“Activity plus effectiveness equals results.” – Jack Wilson in today’s Tip 174
What is your idea about how successfully transitioning from Seller to Sales Leader?
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Jack Wilson on LinkedIn
Cinch I.T.
Jack Wilson on Sales Success Stories Interview
The Real Value Add in Sales by Jack Wilson
2019 Sales Success Summit
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Jack Wilson and since he’s self-introducing, I’ll just let him share these thoughts and talk to you again afterward:
Jack Wilson: Hey there, Daily Sales Tips community. My name is Jack Wilson and I’m the director of business development with Cinch I.T. The only managed it services franchise of its kind. Today I’m here to share my tips on successfully transitioning from a quota carrying top producer to a leadership role. More importantly, I’d like to share what I see as some of the most common challenges and how to adjust your mindset to overcome them. Although they’re often afforded the opportunity to lead based on prior performance. Many top producers struggle finding success in leadership roles at times they even optical back into the field. Why is this? As an individual contributor, we’re used to being in control of our own outcomes. We can readily identify our goals and as top producers inherently we know what we need to do to achieve those goals. Win or lose, we own the results and when we’re struggling, we find ways to impact change. As a leader, it can be challenging to identify areas of improvement when it comes to the members of your team. Even when those opportunities are apparent, it’s not just as easy as pointing them out and telling a rep what to do and how to do it. It takes consistent coaching and time. Since we’re so conditioned to instant gratification in our past life as an individual contributor, we begin to feel frustrated. When our team doesn’t produce quite like we expected, we start to feel like we’re failing and perhaps we lose a sense of control over the outcome. Even where still since we were top producers, we think that everybody can and should be just like we were. When in reality less than 10% of sales teams will ever achieve at those levels. So what do we do about it? Before we stepped back from a leadership role and into being an intentional individual contributor. As Scott Ingram calls it, try to understand that you’re playing the same game and all you need to do is apply your tenacity in a new light. Identify the new processes and new behaviors that lead to the success of your reps as a leader. Results take on a new meeting. It might sound crazy, but you no longer need to focus as much on the closes and the dollar signs of revenue. The means are now much more important than the ends because developing reps in three key areas, formidable skills, the appropriate activity levels, and the right mindset will lay the groundwork for sustainable results over their career. Consider the age old formula of sales success, Activity plus effectiveness equals results. Use the tools at your disposal and one-to-one coaching sessions to identify which of these variables each rep on your team can improve incrementally, even though the end goal may be to achieve company defined results along the way, your goal as a leader should be to help your reps realize an upward trajectory and the level of those three key areas, activities and effectiveness primarily. The last and perhaps most critical factor in my mind is mindset. I’m firmly in the camp that identifying the right candidate for the job is crucial upfront and I prefer to hire for attitude and train for skills. It’s much harder to light a fire than it is to stoke one that might be burning well. When it comes to fostering mindset as a leader, consider this. Who is the most influential leader in your career and how do they make you feel? Do you gravitate towards the leaders who harped on you for numbers because they needed results or do you tend to regale the leader that held you accountable to yourself because they sincerely wanted you to achieve your personal goals while helping you celebrate each step in the right direction? Think about it. Now, get out there and be the leader. You always want it.
Scott Ingram: I love the way Jack thinks and if you want more from Jack I’ve got a couple of options for you. You can listen to our original interview together in episode 57 of the Sales Success Stories Podcast. You can listen to the story he contributed to the B2B Sales Mentors book called “The Real Value Add in Sales” or better yet you can join us at the Sales Success Summit in October where Jack will be delivering his presentation: “Managing Your Margins: The Impact of Minimum Viable Habits.” As well as being a part of the managing your sales career series of panels focused on the sales leadership path.
For links to all of that, and to learn how to connect with Jack, which I know he’ll be open to (see yesterday’s tip for more on that topic) click over to DailySales.Tips/174
Then come back tomorrow for another great sales tip.