Note: Traits of New Sales Leaders (not what you'd normally check)

The note below is based on observing and interviewing more than 100 sales leaders from large to medium and small enterprises over the past 5 years.

I've been asked by many friends and colleagues in my circle about the most important traits of a new sales leader. I consider those to be "listening, leading, innovating and improving". What do I mean by that?

Let's start with the idea that every company requires a different set of skills to take it from point A to B and then C and so on. For that, of course, it might require different sales leaders at every stage (or a leader that can transform, while the company grows). You can find those skills in people coming from organisations that are slightly ahead of yours or you might find those skills in people within your own organisation. So it's something really normal to see new leaders taking a company from one point to another.

But, on top of those normal sales and leadership skills, every new sales leader needs to have the 4 core ones - listening, leading, innovating and improving.

• Listening - the skill to firstly listen to and learn from the existing team and see how the company got to where it is. Meet the teams, learn about the product, learn about the culture, mentally train yourself to fit and make sure you hear everything there is to be heard. Without knowing the history of a place, you won't know how to innovate and improve it. And without that you will only fail.
• Leading - the skill of leading the existing team you find, while also adding new people throughout the team (mix-and-match the existing talent with new talent to ensure you keep the culture alive, while also bringing more knowledge in the company). Lead the team to become their best version. Lead by example and make sure you build a successful team. Be their colleague and their leader and you will surely have success!
• Innovating - the skill of knowing when and how to innovate - change at a rapid pace and how to utilise the existing talent to get the company further. Innovation doesn't always require new hires but it absolutely requires an eye for talent.
• Improving - take the company to the next level by improving in every area. Improving doesn't always mean change. It means taking something that exists and making it better. Take a company from point A and make it ready to become a point B type of company. Improving requires a lot of skills to make sure that you utilise both the existing and new talent in the company and bring it to the next level.

Unfortunately, even though companies hire great leaders on paper, the biggest sales leadership flaw we're seeing today is "the lack of listening skills". That automatically translates into a very bad leadership that won't bring success in the long run. Someone once told me: "bunnies, not crocodiles" - have big ears to listen, not a big mouth to speak. It's mandatory!

We see a lot of new sales managers (not leaders) that go into various organisations with the "I know it better" mindset. They just don't listen - and unfortunately, they're missing out on a lot of things. Without knowing the company's past they will surely make similar mistakes ("Those who?do?not?learn the history?are doomed to repeat it"). They come in to change everything and end up in a point where they take the company backwards, not forward.

Unfortunately that is one of the biggest mistakes a sales manager (not leader) will make. And unfortunately it's a mistake companies see very late due to the law of inertia ("if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force.").

Yes, that law also applies to sales - once you hire a new sales leader, the company will still grow if it was growing, losing business if it was losing and so on - all due to inertia. You will see the change after few months or quarters, once leading, innovating and improving happened. And then you will know if they listened or not...

As a separate note, the sales leader is usually not hired cause things are going bad (sometimes yes, but very rare) - the new sales leader is hired cause things are going great, but the company requires outside knowledge ("Always hire people smarter than you") to take them to the next great level.

So the first thing a new sales leader needs to do is listen: listen to the people, listen to the culture, listen how things have been done until they got hired. Then check how they can lead, innovate and improve.

Listen, lead, innovate and improve!