The world is constantly evolving and we need to redefine our roles in sales.
It used to be enough for your team to know about your services and products, and to have the skills to walk your customers through the sales process.
Now they need to be adaptive, good with people and feelings too.
In my experience the development most organisations focus on is the transfer of information, I’ll refer to it as technical development. How to negotiate, close, present…the list is long.
Sadly, technical development does not lead to transformation.
Think of it this way…
Each of your sales people has their own operating system. Information transfer is like loading an app. The app is perfect but if the operating system isn’t updated the app won’t work.
Loading apps into the mind of your sales people and expecting them to change is naïve.
Instead, you must focus on developing mental capacity…adaptive learning. This is like updating their operating system so that the apps you’re sharing with them can work effectively.
Most Sales Leaders have never received training on developing the mental capacity in their team and leave this kind of stuff to HR, L&D or Sales Enablement/Ops.
This is fine for development programmes but what about the day to day?
Developmental leadership: where you come in…
Ongoing development is vital to fulfilment, growth and success. A blend of challenge and support from you in between programmes is what leads to transformation over time.
Here are 7 considerations for you to think about if you’re going to take your sales leadership responsibility seriously when it comes to developing your team:
- Learning is a life long activity…not just for the training room. It happens every day.
- Do you recognise the difference between technical development and adaptive learning?
- Do you understand and cultivate each person’s motivation to grow? This is a strong human desire.
- Shifting mindset takes time and isn’t evenly paced…some phases take longer than others. How patient are you?
- Mindset shifts take time and involve engaging both the head and heart.
- Mindset shifts or behavioural change on their own don’t lead to transformation…it requires both to happen to create long term change.
- Do you have the psychological safety required for the individuals in your team to feel they can try new things and fail without negative consequences?
Without these elements in place, you’ll struggle to create growth, retain talent and achieve success.
Take some time to think about where you need to make changes because transformation starts with you!
Until next time,
Leigh 😊
PS If you want to develop your sales team then join me on 24th March on my live virtual event ‘Sales Leadership Essentials for 2022’. More information here
Thanks Akil Mazumder for the great image 🙂
