How To Be A High-Performing Sales Leader in Todays Marketplace

How to be a High-Performing
Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace

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Table Of Contents
1 Introduction .............................................................. 03
2 The Importance of Coaching on Sales

Performance .............................................................. 04
Creating a Coaching Culture and Mindset ...................................................... 05
How to Coach ........................................................................................................ 06
How to Identify Coaching Opportunities ......................................................... 07
Coaching in the Virtual World ............................................................................ 09
Coach Against a Defined Methodology ........................................................... 10
3 Using Data to Lead Others ...................................... 12

Importance of Clean Data .............................................................................. 13
How to Use the Data ....................................................................................... 14
What the Data Tells Us .................................................................................... 14
Established and Measured KPIs ..................................................................... 15
4 Qualities of High-Performing Sales

Leaders ...................................................................... 16
Motivation .......................................................................................................... 16
Reward and Recognition .................................................................................. 16
Soft Skills ............................................................................................................ 17
Leading by Example .......................................................................................... 17
Integrity ............................................................................................................... 17
5 Final Thoughts ........................................................... 18

How to be a
High-Performing
Sales Leader
in Today’s
Marketplace
Introduction
One thing readily apparent to anyone who works
in sales is that the landscape is changing faster
than ever. While the advent of new technologies
has eased burdens and streamlined processes,
today’s buyers are more advanced and armed
with greater resources than their forebears,
making it more difficult for sales professionals to
differentiate themselves and consistently provide
innovative solutions for their clients. As sales
professionals strive to be more sophisticated, the
challenge is greater for sales managers and leaders
to understand the changes in the selling industry
and equip their teams with the tools and skills they
need to remain successful.
Through our research, we have identified several

key areas in which high-performing sales leaders
must excel in order to help their teams maximize
their potential:
Understanding sales coaching and its

1 importance to sales performance
2 Using data to effectively lead others
Possessing the qualities of high-

3 performing sales leaders
How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 3

The Importance of
Coaching on Sales
Performance
Successful sales organizations
know that, along with sales
training, sales coaching is a
leading contributor to high-
performing sales teams.
According to CSO Insights, sales coaching has had the

greatest impact on win rates and quota attainment over the
past five years; Aberdeen Research notes that companies that
provide real-time, deal-specific coaching increased revenue
by 8.4 percent—a 95 percent improvement over companies
that don’t provide the same level of coaching; and the Harvard
Business Review reports that top businesses have focused
on developing coaches to work with sales reps more in the
past five years than had been done in the last 50 years.
There’s little doubt that the growth of sales coaching is driven

by a desire to replicate the success of the top-performing
companies that utilize coaching as a key ingredient to develop
sales professionals. However there are as many ways to coach
as there are reps who need coaching. Also, as many companies
find out for themselves, the best sales reps do not necessarily
Companies
make the best sales coaches. While a thorough understanding that provide
of sales and the selling process is essential for effective real-time, deal-
coaching, the role of sales leader is best suited to those who specific coaching
love sales and enjoy sharing their acquired knowledge with see an increase
others. As such, sales leaders should measure their coaching revenue of
8.4
success not just in number of deals closed or how often their
teams meet or exceed quota, which are certainly important
%—
criteria. Successful leaders should also weigh the long-term
importance of instilling the right mindset in their sales reps,
a 95%
such as thinking creatively and being team players, as well as improvement
developing the competencies and skills reps need to consistently over companies
succeed in the challenging and uncertain times we face. that don’t.

“For sales
coaching to be
successful, an
Creating a Coaching Culture
organization must and Mindset
first establish
a culture that
From top to bottom, the entire organization
must be aligned on the importance of
understands and coaching. For their part, top executives

and others in the C-suite need to see sales
appreciates its training and coaching as an investment in

their company’s future and understand their
value.” effect on the bottom line.
Research from the Sales Executive

Council shows that sales coaching
can boost long-term performance
by upwards of 19%.
Sales leaders must make coaching a regular

part of their process so reps understand that
coaching is not a punishment, reprimand,
or a hint they are not pulling their weight.
Rather, successful sales leaders must set an
example by consistently finding and utilizing
new coaching techniques and inviting their
reps to buy-in to coaching by asking for their
input and advocating for their needs with
senior management.
Sales coaching can

boost long-term
performance by
upwards of
19%
To be effective, sales
leaders must realize that
all sales reps will not
respond to coaching the
same way.
How to Coach What is Dynamic Coaching?
Trying to implement a coaching process with each sales

rep the same way each time is a mistake because the
first step to successful coaching is understanding the
strengths, weaknesses, and motivations of your reps.
Like sales trainers, successful coaches must be effective According to CSO Insights, 2017 saw a
communicators. They must establish a comfortable shift in sales organizations’ approaches
to coaching, from a random approach
environment where reps feel they can freely discuss their to an informal approach. However, a
formal or dynamic coaching approach
progress and performance. leads to even greater results
The best sales leaders should also be good armchair

