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Fix Sales Problems: Wear Hats Not Masks Leading Your Sales Team

 

 

 

 

As I shared in my post: “ Congratulations you have been promoted to sales manager…now what?” leading sales teams requires new skills you may not have acquired as a sales super star performer. Just because you were an amazing salesperson does not mean you will be a top performing sales leader. A common mistake new managers make is they put on masks of who they think they need to be to effectively lead their sales team. In this post I will share why sales leaders must learn to put on hats not masks.

 

“The most common mistake I see sales leaders make is they wear masks not hats.”– Mark Allen Roberts

…. let me explain.

Leading sales teams is about serving your team and helping them achieve sales goals and objectives. Often those goals and objectives are difficult and seemingly beyond reach for your people.

You cannot and will not effectively and efficiently lead your sales team until you remove the masks you developed over the years and start strategically putting on hats your teams require.

What do I mean by wearing a mask?

A mask is an adapted behavior we all use to adjust to a belief that is often not true. It is something we create to protect us.

You have seen people wearing masks many times I am sure…

 

The person who has to be the smartest person in the room..

 The jokester who makes a joke out of everything..

 The debater who has to win every argument even if they are wrong..

 The intimidator, gladiator if you will..

 The belle of the ball that needs to be the center of attention …

 

What these all have in common is they are about that person, for that person to feel safe. These masks and more were developed to protect that person from triggering a belief that makes them feel they are not safe and to avoid feeling fearful.

There are many others but what they all have in common is they are adaptive behaviors people have developed over time to protect themselves.

Would it surprise you to learn, as much as 50% of your personality was developed by the time you were seven years old? By the time you were eleven almost 90% of who you think you are and how you see the world was developed.

Over time you have experienced both positive and negative experiences. We create masks as defense mechanisms to protect us from future negative interactions. Think of a mask as you playing a role, an actor if you will in a play. You become whom you think you need to be to survive. However these masks prevent us from having authentic human interactions. Those people you deal with feel your lack of authenticity and they put on their masks…resulting in interactions that fail to discuss real issues.

Let that resonate for a minute….

Would you let an eleven year old make key decisions in your life?

Would you let a seven year old run your company? Lead your sales team?

I hear some of you saying..

I don’t wear masks…I authentically lead my sales team”…I hear you but you are probably wrong.

Unless you have worked with a coach, discovered all those false beliefs and reprogrammed them chances are you are wearing masks.

I gave a very short speech on this deep topic recently for a toastmaster’s competition. If this idea of the masks we wear and how they interrupt and interfere with being the leader you were born to be is something you would like to learn more about you could watch my speech here.

 

Wearing masks interfere with leading your teams authentically and must be removed.

 

Masks prevent you from authentically connecting with those you serve and negatively impact you’re your team’s performance.

 

Just as buyers are hungry for authentic salespeople, your salespeople are hungry for an authentic sales leader.

 

What sales leaders, leaders in general for that matter, must do is drop their masks and understand the various hats we can and often need to wear to serve our teams.

 

What are the most common hats a sales leader needs to wear?

 

In “Developing a Leadership Style,” Alan Murray shares six styles of leadership from Daniel Goleman’s “Primal Leadership.”

 

  1. Visionary.
  2. Coaching
  3. Affiliative
  4. Democratic
  5. Pacesetting
  6. Commanding

 

I found this content on how to develop your leadership style and the various hats leaders must learn to wear very informative. If you would like to learn more I recommend you read this Wall Street Journal Article and buy the book.

Hats are about serving others, how you adapt your service based on the needs of others.

The hat you wear helping one salesperson, one employee, may be much different than the hat you wear for others.

If your true goal is to grow your organization profitably you must learn how to loose masks and put on the right hat for each leadership opportunity.

 

How about you?

What mask do you wear? 

What hats do you feel comfortable putting on?

Are there any hats discussed above that make you feel uncomfortable? Why?

Are you letting an 11 year old run your sales team? Your company? Your life?

 

You were born to be great. You are destined for greatness! You have specific gifts and talents to serve others.

 

It is time we all must loose our masks and start wearing the right hats to authentically serve our teams.

 

What we are discussing here is emotional intelligence. In my speech I shared one way to help you identify false beliefs that cause you to wear masks and reprogram them.

 

In my next post I will share an important new book all sales leaders must have in their libraries Sales EQ, How ultra-high performers leverage sales-specific emotional intelligence to close the complex deal by Jeb Blount.

