5 Bold Leadership Decisions to Get You on a Sales Growth Track

5 Bold Leadership Decisions to Get You on a Sales Growth Track

It was a powerful a-ha moment.

I meet Carl at our CEO Roundtable, The Sales Fight of Your Business Life. We’re discussing the biggest sales growth challenges CEOs, Presidents, and business owners are dealing with in these unprecedented times.

Carl sounds almost panicky, saying, “It feels as if I’m traveling in unknown sales territory and my GPS isn’t working!”

Isn’t that descriptive of what many of us feel like as we’re coming out of Covid Craziness?

What are the biggest challenges you’re facing with your sales team?

Tell-Tale Signs of the UN-Culture that Destroys Sales Growth

Carl wants to have a deep-dive conversation about their stalled-out sales growth. He wants to know what is robbing their brilliance and destroying their dreams.

As we dig into his sales situation, Carl quickly shifts to talking about his biggest problem – the Next-Gen and Millennial salespeople. Sounding frustrated, he confesses, “They are unmotivated and unmanageable.”  He went on to raise the usual concerns – entitlement, tardiness, no accountability.

And yet, the tone of this conversation is different.

I’m not hearing the usual Baby Boomer insults leaders use to describe their younger salespeople. Instead, I hear…compassion and empathy?!? Carl has a deep, heartfelt desire to positively impact the lives of the young professionals on the team. I think to myself, “He likes…no he LOVES the Millennials and Gen Z leaders. He sees great potential in them. That’s powerful.”

Problem. And, it’s a big problem.

Frustration is at an all-time high. Carl has tried to shift the culture and spark engagement in his team. The result? Well, nothing. That’s the problem. As we all know, you can’t build a company when entitlement, coming late for work and showing no accountability is the order of the day.

Then, Carl has his a-ha moment!

“Danita, we want to fix our problems with what we think we know.  What if the problems can only be addressed with what we don’t know?”

Then, he asks me, “Danita, what might I do to have a positive impact?”

What a powerful a-ha moment as Carl considers how to address his sales and leadership development challenges.

I believe that it’s a worthwhile a-ha for all of us as leaders to consider during these unconventional times. We need new ideas; new frameworks; and new ways of thinking, seeing, and doing, that dramatically impact the trajectory of our sales performance.

What might you do if your Sales GPS is also malfunctioning, like Carl’s?

In this series, we will check out 5 Bold Leadership decisions. These decisions equip CEOs, presidents, and business owners with additional navigation tools and resources to get the sales team on a healthy sales growth track.

These 5 decisions cause us to wrestle more deeply – “What might I do to make a positive impact?”

What obstacles have you identified that are standing in the way of accomplishing your goals for the month, quarter, and year?

Navigate Away from the UN-Culture to get on a Sales Growth Path

So, what’s a Sales UN-culture?

It’s where the sales systems, processes, and staffing don’t support a pathway to sales success.

My guess is that you’ve been inundated with UN-words this last year. How many times have you heard UN-precedented, UN-certain, and UN-predictable during Covid Lockdown?!

Well, the Sales Un-culture has its own set of disheartening UN-words! They define the challenges of sales leaders:

• UN-focused: “My salespeople are anxious. Therefore, UN-focused. Every new bit of distressing news distracts them from their job.”
• UN-creative: “It takes energy to be radically relevant to our prospects and clients.  My salespeople seem UN-creative in going after new business growth!”
• UN-accountable: “My salespeople blame the pandemic, the government, the marketing department, the competition…it’s an endless list! They even blame me! They are unmanageable. I’m frustrated with the UN-accountable attitude.”
• UN-productive “I hear the dog barking and the laundry buzzer going off when I check in with them. Working remotely appears to be UN-productive!
• UN-kind: “Everyone seems focused on their own survival. They aren’t listening to others. The impact?  They seem so UN-kind.”

Is your Sales GPS is broken?

If you feel like the answer is yes, how might you lead your teams away from this culture that robs their potential and destroys their dreams? How might you get back in the game of exceeding revenue, margin, and/or market share goals?

Like many other CEOs, business owners, and sales managers, Carl knows that to exceed business goals, he needs to be radically relevant to his customers. Plus, he needs to be compellingly competitive in his industry. Carl is looking for answers…

• How do we deal with UN-motivated and UN-manageable Millennials?
• How do we transform the unproductive mindsets that’s characteristic of the UN-Culture?
• How do we navigate the UN-known territory of the UN-culture that kills, steals, and destroy?

