On this episode of Sales Management Mastery we are going to teach you how to lead you sales team to sales stardom using our "lead by being led" sales leadership strategy. So let me ask you this...you probably have a whole lot more faith in the ideas that you come up with rather than the ideas that other people come up with. Chances are that you probably do. You typically think from an egotistical standpoint, we as humans are egotistical by nature. We think of ourselves first. Even those who are extremely humble and generous they think of themselves first, and you have to in order to survive in the world. Most people have more faith in the ideas that they come up with, rather than ones that our thrust to them.

From a sales manager perspective, wouldn't it be wiser to ask leading questions to make suggestions and let your sales people think out the conclusions?

And this is really what we call "leading isn't dictating" way of leading your sales people, in the fact that you really aren't dictating to them. In our last show we talked about a more dictatorial type of message that you want to set expectations. When it comes to setting expectations, there is no "lead by being led" or any other type of sales leadership style. It is really "this is the expectations, this is what we need to do, now we have to go out and execute on it".

So unless you are setting those expectations, your sales district is a modified democracy.

Please notice that I didn't say that it is an anarchy or dictatorship. You are not the guy/gal dictating orders and/or telling them what they should do.

Unless you are in a melt down type of crisis, that absolutely needs quick decision making and lightening fast responses, sales people don't typically like to be led in the traditional sense. Do they follow a leader? Absolutely they do. But, do they like being dictated to? They like to feel like they are more in control. And this is another thing that we talk about: Releasing a certain amount of control so that you can gain more control in the reverse. It's a counter-intuitive way in which to lead.

Typically, sales people don't like to be led in the traditional sense. It's probably because of a few things. The job sales itself is a maverick kind of position. Sales people feel that they are independent, free spirited, paradigm-busting, lone wolves, and they do things their own way, especially the really good ones. The better they are, the more maverick type personality they exude. The real point is the top performing sales reps typically feel disrespected when their managers assume that they have all of the answers and that they have the right to tell them what to think and what to do.

You as the supervisor do have to tell people what to do, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't, but what I am saying is that it is all about how effectively you do it so that people will ultimately do what you want them to do. And it is not typically done by being a dictator or the Joseph Stalin of sales management.

They hate it and feel like if you do dictate to them it is a sign of disrespect and that lack of belief that is implied is something that they take offense to. If you come across like you know all of the answers, you are going to alienate and disenfranchise your salespeople while making hefty withdrawals out of the trust account.

This creates a lot of issues. There is a great trick, how to use these laws of human nature to lead people in the right direction even though you probably want to tell them what to do, and you want to dictate to them, and you want to say this is what I want you to do, you want to do it in a different way.

Here's how we do it: It doesn't take a whole lot, but it does take for you to release some control so that these people can feel like they are on the business end of this policy change. And when people feel like they are in control, you have then empowered them. What you want is a high performing, low maintenance, auto-pilot, sales team. Not that you are going to be kicking back and playing golf five days a week while your sales people are there humping it selling to customers. That's not what we are talking about. We are talking about people that are fairly autonomous, that are producing on their own, and that you don't have to micromanage each and every step of the way. Yes, you need to get involved, and lead and motivate and coach, yes most definitely you do. But what you want a low maintenance, high performing sales team that produces results like an annuity.

This technique goes a long way in getting tremendous results from even the toughest of sales people, and it does wonders for newbie's as well who don't know anything, who don't know what they don't know. If you clue them in on the decision making process you'll start to lead more effectively in all aspects of your position.

Once you start leading this way, you'll see that your sales people will be more engaged and tuned in to whatever initiative or blitz you have spearheaded. God knows you probably get bombarded with new initiatives and blitzes and stuff coming down the line that you have to go out and attend to and some of them don't make any sense, but a lot of them do. And that's the reason that they have initiatives and blitzes, for you to supercharge you sales team, push them in the right direction, and increase sales results, which is what we are all after here, because when we do that we all make more money.

Whatever you do, you don't want to try this technique until you make sure that you are prepared for the eventual outcomes. Once you start giving power away, it is very hard to get power back. The bottom line is this: Sales people love to be included in on decision making and they like to be thought of as important instead of just anonymous cogs in the machinery.

And really who wouldn't? We all want to feel that we are making impact and that we have influence, and that what we are doing is worth while. And if you respect your sales people's opinions in this way, then they will respect yours. This is how you lead by being led. If you can empower them whenever possible and whenever appropriate, and you shouldn't do it haphazardly, you will reinforce you own leadership.

You need to allow others to feel like they are leading you, even though they are really not. Use these laws of human nature to get them to think that they are leading you when you are actually leading them.

Is this for faint of heart sales managers and the ones lacking self confidence? Probably not. Is it very effective? It absolutely is.

Let me give you an example of what we are talking about in "lead by being led", and then you can understand better.

