Scaling Sales Success

Scaling Sales Success, 16 Key Principles for Sales Leaders, by David Mattson, Sandler 2021

Becoming less tactical

If you are feeling energized and ready to drive big sales growth, be aware that not all corporate leaders can automatically bump sales up to the next level using yesterday's pre-pandemic methods.  In fact, Sandler President and CEO David Mattson says "Not all sales managers are sales leaders, but sales managers can learn to be sales leaders."  It's a different game and the only way your team is going to achieve scalable revenue growth, he says - the kind that dominates markets -  is by learning to hit Mattson's 16 key principles.  This can be a challenge for a team that has become frustrated or disengaged by puzzling market conditions.

Remember, we're now in a state of change... and that signals opportunities

Its not a bad time for managers to try out new sales management ideas.  In fact, those new sales ideas may include what Mattson groups as soft skills - making connections, building trust, listening, really listening, and public speaking.  

Simple successes build sales teams' energy and agility.  Take a look at Mattson's 16 key principles:

1.  Lead with integrity - know who you are and what you stand for; communicate accordingly.  Its easier to be who you are with less stress and more flexibility; Mattson quotes a University of Warwick study that says happy people were on average 12% more productive than others, with some performing as high as 20% above the control group!  

2.  Don't get emotionally involved.   - Disengage from the drama, but understand that a strong leader will find ways to reinforce a team member's belief in himself as a person and increase a secure sense of self-worth.  It's a prime motivator.

3.  Check your own pipeline first - Here Mattson is speaking of onboarding, or hiring additional sales professionals and the expensive mistakes that leaders sometimes make in the process.  Don't fall into these shallow assumptions:  "I am looking for a self-starter," or "We only hire smart people, and they can figure it out!"  The author urges on-going connections with new hires as they start out.  

4.  Model and coach excellence with private meetings - one on one beats public "suggestions."

5.  Tap into the why by discovering what drives your people, what dreams or key motivators lay behind their work.

6.  Begin with their point of view

7.  Be strategically inquisitive

8.  Respect their truth

9.  Build tomorrow's leaders by setting people up for success.

10.  Make accountability the norm

11.  Create team ownership of ideas and solutions by sharing the credit and encouraging the team.

12.  Don't wimp out - learning a new game is a stretch but backing off of performance goals won't get you there.

13.  Develop the right processes and the tools that support them - playbooks!

14.  Macromanage.  Here the challenge is to back off and watch, and let people do their jobs.

15.  Become a learning team

16.  Be ready for anything - plan, prepare, and then be flexible.  While it may be difficult for high performers to accept unexpected events - like a pandemic - we can plan to be flexible, to move with agility and an ability to think back ups and new options.  

Although it may be easy to set goals and quotas, once high performers have mastered them, strong sales leaders will be looking for "what's next."     

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com