The informal approach increased from
psychologists capable of probing but not prying for 25.5% in 2016 to 30% in 2017
unconscious fears and anxieties that could interfere with
the rep’s success. Real-time, real-deal coaching, where a
sales leader sits with a rep during their actual sales calls,
Random Approach; coaching left at
is considered most effective because the sales manager the manager’s discretios
can provide feedback and tips the rep can implement as Informal Approach; guidelines were
the call takes place. available but not formalized
Dynamic Coaching Approach; coaching
areas and the coaching process are
defined and implemented in coordination
Dynamic sales coaching shows double- with periodic reviews
digit improvement in sales performance Dynamic coaching, which closely aligns

coaching to the sales enablement
process, ensures reinforcement and
on quota attainment (21.3%) and win adoption of initiatives and provides a
27.6% improvement in win rates for
rates (19%) over the study’s average. forecast deals
In order to achieve the best results

from your sales coaching initiatives,
DATA CITED IN TRAINING INDUSTRY effective sales leaders should ensure
their coaching aligns with critical
components of their sales enablement,
including: their specific sales process,
Based on data cited in Training Industry, the level of formality information in their CRM, buyer
and regularity contributes to the success of coaching. The personas, training, competition,
compensation, and best practices
strongest results come from dynamic coaching—coaching
In other words, effective sales leaders
that is connected to sales enablement—which ensures tailor their coaching to their specific
adoption and reinforcement of skills tailored to individual goals and processes to provide reps the
tools and reinforcement to achieve the
or specific needs. organization’s distinct goals

How to Identify Coaching Here are opportunities where
coaching can be applied:
Opportunities
Leverage the data/metrics you
While there are countless ways to track to identify areas in your sales
process that consistently come up
coach, effective sales managers should short to determine if the problem
experiment with different styles of is endemic to your sales team or
limited to individual reps, and share
coaching to find the ones that will be this information with your reps so
most effective for their individual reps’ they can see for themselves the
areas they excel and where they need
personalities.
improvement; for more on using data
effectively, see below
Sales leaders should

Coaching big-picture topics,
like selling in specific industries
(healthcare or technology), selling to
be always on the different business types (enterprise
clients, startups, and SMBs), as well
lookout to identify as navigating gatekeepers and selling
to multiple decision makers
opportunities More specific and tactical forms of

where their teams coaching, such as qualifying leads,
use of etiquette in emails and phone
can benefit from calls, leveraging social media, etc.
coaching. Coaching specific skills such

as reading body language, active
listening, asking open-ended
questions, creating interaction and
engagement in virtual communication
Real-time feedback during sales calls

allows sales leaders to point out both
the things the rep is doing right as
well as areas where the rep might be
more successful utilizing a different
strategy or method of engagement
Debriefing to discuss the rep’s own

impression of their performance on
calls or in email and to engage in a
constructive dialogue about the areas
the rep is excelling and areas that
could use improvement in order to
maximize engagements
Role-playing to explore different

scenarios they will encounter in
order to gauge their reactions and
decisionmaking powers with different
buyer personas they will run across
from the easy going to difficult or
demanding customers

High-performing sales leaders should focus on the middle
60% of their sales reps. This group benefits the most from
coaching by up to 19%. Bottom-20 and top-20 groups of
sales reps do not show much improvement from coaching.
HBR CITED IN TRAINING INDUSTRY
Sales coaching is typically least effective for

the bottom 20 percent of a sales team because
these reps often lack the necessary motivation
to master basic skills on their own. Let’s face
it, a sales coach can only help those reps who
are motivated enough to achieve on their own
without coaching, so the coaching can help
them achieve a higher level of productivity.
Conversely, the top 20 percent of sales reps

are already achieving at a high level, so leaders
who concentrate on these reps will see less
return on their coaching investment.
The middle 60 percent of sales reps are often

those who are already doing all that they can
on their own and will benefit the most from
coaching that offers useful tips and helps
develop best practices to achieve more than
they could prior to coaching.
Sales reps who perform at this percentile:
Less benefit
+20 %
from sales
coaching
Most benefit
60 %
from sales
coaching
Least effect
-20 %
from sales
coaching

