Sales Leadership Training: Too Seller-Centric?

Let’s start with the obvious issue that’s been talked about for years:

The vast majority of those in sales leadership have not received training on how to run a sales team. Or, at the very least, rarely receive any sort of ongoing training about it.

Do you agree with that?

As someone who developed a sales/revenue leadership framework and has been teaching revenue leadership training for sales, client success, and business development leaders for the past few years, I’ve kept my eyes open for all other sales and revenue leadership training.

With that, here’s a less obvious problem:

It feels like most of the programs I see are almost accidentally taught from the wrong side of the glass.

What I mean is this…

Much of traditional sales leadership training teaches leaders to be completely focused on sellers. I believe they should focus on teaching leaders to optimize the buying environment in which the seller operates.

1) Traditional sales leadership training over-focuses on internal control

So much of what I see is teaching salespeople accountability through activity standards, performance management, call counts, CRM compliance, pipeline hygiene, and qualification-style inspection.

2) Seller-centric leadership leads to seller-centric coaching

If sales leaders focus on the things I mention above, they naturally can’t help but coach in a seller-centric way. The focus becomes around creating urgency, getting to power, pushing for next steps, defending value, and closing. The buyer then becomes the object of the sales process instead of the decision-making process.

3) Buyers don’t buy when they’re “convinced”; they buy when they can “predict”

It’s the basis of so much of my work, from The Transparency Sale to Four Levers Negotiating. If our focus is on convincing buyers, we’re not going to have said buyers for long. The focus of all things sales should be on building buyer confidence, which starts with transparency, trade-offs, risk reduction, consensus, and predictability. I believe sales and revenue leadership that omits the need to learn how to optimize buying and decision-making is incomplete. “Confidence is the basis of trade.” – Arthur Sheldon, The Business Philosopher, 1914

4) Forecasting approaches systemize seller-centrism

Simply put, this is a category that sales history got right, and we got wrong. Historically, the founders of the modern sales profession designed their sales processes and forecasts around recognizing buyers’ words and actions. And, as a result, their forecasts were more accurate. Today, our sales forecasting stages and sales processes are all seller centric: “Qualification”, “Discovery”, “Demonstration”, “Proposal”, “Negotiation”…so salespeople are taught to get their endorphins from their own activities, not the recognition of buyer activities.

5) Pricing and negotiating efforts focus on holding price and creating leverage

Many sales leaders and the programs that teach them focus on helping reps justify pricing investments, navigate procurement, and create leverage. But we negotiate when we believe that others may be paying a better price for the same solution that we are buying. I believe sales leaders have an opportunity to focus less on teaching their reps to close deals within a specified timeframe by giving buyers more homework and more pressure, and instead aligning with buyers around mutual drivers and creating buyer confidence.

I could go on all day here, but the point is this:

Sales leadership isn’t just about salesperson productivity. I believe that optimized sales leadership is in the design of the environment.

In my work with revenue leaders, I organize the role around the Five F’s of Maximizing Revenue Capacity, then help those leaders optimize for each F:

1) Focus: Are we optimizing the time of our people on the right opportunities with the right organizations and the right individuals?

2) Field: Based on our buyer focus, do we have the right team taking the field every day, supported by the right tools and the right resources?

3) Fundamentals: Is my field team doing the right things right consistently, optimizing the buyer’s ability to quickly access, predict, and decide?

4) Forecast: Are we able to consistently predict the future, understand when buyers will buy, and measure the right things to see the holes before they form?

5) Fun: Are we creating an environment where our representatives are intrinsically inspired to show up every day, do their best, put in discretionary effort, and advocate daily for our company to everyone they come in contact with?

The answer to success in the sales profession has been, is, and always will be the same:

“True salesmanship is the science of service. Grasp that thought firmly and never let go.” – Arthur Sheldon, The Art of Selling, 1911

Optimal revenue leadership happens to those who can understand how to align seller performance around buyer confidence, as salespeople don’t close deals, buyers decide.

** If you’re interested in exploring Revenue Leadership Training for Sales, Client Success, and Business Development Leaders programs, shoot me a note at info@toddcaponi.com, or click here for more details. I teach it as a custom virtual program consisting of interactive workshops, which are designed to be fun, no fluff, just stuff, and immediately actionable. All participants receive a workbook and a copy of my book, The Transparent Sales Leader, and the sessions can be recorded for internal use. The programs can also be taught in person over a half- to full-day period. The program has been taught to many large sales and revenue organizations including NetJets, SAP, OneStream, Malwarebytes, Sodexo, and others.

The program is also taught for individual revenue leaders in partnership with Sales Assembly. Cohorts are offered twice per year, have received incredible reviews from companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Affirm, and many others. More details are available here. 

Todd Caponi, CSP® fell into sales and fell in love with the decision science and history behind it. He’s held multiple sales leadership roles, helping build one company into Chicago’s fastest-growing, another to an IPO and nearly $3B acquisition, and earning a Stevie Award as Worldwide VP of Sales. Todd is the author of The Transparency Sale, ranked by Book Authority among the best sales books of all time, and the award-winning The Transparent Sales Leader. His latest book, Four Levers Negotiating, was released on January 27th. He now speaks and teaches revenue teams worldwide and hosts The Sales History Podcast.

Reach out (email to info@toddcaponi.com) – for inquiries about speaking at your event or sales kickoff, for programs to upskill your customer-facing teams and leaders, or just to nerd out on sales or sales history.

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