What might you do to equip your teams with the resources and tools they need to address their sales growth issues?

Crush the Sales UN-Culture and Impact Your Sales Strategy

I had my own a-ha moment in March 2020, …

Three weeks into the initial Covid lockdown, I receive an unusual email. It’s an invitation to kick off the Economic Times Sales Strategy Virtual Summit 2020 in India. This is quite an honor. I’ll be delivering a virtual keynote on the other side of the globe from my ranch in North Dakota.

Once I agree to do the keynote, the Executive Director, Mehak, enthusiastically shares the title with me. (He adds that they’ve already used it in their first promotional blast to 1 million people!)  5 Bold Predictions for a Post-Covid World.

Yikes! That’s quite a heavyweight title three weeks into the Covid lockdown, don’t you think?

5 (not 1) …. Bold (not wimpy) … Predictions (only 3 weeks in!)

My ah-ah: 1 Powerful Sales Growth Question

As I reflect on the unique challenges in India, I ask my planning question out loud – “What might I do to make a positive impact?”

The moment I hear these words, I have my a-ha.

I realize that this very question holds the keys to my message for India and the world…and to all of us business and sales leaders.

There are 5 Bold Leadership Decisions that dramatically impact the trajectory of our teams. 5 Bold Decisions that equip us to:

• Build Millennial sales teams where people are motivated, and manageable.
• Create a culture that deals successfully with seemingly insurmountable challenges; and,
• Navigate the UN-culture that is robbing our brilliance and destroying our dreams.

The 5 Bold Leadership Decisions are embedded in 1 power-packed question, “What might I do to make a positive impact?”

The critical leadership decisions that we make now empower and energize us to build the next generation of Millennial and Gen Z leaders.

In these 5 Bold Leadership Decisions series, we will discuss how to leverage the power of this question. You’ll get practical tips, tools, and resources to navigate unknown territory.  This unfamiliar selling landscape is rife with increased competition, changing conditions, and unpredictable disruption.

Join Me in this “Ditch the Sales UN-culture’ Series

Let’s start energizing and equipping your salespeople. Let’s help them to become radially relevant to their clients so that you are compelling competitive in your industry. Let’s get them on a sales growth track for wilder-than-imagined results.

In this series, we will learn the importance of:

• What: Asking “WHAT” questions casts a compelling vision. This is needed when UN-focused salespeople are struggling to see a better future.
• Might: Leveraging “MIGHT.” This is the secret word that sparks UN-creative salespeople to develop innovative strategies to solve problems.
• I: Coaching UN-accountable sales managers and salespeople to take ownership of reaching their goals, by using “I.”
• Do: Being a change agent and instilling a “DO” mindset to root out UN-productivity.
• To make a positive impact: Inspiring your teams “TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT” on the lives of others. We’re going to replace the UN-kindness in our culture with a focus on contributing to others. Turn ordinary work into extraordinary times to serve.

Advocate that your future leader stretch their comfort zone every day. It’s easy to jot an action item on the to-do list. It is more daunting to do the actual item so that you can check it off as complete. ~ Danita Bye, Millennials… Click To Tweet

Together, you and your sales teams will get on a sales growth path where you will become:

• radically relevant to your clients.
• compellingly competitive in your industry, and,
• wildly successful, exceeding your goals, hopes, dreams, and aspirations. 

Check my video here:

Tools Needed for Improved Sales Growth

What new Leadership Development perspectives might change how you manage and motivate your sales teams?

I invite you to stay tuned for the upcoming articles in this series. Let’s get your Sales GPS working again with improved capacity to motivate and manage your sales teams.

Let’s get started, and put you on a healthy growth track with 5 Bold Leadership Decisions. 

Remember: Your leadership matters now, more than ever!

You can read the next article in this series here: How to Deal with the UN-Culture Blocking your Team’s Sales Growth Path

Sales Growth Lesson:

Identify the opportunities to implement 5 Bold Leadership Decisions that your salespeople need to not only survive but thrive in the future. 

Sales Growth Question:

What might you do to develop the 5 Bold Leadership Decisions that will lead your salespeople to a path of growth and success during this new era, and new epoch?