Here's What Sales Leaders Should Prioritize in 2021 According to a Sandler Expert

How has your sales leadership style changed this year? As companies are facing uncertainty with their ability to operate and sell their products, effective leadership may have a whole new set of requirements. If you’re still leading the same way you have been for years, now is the perfect time to adapt your leadership style to better meet the needs of your organization during challenging times.

HubSpot recently surveyed over 500 sales leaders and found40% of them have missed revenue targets今年 - 如果他们的业务要生存，这一重大趋势将无法继续。在导航全球流行和经济不确定性的同时，这影响了买家与销售流程的互动方式，销售领导者必须在接近领导团队的方式方面保持敏捷。

是时候重写销售领导力规则。2020年的活动从根本上改变了销售领导者与团队互动，管理和授权的方式。为了保持业务发展和运营，销售领导者必须能够解决阻止他们在当今市场上达到收入目标的因素。

Our team sat down withSuzie Andrews, President and CEO ofStark and Associates Sandler Trainingto learn more about how sales leaders need to prepare for success in 2021 and beyond.

Andrews and her team work with company Presidents, CEOs, and sales executives who are frustrated with stalled revenue, and lack of company growth. According to Andrews, "Many leaders are motivated to grow their business, but they don’t realize what gaps they need to overcome in order to get there."

Andrews shared valuable insight on how sales and business leaders can overcome these gaps to effectively lead their teams through continued periods of uncertainty. Continue reading to learn what sales leaders should prioritize in 2021.

Sales Leader Priorities for 2021

1. Transparency and involvement from company leadership.

根据安德鲁斯的说法，获得收入的责任不能仅仅在于销售团队。她说：“销售组织的最终领导者是公司的总裁，首席执行官或所有者。他们应该与销售人员一起在现场，因为这表明他们在乎。”raybet电子竞技

She continues, "If the President, CEO or the director is actually out in the field interacting with their salespeople, they can provide necessary support, reinforcement, and additional coaching and training."

在许多情况下，高级领导只有在出现问题或销售低于目标的情况下才涉及销售问题。当领导者在每个阶段参与其中时，惊喜就会更少，销售代表和经理在整个销售周期中都会受到更多支持。

Additionally, Andrews points out the importance of alignment between sales and company leaders. She says,

“在处理销售领导人时,我总是会to bring in the President and CEO. They all have to work together and be aligned on their approach. They have to clearly define where their business is today, and what they are currently tracking and measuring.

从那里开始，我们提出了一系列重要问题，例如：应该衡量的正确要素吗？这些重点领域是否可以推动您的业务前进？

Once you have your company priorities and targets set, sales and business leaders should get clear on what is expected from your salespeople day in and day out. It’s the Sandler concept of a cookbook – how do you build your recipe for success?

Define what success looks like for your organization, set clear expectations, and track and measure progress from the top down."

2. Model a positive mindset.

Mindset is a top asset for any sales employee, and sales leaders have the power to greatly influence their organization with their attitude.

According to Andrews, "Before a sales leader does anything else, they have to decide what their mindset is going to be. It’s their job to create a strong foundation for their organization, and they should get really clear about what’s required of them, and of their employees."

The mindset of a sales leader can set the tone for the working habits of the entire organization. When leaders are managing from a place of scarcity, this can permeate throughout their team, hindering growth.

3. Support your sales managers.

Sales managers experience a great deal of pressure from all sides. Not only are they accountable to their reps, and are often tasked with supporting and coaching them through their daily work, but they are also accountable to leadership who looks to them to deliver on their targets.

在许多组织中，销售经理与销售总监或副总裁之间的关系围绕报告绩效报告，几乎没有开发空间。

Instead of having conversations between sales leaders and managers only revolve around metrics, Andrews recommends having this information easily available on a dashboard where leaders can quickly access the information they need. Having the data sales leaders need when they need it and where they need it frees up necessary time and space to provide necessary support to sales managers.

When sales leaders provide consistent support to their sales managers through clear expectations and constant communication, the entire team benefits.

4. Use remote work to your advantage.

The transition toremote sellinghas been a big adjustment for many organizations in 2020. While those who worked in inside sales may have had a smoother transition, there is plenty of opportunity for those who worked in the field tosuccessfully sell remotely也是如此。销售领导者应该寻找机会与远程销售大通建立联系，以销售代表不断出现时。

Andrews says sales leaders have the opportunity to be more involved in the sales process, providing coaching to their reps. She says:

"With so many people working remotely, sales leaders don’t have to ride along with their reps in the field, they can ride along on Zoom. I have clients whose organizations are doing so much better because they’re able to get on a Zoom call with their reps which is easier than trying to connect when reps were out in the field.

这使得诸如一对一的策略，通话后汇报，临时教练和领土计划审查之类的事情更容易进行。实际上，该信息应安置在仪表板上，总统，首席执行官，销售负责人和销售经理都可以访问问责制。”

In a recent survey conducted by HubSpot,63% of the respondentswho were sales leaders said that virtual meetings were just as or more effective than in-person meetings they were a part of. The ability to connect virtually can create unique opportunities to establish more synergy between sales leaders and their workforce.

