Recently I was able to see Freeman Hrabowski speak. WOW! If you ever get a chance to hear him speak and tell any part of his story, then take it without hesitation. You will walk away inspired and probably feeling a bit inadequate! He is the President of University of Maryland, Baltimore County and was recently named one of the 10 best college Presidents by Time Magazine. What he has done with UMBC over the years is simply astounding and is a textbook case on “Transformational Leadership“. This is a critical concept in today’s business world that has changed so much around us. It is going to take Transformational Leaders to get their organizations back on their feet. Businesses need to change and many of them probably require a change to their very culture, which is the hardest kind of change to make. Many organizations will just go out and hire new leaders to create the kind of “transformation” called for. Before you become the “former Sales Manager”, you need to look in the mirror and look at your organization very, very carefully.
All leaders are being put to the test now and Sales Managers certainly are under the gun. It is important to really look hard at your organization and give it an objective assessment. You might even reach out to people in other departments to help with this assessment. Or reach out to your former colleagues and business associates. Is your sales team set up for success? Is it inspired and motivated? Is it being more proactive than ever before? Are call volumes up? Are your salespeople improving themselves? Are YOU focused on the development of your salespeople? Is the team entrenched in its old ways? Is “the way we do things around here” going to cut it in this new world we operate in today?
Given how dramatically the business world has changed, this could be the perfect time to transform your team into the team you REALLY think it should be. Now is the time to try some of the new things you’ve always wanted to try. It is time to change things up. You can be a ”Transformational Leader” or your manager can go out and hire one.
So how do you go about it?
First of all, I would start writing down a list of all of the things your team SHOULD be doing in order to be successful. You might be doing some of them. You probably are not doing most of them to the degree necessary. You were able to be successful without doing these things in the past, but you probably won’t be successful again without doing them. How many calls/appointments is your team conducting each day? What do their prospecting efforts look like? What are they saying to their clients and prospects? How is their product knowledge? Are they able to position your company and your products/services correctly? These are the areas where the rubber meets the road so start with them.
But start SOMEWHERE. Take the first step today in transforming your sales organization into the one is SHOULD be. If you were starting from scratch, what would you like your team to look like? Good luck!
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