Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Are you a leader? Or just a manager? What’s the difference, you ask? If you don’t know, you’re probably in the
wrong job. A leader energizes and motivates a sales force to achieve seemingly impossible goals. A manager makes
sure the sales process works. A leader has a powerful sense of mission and purpose. A manager makes sure all
Managers...well, they manage. Lest you think this is a bunch of New Age business-seminar babble, know this:
intense today, and there’s so much sameness in products, that you will succeed or fail ninety-eight percent of the
BUSINESS LEADERS
time because of your company’s people,” says Herbert Greenberg, founder and CEO of Caliper, a
human resources consulting company in Princeton, New Jersey. “And the quality of the people in a sales
force comes down to the quality of its leadership. Pure managers make the system work, but leaders make
things happen. They make the people around them better.” u Put in more practical terms: “Every time you hire a
BY GEOFFREY leader who doesn’t maximize people’s potential, you lose market share,” says Tom Black,
president of Private Business Inc., a Nashville-based software company. u Sales & Marketing Management recently
commissioned Caliper to conduct a survey aimed at identifying the personality traits of great sales leaders.
In this exclusive study, Caliper assessed the attributes of 172 sales executives — some of whom are quoted in this
story—from 105 companies Reprinted from SALES AND MARKETING MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE
representing more than 50 industries. don’t make good leaders.” convinces his reps to boost their
Those executives were selected for study Raymond McDermott, vice president performance. “I like to see my
by their supervisors because they were of sales for Sentrol Inc., a security employees succeed, and I get a real sense
the best leaders in their organizations— equipment maker in Tualatin, Oregon, of satisfaction out of persuading them
”the kind of people senior management says he has no problem being assertive to do better,” Kinard says. “I’m only as
getting reps to cope with rejection, Hayes sold him our services on a handshake a would feel encroached upon. Indeed, an
says, is to help them quickly put it into week after they had started their business Indiana rep openly questioned what was
perspective. “I tell them that we have to because I knew he was good for his in it for him if Dyne managed the
evaluate our performance, and then move word,” says Whitman. He admits that he account in his state.
on,” he says. “Rejection is a part of the was grilled by skeptics in Pace’s account- “This business wouldn’t have existed
game in sales. Losing a sale won’t end ing department as to why he would make if Paul hadn’t brought it in, but at the
same time, we didn’t want to step on the president here at six dealing with 7. YOU MUST BE EMPATHETIC
Indiana rep’s toes,” Hayes says. the problem. They know I’m serious
Hayes solution: Dyne would manage about this.” Sales leaders are tough, driven, daring.
the early phases of the relationship with Whitman recently had to convey But they also have a heart. They possess as
the client in such states as Indiana, urgency to his staff when Pace’s labs won much compassion as they do competitive
Alabama, and Missouri—and he’d be a large project to perform ground water fire. “I think that every salesperson wants
rewarded for transactions made during analysis for a joint venture between two to know that their boss is an advocate for
those phases. Over time, Dyne would oil companies. “I told my sales rep and them,” says Black of Private Business.
then turn over the business to local sales- project managers that this was a high- Earlier this year, Paula Gerhold,
people. D.A. Stuart would, in turn, reward profile project and it was a highly manager of sales for Walt Disney
him with a higher commission rate on all competitive bid,” Whitman says. “I Attractions Inc. in Orlando, met with
business he does. “We’ll never take his wanted them to know that we were two new reps at the company’s national
higher commission rate away,” Hayes says. going to show the client that we could sales meeting. The reps, Carrie and Marcy,
“This is a reward for having formed this work on this quickly. If we could get wanted to discuss their idea for running
relationship.” our foot in the door with this client, co-op advertising with regional travel
Hayes considers his solution an innov- there would be a long-term benefit agencies in a travel magazine. The
ative one at D.A. Stuart, “A few years for all of us.” salespeople were enthusiastic about the
back, we would’ve said to Dyne, ‘No, So before the ground water samples project, but hadn’t really thought it
that’s not your territory—there are geo- arrived, Whitman cleared his lab’s work- through. For instance, they lacked
graphical guidelines we must follow,’” load and set up double shifts straight essential information to initiate the
he says. “But we decided to go against through a weekend—an unusual move project: the publisher of the magazine,
the grain. We saw an opportunity for the for Pace. As a result, the lab completed the deadline for producing the ad,
company to grow. As a result, we have the project in five days—the client had mechanical specifications, etc.
a major relationship with a manufacturer. thought it would take ten. “A bad sales manager would have
We’re putting together a national contract For Whitman, the benefits were two- slapped their hands for what they
that no one is competing with us for. fold: The client has given Pace additional didn’t know,” Gerhold says.
This is going to turn into a national and business—the lab has already garnered But she took a gentler approach.
international account.” half a million dollars from the account— Gerhold told them that she shared
and the project set a new standard of their enthusiasm but that they needed
6. YOU MUST BE URGENT speed and efficiency for the lab. “We to gather more information, which she
proved to ourselves for that week that clearly spelled out. “As someone new to
In a customer-driven marketplace, the we could double our produtivity and Disney, I was feeling overwhelmed, and
need to get things done now is critical to do more than we could ever do,” Paula helped build my confidence,”
winning and keeping business. Wait untill Whitman says. Carrie says, “She had a true understanding
tomorrow to submit that proposal, and a But Whitman cautions against of what I was going through.”
hungry competitor might get in the door urgency for its own sake. He says he has Carrie and Marcy returned to Gerhold
ahead of you. Leave at 5:30 instead of to “pick and choose” when to be urgent, soon after with a detailed plan for the ad
staying late to address a client’s problems, lest his staff burn out. “Not everything is campaign. “I thought they had
and that client may be someone else’s an emergency,” he says. “Just because a a brilliant idea, and I didn’t want to
before long. client is having an emergency, doesn’t squelch their enthusiasm,” Gerhold
Sales leaders know this, which is why mean it has to be an emergency for us. says. “It’s just that reps sometimes have
they constantly communicate urgency to We want to feel a sense of urgency, but enthusiasm but not a lot of details. Being
their staffs. “Everyone understands the we can’t do it for every project.” an empathetic leader means listening
importance of urgency, but few people and understanding, and helping them to
in sales management really have it,” understand,” she says.
Marcrum of D.A. Stuart says. “In my But Gerhold knows that an effective
opinion, urgency is almost like the HOW THE STUDY WAS leader isn’t just a shrink or a cheerleader.
continental divide that separates great CONDUCTED “Being empathetic,” she says, “also means
leaders from just managers.” Caliper, a human resources getting your people to take action.” u
When Sentrol recently discovered consulting company
that one of its security products had a headquartered in Princeton,
manufacturing defect, McDermott New Jersey, administered a
arrived at his Oregon office at six in the paper-and-pencil assessment
test to 172 sales managers—
morning the next day so that he could representing 50 industries—iden-
contact distributors across the country tified by their companies as the
to explain the problem and recall the best. The Caliper assessment mea-
product. He made sure he walked around sures more than 30 different
personality characteristics that
the office that morning, too, to convey make people successful leaders.
the urgency of the problem to his early- For this study, the results were
bird sales reps, who were already working merged into a composite profile
the phones. depicting the characteristics of
“I lead my salespeople by example,” he the group as a whole.
said. “They know I was the only vice