My first sales meeting at a company I started working at 7 or 8 years ago, which I have since left, I suddenly found myself confronted with the prospect of taking over a sales team. I had been hired from the outside to take over a sales team that was discouraged, de-motivated, and highly confrontational. These people just hated the company. They were doing very poorly. It was an absolute mess of a situation. The problems were multiple. Operations side was rejecting every idea that they ever presented to them. They had service issues. They were selling product and then the products would fail. Customers were leaving them, customer attrition was extremely high. Customer service department was in disarray. Nobody gave a crap about supporting the sales people, and the sales force was at the bottom of the barrel.

Maybe you can identify with this in your organization, because it does happen, and it is a tough thing to turn around. None the less, it can be turned around. I knew that there were a lot of these issues. In the first sales meeting, I thought that I had made a huge error in accepting this position. It seemed like a hell hole to step into. I knew that there were a lot of problems. The sales meeting was looming, and I knew that I would have to come up with a novel way to approach these people, because if I didn't, then I would have anarchy on my hands.

On the day of my first sales meeting, I thought to myself, "If I were one of them, what would I want to hear?" I had a strategy as to what I wanted to do, but I didn't know quite know until I got up there and I saw them all glaring at me thinking who is this new guy taking over the sales team. I decided that I would turn conventional reason on its head. My boss had said go out set your expectation and tell them what you expect of them. That was the mandate for the sales meeting. I thought better of it, and instead I took out the chalkboard and said, "I am the new boss, I am the new guy in charge, but I am not going to tell what it is I want from you". Instead I urged my sales people to tell me what they expecting of me, instead of what I expected of them. To their widespread shock and amazement, they were fully expecting me to lay this out with expectations, 24 colorful power-point slides, do your business plan, and all of the stuff that I need you to do, what your call reporting is going to be. And instead of doing that, I pulled out the flip chart and said, "You tell me what you want, you tell me what it is that you need from me." They were all stunned, and they didn't really want to tell me. I had turned the tables without them ever suspecting it. I was going to start this relationship off differently than they had probably ever experienced.

I had done my homework on the previous guy. I knew that he was a self-absorbed narcissist who only really cared about himself. I knew that they had all kinds of issues. As they talked, I wrote down every one of their ideas on the flip chart. I kept the flip chart, and I think that I still have it to this very day. And their comments were this:

1. Fight for us

2. Ask for our side of the story before you accuse us

3. Be our advocate to the other departments

4. Help us win new business

5. Tell the truth

6. Get your ideas across to upper management and then get them approved

7. Help improve service

8. Call us back when we call you

They had about 10 or 15, but those were the biggies.

After finally exhausting all of their demands, I said, "alright, here's the deal, I'll give you all of those things you expect from me, now I'd like you to tell me what I have a right to expect from you. I am not even telling them how I am going to lead them yet. I've got this long list. But then I ask them, here's the other side of the equation, "Tell me what I should expect of you". And they were all mature salespeople. Their responses came slowly at first, but they picked up pace as they grew, and they said:

Put in a hard days work

Exceed quota

Do our paperwork on time and our call reporting on time

Provide fast responses on request for information

Be honest at all times.

They went on and on, but those are the top 5, which are very good things for them to tell me. I couldn't have said it any better. If you do this to your sales team, you're going to be surprised at what you hear. So let me pose this to you? What would have happened if I had laid down the law and dictated what I wanted? Do you think that I would have gotten any buy-in to my message? I doubt that I would have.

We made sort of a morale bargain between us. I felt that as long as I lived up to my end of the bargain, they would be determined to live up to theirs. We made this morale contract together. This started our relationship off on the right foot. There was no power point, no list of expectations. I added a few to the expectations because of company policy. But here's the thing; this team was in the cellar. The results for the coming year were phenomenal. Our district ended up #2 out of 82 in the country, and they were ranked in the low 70's the year before. Did the opening speech cause that to happen? Not necessarily, I didn't really even do a speech. In combination with other messages, this is talking about a sales team that was the most disgruntled, and turning them around in a year that they achieve and taste success. This is the essence of sales management and this is very satisfying sales management.

Was it just that speech, probably not, it was a combination of things, but it did set the tone for the rest of the year.

And here's why this works, sales people prefer to feel that they are doing things not because they have been told to do it, but because they have decided to do it upon their own. When you let your sales managers do this for their sales people, the sales people feel that since the decisions are theirs, they are now vested in that eventual outcome of that decisions, and they are part of the decision making process. This is what we call "lead by being led". So I would highly encourage you to start rethinking about how you lead your sales team right now. This doesn't necessarily have to be done in a sales meeting. It can be done in one on one conversation. But turning the tables on leadership is a great way to tell people what you should expect of them. And by doing that you create this morale compact or contract between you and them, and that is the essence of great leadership and it is called "lead by being led". Do this in your next sales meeting, or your next ride-a-long, or your short strategy sessions, or highly encourage your sales managers to listen to this show and implement this the next time they feel that their leadership isn't up to snuff. It will tremendously impact their sales leadership ability as well as increase sales revenue which is ultimately our goal.