Sales Leadership Implementing Sales Leadership

Sales Leadership

Implementing Sales Leadership Theories and Techniques: Implications for Management and Supervision

Increasing the efficacy and efficiency of sales leadership is a goal for most organizations operating today, as this provides the greatest potential profit from a given outlay of resources, ensuring that sales efforts generate the revenues that are required for the organization to remain successful. The more effective the sales team of a given organization is, the larger their market share and the greater their potential for profit and market dominance will be, all other factors being equal. Obviously, then, increasing sales efficiency and effectiveness is a top priority for many competing organizations, yet any increase in effectiveness in one company necessarily means a decrease in market share and sales efficacy for at least one of its competitors.

From this it is easily seen that attempts at improving sales effectiveness and increasing market share cannot happen in a vacuum; there must necessarily be an awareness of if not a direct response to changes in the strategy and positioning of other companies. It is here that the strategic and management decisions influencing sales efficacy truly stand out for their importance; creating industry- and market-specific sales strategies is essential for true efficacy to be achieved. It is not enough merely to implement general sales techniques and tactics, but in order to develop large market shares and truly enhance profitability sales strategies must be developed in relation to competitors and other specific market forces. This is only achieved through careful management and supervision of the sales force.

Sales leadership requires different management techniques and strategies than leadership in other aspects and operations of an organization, and the specific techniques for developing and maintaining strong sales leadership within a given organization will be detailed below. It is essential to remember, however, that market specific factors and influences must also be taken into account when developing a sales strategy. The information provided herein is of a more general nature, and though it is broadly applicable to any organization that engages in sales efforts as a major part if its operations and success, it should not be considered exhaustive of the strategies and techniques necessary for developing sales leadership in specific organizations and/or industries. Through this discussion of general sales leadership development strategies, however, it is hoped that industry- and organization-specific strategies can be developed with the general recommendations serving as a template.

Sales Leadership

One of the most pressing issues facing sales leadership is the common occurrence of plateaued sales individuals and teams that cease showing signs of improvement in their sales records after a period of previous improvements and gains (Havaldar & Cavale 2007). Effective sales leadership strategies must find ways to continually motivate employees to ever-increasing improvements and sales records, or must be ready to replace plateaued individuals with newer members to the sales team that can continually improve sales performance above currently desired levels (Havaldar & Cavale 2007). Growth, in sales, is the measure of success.

Complexity, collaboration, and accountability are the three areas in while sales leaders can help their sales forces to achieve this growth (LaForge 2005). In markets where change is a constant -- an increasing state of affairs for many markets and industries in the modern era -- the complexities of the many factors affecting and influencing sales efficacy must be properly accounted for by sales leaders and communicated to sales teams in order for continued adjustments to sales strategy and techniques to remain effective (LaForge 2005). Collaboration must be fostered in the sales team in order to achieve the organization's goals while accountability is also a necessity ensuring that each individual member of a sales team is working effectively toward organizational goals (LaForge 2005). The result is a sales leadership mentality and structure that encourages open communication amongst all members of the sales force and that also recognizes and rewards individual achievements.

Transformational leadership that involves one-on-one communications between the sales leader and each individual member of the sales team and is used to inspire specific actions and perspectives preemptively rather than reacting to them after the fact is highly effective in achieving these ends (Bakersfield 2010). Other leadership forms have been suggested and can prove efficacious in sales departments as well (Bakersfield 2010). The adaptability and individual successes of the transformational style is preferred for creating dynamic and responsive sales teams that remain in control of their own success and generally reflect stronger cohesion with organizational foals and specific sales efforts and strategies (Bakersfield 2010).