The Best Sales Leadership Advice From Seasoned Veterans
Stepping into a sales leadership role is one of the most exciting – and high-stakes – transitions in a sales career. Whether you’re inheriting a seasoned team, entering a new organization or being promoted from within, you want to get it right and set the tone for long-term success.
In a recent webinar, seasoned sales leaders Kate Nied, VP of Sales and Marketing at American Refrigeration Supplies, Inc., and Frank Heenan, Group VP at Epicor, shared what they’ve learned from decades of experience leading sales teams across complex industries.
Here’s their practical advice for establishing trust, driving results and building a sales culture that lasts. Want to see the entire webinar? Watch here.
1. Start by Listening, Not Fixing
When you step into a new role – whether with your current company or a new one – it’s important to first survey the landscape before implementing changes. While it can be tempting to improve processes or launch new initiatives immediately, understanding what’s working and what isn’t goes a long way toward team building.
People expect change, but they fear disruption. Your job is to assess quietly before you act.
Spend the first few months just understanding your team and their needs, Heenan suggests. He was once tasked with improving an underperforming sales team – his strategy? Observe for six months, then make casual changes in leadership, structure, sales coaching or individual contributors, while supporting team morale and reducing his team’s noise so they could zero in on their goals.
This listening period can help you build trust with your team, especially if you’re inheriting a seasoned team. Once you set the tone you’re looking for, then you can start building upon key performance questions like:
- What are our sales goals/objectives?
- Where are we at toward our sales targets?
- What can we do to improve upon meeting those goals?
2. Build Trust Through Conversation and Consistency
A lot of issues in organizations stem from unclear communication. And when the central message gets lost, so does trust.
One key sales leadership skill is to prioritize regular and deep communication. For example, when Nied took over her team of 18 sales reps across seven states, she got to know each individual. She brought everyone in for one-on-one conversations, asking what was working, what wasn’t and what support they needed.
She used those insights to identify quick wins – small, meaningful changes that helped her sales team feel seen, valued and empowered. A good question to ask is: “What’s your definition of ‘help’?” This gives you insight into what support people actually need, versus what the company might think they need.
When you identify those quick wins, make sure you deliver on your promises. A great sales leader keeps emotional intelligence top of mind while creating a positive culture that celebrates small wins.
3. Don’t Send Templates Before Planning Meetings
After working with a Dutch team, Heenan started implementing a new strategy around annual reviews regarding territory planning.
Typically, a presentation template is sent to sales reps to fill out with details about their territory and opportunities. But the Dutch philosophy is that if you send a template, you don’t get to learn how people think or get insight into their creativity or true challenges.
Try inviting sales reps to a meeting without a template and have the honest conversation together. Effective sales leadership prioritizes your team’s development as individuals by encouraging strategic thinking.
4. Use Data But Coach With Humanity
Numbers are essential for forecasting and sales performance management, but they’re only half the picture. Accountability must be supported by structure and communicating the why behind processes to your sales reps. That way, when the numbers don’t align with the goals, it’s an opportunity for sales coaching before performance gaps widen.
Heenan, who leads a sales organization of over 100 people, underscores that data can cut through the noise and help reps stay focused on their primary objective: hitting quotas. His approach is to set clear activity expectations – like calls made or opportunities created – and track them consistently against results.
If the numbers fall short, there needs to be a structured process in place: a warning, a meeting with sales leadership, a performance plan, and potentially an exit. These clear expectations make nothing a surprise and provide a roadmap for sales reps to improve.
Want more tips on the metrics to use in sales coaching? Check out our sales rep scorecard.
5. Play Up Strengths
Don’t make individuals spend too much time on things that they’re not good at. We’re not talking about critical skillsets for the job – but rather, the things that sales reps don’t need to be doing that drain their energy and they’re not particularly good at.
You could identify your sales team’s top strengths with a tool like the CliftonStrengths assessment, or find out what tasks your team enjoys the least and consider ways to offload. For instance, you can use CRM notifications and workflows to remind them to follow up with customers who have taken certain actions or have not responded to quotes.
6. Make Sales Pipeline Development a Team Sport
Consider the relationship between marketing and sales: without marketing, sales would be weaker, but without sales, marketing doesn’t have a job. In order to plan and execute in tandem, everyone who influences sales must be rowing the boat in the same direction. Consider team-building activities that combine the two departments, like monthly contests for hitting pipeline goals and lead targets. Revenue success should be celebrated and shared by the entire team.
7. Offer ‘Lattice Moves,’ Not Ladder Moves
Generational differences among sales reps have shifted how modern sales leaders approach team performance, notes Nied. While in the past, the emphasis was on “climbing the corporate ladder,” a new way of doing things could be the “lattice move.”
A lattice move means a sales rep is promoted sideways or diagonally in order to get more responsibility or grow their skills in their career. This dismantles the current ladder structure and helps team members advance and grow quicker, especially if the person above them doesn’t plan on leaving the company or retiring anytime soon. Exceptional sales leadership means monitoring performance while building relationships with your team, and recognizing ways to elevate them in their roles.
Great sales management isn’t about knowing all the answers on day one – it’s about being intentional with your time, your message and your people. The most successful sales leaders take the time to listen, tailor their approach to the needs of their team and put processes in place that empower people to do their best work. Whether you’re guiding a team of five or 50, these takeaways can help you lead with confidence and drive meaningful results.
And if you’re starting a new sales role, this resource will help you make the most of your first 90 days. Download it today to get a blueprint for identifying quick wins, optimizing your sales strategy and scaling success.