5 essential leadership skills to successfully lead a sales team in 2022

I recently had a client meeting where the client goes – The CRM helps me save 5 hours per week in terms of communicating with my sales teams and getting updates from them. And I was like why doesn’t every sales manager and founder think like this?

Which got me thinking about this topic.

So here are 5 essential leadership skills to successfully lead a sales team in 2022

1. Innovative and Strategic

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

– Steve Jobs

The sales team’s goals must be aligned with the company’s growth strategy so that it’s clearer to achieve their goals. Sales leaders should visualize their team’s success jointly with their company’s growth. They seek out modern and innovative ways to achieve maximum outcomes through efficient methods and by using fewer resources.

All sales leaders are battlefield commanders who must devise the organization’s sales strategy to defeat the competition. This requires plotting the best course of action to maximize profit using the most cost-effective sales model. Great sales leaders possess the insight to correctly deploy field or inside salespeople, segment the market into verticals, and to specialize sales teams by product or customer types when necessary.

2. Communication

“If you just communicate, you can get by. But if you communicate skillfully, you can work miracles.”

-Jim Rohn

Communication is key to accomplishment in any leadership role. And the first step to effective communication is getting your facts and data right. This is where using tools like TeleCRM for accurate tracking of sales execs activities can help sales managers get their facts straight and communicate effectively with the right data in mind.

Learning to effectively communicate with your organization’s executives helps your leadership quickly understand and work upon information from the sales division; regardless, it also directly impacts your success as a sales manager.

When a sales team’s manager is a powerful communicator and works adequately with leadership, a company’s entire sales system is more impactful.

3. Coaching adaptability

Great sales leaders understand that there is a diversity of selling styles by which salespeople can accomplish the feat. Therefore, they don’t employ a one-size-fits-all coaching style. Rather, they tailor their style to suit each individual. The certainty that high-performing sales managers had a higher team effectiveness factor than underperforming teams supports these assertions.

4. People’s Person and One Who Understands People

“A sales leader is only as good as his team.”

Great sales leadership isn’t just about being a great salesperson or diviner. Great sales leaders comprehend how to work with people. They are efficient in the hiring process, assuring that those who join your team are the best fit for your organisation. Leaders can see the favourable traits that your employees hold and have experience coaching employees and working with them to incorporate feedback and evaluate and reframe goals. They might have their own leadership styles unique to them, but the best leaders know when they can should adapt.

5. Process and Results Oriented

When people think of success in sales, the emphasis is usually on numbers. But hitting targets only tells half of the story. Sales is a game of both skill and chance – no matter how skilled you are, you’re never going to be able to sell to everybody that comes your way.

That’s why sales leaders understand the importance of not just results, but the process that leads to those results. A skilled sales leader has a keen talent for balancing both the process and the results. They’re able to stay the course when necessary, but they’re also capable of adjusting when needed.