The Importance of Leadership in Sales

"I don't like my job right now. The team's fine... but I'm tired of being reactionary." This is from a sales leader managing a team of 6 reps who hit 58% of quota. She was a STAR individual performer. Now she feels like she's drowning. What changed? The truth no one tells you about the painful journey from seller to leader: Being a great seller is about DOING. Being a great leader is about ARCHITECTING. Most companies promote their best sellers without teaching them how to build the systems that create predictable results. So these new leaders try to "manage" by: Hoping their team will just do what they did. Running meetings with no structure. Letting reps control the conversation. Reacting to problems instead of preventing them. Then they wonder why their team doesn't perform. Here's what I told her that changed everything: "Your team will perform to the level you let them get away with." The problem wasn't her team. The problem wasn't her company. The problem was her lack of SYSTEMS. I showed her three specific frameworks: 1. How to structure one-on-ones that create REAL accountability (not just chit-chat) 2. How to make reps publicly own their numbers in team meetings (creating social pressure) 3. How to close the loop on every action item (so nothing falls through the cracks) Simple? Yes. Obvious? Maybe. But 97% of sales leaders NEVER implement these basics. The results? Her "problem child" rep started hitting targets. Pipeline visibility improved by 46%. And she stopped feeling like she was chasing ghosts all day. Most importantly, she rediscovered her confidence. Because leadership isn't about being the best seller who got promoted. It's about being the architect who creates the systems that make EVERYONE successful. — Hey Sales Leaders…. want to know my secret to building 9 figure sales teams? Watch this: https://lnkd.in/gXxjtW9k

One of the biggest misses I have seen in Sales Leadership is not empowering your front line managers. They are the bridge between you and your sales reps. They're crucial for your strategy to trickle down and take effect. Here is my framework for success: Invest in Continuous Training. Not just product training, but leadership & soft skills development. I remember the time when I was thrown into a leadership role with little training....I vowed never to let that happen in my teams. Provide Actionable Data. Data-driven decisions are gold. But raw data or anecdotal comments? Not so much. Ensure your managers have clear, actionable insights. I've seen a manager's face light up when they move from spreadsheets to a visual deal board in Gong! Mentorship & Feedback is a two-way street. Encourage them to seek feedback & provide them with regular insights from your end. I once had a mentor who would give me real-time feedback, sometimes even mid-meeting. Brutal? Yes. Effective? Absolutely. Active Listening - I can't stress this enough. Some of the best strategies I've adopted came from listening to a manager's on-ground experience. They're your ears on the ground, after all. Setting Clear Objectives. Keep the targets realistic. Align them with the company vision. When managers I worked with understood the 'why' behind their targets, they were twice as motivated to achieve them. Foster a Culture of Passion & Innovation: Celebrate the wins, but also the innovative attempts. Sometimes it's about the journey. How are you supercharging your front line managers? What experiences shaped your strategy? #LeadershipMatters #SalesStrategy #Empowerment #TechSales

Sales leaders your team isnt failing. YOU ARE Too many sales leaders are phoning it in Too many are just managing spreadsheets. Not people Too many are watching reps struggle instead of stepping in to coach And before you say “well my company doesn’t invest in leadership enablement…” Yeah I get it. Most orgs do a sh-t job of training their leaders But that doesnt mean you get to sit back and do nothing You are in the trenches every single day with your team You see 🚩 Who’s stuck on objection handling 🚩 Who’s afraid to pick up the phone 🚩 Who’s missing quota but doesn’t know why But do you actually DO anything about it? Are you coaching or just checking dashboards? Are you developing your team or just hoping they figure it out? Are you showing up for your reps or just showing up for meetings? Great teams dont happen by accident. They’re BUILT And that starts with YOU Want to be a leader reps actually want to work for? 🔥 Know your people. Learn their gaps, strengths, bottlenecks. Help them grow 🔥 Stop waiting for "enablement"— BE the enablement. Share what you know 🔥 Show up DAILY. Not just for the numbers but for them. Individually and as a squad Your reps don’t quit because sales is hard They quit because they don’t feel like they’re getting better And thats on leadership So stop phoning it in. Step up. Lead. Enable. Coach Your team is a direct reflection of you And if they’re failing? Maybe it’s time to look in the mirror

