10 Characteristics of Bold Sales Leaders
Sales leaders have had to adapt to virtual selling, work from home, supply chain issues, passing on price increases and sales rep turnover.
In 2023 there is a strong possibility that you will be dealing with cost-cutting and lower demand due to recessionary pressures. Succeeding in a recession will require developing new strategies and approaches to lead your team and adapt to the economic conditions.
Your success is directly related to achieving or exceeding company revenue objectives.
You need to determine how to lead your team to achieve your objectives.
To get results, you will also have to deal with that will make your ability to deliver results more challenging.
You are likely to face the following internal obstacles to growing your business and achieving your objectives:
1. Risk Aversion: Senior management is more risk averse by reducing expenses, cutting back on investments, and lacking an appetite to approve new sales initiatives.
2. Sales Prevention: Internal departments such as legal, operations and compliance will continue to find ways to prevent your deals from moving forward. Their zero-risk approach can slow or kill deals.
3. Resistance to Change: Salespeople are experiencing exhaustion and resistance to change because of the high level of change, stress, and burnout they have experienced over the last few years. They may struggle to implement and execute new initiatives.
4. Lack of Accountability: When facing a more challenging sales environment, salespeople use excuses for not achieving their quotas. It is up to leadership to hold them accountable for their performance.
What Sales Leadership Style Will Prevail in 2023?
A BOLD sales leadership style is characterized by taking calculated risks, being confident and courageous and making bold decisions to drive sales and business growth.
During a recession, a BOLD sales leadership approach will prevail.
I like the thesaurus description much better: daring, intrepid, brave, courageous, valorous, fearless, dauntless, audacious, adventurous, heroic, brave, spirited, confident, assured, and swashbuckling.
I love the word “swashbuckling,” as it evokes images of pirates and sleek clipper ships running fast with the wind. Imagine if we dressed up as pirates when describing our vision of winning to employees and stakeholders! Think how it might change when they hear the message from a BOLD leader!
10 Characteristics OF BOLD Sales Leaders
1. Bold leaders challenge the status quo and think outside the box to find new and innovative ways to increase revenue.
2. They are adept at persuading senior management to support their initiatives and getting their team to buy in and execute their ideas.
3. Bold sales leaders are not afraid to take responsibility for their decisions’ success or failure and are willing to make difficult decisions to achieve their goals.
4. Bold leaders also tend to be highly confident and charismatic, with the ability to inspire and motivate their teams to achieve great things.
5. Bold sales leaders succeed by being proactive and taking the initiative to drive sales and business growth. They constantly seek new opportunities and are not afraid to take risks to achieve their goals. They are also skilled at creating a vision for the future and inspiring and motivating their teams to work towards that vision.
6. Bold sales leaders are not afraid to support their salespeople. They will fight with passion to ensure that their salespeople get what they need to be successful.
7. Bold sales leaders are effective communicators who create a clear and compelling message that aligns the team with the company’s goals and objectives. They also have a deep understanding of the market and the competitive landscape, which allows them to make informed decisions and adapt to changing market conditions.
8. They are skilled at building strong relationships with key stakeholders, customers, and internal “sales prevention” departments to help move deals along.
9. They don’t avoid difficult conversations with their team and create a culture of accountability and performance within their team, which helps to drive results and increase sales.
10. Overall, bold sales leaders can drive growth and achieve success by constantly seeking new opportunities, being proactive, and inspiring and motivating their teams to achieve great things.
If you’re not bold, what are you waiting for? Things to slow down? Fewer emails to distract you from winning?
The time to BE BOLD is now! Being timid will not help you achieve your objectives.
Fortune Favors the BOLD – Audentes Fortuna Juvat
Steven
