relationships with clients, it up-levels your sphere of influence within accounts, it creates a phone-first culture vs. a quiet sales floor where the reps all have their headphones in and are typing away at email all day. I won't get into a cold-calling is dead vs. cold calling lives debate on this post but 2 things are undeniably true 1.) the phone is an essential sales vehicle and 2.) you have all of the information you could ever need available at your fingertips to make a warm call vs. a cold call these days.

If a rep on your team is chasing a deal and the client has gone dark, be positive and huddle around their desk with the phone on speaker. Have some fun, foster a winning culture. Two things you can always control are your attitude and your effort. Both of these things are infectious, especially on a sales floor.

It is key to balance doing it vs. talking about it with not stepping in your AEs toes and allowing them to own the sales process so that they continue to build confidence, sharpen their skill set and improve every day. That said, make prospecting a team effort and draft off of each other. It is more effective and really just more enjoyable for the whole team that way. Our sales team flies around having fun by building relationships with our customers on the phone every single day.

If you are an individual contributor or a sales leader, how do you create and foster a winning culture on your team? Drop a line in the comments section below or join the conversation on twitter @rstone57.