“Make sure that you’re taking care of yourself, help your leader be what you need him or her to be, or go find an organization where they already have one.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 819
How’s your sales leader?
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Clubhouse
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Books by Jeff Bajorek
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The Why And The Buy Podcast
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. It’s Saturday and in so many ways that means it’s Jeff Bajorek day. Here he is:
Jeff Bajorek: There a lot of bad sales leaders out there. I said it, I know it was blunt, but come on, you’ve heard me on this show before, right? But I don’t think that’s because there are a lot of bad people in sales leadership roles. I just think it’s a really tough role. I think it’s the toughest in any organization. And I think a lot of people when faced with that kind of adversity, forget their fundamentals. Now I think that if you’re a leader, you should be thinking of your team as your new customers. And if you thought of treating your team the way you would treat your best customers, you’d probably treat them a little differently. Would ya? And if that sounds like you then change the way you interact with your team. You need them to trust you, which means that you can’t be in a territory right next to them fighting over commission dollars. It means that you have to be remarkably consistent in your behavior because you are only going to get their best when you show them that you are going to be consistent in your actions, when they can anticipate how you’re going to react, when they can anticipate what they need to give you. Right?
It makes everything go much smoother, not just from a logistical standpoint, but imagine having the influence on them when you’re not around them, because they know how you would act, picture and maybe some of you are just too young for this, but picture Jiminy Cricket sitting on your reps shoulder, is that Jiminy Cricket sounds like you? Or are they constantly fighting what they anticipate your reaction is going to be? And does that cause issues while they’re out there trying to execute in the field and the best leaders that I’ve ever worked with, they have a very high degree of transparency with their team. They’re willing to open up the curtain, so to speak, and let their reps see what’s going on. Because the more information a rep, particularly top-performing reps, the more information they have about the company’s motives about their leader’s motives, the more able they are to integrate everybody’s best interests into their own activities.
I always tried to do that as a rep. I always wanted to make sure that the way I was acting was in line with my company’s motives, right? I wanted to make sure that all of our best interests were aligned. I was rarely ever surprised. And it also helped me do a few more kind of off the menu offerings for some of my customers in the field, because I had a pretty good idea of whether or not this crazy idea was going to fly and I could run it up the chain and really make great things happen.
If you want a team of top performers, or even just a team with a couple of top performers on it, you need to start acting this way as a leader. And if you are listening to this and you don’t have a leader like that, I want you to know that they’re out there. So make sure that you’re taking care of yourself, help your leader be what you need him or her to be, or go find an organization where they already have one.
Scott Ingram: For more about Jeff and from Jeff, including the link to his Saturday morning Sales sessions on Clubhouse, just click over to DailySales.Tips/819
After that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip, or just keep on going with your binge if that’s what you’re up to. Either way. Thanks for listening!