Sales Leadership or Sales Management - which is better?
Gabriel P.
GTM & Interim VP of Sales @ Pentest Tools | Founder @ Traction Keys - Growth Agency
"Leadership is the ability to help people achieve things they don't think are possible. Leaders are coaches with a passion for developing people, not players; they get satisfaction from achieving objectives through others. Leaders inspire people through a shared vision and create an environment where people feel valued and fulfilled." – Randy Stocklin, co-founder and CEO, Readers.com
In, my, not so vast experience, I’ve seen both: sales leaders and sales managers, working with their teams to achieve a goal. As a writer’s note, in this article, I will be as objective as I can.
While these terms are used in a common way, there is a huge difference between these two roles.
Leaders tend to guide all employees around a vision. They influence, motivate, and inspire others to contribute to fulfill that vision. Managers, unfortunately, are the ones that systematically execute, wanting to reach the leader’s vision.
So, what do you need to lead your sales team? Mainly, for taking this decision you need to know the people you have in your sales team: hunters or farmers.
Both categories have a skill set that fits one type of governance. While farmers are usually better to be administrated by a Sales Manager, for hunters you would better have a Leader to guide the team.
I’ve read many times this quote: “Leaders Inspire, managers improve”. But is this true? While most of you would say yes, I would like to say no. Although leaders inspire, usually having a sales manager on top of your sales team would usually mean killing all the motivation and not being able to improve.
And why do I say that? Most managers don’t have the right attitude towards leadership and they don’t understand the motivation behind being a good salesperson: they tend to think that money (through commissions and bonuses) will motivate in such a way, they can control the salesperson in an oppressive way. Well, this is to be demonstrated as the worst way of working with your team. I’ve seen many good companies that have shown a tremendous growth under a leader, going under because of wrong management.
In the end, I wouldn’t say, having a Leader on top of your company, whose vision is to be applied by the Sales Manager within the Sales Team is a bad strategy. But while doing this, the Sales Manager should also become a leader and prove to their subordinates these qualities of understanding the main vision and showing growth ideas within his own team.
Drilling down to the basic of responsibilities and values each of them have we see that leaders are willing to take more risks and guide others to do so, while managers direct resources and implement the vision of someone else.
“Leadership derives from passion, management stems from order.”
So, what do you do when your leader is focused in another direction and you’re left with a manager to work with the sales team? You hope for a leader mentality that can guide and grow your work… You hope for a new leader…
Business Development | National Account Manager with Expertise in Food Service, Distributor and GPO EXPERTISE.
7 年Leadership is a key for success, I like this topic.
Ducting Systems designer / Technical Sales / Avid Trainer
7 年A well thought out and well written post. Thanks Razvan. I would agree with Scott that both are required to create and develop a great sales team. Many smaller businesses don't have the resources to hire two individuals to fill those roles. It is important to remember that sometimes we will have to fill multiple roles. Conscious intent will be needed to observe and know which role to apply at what time with which team member.
DESCon Building Sciences
7 年I agree with Razvan in that a Sales leader motivates and provides the vision while the manager applies the play or mechanics to meet the goal. It takes the efforts of both mindsets to maintain a motivated team. You cannot function effectively without both being applied.
Joseph Plaia Consulting, President
7 年Very thoughtful article. Great managers are both as has been said in other comments. However, I don't consider these equal. Management, as noted by Kieran, is largely data and activity driven and can be conducted by many, but leadership is critical to the success and development of great sales people in any complex selling environment. If I ask you to name 5 good managers you have seen, that would be easy, but not so for leaders. Companies have become more inclined to hire and promote those that are capable of managing people, which largely is about controlling behavior and collecting data. Sales people are left with the challenge of leading themselves which takes a team in many directions. I view managers as being behind the salesperson and leaders in the front.
Business Developer BESTFOAM, PUR CHEMICALS
7 年Good article, but still the same separation between manager and leader. In the article, management is considered "unfortunate", at a given moment. I always look at them as inseparable sets of skills that every manager should have. As you have mentioned Hunter and Farmer, I would use it as a paralel. These two profiles are representing sets of attributes, to be found in the same salesperson, but in different proportions. For instance, a salesman can be more Hunter than Farmer, but very rarely 100% Hunter and 0% Farmer. If it is so, maybe that salesperson should need to fill some gaps. Hunter is not better than Farmer, or viceversa. It depends on the context and the role. I dont see a 100% Hunter in the role of a KA manager, as i cannot see a 100% Farmer in a prospecting phase. So, coming back, which is better, being a manager or a leader? You need both, in adequate proportions, depending on the context and role. In a crisis moment maybe you would need to be more manager than leader. A sales process is more linked to management than leadership. My conclusion would be that every good captain should be both manager and leader. And to be even better, I would add a third set of skills, to be a coach too.