At the core of the transition from salesperson

[jakariabd@]

To manager is a shift in professional identity. Successful salespeople know their customers, their products, their mission, and how to take care of themselves. Highly effective salespeople learn to care for others and take responsibility for collective behavior and results. They take responsibility for forecasting, planning, and leading effectively. Research has shown that high-performing salespeople are 52% more likely to succeed in planning and organizing how salespeople manage their pipelines and 42% more likely to have meetings that salespeople find valuable rather than time-consuming prospecting or closing.

In other words, the best salespeople actually manage. This may seem obvious, but consider how much leadership advice boils down to “hiring the best people.” The business development “strategy” at usa mobile database many companies is to hire historically top-performing salespeople from other companies, pay them handsomely, and let them do their thing. But without good managers, the result is often frustration and high turnover. Talent matters, but sales effectiveness depends largely on executing on the company’s strategy and building internal relationships, as well as the outside sales skills required to do so.

Highly effective sales leaders accelerate this necessary socialization process. Talent is not released when a job offer is accepted. It is about developing and deploying talent, and effective sales leaders do this through segment assignment, forecasting, and other levers inherent to their roles.