11 Secrets to Leadership in Sales
by Thomas Baskind
Published on this site: August 4th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
In his classic book, "Think and Grow Rich", Napoleon
Hill discussed the eleven secrets of leadership. In reading
this work, it appears that the attributes of strong leadership and effective selling have a tremendous amount
in common. After all, to be really successful in sales, you
need to be a leader, both within your own organization, as
well as to your clients and customers.
To paraphrase management guru Peter Drucker, a leader is
someone who not only does things right, but who also does
the right things, while helping others do the same. The same
holds true in sales: how better to serve your clients than
to really know and understand what they do, and to truly help
them do it better?
With that in mind, here are Mr. Hill's eleven secrets
to leadership, as they apply to leadership in selling:
- "Unwavering Courage": Selling successfully
requires courage; taking a risk where the odds may seem
stacked against you; courage to make that extra call, to
deal with the tough client or prospect, and to not let anything
deter you. As Hill says, courage is "based upon knowledge
of self and one's occupation.
- "Self-Control": The ability to set a
course for yourself and take disciplined action each day
is a key attribute of all successful salespeople.
- "A keen sense of justice": Knowing right
from wrong - understanding what is fair and just - allows
you to make, wise informed decisions.
- "Definiteness of decision": Deciding
on what you want to achieve, and then doing whatever it
takes to get there, even in the face of obstacles and setbacks,
is crucial to your success. For those who don't quite make
it, failure can usually be traced back to a lack of decisiveness
about what they really want.
- "Definiteness of plans": In Hill's words,
"the successful leader must plan his work, and work
his plan. Truer words were never spoken when it comes to
selling. Plan your time, and then take action on your plan
each and every day.
- "The habit of doing more than paid for":
Want to sell more? Go the extra mile for your clients. Want
to get the respect, admiration, and cooperation from your
internal "clients" - the people you need to rely
on to implement or help you close sales? Go the distance
for them as well.
- "A pleasing personality": Is selling
a popularity contest? No, but would you buy something from
someone who was nasty and rude?
- "Sympathy and understanding:" Selling
is about understanding what people DO, and then helping
them do it better. Plain and simple.
- "Mastery of detail": Ah, yes. The devil,
as they say, is in the details. Ever work really hard to
close a sale, only to have it fall apart because of some
small detail that falls through the cracks? What may seem
like a small detail to you can be a crucial one, maybe even
a deal-breaker, to your prospect, customer, or client.
- "Willingness to assume full responsibility":
No matter how much customer support your company provides,
you are the prime representative of your organization. If
you try to pass the buck to someone else, you lose respect
and credibility. "But it really wasn't my fault that
the shipment was delayed in customs and then the delivery
truck was attacked a pack of wild dogs." Doesn't matter;
accept the responsibility for any problem and all details,
and then do whatever needs to be done to make things right.
Your clients need to know that you are their advocate.
- "Cooperation": You can't do it alone.
Sales is a collaborative effort. Your prospects need to
collaborate with you; you need the cooperation and assistance
of others both inside and outside your organization to make
things happen. The best salespeople are those who can work
well with others, and with whom other people want to work.
Think about these eleven areas of leadership, and ask yourself
how you do on each of these items. Find areas where you can
make improvements and chart your course to work on improving
what you do each day; incremental improvements each day become
exponential over time.
Thomas Baskind and Mark Dembo are Managing Partners
in DEI/Lexien of Greater New York, a sales performance improvement
and management consulting company. They invite you to visit
their website, http://www.lexien.com/,
and welcome your comments and inquiries
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