Sales Tip 1818: Don't Lock Superman in the Phone Booth

“I believe that on most sales teams, there’s at least one and potentially several sellers with superhuman potential. The leader’s job is to help unlock that potential.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 1818

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2025 Sales Success Summit
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Transcript

You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast, and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. I’ve been meaning to share this tip, this idea, for a while. This one is geared more towards the sales leaders out there, and I mean leader in the full sense of the word, because I see too many sales managers who are just lazy. Lazy management, to me, looks like management by the numbers. This approach is all about trying to fit the entire sales team into the same box. The underlying thinking here is that sales is a math equation, and if everybody does the same things by the numbers, then the conversion rates and percentages will provide consistent and predictable outcomes. Personally, I think this is garbage. Sales is more a human equation than it is a math equation.

And to get the most out of the human equation, it means that you have to work with each individual human to figure out what’s going to work best for them. At the 2023 Sales Success Summit, we talked a lot about leveraging our sales superpowers. Well, here’s a question for the leaders out there. If you had somebody on your team who could fly and produce unbelievable results, wouldn’t you want to let them do that? Well, if you’re taking this management by the numbers approach and trying to put everybody in the same box, you’re likely locking Superman in the phone booth. And instead of putting on a cape and flying, you’re expecting them to do magical things with a payphone. Don’t you think that might be a little frustrating for Superman, who desperately wants to fly and save the day?

I believe that on most sales teams, there’s at least one and potentially several sellers with superhuman potential. The leader’s job is to help unlock that potential. If you have somebody on your team who could literally fly, why on earth would you ever lock them in that phone booth? Wouldn’t you want to give them a cape? That’s the job of a great sales leader.