The What, the Why, and the How In Sales Leadership
Moving From Ok to Good and Then Great
“We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him,
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,
Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,
Made him our pattern to live and to die!”
from The Lost Leader by Robert Browning
It was Kevin “KD” Dorsey, a Sales Leadership Coach, that shared his approach to leadership in an inspiring session at a Pavilion roadshow in LA a few weeks ago.
It is a simple mantra:
“Ok leaders talk about the what,
good leaders talk about the why,
and great leaders talk about the how.”
Picture yourself as a Sales Director of a SAAS company in a one-on-one with one of your Inside Reps. You are reviewing the dashboard and seeing the weakness in the pipeline. You talk about the below-average deal size and lack of sales of a recently launched plug-in product. You are covering the WHAT.
Having those details available is a necessary foundation for any successful sales leadership. But you can do better. It is like two people sitting on a park bench and talking about the fact that the grass they are looking at is green. Those details need to be common knowledge across the organization; there is no need to even talk about them.
Good leaders talk about the WHY. Why is their deal size below average? Why do they not sell the new product?
But they also talk about the why of their organization. They realize that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the why behind it. Doing so makes people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than those who do not embrace the why. And they also command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike.
Your “Why” conversation as the Sales Director in this scenario can focus on why the rep is not embracing the new product. It might be previous negative customer feedback, lack of knowledge on benefits or functionality, … there are plenty of whys to uncover and address.
Because great leaders talk about the HOW: How to address the shortfalls and the reasons why they occur. Sometimes it is simple and measures like training, sharing successes or best practices, and providing better scripts do the trick. And sometimes, it is harder and the "How" involves addressing perception and ill-fit.
Great leaders embrace the "How" in everything they do. They listen and continuously learn; they walk the talk and continuously connect and coach.
Contact us to find out the “How” of great fractional and interim sales leaders.
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Simon Sinek – Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Photo by Anne Gosewehr