One of the most important sales management skills to develop are leadership skills. While there will always be debate as to whether great leaders are born or made, the fact remains that everyone can learn new ways to improve and develop leadership skills.
Even people who are lucky enough to be born with the basic skills and personality of a leader are not simply leaders by default. Leadership, particularly in a sales management context is all about motivational skills. The first thing to do is to find out how your team views you as a manager. What does this mean. It could mean a survey, and or a relaxed forum where you ask for and receive input and constructive criticism from both your peers and the members of your sales team.
When someone from your team comes to you with a problem or a concern, listen. The best leaders are the best listeners and the reason why is simple: because they listen to the problems and concerns of others, people are more likely to listen to, and take direction from, them. When you have a problem, do you want to share it with someone who listens without interrupting or to someone who constantly interjects to tell you about their own problems.
This does not mean that you must simply listen and can never offer constructive criticism or advice, just be sure to put a positive spin on things whenever possible. Focus on the situation, not the person, asking questions such as, why do you think this problem occurred, and what do you think we can do to prevent it from happening again. You should not think of the people working under you as things that need to be controlled or managed, but rather, as people who are capable of doing their jobs with a little guidance from you. True leaders do not believe that it is their responsibility to always tell others how to do something. Instead, they understand that in some situations, it is better to allow people to discover their own solutions.
And always, remember that your sales management team will both respect and enjoy working with you much more if you let them get to know the real you. Be open about yourself and you will go a long way towards breaking down hierarchal barriers and gaining the respect of your sales team.
Author Resource:-
Cloud9 Analytics delivers easy-to-use business intelligence applications directly to sales, marketing, and support organizations as a service over the internet. Visit the website for more information about Sales Forecasting Software
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
