A CEO's Guide to the Differences in Sales Leadership Roles

I was reviewing a sales leadership evaluation with my client, a CEO, who was a bit confused over how this was different from a sales management evaluation. He wondered, "Aren't sales managers and sales leaders the same?"

CEOs: Why are you ignoring the cost of failing new sales hires?

Everybody in sales leadership knows that a bad hiring decision, or failed on-boarding, is a costly mistake. So why is turnover still so high in the sales industry? Maybe leaders feel like they can’t fix it, so why bother trying. Or they feel like they have more pressing concerns.

What is a complex sale?

We all talk about complex sales, but how do we define it? After asking around, I discovered that everyone has an opinion, but nobody really agrees on a definition.

CEOs: 47% failure rate in sales is unacceptable!

For the third year in a row, sales effectiveness has declined across all industries. According to the latest CSO Insights report, the average sales organization achieved 53% of its goal in 2017. That’s a problem, and not just a theoretical one. Declining sales performance correlates directly, across the board, to declining revenue plan attainment.

18 Critical Questions CEOs Need to Ask Their Sales Managers

As a CEO or business leader, you need to have regular conversations with your sales managers. This is true regardless of your managers’ skill level.

CEOs: Are your sales people systematically outselling the competition?

“It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

This quote rings true in our competitive market economy. Over the last few decades, we’ve seen impressive improvements in efficiency and quality when it comes to production and other business processes. But how much has your sales process evolved and improved?