I’ve spoken with hundreds of sales leaders over the last few years, and have come to spot a trend:
There are sales leaders that do things the old way – it’s hard to describe exactly, but you can just feel it. Selling and management is mostly about industry relationships, big Rolodex’s of contacts, and the only metrics they pay attention to are quotas and maybe total pipeline.
Then there’s the modern sales leader. These are folks who are as competitive and driven to succeed as the prior bunch, but manage with facts and data, are keenly aware of the changing buyer and how that affects how their salespeople sell. They’re also more in-tune with how today’s salesperson, mostly made up of millennials, wants to be managed and motivated.
I ran a quick and informal Twitter-poll with folks I see as truly “modern” sales experts and below are their responses. The simple question to each was, “What’s one key trait of a ‘modern’ sales leader?”
25 Sales Experts Describe The Modern Sales Leader
Mike Volpe – CMO of HubSot
@bobmarsh5 holds sales team accountable to an SLA of how fast / much to work marketing generated leads
— Mike Volpe (@mvolpe) June 2, 2015
Derek Grant – VP of Sales at FullStory, Former VP of Sales at Pardot
@bobmarsh5, I believe it’s #Measurement. You can’t improve issues you’re unaware of and a focus on #sales measurement helps identifies gaps
— Derek Grant (@derekgrant) June 6, 2015
Greg Alexander – CEO of Sales Benchmark Index
@bobmarsh5 The ability to connect the CEO’s strategy for the company with the strategy of the sales force.
— Greg Alexander (@GregAlexander) June 6, 2015
Max Altschuler – CEO of Sales Hacker, Inc.
@bobmarsh5 having the intuition and EQ to know what makes/keeps people motivated, and how to pull those levers to get them to act.
— Max Altschuler (@MaxAlts) June 8, 2015
Ken Krogue – Founder & CEO of Inside Sales
@bobmarsh5 Hey Bob! Speed is a modern trait that sales leaders need to have.
— Ken Krogue (@kenkrogue) June 3, 2015
Lori Richardson – Inside Sales Speaker, Author, Social Selling & Prospecting Consultant
@bobmarsh5 they need to be open-minded and a life-long learner
— Lori Richardson (@scoremoresales) June 3, 2015
Matt Heinz – President, Heinz Marketing – Sales Acceleration & Demand Generation Expert
@bobmarsh5 buyer empathy
— Matt Heinz (@HeinzMarketing) June 6, 2015
Ben Sardella – Co-Founder of Datanyze, Former VP Sales at KISSmetrics
@bobmarsh5 a true sales leader does whatever they can to set their reps up for success.
— Ben Sardella (@bensardella) June 6, 2015
Jill Rowley – Founder of Jill Rowley #SocialSelling
Adaptable. Open. Transparent. Trustworthy. #CustomerCentered #CustomerCentric #CustomerObsessed. Long game vs short game. @bobmarsh5
— Jill Rowley (@jill_rowley) June 6, 2015
Leyla Seka – SVP and General Manager of Salesforce Desk.com
@bobmarsh5 adaptability!!!
— Leyla D Seka (@LeylaSeka) June 3, 2015
Godard Abel – CEO of SteelBrick
@bobmarsh5 #1 is “authentic passion” >> @mattgorniak brings it in spades 🙂
— Godard Abel (@godardabel) June 2, 2015
Elay Cohen – Founder & CEO of SalesHood, Former SVP of Sales Productivity at Salesforce.com
@bobmarsh5 One of the most important traits is communication. The modern sales exec is amazing at writing, speaking & listening.
— Elay Cohen (@elaycohen) June 6, 2015
Jorge Soto – CEO of Soto Ventures, former Head of Inside Sales at MoPub (acquired by Twitter)
@bobmarsh5 @payroll_advisor understand the convergence between technology systems, the humans that interact with the tech, and the
— Jorge Soto (@sotoventures) June 2, 2015
@bobmarsh5 @payroll_advisor fundamental truths in sales that should be mirrored by the tech, while guiding the human thru the sale.
— Jorge Soto (@sotoventures) June 2, 2015
Aaron Ross – Author of Predictable Revenue, CEO of Predictable Revenue, Inc.
@bobmarsh5 a coach (w/empathy) who develops people thru challenges, not just treating them as replaceable “inputs and outputs”
— Aaron Ross (@motoceo) June 2, 2015
Jason Lemkin – Managing Director of Storm Ventures, Founder of SaaStr.com, Founder of EchoSign
@bobmarsh5 flexible and always learning
— Jason M. Lemkin (@jasonlk) June 2, 2015
Nick Mehta – CEO of Gainsight
@bobmarsh5 Great sales leader = ability to be an “and” not an “or” – GREAT at execution/deals/team AND awesome at planning/analytics/ops
— Nick Mehta (@nrmehta) June 2, 2015
Woodson Martin – CMO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud
@bobmarsh5 innovative. If you aren’t trying new things, you can’t win.
— woodson_martin (@woodson_martin) June 2, 2015
Kyle Porter – CEO of SalesLoft
@bobmarsh5 blending the tried and true sales fundamentals with new age tech savvy.
— Kyle Porter (@kyleporter) June 2, 2015
Steve Richard – Founder of Vorsight
@bobmarsh5 Rallies troops behind the mission and leads by example. Not afraid to hop on the phones.
— Steve Richard (@srichardv) June 2, 2015
Trish Bertuzzi – Founder of The Bridge Group
@bobmarsh5 empathy
— Trish Bertuzzi (@bridgegroupinc) June 2, 2015
Peter Caputa – VP of Sales at HubSpot
@bobmarsh5 Provide reps what they need to succeed, set bar high, consistently enforce policies & disproportionately reward overperformance.
— Peter Caputa (@pc4media) June 2, 2015
@bobmarsh5 They can identify sales behaviors that lose deals and replace them with good behaviors that win deals.
— Peter Caputa (@pc4media) June 2, 2015
@bobmarsh5 They can coach at the deal level, moving revenue down funnel, build confidence in a rep and teach skills at the same time.
— Peter Caputa (@pc4media) June 2, 2015
Zack Urlocker – COO of Duo Security, Former COO of ZenDesk, Board Member of LevelEleven
@bobmarsh5 1. Metrics-oriented, 2. Sells on value
— Zack Urlocker (@ZUrlocker) June 2, 2015
Tim Kopp – Former CMO of ExactTarget and WebTrends, Board Member of LevelEleven
@bobmarsh5 Good Q. Short answer: someone who knows & grows my business, not sells me. Helping is the new selling.
— Tim Kopp (@tbkopp) June 2, 2015
Meagen Eisenberg – CMO of MongoDB
@bobmarsh5 they partner with marketing
— Meagen Eisenberg (@meisenberg) June 2, 2015
Ralph Barsi – VP of Field Operations at Achievers
@bobmarsh5 Selflessness.
— Ralph Barsi (@rbarsi) June 7, 2015
Some great ideas in here with a nice mix of character traits and execution specific traits. What do you think? Add your thoughts in the comments area below to answer the question, “What is one key trait of a ‘modern’ sales leader?”
