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Selling is a Profession that Requires Professional Leadership
| Guest post by: Dr. Rick Johnson |
Article Overview: Sales management holds the key to meeting company objectives. Effective sales management must build the platform for success. Salespeople are not the easiest group in the company to manage. If they were they would not be salespeople. Selling is not easy. It takes a special talent, self motivation, self discipline, a passion to succeed and the ability to accept rejection. The reality of the situation is simple. The majority of salespeople are not managed well. Today our sales environment leans toward a more multifaceted atmosphere; salespeople must become strategists with a plan. This plan requires more knowledge about the business, better relationships and better solutions. Some old school (Lone wolf) salespeople may believe they know what it takes. They have the experience. They've been around a long time.
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Free Download - Sales Management --Unmask the Confusion of Territory Account Assignment By Dr. Rick Johnson |
Selling is a Profession that Requires Professional Leadership
Managing a group of professionals with the type of personalities required to succeed in sales is no easy task. This is especially true during tough economic times. So if you have done everything possible to support, educate and train your sales manager and you just can't rekindle that passion, you may have to change sales managers.
Sales management holds the key to meeting company objectives. Effective sales management must build the platform for success. Salespeople are not the easiest group in the company to manage. If they were they would not be salespeople. Selling is not easy. It takes a special talent, self motivation, self discipline, a passion to succeed and the ability to accept rejection. The reality of the situation is simple. The majority of salespeople are not managed well. Today our sales environment leans toward a more multifaceted atmosphere; salespeople must become strategists with a plan. This plan requires more knowledge about the business, better relationships and better solutions. Some old school (Lone wolf) salespeople may believe they know what it takes. They have the experience. They've been around a long time. They also may have lost that passion. The world has changed. To rekindle the passion that has been lost may mean doing things differently. You can't afford to be complacent. Complacency destroys passion.
Sales is a Profession that requires Professional Salespeople
Every company needs aggressive, creative and resourceful salespeople to have their products specified, accepted and used by customers. Without informed and capable field salespeople, no company could hope to compete when the economy is recessionary. But they have to have a passion for success and a leader they look up to that shares that passion for success.
I personally believe that good salespeople, the kind who can help a company really grow, don't just happen to come along by chance or fate. Just as some people believe there is no such thing as a "born leader;" I believe there is no such thing as a "born salesperson," because selling ability is much more than an intangible given that a person either has or doesn't have. Granted, selling does require certain attributes in a person and some people are naturally born with these attributes and some aren't. Also, the person must be intelligent, able to grasp ideas and details easily, retain them and recall them for use whenever necessary in selling situations. These factors and many others relating to personal and emotional characteristics are contributing elements in the makeup of the professional salesperson. However, these attributes alone do not make a salesperson nor do they guarantee success. It takes more than that. A salesperson must also have a leader they can look up to, a leader they can respect, and a leader that can rekindle their personal passion when the tank starts to run dry.
So, if your sales people have become discouraged and unmotivated check the passion level of your team. Get involved with your sales force. Analyze what you have done as a company to support sales leadership. Become a coach, a mentor and take on the responsibility for rekindling that passion even if it means creating change.
What is True Leadership?
Be A Proud Sales Professional
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The Essence of True Leadership
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Today's PROFESSIONAL SALES PERSON Versus THE AMATEUR
Direct Sales Strategies: The Art of Selling and The Sales Presentation
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A Test of Sales Character
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Sales Training – Salespeople, Let Me Sell You a Bridge!
Star Status in Sales
Improve Sales Effectiveness at the Salesperson's Hall of Fame
Are You a True Salels Professiona
Leaders Are Fairly Outnumbered!
Eliminating the Fear of Failure
Transition From Profession To Business - Exploring Your Career Alternatives
"Lazy Sales Professional" - An Oxymoron
How to Generate Personal Energy - Find a Faulty Story
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About the Author: Dr. Rick Johnson RSS for Dr. Rick's articles - Visit Dr. Rick's website www.ceostrategist.com - Sign up to receive "The Howl" a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. - Straight talk about today's issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution's "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com. Dr. Rick Johnson has over 35 years of experience in distribution sales and operations. Rick�s career can be broken down by decades. The first ten years of his distribution career were spent with the largest steel-processing distributor in the world (Joseph T. Ryerson). The second ten years began with Rick starting his own processing distribution center from scratch. In the first year, sales reached $1 million dollars and had grown to $25 million in its tenth year when Rick sold the business to one of the major national chains. The third ten years of Rick�s career dealing with financially troubled Turn-A-Round companies. After completing ten years of TAR work, Rick decided a decade of acting like Darth Vader was enough and became a consultant to the Wholesale Distribution Industry in 1999. Rick received an MBA from Keller Graduate School in Chicago and a Bachelor's degree from Capital University, Columbus Ohio. He also served six years in the United States Air Force as a survival instructor. Rick completed his dissertation on Strategic Leadership and received his Ph.D. in 2005. Rick is frequently published in numerous magazines including a column in Supply House Times, with over 250 different articles published to date. He�s also a published author with eight books to his credit. Click here to visit Dr. Rick's website   Three Value Disciplines Which One Defines Your Company Buiding the Right Culture The Key to Retention The Three Cs of Leadership Curiosity Creativity commitment Ten Tips to Avoid Micro Management What if Your Boss is a Jerk |
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