5. Use the B-A-T triangle.

Image Source

B-A-T三角形（也称为成功三角形）是Sandler工具销售领导者可以用来评估其领导效率的。安德鲁斯分解了如何使用B-A-T三角形：

"It's three areas that have to be managed and executed on day in and day out. The ‘B’ stands for behavior, which is what either the manager or the leader needs to do to be effective in their job. These behaviors should be very specific and very measurable.

The ‘A’ stands for attitude – that's the mindset piece. With everything going on, it can be easy to have a lousy or negative attitude. If my attitude leaves me feeling unmotivated or I start making excuses for why I can't get it done, I’m not going to execute.

Or if I believe prospects aren't buying right now, that belief system is going to undermine my willingness to act.

“ T”代表技术。这涉及对我们成功所需的销售技术和工具进行培训。许多组织没有花费足够的时间来培训销售组织，因此他们在稳定的时期或像我们现在所经历的艰难时期没有所需的东西。”

如果作为领导者，您可以确定您的销售大通需要成功的特定行为，态度和技术，并且可以为他们建模这些因素，那么您的团队将在2021年处于优势。

6. Have a structured hiring plan.

According to Andrews, many sales organizations lack a structured approach to hiring, which is detrimental to their success.

"I’ve seen organizations repeatedly mishire, which is extremely expensive. When teams don’t know how to effectively interview candidates, or don’t have assessments in place to pre-screen, they run the risk of hiring the wrong candidates," she says.

当您的销售团队准备在2021年雇用新人才时，请确保您的经理拥有做出良好招聘决定所需的工具。

This can include working with them to build out hiring profiles, creating a structured interview process, and revamping onboarding materials as needed. Hiring decisions can make or break a sales organization, especially in a competitive business environment.

7. Understand your salespeople.

"You can’t motivate someone unless you understand them. Everybody thinks they dangle the carrot, the money, the incentives, and that's gonna motivate. It's not most sales, people aren't money motivated, but they're driven somehow, internally," says Andrews.

Taking the time to connect with and get to know the reps in your organization is time well spent. When you understand what their personal goals are, you can do a better job coaching and leading them to reach those goals.

Andrews recommends leaders have regular office hours or skip-level meetings where they can connect with their team members. She says:

"For these one-on-one meetings, our recommendation is that a rep comes to that meeting, prepared to talk about how last week went, and then share their plan for the next two weeks.

They could say, ‘So here's what I did, boss. I met these behaviors, I have room for improvement in these areas, and here's what the next two weeks will look like.’ They come in self accountable. That gives them time to have a dialogue and get on the same page about what's happening moving forward."

除了单独与团队成员建立联系外，安德鲁斯还建议领导者使用“选择一个，修复一种”方法来支持员工发展。

First, ask your reps what they are struggling with – an area of opportunity for their professional development. As an example, let’s say a rep has a healthy pipeline, but is struggling with closing.

从那里，您可以帮助代表制定游戏计划，以解决或“修复”此特定技能。这可能包括共享材料，例如播客，或共享关闭技术的视频，或与他们想要建立的技能相关的更具结构化培训。

This particular skill would then be their development area of focus until they achieve noticeable improvement. Then, they can pick another skill to develop.

8. Strengthen your communication skills.

沟通对于健康的销售组织至关重要。当安德鲁斯（Andrews）的团队评估销售领导者并为他们制定改进计划时，他们寻找的第一件事是领导者的沟通方式。

"We evaluate their communication style so they understand where they’re missing things as it relates to communicating and aligning with the people they’re managing, and the other leaders they work with. In addition to understanding their communication style, we also seek to understand what gaps lie in their competencies.

We’ve seen leaders who manage behind their desk and through email, and it’s difficult to be successful that way. Leaders can’t manage from spreadsheets, data, and CRM. Those are great tools to have, but you have to be effective in the actual management of people, not tools."

这是一个很好的时机，从团队那里获得有关组织整体沟通流的反馈，以确定您可能错过的空白。

Andrews says, "Leaders have to understand how they stack up in that area in order to know what they need to change and improve."

9. Have a structured development and promotion plan in place.

在许多组织中,高性能的个人contributors are promoted to the roles of manager and leader because of their ability to execute. If that is your company’s sole promotion strategy, you could be doing your team a disservice.

That’s not to say individual contributors don’t make good leaders — they absolutely can — it does mean in order to develop the next generation of strong sales leaders, you have to take a more intentional approach. Here’s what Andrews recommends looking for when promoting sales leaders:

"First, those you’re looking to promote have to be motivated to hit their goals. They have to show and prove success. You have to have a clear defined profile of where you would see them moving so they can determine if that’s where they want to go.

We help companies build their hiring profiles to support these decisions. When you have candidates who would make a good fit for leadership, evaluate their skills to see where they’re starting from.

Then what you do is you evaluate them, you take those assessments to see, do they have what it takes? And if so, you put them into training."

Essentially, instead of gauging an individual’s ability to lead based on their performance in the job they currently have, consider the skills and attributes they will need to be successful in future roles, and help them develop those skills to meet the needs of your organization.

By taking a structured, skills-based approach to leadership development and promotion, you’re positioning future leaders for success, which will inevitably help your company continue to grow.

As we approach a new year, now is the perfect time to revisit your sales leadership strategy to set your team up for success. By taking into account the advice in this piece, and the unique areas of opportunity for your organization, your team can be well-positioned for success in 2021.