5 Critical Sales Leadership Skills
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5 Critical Skills A Sales Leader Needs
Great sales leaders all have some things in common. So, if you are looking to up your leadership game, there are a few key skills that you should consider developing. In this guide, we unpack the five skills successful sales leaders need to possess.
One: Be Engaged
Sales teams require hands-on leadership. You need to engage with your team. This means going beyond managing them through email, CRM systems, or other productivity tools. You need to speak with them on a daily basis and know exactly what deals are in the pipeline. By speaking with each team member you can more easily understand their specific strengths and weaknesses.
Two: Be Inquisitive
Sales leaders are often pressed for time, which can lead them to act immediately when faced with a problem rather than waiting to get all the info. However, it is often important to ask the right questions and learn more about a situation before you act. In the long run, being curious in this way will make it easier to make the correct decision and save you time. Plus, asking clever questions can get your sales team to think through the situation and develop a solution themselves.
Three: Use Roleplaying
Although roleplaying is often disliked by salespeople, it can be a valuable training tool. To get around its bad reputation, we recommend you call it ‘modelling’ or ‘practice’. Start by identifying the top issues your sales team is facing at each stage of the sales process. Then begin roleplaying these situations. You can play the part of the prospect and ask challenging questions that force your salespeople to carefully consider their approach.
Four: Pre-call Planning
Salespeople usually have a very limited time to progress a call towards a sale. It becomes so much easier for salespeople to make effective calls when they have fully considered what to say beforehand. By helping them establish a pre-call plan you can:
- Prepare them for difficult questions
- Boost their confidence
- Identify potential skills and behaviour gaps they may need to work on.
For more details on all the above and the fifth critical sales leadership skill, we suggest you download our free guide.
Sales leadership and team training sessions
Learn how to improve your sales leadership skills or get expert-led training to develop your sales team. At Sandler UK, we have sales expertise based on over forty years in the industry. We offer a wide range of face-to-face training sessions for you to choose from in convenient training centres across the UK. Feel free to get in touch with our team to learn more about the benefits our training can bring.