Coaching in the Virtual World
A recent study by McKinsey & Company

showed that 79% of businesses were
likely or somewhat likely to maintain their
virtual-heavy outreach, and 65% of B2B
decision makers believe the new, post
Covid-19 business model is more effective
than traditional selling.
With the increased reliance on virtual

selling, effective sales leaders need to ensure
their teams are proficient in the applicable
technology and utilize the best practices of
virtual interaction.
Essential for any sales rep is the ability to

As sales reps must engage and interact
form a connection with a client virtually. From
with clients to build a rapport, when
creating a virtual home office to establishing
coaching dispersed sales teams, effective
and maintaining engagement, sales leaders
sales leaders should utilize all the virtual
must stress the importance of online selling.
tools and techniques at their disposal,
including:
Whiteboarding
Breakout Room
Role-play
Putting peers together
Enrolling in online sales training
Remember, there is no rule that sales coaching

must be a mundane or boring endeavor,
something to be endured. The more interactive
your coaching, the more your reps will buy-in
to the lessons and utilize these skills in their
virtual engagements.

Coach Against a Defined
Methodology
As a sales methodology provides

specific direction and accountability
for your sales reps, effective sales
leaders should coach against a
welldefined methodology as well.
Rather than sales leaders creating

coaching opportunities on the fly, a
specific methodology can provide
organization and structure to the
coaching process, which allows sales
leaders to concentrate on the critical
skills and practices their reps need. At
the same time, it provides the sales team
with clarity and consistency.

Following are specific activities that will help sales leaders motivate, inspire, and
increase the productivity of their team:
One-on-One Meetings Assess and Evaluate Performance
Sales leaders should utilize frequent one- In assessing and evaluating performance, sales leaders
onone meetings with their reps. These can be should utilize their data to show reps exactly how their
informal discussions to gain insight into the calls and emails lead to meaningful client engagements
rep’s mindset, such as their level of comfort or and how often these result in sales. In the complex
excitement with the workload and goals that are world of KPI, it can be useful for reps to see for
expected of them. These head off problems or themselves exactly how their specific behaviors move
issues before they arise by continually ensuring the sales process forward or where they are falling off,
that leaders and reps are on the same page. and it is incumbent on sales leaders to show reps this
is a critical part of their growth.
Team Meetings
Coaching Career Development
These can foster camaraderie and a team-first
mentality in sales reps who can often feel lost in An aspect of sales coaching that doesn’t get
their own world. Leaders should use this time to enough attention is career development. While so
share sales stories and best practices in areas such much of coaching is, rightfully, focused on how to
as virtual prospecting, engagement, presentation, improve specific skills and behaviors as they take
etc. Effective leaders should also use this as an place, effective sales leaders should also build in
opportunity to share sales metrics and praise career development for reps who may not yet
performance to keep reps motivated. see for themselves how their unique personalities
and specific skills can apply to other aspects of
sales, such as training, curriculum development,
Observe Interactions coaching, and even leadership. In addition to
bolstering confidence, this can help motivate
Sales leaders should make it a habit to sit with
reps to continually achieve and learn all aspects
sales reps during their calls and observe their
of sales, which can build critical thinking and
interactions with prospects and clients. They
problemsolving skills.
should also periodically review their reps’ email
communication. Some things to look for are the
rep’s adherence to prescribed sales scripts and
their ability to improvise. Are the reps sufficiently
engaging the customers in meaningful ways? Are
they building a rapport at the same time they are
generating interest and offering value? In addition
to helpful tips and real-time advice, leaders should
be quick to praise sales reps who demonstrate
initiative, creative thinking, and a willingness to try
new things.

Using Data to
Lead Others
Sales is data-driven. The data collected
by your sales team provides invaluable
information to manage your organization
and track your team’s performance.
To be successful, an organization needs

to have clearly defined goals, objectives,
and benchmarks by which they can
dispassionately judge how they are
doing. It is incumbent on sales leaders
to not only interpret the data collected
in their CRM but to further leverage that
information to identify areas where the
team is falling short, which may indicate
sales training is needed, or target
specific reps who may need coaching.

