I had the honor and privilege of attending the AA-ISP Leadership Summit held in Chicago last week and had a great time. Connected with old friends, made new ones, and learned new “stuff” about my profession.
For those of you not familiar with the AA-ISP; it is the only Association dedicated to advancing the profession of Inside Sales. Check them out at www.aa-isp.org.
I volunteered to host a Birds of a Feather Roundtable titled Best Practices of High Performing Inside Sales Leaders of Day 2 of the conference and we had a great discussion. Upon further reflection, the group decided perhaps “How to not suck as a sales leader” was a little more catchy and to the point.
Our conversation broke into two buckets:
1. Characteristics of good leaders. What are the character traits of leaders we’ll run through walls for? And are we, as leaders at this table, exhibiting those traits?
2. Quantifiable skills. If you’re leading a sales team, do you have the sales chops to get on the phone, talk with customers, close the deal, manage up, in addition, to managing your team. Interesting note, the quantifiable skills weren’t as soulfully important as the characteristics or being able to manage up throughout the organization. (Meaning, people want air cover, to be part of a team, and to feel that they won’t be thrown to the wolves.)
More to come on this topic as this is a big topic, very relevant and hot right now, and there is a lot to unpack.