If you're a VP of Sales, but your day is packed with pipeline reviews & deal approvals, you’re not leading - you’re micromanaging. I learned this the hard way. I once worked in a zero psychological safety environment where sales leaders were constantly reminded: "You’re only as good as your last deal." So I did what I thought any great leader should do - I made myself indispensable. 👉 I had my hands in everything. - Editing rep emails that didn’t need my input - Sitting on calls just to be busy, not because I added value - Jumping in to help instead of coaching my team to do it themselves I thought I was protecting my job. Instead, I was making myself the bottleneck. At the time, it felt like the right move. I wanted my team to succeed, and I thought the best way to do that was to be involved in everything. 👉 But here’s what I didn’t realize: The more I inserted myself, the less my team learned. The more I controlled, the less they took ownership. The more I tried to prove my value, the less I actually created it. This isn’t just a personal realization. It’s a well-documented leadership problem. Harvard Business Review’s February 2025 article, “Leaders Shouldn’t Try to Do It All,” explains why this happens: 💠 Leaders default to doing everything because they fear being seen as dispensable. 💠 Instead of focusing on what only they can do, they spend time on tasks others could handle just as well or better. The result? They become overworked, their teams become dependent, and nobody actually grows What I wish I had realized sooner is that a great leader isn’t measured by how much their team needs them. A great leader builds a team that runs smoothly when they step away. If your team falls apart when you’re out for a week, that’s not job security. That’s a leadership failure. 👉 According to HBR, here are three things Sales Leaders can do instead - 1. Audit your time. Look at your calendar. How much of your day is spent on things your team could handle without you? 2. Shift from deal reviews to skill coaching. You shouldn’t be fixing individual deals. You should be coaching reps so they can fix their own. 3. Delegate, then trust. If you don’t trust your managers and reps to execute, that’s a hiring problem - not a reason to micromanage. 📌 If you’re caught in the cycle of doing everything, ask yourself: Are you leading a team or just managing tasks? Enjoyed this post? Let me know in the comments & follow Leslie Venetz for more.

😖 “𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐲…” That’s what she said to me—eyes tired, confidence cracked, energy drained. Her numbers were down. She was trying. But nothing was working. And no one was helping. 👇 If you’ve ever had a team member stuck in this mental loop, read on. 💥 Sales is a pressure cooker. Deadlines. Quotas. Expectations. Internal judgment. External rejection. It’s easy for a temporary slump to feel like a permanent identity. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭. ✅ As a sales leader, your job isn’t just to manage performance.  𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬. When someone on your team is struggling, here’s how to guide them without crushing their spirit: 🔄 𝟏. 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐭𝐨 “𝐟𝐢𝐱” – 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 ⇢ ↳ “What’s been on your mind lately?” ⇢ ↳ “Walk me through your week.” Let them talk. Not to solve—just to listen. Sometimes the breakthrough comes before the advice. 🔍 𝟐. 𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 Lack of effort? Poor strategy? Mindset spiral? Use questions to get specific: ↳ “Where in the sales process are you losing them?” ↳ “What do your follow-ups actually look like?” 💡 The clearer the problem, the more effective the guidance. 🎯 𝟑. 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐧 When someone’s drowning, don’t hand them a list of 12 goals. Give them one mission. ⇢ One lead list to call. ⇢ One script to tweak. ⇢ One action that rebuilds momentum. Small wins compound. Fast. 🧠 𝟒. 𝐏𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 Confidence isn't built on compliments. It’s built on specific evidence of ability. Say this: ↳ “Remember that deal you saved last quarter? You didn’t get lucky—you got strategic.” ↳ “I’ve seen what you can do when you reset. Let’s get back there.” That belief? It spreads. 📅 𝟓. 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 Map out the next 5 days together. ⇢ Daily focus ⇢ End-of-day check-ins ⇢ A new habit or metric to track Make it visual. Make it manageable. Make it feel winnable. 🔥 Sales slumps are inevitable. What isn’t inevitable is letting them linger. Great leaders don’t just track performance. They guide people back to it. 🙋♂️ Got a rep in a rough patch right now? DM me “GUIDE” and I’ll send you my Recovery Conversation Framework – a 5-step script I use with sales teams to turn slumps into comebacks. 👇 Or drop a “🔥” if you’ve been that rep… or helped one rise again.