“Sales managers need to
stress the importance of
maintaining a clean CRM
and implement strict
policies for sales reps
to follow on its use and
maintenance.”
Importance of Clean Data

Data is only as useful as the information
is timely and clean. Over time, data
becomes outdated and, through human
error, is often incomplete, especially for
contacts that are manually entered.
In addition, sales leaders should have a

designated contact that is responsible
for frequent data scrubbing activities
and is a go-to person for your sales team
should they have concerns related to the
integrity of the data or questions about
reporting accessibility.
For data integrity, it is equally important

to establish clear guidelines around
opportunity conversion actions within
a sales team. Failure to supervise and
evaluate opportunity data can quickly
lead to bloated sales pipelines with
deals that are unlikely to ever lead to an
actual transaction. The same is true for
opportunities that are kept open despite
having made little progress in moving the
deal forward.

How to Use the Data
The first step of using your data is
to determine your objectives. For
example, if your goal is to build and
maintain a healthy pipeline, you need
to examine the metrics that impact
prospecting and drive growth, such as:
The number of deals needed What the Data Tells Us

to fill the sales funnel
Use your KPIs to identify what the
data reveals, such as:
The average size of the deals
How your team performed
in a specific timeframe
The number of opportunities

How sales performance
needed to fill the pipeline compares to previous years
What activities and attributes

Your ideal conversion rate lead to strong conversion and
close rates
Percentage of sales teams

reaching quota
Existing account growth
Average size of deals in the
sales funnel
Conversion/win rate
Revenue
Sales funnel leakage
Clean and accurate data are essential to

the overall health of your sales organization.
They provide sales leaders a picture of
which processes work and which need
improvement.
By effectively using the vast data your team

collects, high-performing sales leaders can
identify problems and implement targeted
coaching for individual reps in the areas
in which they struggle, whether it’s lead
generation, the quality and length of sales
calls, the size of deals closed, etc.

Established and Measured KPIs
An important part of a successful sales strategy is having established and measurable KPI
that shows which aspects of the process are working and which need improvement to meet
your goals and quota.
Some KPIs essential to a successful sales strategy include:
Lead Source Client Acquisition Rates

This lets you know where your leads This is the cost to an organization
come from, essential to knowing in terms of sales and marketing to
where you should target marketing acquire new customers; this also
and business development resources, lets you know how to best utilize
as well as what the conversion rates your resources.
are for each.
Competitor Pricing Existing Client Engagement

This helps determine the prices you This is critical to maintaining a
can set your products in relation to healthy client relationship and
the value you can provide over the reveals opportunities to upsell and
competition. crosssell to consistently provide
value.
Upsell/Cross-Sell Rates Net Promotor Score (NPS)

Reveals the number of clients that This is the willingness of customers
purchase additional products and to recommend your products and
services; a costeffective way to services.
increase revenue.
Sales Cycle Length Positive vs. Negative Reply Rates

The faster you can move prospects This shows that your marketing
from initial contact to closed deals, efforts are producing engagement;
the more you can concentrate your negative reply rates could indicate
efforts on other new deals. a new approach is needed.
Meeting Acceptance Rates Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

This indicates the number of clients This determines the worth of a
who respond favorably to your value client or customer over the course
proposition and are enticed enough of your relationship with them.
to want to know more.
According to executives surveyed, just 15% of sales calls

added enough value, with just 7% of executives saying
they would schedule a follow-up call.
RESEARCH BY FORRESTER

Qualities of High-Performing Sales
Leaders
In addition to coaching and using data, sales leaders must possess the
ability to manage and guide their teams to be successful.
Central to this are exhibiting the qualities of a leader. These include understanding and inspiring
diverse groups of people and getting them to work together at a high level. At the same
time, sales leaders serve as the bridge between management and their sales team. This can
necessitate some balancing in order to ensure sales rep buy-in and maintain a positive work
environment for all.
Motivation
A fallacy of sales professionals is that many of them are supremely confident extroverts
motivated by the promise of financial gain.
While confidence can be a helpful trait, the reality is sales teams are often made up of diverse
personalities that range in age and experience. As such, their individual needs and primary
motivations are different as well.
To get the most out their teams, effective sales leaders must know what motivates each team
member.
Reward and Recognition
In addition to knowing what motivates

their teams, sales leaders need to
understand how their reps respond to
reward and recognition.
Some sales professionals like being the

center of attention and may respond
favorably to public praise. Others like
the challenge of criticism to drive their
achievement. Though it may be time
consuming, effective sales leaders should
avoid any blanket approach to praise
and, instead, get to know their reps and
treat them as individuals.

