Servant Leadership helps double a record setting sales year

By Max Cates, An excerpt from the sales management book, Serve, Lead Succeed! https://booklocker.com/11051 ??

After a record-setting sales year, no one thought it could be surpassed, but John Sodini’s sales team doubled business within 18 months. The secret of success? Servant leadership.

The large healthcare corporation was “a negative culture, divisive with a lot of lone wolves,” said Sodini. “Honestly, I didn’t think we could match such a successful year. But we had the nucleus of a good sales team. And I knew if we could change the negativity and get the team working together, we could accomplish great things. At the end of the day, the product line didn’t change but the people did. “One thing I realized early on was that I had to look at each sales rep individually. Everyone has a totally different set of challenges and talents. It’s the servant leader’s job to identify those characteristics and develop them according to the individual’s needs. Cookie cutter approaches just don’t work in a sales team.

For example, I had a new sales person who I was trying to get up to speed. I would tell her ‘here’s what you need to do and not do.’ I was trying to be Mr. Fix-it. One day in my office she started crying, and said she needed to work through it in her own way. Then I realized that I had been listening to her but had been communicating what I wanted but not in a way that reached her. That helped me realize the importance of individualized communications with your people, and it made me much more self-aware of how effectively I was communicating. I realized that my job was not to tell people what to do but to help them come to their own conclusions and tell me what they need to do to improve. It’s surprising but people are harder on themselves than I would be when asked what they need to do to develop themselves. I found that approach is much better than saying ‘You need to...’ It gets them thinking about improving themselves intrinsically rather than meeting my needs.”

Sodini said empathy has been an important part of helping his sales people achieve maximal performance. The ability to walk in their shoes, has allowed Sodini to understand sales reps’ motivation, potential, as well as strengths and weaknesses. “Empathy helps me demonstrate how much I care for my sales people, to treat them like they want to be treated,” said Sodini. “You never know what problems – personal or professional – people are facing on the job. It’s the servant leader’s job to know those problems, to get to know your people well enough and understand what makes them tick. Sometimes it’s easy to dismiss peoples’ problems, especially personal problems, as we face the pressures of day to day sales management. I try to embrace and understand our people’s problems, and ask ‘How can I help?’ For example, in my early days as a sales manager, I had been trying to get in touch repeatedly with a rep but he would not return my calls. I was getting angry, and was ready to tear into him. In fact, I had written a formal outline to reprimand him. Luckily before I finally reached him, I remembered what one of my mentors had told me – that I always need to take a step back and think about the issue before jumping to conclusions. Instead of reacting angrily to the rep, I asked why he didn’t return my calls. Turns out, his father had died. I learned a lot about empathy with that experience. You never know what problems people are experiencing, and you need to be close enough to them that you know as much as possible. You have to withhold personal judgment and look at the world through their eyes. That makes you a better servant leader, and it makes them a better sales person.”

Much of effective empathy is taking a one-on-one approach to people, according to Sodini. “I encourage people to open up, to discuss freely their on-the-job problems as well as their personal issues. You cannot separate the two when it comes to their performance. Some want to talk every day, to brainstorm and exchange ideas. Others may not want to talk as much, but get with me when needed. Either way, I let them know I’m there for them and will take the time to talk no matter what. I make two to three-day field visits to make sure I get to know the sales team, not to check up on them but to know what challenges they face so I can help wherever possible. “All in all, I work with them individually, and help them come together as a sales team. That is the servant leader’s job, to help us all come together collectively as a team. In fact, I have a sign on the door that says ‘This is our business.’ We care for each other. We encourage each other. And we help each other succeed. I want them to know that I care for them as I would a son or daughter, that I speak with them from my heart and soul. And I hope they care for me the same way and for each other on the sales team. This is how the servant leader leads, by caring.

Servant leadership came as a learned management style for Sodini. “Ironically, I learned more from bad sales managers during my career, seeing how ineffective they were because they treated people so poorly and were basically selfish and uncaring. We all know what a competitive jungle and cutthroat environment sales can be. And it can bring out the worst in people.” His first sales manager job was with a large medical supply corporation that prided itself in its “burn and turn sales environment, a foot on the throat culture where your job was dependent purely on delivering good numbers,” said Sodini. “Being an autocrat was the only way I knew how to manage, to use fear to drive numbers. But I struggled with it, and eventually started to change my approach. One reason for change was an early mentor I had who exemplified aspects of servant leadership. He would call and ask about me as a person as well as about the numbers. He would ask about my family, son and daughter. He offered encouragement, coaching and caring about me. Many times, I caught myself wondering why do I want to do so much for him? I would run through a wall for him. I wanted him to be successful because that’s what he wanted for me. I began reading about servant leadership, especially John Maxwell books that discussed a Christian style of leadership that met with my personal beliefs.

“Soon I realized that I didn’t have to carry the same tone of fear and negativity down from the top. I learned I had to filter the message to emphasize the positive elements of working together to accomplish sales goals while taking care of each other. The original corporate message was fear-based, that we had to hit the numbers or else. I framed the message in a servant leader way that was not defiant with the corporate culture, that strived to reach corporate goals in a humane way. When the bullets are flying, soldiers want to follow a leader who has their best interests in mind. Going into battle they want to be able to trust their leader.” Other than having to reconfigure corporate messages, another challenge Sodini faced was from other sales managers who called him too nice, too weak and too soft on the sales team. “If kindness and politeness was being viewed as being too nice, then I’ve always been too nice. I’ll admit that without hesitation. And the good thing about it is that it works. I’ve always tried to be the manager I need to be. And I’ve learned along the way to take full responsibility for sales results, but at the same time, to be able to determine the plays and players involved in reaching those results.”

(For more on Servant Leader successes, see the book, "Serve, Lead, Succeed! at https://booklocker.com/11051 ?).