“ AS A SALES LEADER, HOW MUCH TIME SHOULD I SPEND THINKING?” Think Time The Foundation for Sales Leaders to Realise Their True Potential
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HIS CHALLENGE was offered to a group of business and sales leaders by Sir Graeme Lamb, KBE, CMG, DSO, former Lieutenant General in the British Army at Global Sales Transformation event held recently by Consalia. You will have your own unique response. Sir Graeme stunned our audience by stating that he routinely spent 1/3 of his time reflecting, or “white wall staring” as he called it. This article sets-out why thinking time matters for sales leaders.
Think Time
By Ian Helps, Director Consalia Ltd
Sales is faced with unprecedented change in the ways that customers buy. The first major trend was the professionalisation of procurement. The second trend was the empowerment of all purchasers through ubiquitous availability of information on the internet. The third and current trend is the desire of customers to enter genuine co-creating partnerships with suppliers that “get it”. The third trend is particularly problematic for most of today’s corporations, as it challenges the very foundations on which sales organisa
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tions have been constructed, namely the quarterly-driven sales machine, launching a stream of new products onto the marketplace. Consalia’s research is that successful sales people need to exhibit unique mindsets to win. Other notable commentators e.g. the Sales Executive Council have coined the term The Challenger Sale.
- Reflection FOR action (before the action) - Reflection IN action (during the action) - Reflection ON action (after the action)
As shown below, only 14% of our audience replied ‘reflection ON action’.
So what does this mean for sales managers and leaders? In general, it means that sales leaders in turn have to profoundly transform their habits to support their best sales people or risk becoming obsolete and replaced by those that are unencumbered by old ways.
Reflective practice culture? Yes No
To fully make the transition from salesperson to leader, an individual needs to substantially adjust their “mindset”; the way they think, that in turn shapes their behaviour. The mindset shift is dramatic and non-obvious; it requires a precious commodity in short supply, namely time. 11
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59%
What type of reflecting do you do most of? Reflecting on action Reflecting for action
14%
Reflecting in action
49%
Time to think, reflect and choose priori ties, not simply “last year +20%”.
38%
Time to construct a compelling course of action that inspires your team, your customers and stakeholders.
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41%
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This represents a major missed opportunity to improve. If we think about the process and importance of learning in a business context, we could certainly learn a lot from past events, such as deals won/ lost and why, in order to help guide our future actions.
Time to step-up and be a true leader.
Our research shows that too few managers ever make this time, with the result that many find themselves constantly under extreme pressure, reactive, and unsatisfied with their role.
A clue to why sales leaders generally dedicate so little time to reflection on action is given by the data showing that only 41% of participants felt that that their organisation had a reflective practice culture: it is
At the Global Sales Transformation event referred to earlier, we asked what type of thinking the senior business and sales leaders present do most of:
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just not in most company’s DNA.
value. A starting point for the transition is to better enable their team to succeed through empowerment and helping them achieve their potential. Coaching is a core skill for a sales manager to learn. Developing the listening and guiding skills, the “how” of coaching are essential yet not sufficient. In sales, perhaps to a unique extent, “how” must be allied to “what” to focus the coaching on, as part of their desire to be the best. Whether it is the few key metrics that will make the difference to a team member’s performance e.g. better demand management or deal qualification, or support in finding a way to creatively unstick deals, this enablement needs a framework against which to coach and improve.
Consalia finds that sales managers take a leadership journey when they are promoted from a front line sales role. The willingness to think and reflect on the role connects directly to the speed with which they can climb the leadership ladder and the seniority that they are able to reach. Our research has shown that there are 3 distinct archetypes of sales manager, with differing levels of impact. Super Salesperson – someone who has yet to make the transition to manager, whatever their job title may say. Has probably not received mentoring or leadership development to enable them to build a new vocabulary and self-image as a leader. Still relying on the art of sales and attempting to impose themselves into as many sales cycles as they can, as “the best sales person on their team”. A directive management style, focused largely on revenue forecasting for the quarter. They rely little on the science of sales and crucially, are often unable to communicate a compelling vision for their team, either to internal stakeholders or to prospective customers. Consequently, they are unable to communicate priorities beyond reacting to the latest corporate messaging.
Sales Enablers recognise the need to develop their mindsets in building a team vision. Those that do so are well placed to make the transition to the highest levels of sales leadership. Sales Leader – the highest performers are able to balance their time approximately 1/3 in current quarter (CQ), 1/3 outside CQ and 1/3 on people development. They can do so because they have empowered and developed their peoples’ potential to think and carry out much of the sales process for themselves.
Many sales managers do not make it past this level, which usually has a major negative effect on their career.
The true sales leader is then able to focus on building additional value for the team and the wider organisation by being a clear beacon of transformation. They do so through carefully reflecting and developing a compelling point of view for their team and building the behaviours and sales machine that builds this desire to be
Sales Enabler – a higher leadership performer. This manager has recognised the need to adopt the mindsets of a leader and has considered where they add
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the best into practical action. The resultant choices enable the team to succeed exceptionally well. Such sales leaders are the potential sales top management for the future, able to attract the best talent and quickly re-orient the business to the changing demands of customers. Consalia’s experience is that making time for reflection ON action and using that time to apply the leadership mindsets to one’s own development as a sales leader is the key to becoming a high performance leader is sales. The Sales Executive Council (SEC) has found that higher performing sales coaches ie Sales Enablers or Sales Leaders in Consalia terminology, not only achieve higher sales performance in general, they also attract the best sales talent, who see opportunities to be coached and mentored in winning ways and thereby achieve their own potential. This virtuous circle is great news for some. The leaders of such teams are therefore often able to secure the best sales leadership positions and to advance through the organisation.
Get in Touch For more information on Consalia’s Leadership development programmes, please contact: UK Head Office: Tel: +44 (0)208 977 6944 email: ihelps@consalia.com or visit: www.consalia.com
We do not seek to understate how hard it can be to find thinking time in a hectic corporate life. As a leader, it is up to you to find the time for the sake of your career and those of your team. How and where you find it is a personal choice. For example, some leaders block-out early morning time in their diary for thinking, some devote travel time to it, rather than routine tasks like catching up on email. However you do it, if you use thinking time judiciously, it may be the best investment you make in allowing you to be a winner, with countless more possibilities to develop your career. Ian Helps Director, Consalia Copyright © 2012 Consalia Ltd
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About Consalia Consalia is a global sales performance improvement company. We help international organisations transform their sales effectiveness through consultancy and customised training & development solutions. Our mission is to bring the greatest value to our customers by using our global network of wholly-owned offices and international partners. We do this by aligning our approach to the specific business drivers of each customer’s business. We tailor solutions to suit different cultural environments and show our customers how to apply their sales strategy effectively. We invite you to explore how our proven mindset approach to sales has transformed the sales performance of some of the world’s foremost organisations, and generated validated sales improvement of over $6.75 billion in 6 years, and growing!
Think Time
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“ AS A SALES LEADER, HOW MUCH TIME SHOULD I SPEND THINKING?” “... IT DEPENDS ON YOUR AMBITION!”
Think Time
25.10.2012