What does it mean to be a “modern” sales leader? Influencers from Rocket Fuel, The Bridge Group, Moo, Steelbrick and LevelEleven gathered on stage at Dreamforce Thursday to share these 12 answers:
1. “I do believe the modern sales leader has to be a marketeer,” – Matt Gorniak, CRO, Steelbrick
2. “There’s a theme going on right now that I’d like to address…and that’s the theme of diversity. To be a modern sales leader…you need to figure out how to make your team members diverse.” – Trish Bertuzzi, President, The Bridge Group
3. “I talk to my managers a lot about finding the fire in their sales reps and then managing to greatness.” – Michele Balcom, Director of Sales, Moo
4. “The whole world of sales is changing – this isn’t just about the manager.” – Bob Marsh, CEO, LevelEleven
5. “We need to allow ourselves to take that time to understand people…we’re not managing a group – we’re managing humans.” – Trish Bertuzzi, President, The Bridge Group
6. “I want people to wake up in the morning every day thinking about how they’re going to close a deal, how they’re going to push a deal forward…I want to bring visibility and accountability to what people are doing every single day.” – Randy Wootton, CRO, Rocket Fuel
7. “The first two, the buyer and the seller, they’re changing…however, we would argue that the sales managers, they’re not changing enough.” – Bob Marsh, CEO, LevelEleven
8. “We are a sales-driven culture…we are going to celebrate the people who are winning.” – Randy Wootton, CRO, Rocket Fuel
9. “If you’re not coaching your sales managers as sales leaders, expecting them to coach or even having one-to-ones, it’s [success is] not going to happen.” – Michele Balcom, Director of Sales, Moo
10. “Coaching has gone to the next level. It’s stopped falling to the bottom of the list. Now there are technologies to bring it up to the top, and as modern sales leaders we need to embrace those technologies.” – Trish Bertuzzi, President, The Bridge Group
11. “You have to spend time figuring out what it is that you want from your seller.” – Randy Wootton, CRO, Rocket Fuel
12. “[Sales] metrics used to be about the end game…people are now starting to measure what it takes to get to the end game.” – Trish Bertuzzi, President, The Bridge Group
What do you think? What makes someone a modern sales leader?
