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#1 Reason Why Most Sales Leaders Fail | CEO Insights
I've met over a thousand CEOs, but only two who said it's unacceptable to miss targets come to mind. All other CEOs made excuses for their VP of Sales.
I’ve met over a thousand CEOs, but only two who said it’s unacceptable to miss targets come to mind. All other CEOs made excuses for their VP of Sales.Â
So, why do sales leaders fail? The number 1 reason sales leaders fail is that they are allowed to fail; the CEO, sales leader, and ultimately, the sales team believe it’s acceptable.
A sales leader’s failure is binary; you either hit the revenue target or didn’t.
Your sales leader is your insurance policy that your organization hits quota every month and makes revenue goals. But they always need to be held accountable to succeed.Â
Do not accept missed targets
AS CEO, you need to set clear expectations for success. If you’re half-hearted, you cannot expect new sales leaders to give it their all.
I talk a lot about how the best sales leaders foster a culture built on accountability and transparency, but the reality is that it starts with the CEO or founders.
Most sales leaders fail because they are allowed to believe missing their targets is OK – poor performance is never OK.
Whether you actively say those words or imply that with your actions is irrelevant. You’re actively managing their discomfort and yours.
Most CEOs will talk about goals like recommendations –”it would be nice if you hit your goals” –until they’re finally fed up. And then they want to get rid of their sales leader.
Most sales leaders fail because they are allowed to believe missing their targets is OK - poor performance is never OK.
Current statistics support my observations; the average tenure of a Sales VP is only between 24-32 months.Â
Let me be clear: You can’t go from cold to hot. You can’t allow it. Accept it as the status quo. Tolerate unconsciously or unintentionally. You’re actively promoting behavior that hurts the team’s performance: missing goals and targets.
As CEOs, you must intervene and manage when your sales leaders enter a plateau or downward spiral. You need to step in and force the sales leader to change and adopt more revenue-producing fruitful behaviors and activities.Â
People, including sales managers, regress to the absolute minimum to survive. If hitting a goal is required to survive, most sales managers will find a way to hit the goal.Â
Don’t be the CEO who waits to pull the ripcord. You’re setting up your sales managers & leaders to fail.Â
Other common mistakes in sales leadership
Half Measure Plans
I often refer to this as a half-measure. Effectively a half measure is not having the foresight required to execute a plan.Â
Most people create a plan that goes from step one to step ten. Usually, they’re very intentional about going from step one to step two but believe this will trigger a default, or momentum, that will carry them through the rest of the plan.Â
Ultimately, they are intentional about what they can control, only their actions. It usually looks like this: I will do X for step one, which forces Y to occur for step two.Â
But the problem is when the first step doesn’t yield your desired results or actions to trigger the next step.Â
Here is what you need to do in this situation:Â
Find another way. Reevaluate. Force it to move into the next step.Â
Yes. It will require more effort. More energy. Higher activity on your part.Â
But it will produce better qualitative activity.Â
Once you reach step two, you will do XYZ to get step three. You will intentionally force the issue. And you will continue this all the way through to step ten.Â
Most sales managers need to do that. If they don’t get to step two, they move on. They repeat step one repeatedly, hoping to eventually get enough that some of them will fall in line. That’s what most people do.Â
I call that a half-measure; they hope something will come to fruition rather than actively forcing your plan to transpire.Â
Sales Leader Hiring Rubric
Systematically assess your sales leader against measurable sales leader traits and expectations. Ensure your organization’s growth.
Set Quotas Too Low
Remember, the quota is your sales manager’s bare minimum not to get fired; it’s to earn your keep. It would help if you were not celebrating your sales manager hitting quota.
Quota achievement is 20-30% more than the set quota.
If your sales manager can only muster half of that –something needs fixing. As the CEO, you need to course-correct immediately.
These conversations will be uncomfortable but necessary for your new sales managers to develop skills and the right strategy to increase revenue goals.
Use External Factors As An Excuse
Many new sales managers talk about everything except how to hit their number and make that sales quota.
Now, external factors impact the sales team. However, we blow problems well out of proportion – both the sales management and CEOs.
You employ a sales director as a buffer from everything threatening your revenue.
Far too many sales managers fail because they produce data and reports that explain why they are missing targets. Refrain from getting taken in by reports and data.Â
Sales leadership must forecast potential problems and utilize sales coaching and ongoing training to help their sales executives overcome real challenges within the team.Â
Use weekly sales meetings or daily sales huddles to work through current issues and problems your sales reps face and to close more and better deals.
Leaders Must Be Top Sales Talent
Sales managers need to garner the team’s respect when they are not the top salesperson in the sales organization. They may not be the top performers, but they must showcase their selling ability. Otherwise, your organization’s top salespeople will not respect them.
Leaders unbeholden to any particular sales rep can push boundaries and salespeople to achieve more. It also creates the environment to have crucial conversations while implementing the forcing functions to keep the team in line for both top and poor performers.
CEOs must ensure they hire the right sales manager for the position –it is essential in your sales hiring process.
Sales Leader Evaluation Rubric
Systematically assess your sales leader against measurable sales leader traits and expectations. Ensure your organization’s growth.
Get Sales Leadership Help
Make sure your sales managers succeed. Systematically assess your sales leader against measurable sales leader traits and expectations. Ensure your organization’s growth.
Rose Garden’s Sales Leader Evaluation Template categorically unroots current challenges with your new sales manager that essentially threatens your revenue. Our template identifies imminent challenges specifically. We systematically guide you through a rubric of grading your sales leader on all the critical components of success and then some.Â
You can’t afford to leave anything up to chance. Download the template to evaluate your sales leader and ensure your organization’s growth.Â
We help close deals faster and at a higher rate. Rose Garden uses a combination of assessments to identify sales team members’ strengths and motivators in our Team Assessment or our Sales Accelerator Assessment, which provides an in-hand diagnostic and sales experience roadmap for quick results.
New businesses must stay up-to-date and ahead of the competition in today’s ever-evolving sales landscape. We provide Founders and CEOs with hands-on coaching to create systems & strategies to scale their sales teams. You can’t afford to leave anything up to chance.
Get started with a Team Assessment, or dive in with our Sales Accelerator.
About the author:
Ali Mirza is the Founder & CEO of Rose Garden, a national sales consulting organization, and featured in Forbes, Inc, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, Business Rockstars, and The Wall Street Journal.
Ali is a highly sought-after public speaker presenting at multiple national conferences on innovative ways to accomplish transformational growth on your sales team.
Rose Garden provides unparalleled support and guidance to growth-minded founders via sales strategy differentiation, world-class sales culture creation, and exclusive playbooks, processes, and scripts to position them for limitless growth.
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