I’m not talking about your company or what you sell as being a sales leader. What I’m talking about is would your customers say you are a sales leader?
It’s easy for us to think of ourselves as being a sales leader. It’s only natural for us to view ourselves in a positive light. But the real payout is in how our customers view us.
Below are a few criteria of a sales leader. As you read through the list, ask yourself how your customers would likely answer the questions.
- Do you provide you customers with insights they are not getting from any of your competitors?
- Do you ask them questions you don’t know the answers to and they don’t know the answers to?
- Do your customers ask you for your input in things that go beyond what you sell?
- Are the discussions you have with your customer strategically focused or are they tactical in nature?
- Do you have quality customer relationships that extend at least two levels above the person you work with the closest?
- Are your discussions focused on the customer’s outcomes or are they focused on your products features?
- Does the customer see you as helping to build the business by identifying new opportunities both you and the customer can benefit from?
- Do you take responsibility or are you merely passing information from your company to the customer and vice versa?
- When issues arise with the customer, are you point person?
Review these questions and view them in the eyes of your customer. What would they say? Would they be able to recall specific examples to go alongside each one of the questions?
Sales leadership is more than just “pretty talk.”
It’s at the core of establishing long-term profitable relationships with the customer. The end result of sales leadership is a higher level of profit for both you and the customer.
Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