Soft Skills
Critical to being an effective sales leader is mastering
the intangibles that also make for great sales reps. These
include emotional intelligence, adaptability, work ethic,
being a team player, having a growth mindset, being
open to feedback, and active listening.
In many ways, these are the skills that will prove most
useful for sales leaders in managing their teams at the
same time they work with management on setting goals.
The more a sales team sees these things in action, the

easier it will be for them to incorporate these attributes
and skills into their own selling behavior.
Leading by Example
Sales Leaders should set an example.
More than anything they say, their

actions, day in and day out, can have
the greatest effect on their team.
Whether dealing with the demands
of management or conveying these
to their reps, how leaders conduct
themselves is a significant test of
their effectiveness for the benefit of
their reps and for the organization.
Integrity
These days, with the ever-changing sales landscape, civil unrest, and the rise of increasingly diverse
sales teams, it’s essential for leaders to hold themselves to the highest standards of integrity. This
means modeling the behaviors and attitudes that reflect positively on their organizations and
directly influence their sales reps.
As reps should strive to be trusted advisors to their clients, sales leaders should remember
they are role models to their teams and the inspiration for future sales leaders. In addition to
their KPIs and quotas, effective sales leaders should be mindful of their legacies within their
organizations and the profession.

Final Thoughts
Perhaps, nothing has illustrated the change in the
sales industry as much as the Covid-19 pandemic and
the resulting economic shutdown. While economic
fluctuations are a part of business, and successful
companies have their individual contingencies in place
for navigating through these changes, nothing could
have prepared organizations for the challenges brought
by the pandemic.
For many, this necessitated a wholesale shift in operations

with many reps struggling to adapt their existing
processes at the same time they adopted new skill sets
to meet the demands of the changing times.
For sales leaders, tasked with the two-pronged, short-

and long-term responsibilities of meeting quota as they
develop and guide their teams to be successful in a new
sales environment, the challenge has been enormous.
While no means exhaustive, the key areas discussed in
this report provide a basis for sales leaders to remain
high performing and meet the challenges of an ever-
shifting sales landscape.

Janek Performance Group is an award-winning sales
performance solutions provider based in Las Vegas,
NV. Our training and consulting services are field-
tested with proven results in improving the sales
skills and results of our clients, backed by ongoing
research into the market’s needs and best practices.
We possess the ability to work with companies

ranging from small businesses to Fortune 100
firms and have an established track record across
countless industries and verticals.
Janek Performance Group
1 (800) 979-0079
info@janek.com
3087 E. Warm Springs Rd., Suite 300
Las Vegas, NV 89120

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How to be a High-Performing

Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace

2 The Importance of Coaching on Sales

3 Using Data to Lead Others ...................................... 12

4 Qualities of High-Performing Sales

5 Final Thoughts ........................................................... 18

Through our research, we have identified several

Understanding sales coaching and its

2 Using data to effectively lead others

Possessing the qualities of high-

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 3

According to CSO Insights, sales coaching has had the

There’s little doubt that the growth of sales coaching is driven

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 4

understands and coaching. For their part, top executives

appreciates its training and coaching as an investment in

value.” effect on the bottom line.

Research from the Sales Executive

Sales leaders must make coaching a regular

Sales coaching can

Trying to implement a coaching process with each sales

The best sales leaders should also be good armchair

digit improvement in sales performance Dynamic coaching, which closely aligns

In order to achieve the best results

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 6

Sales leaders should

opportunities More specific and tactical forms of

coaching. Coaching specific skills such

Real-time feedback during sales calls

Debriefing to discuss the rep’s own

Role-playing to explore different

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 7

HBR CITED IN TRAINING INDUSTRY

Sales coaching is typically least effective for

Conversely, the top 20 percent of sales reps

The middle 60 percent of sales reps are often

Sales reps who perform at this percentile:

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 8

A recent study by McKinsey & Company

With the increased reliance on virtual

Essential for any sales rep is the ability to

Putting peers together

Enrolling in online sales training

Remember, there is no rule that sales coaching

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 9

As a sales methodology provides

Rather than sales leaders creating

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 10

One-on-One Meetings Assess and Evaluate Performance

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 11

To be successful, an organization needs

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 12

Importance of Clean Data

In addition, sales leaders should have a

For data integrity, it is equally important

How to be a High-Performing Sales Leader in Today’s Marketplace 13

The number of deals needed What the Data Tells Us

The number of opportunities

What activities and attributes

Percentage of sales teams

Sales funnel leakage

Clean and accurate data are essential to

By effectively using the vast data your team