The Spiritual Leader of the Sales Force

Every sales organization has a spiritual sales leader.

There is a sort of religion that develops within the sales organization, and the spiritual leader establishes and maintains that religion. The rest of the salesforce looks to the spiritual leader to determine what they are supposed to believe, what actions they will–or will not–take, and how they bring themselves to the task of selling.

What the spiritual leader believes, the salesforce believes. And the spiritual leader will ensure and consolidate his power by ostracizing dissenters.

Guru In Reverse

If the spiritual leader believes that your product, service, or solution isn’t competitive, neither will the salesforce. If he believes that your product is the reason that he loses deals, then that’s what the sales force will believe.

If he believes that your price is too high and that’s the cause of lost opportunities, the salesforce will believe the same. And if he can’t sell with higher prices, no one can, right?

If he doesn’t believe in the sales process and approach then he will ensure that no one else believes it and instead follows his process. And if the spiritual leader believes that management is clueless, the rest of the salesforce will act in accordance with those beliefs.

The spiritual leader is easy to follow. He makes it easy to believe because what he believes means that you are not responsible for your losses.

A Better Spiritual Leader

But not all spiritual leaders in the world of sales are so negative.

There are some spiritual sales leaders who believe that their company has a greater ability to create value for their clients than their competitors. They believe price isn’t value, and that they can create and capture value instead of selling price.

Some spiritual sales leaders believe in the sales process and methodology. They believe the approach is effective, even if it’s difficult to execute.

Choose to Follow

It’s important that you choose which spiritual sales leader you are going to follow. One will promise you that nothing is your fault and that you can succeed–if only you can do something about your lousy company, your lousy processes and methodologies, your lousy pricing, and your lousy management.

The other spiritual leader will provide you with a more difficult path that leads to long-term success, mostly based on your individual effort and your willingness to do the difficult work.

If you’re the leader of a sales organization there may be no more important decision than who you allow to become the organization’s spiritual sales leader.

Questions

Who is the spiritual sales leader of your sales organization?

Why does he/she have followers?

What does this spiritual sales leader believe?

Are you following the right spiritual sales leader?