This time last year my sales team started the final month of Q1 at 34% to goal. 😑 Morale was low after a disappointing January and February. Company pressure was high after a lot of internal changes going from a public company to a private one. The market was tough, even selling into existing customers which was our team’s focus. We were a relatively new team under my leadership, with four AEs and one more out on maternity leave. Quotas don’t go away when folks are on leave or ramping up. You still have a team number to hit. I knew we had the pipeline to make up the difference in March. I believed it in my bones. It was getting everyone else to believe we could execute in the final three weeks of the quarter that was the real challenge. When I mentor and coach AEs, I always ask them what they think the number one quality is in the most successful sales reps. They usually answer something like curiosity, persistence, or consistency. Those are all good answers. Great answers even. But the best answer is BELIEF. Yes, belief in what they are selling, belief in the company they represent, and belief in how their solutions solve their customer’s business problems. But most importantly BELIEF IN THEMSELVES. If you’re a sales leader: motivating, inspiring and believing in your people should be a top priority. You have an amazing opportunity to instill belief in your team every single day. And if that doesn’t excite you, then I’m sorry 😬 but you shouldn’t be leading people. Don’t take it for granted. It’s a privilege. Sales organizations need leaders who trust and believe in their talent. Sales leaders need to communicate their belief in each AE. And they need to do it regularly, not just one time. Reps need to hear this belief more today than ever before. We finished Q1 at 95% to goal. And it wasn’t one big deal that did it. All four AEs contributed to closing ACV. It was a total team effort achieved by reps of all different tenures and experience. You could feel the excitement from that point forward. It was contagious. It was one of my BEST days of being a sales leader. Not because of where we finished, but because of the BELIEF journey we took to get there. 💯🙌🏻❤️ *** I loved getting texts like the one below from my old team. It’s better than any commission check I ever received. *** —— If you’re a sales rep who needs some motivation or a sales leader looking for ideas on how to instill belief in your team, let’s find time to chat here: https://lnkd.in/enY-97j7 (I believe so much in the power of BELIEF, I named one of my coaching programs after it) Believe in your untapped potential Evaluate your ecosystem Level set your learning Inventory your pipeline Elevate your earnings to… Future proof your success

#Sales can be tough, with long stretches of rejections and no wins. As a manager, you can boost your team’s performance during these difficult periods with positive recognition. → Recognize every win, big or small. Positive recognition fosters a healthy attitude on the team, which motivates them during tough times and helps them celebrate the good times. It’s also important to set up reward systems that emphasize not only quota attainment but also your company’s core values. → Reward high performers across different channels. Positive recognition is more impactful when you deliver it in a timely, comprehensive manner on various channels. At SalesRoads, we broadcast shoutouts every day on Slack. Teammates and managers applaud each other when they book an appointment, close a deal, or perform an action that embodies our core values. We also give accolades during meetings and coaching sessions, as well as present awards at our quarterly town halls to star employees and others who exemplify the company’s values. → Collect feedback to improve your reward systems. Every quarter, we conduct a pulse survey to help us understand if our employees feel appreciated or recognized enough. This practice uncovers insights into how the team feels, so we can course-correct and improve our reward systems. Sales is already a tough job. Don’t make it unnecessarily harder by underappreciating your team. Sometimes, all you need to achieve outstanding results is to create a supportive and encouraging environment — and that’s your responsibility as the manager. #Management #leadership