 

If this topic of “masks” is new to you, and you would like to learn more, I highly recommend you read the following books.

 

True Faced, by Bill Thrall

 

UNMASK, let go of who you’re supposed to be & unleash your true leader by Jeff Nishhwitz 

 

 

Two Reasons the CEO Should Not Run Sales

  

The role of CEO is hard enough, particularly in this shifting and changing economy. Balancing all the spinning plates you face each day is difficult without trying to lead and manage a sales team.

The quickest way to insure a sales decline is have your sales team report to the CEO.

 

I have seen sales decline when CEO’s take on the role of driving the sales team for two common reasons;

CEO’s fail to provide the sales team a Value Proposition that resonates with buyers

 

CEO’s communication preference and style

 

One of the best parts of my job helping a variety of businesses that have what they call a “sales problems”. I have served a number of CEO’s over the years and as a group (for the most part) they understand their most important role is  the keeper of their brand promise and positioning .

To be effective as CEO you need to balance all those spinning plates while also focusing on those initiatives that result in the greatest impact on the business today and in the future. (not a job for the faint of heart) CEO’s are natural at problem solving and driving the execution of key performance indicators. They are process driven and have the tenacity of a pit bull once they lock into a vision.

Most CEO’s should never lead sales for two main reasons;

 

CEO’s fail to provide the sales team a value proposition that resonates with buyers

 

Salespeople require a market driven value proposition for the products and services they sell. This should explain the problems you solve for your buyers and not just what you do. It should help your sales team understand who they should target. To insure your value proposition resonates and continues to connect with buyers you must listen and observe the market on a continual basis. Focused CEO’s are flying at 45,000 feet above your market and often become frustrated when sales teams share new roadblocks to achieving their goals. What CEO’s want is sales velocity.

You can tell when your CEO is frustrated when he or she says;

 “ just make it happen”,

… or my favorite ” I don’t pay you to tell me problems, I pay you to sell through objections and hit your numbers…” .

 CEO’s have so many things already on their plates the last thing they need is to add more “to-do’s” to add to their never-ending list. Often buried deep in sales feedback you will find the need for new sales tools for ajusting the sales process based on a buying process that shifted.

A strong VP of Sales can work with salespeople and the CEO. The VP of sales understands the mission and objectives while also constantly assessing the market, buyer needs, buyer criteria, and equips the sales team with value propositions and sales tools.

 

 

CEO’s communication preference and personality style

 

CEO’s are focused on communicating in short bullet point bursts and salespeople speak in stories. ( can you see the train wreck about to happen?) Market leading salespeople incorporate what I teach that I call “story speak”. As opposed to speaking in feature and benefits, I teach salespeople to listen to the buyer problems and share how our product or service solves that problem in the form of a story. So we teach salespeople to speak in stories to communicate effectively, but we get frustrated when they can’t report results to us in bullet points?

I attended a sales conference once and the CEO brought me in to fix what he called  a repeatable sales process problem. He asked his team to individually meet with me to share the common roadblocks they face in achieving their numbers each month. ( so far so good)

But then he said something that still makes me cringe… 

And remember Mark is busy like me so…

Be brief…

 

Be brilliant….

 

Then Be Gone…

(When he got to this part three of the salespeople in the room also said “be gone”…they obviously have heard this before)

CEO’s often rise up through the accounting, technology, and finance channels and they are very process driven. They do not mange people, they develop and manage processes,systems, and or people to follow processes. If you follow DISC assessments, most CEO’s are high D, moderate to low S and low I and moderate to high C. Most salespeople have (very) high I, high D and low S and C. (Often very low C) So again, just based on how CEO’s and salespeople are naturally wired that light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

An experienced VP of sales is constantly listening for common market roadblocks shared among their sales team. They grew up through the sales ranks.Experienced sales leaders understand you need to lead each salesperson individually. A seasoned sales leader will observe and listen to changing buyer problems and processes to identify sales tools the team needs to help their teams continue conversations to a close. VP’s of sales earned long ago how to use their sales team’s natural styles and they provide back-end support for their shortfalls.

So how about your experience…..

 

Should sales report to the CEO? Why or why not?

 

Is there a benefit for CEO’s to have sales teams report to them?

 

What impact, if any, have you seen on the morale of the salespeople who report directly to the CEO?

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