Sales Force Leadership

Jim Travis

Vice President of Sales

for Green Mountain

Coffee Roasters, Inc.

Leadership is a very concrete notion for Jim Travis.

Communicating is a big part of Travis’s approach to

leadership.

In his view, “If your people don’t understand the top three

things the organization is trying to accomplish-and if you

can’t convey them in about thirty seconds each–then they

can’t perform well, and getting your people to perform well is

the goal of leading.

Jim Travis

Travis brought a computerized system of sales cycle

management training, so each rep would receive the same

reinforcement of skills in prospecting, qualifying, building

rapport, presenting, negotiating, and closing.

Travis sees three ways to achieve leadership:

– you can make it

– you can earn it

– it can be given to you

Travis says that “in business, he feels, you have to earn it”

Foundations of Leadership

The forces shaping business and sales management today radically

different from those of the past-they include greater diversity in the

labor force, intensifying global competition, and rapid advances in

technology

Individual traits

Behaviors

Influences over people

Interaction patterns

Role relationship

Occupation of an administrative position

Perceptions of others regarding the legitimacy of

influence

Ways to understand leadership:

Leadership

refers to the interpersonal process of communicating, inspiring,

guiding, and influencing the behavior of subordinate salespeople

towards the attainment of organizational objects, goals, and values.

Six important elements:

Leadership is interpersonal

Leadership relies on influence

Sales force leadership

Leaders inspire their subordinates

Leaders espouse ethical and moral values

Leadership relies on communication

Supervision

is closely monitoring the daily work activities of sales subordinates

Management

deals with administrative activities that include planning, organizing,

staffing, directing, and controlling the operation of the firm towards

the attainment of its goals and objectives.

Leadership

is an emotional process of exercising psychological, social, and

inspirational influence on the people employed by the firm.

Central to understanding how leaders wield influence over their

subordinates is the concept of power.

Leadership and power

Power

is the potential to influence the behavior of subordinates

SALES MANAGEMENT POWER

POSITION POWER PERSONAL POWER

Legitimate Power Reward Power Coercive Power Referent Power Expert Power

Derived from the position occupied on the organizational structure: the sales manager has formally delegated authority to seek salesperson compliance.

The ability of the sales manager to provide subordinate salespeople with various benefits based on performance assessment.

The ability of sales manager to obtain of the salesperson compliance through fear of punishment, sanction, or by withholding rewards (include being fired from the job)

The ability of sales managers to influence sales force compliance based on inspiration, charisma, loyalty, and personal identification with the leader.

Subordinate compliance that is based upon the sales manager’s skills, knowledge, intelligence, job-related information and expertise.

Trait Theory

Relationship Networks

The trait approach

The behavioral approach

The contingency or situation approach

Three broad classical schools of thought about leadership:

The earliest leadership research.

It focused on identifying the personal traits that

characterized these people such as confidence, honest,

integrity, ambition, creativity, job-relevant knowledge,

initiative, intelligence, extraversion, and drive.

Trait theory has been widely criticized because few

studies examined the same traits and because it doesn’t

take into account the situational context leadership.

Behavioral Styles Theory

because of the weakness associated with the trait theory, many

leadership studies have focused on identifying patterns of leader

behavior or “leadership style”, shifting from who the leader is to what

the leader does.

Ohio State University and University of Michigan Studies

Two composed dimensions of leader behavior:

Consideration or sometimes called the “human relation”

Initiating Structure or sometimes called the “task

orientation”

Two dimensions of leadership styles:

employee oriented

production/task oriented

Twelve Traits of Highly Effective Sales Force leaders

Courageous Use power wisely

Visionary thinkers Steadfast

Change masters

Ethical

Persistent and realistic

Show a sense of humor

Risk takers

Positive and optimistic

Moral but not judgemental

Decision oriented

Initiating Structure/Product (Task) Orientation

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Low High

Low

Hig

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Quadrant 1: High consideration/employee orientation and Low structure/

production orientationLeader focuses on achieving team

harmony and individual need satisfaction. Less emphasis is placed on subordinate tasks.

Sales Management Implications:Appropriate to use when experienced,high-performing salespeople tend tobe too competitive with one another.

Quadrant 3: Low consideration/employee orientation and Low structure/

production orientationLargely passive, the leader does not

provide structure and exhibits little consideration for subordinate needs allowing work and people to be self-managed.

Sales Management Implications:Appropriate to use when experienced,high-performing salespeople that

know their task and enjoy work.

Quadrant 2: High consideration/ employee orientation and High structure/

production orientationLeadership strives to accomplish the job

while maintaining a harmonious workteam. Leader provides guidance onhow task should be complete and isconsiderate of subordinate needs.

Sales Management Implications:Appropriate in situation with newly hired, inexperienced sales trained.

Quadrant 4: Low consideration/ employee orientation and High structure/

production orientationLeader focuses on getting a job done by

structuring tasks, but exhibits littleconsideration for subordinate needs.

Sales Management Implications:Appropriate in situations where

experienced salespeople are required to do unpleasant, unfamiliar work.

Dimensions of Behavioral Style: Directions for

Leadership in Sales Management:

Contingency Theories of Leadership

Contingency theories generally suggest that an effective leadership

style is largely predicated or contingent upon different situations.

Factors have been identified as determinants of effective leadership:

The leaders personality and experience

The expectations and behavior of superiors

The characteristics, expectations and behavior of

subordinates

The behavior and expectation of peers

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

Fiedler’s research indicated that a leaders performance depends on

two interrelated factors: –the degree to which the situation gives the

leader control and influence –and the leaders basic innovation

Three situational variables:

Leader-member relations

Task structure

Position power

Three components are considered highly favorable:

Leaders can usually except support from team members

Leaders can enforce their will with the legitimate power

or formal authority of their position

All the members of the organization can more clearly

define, delegate, control, and evaluate structured tasks

Fielder’s Contingency Theory of leadership

Task-motivated leaders perform better when the situation is highly unfavorable.

> Leaders and team members do not enjoy working together.> Team members work on vanguely defined tasks.> Leader lacks formal authority over reward system.

Rationale:In the face of mutual mistrust and high uncertainly among followers about tasks and rewards, leaders need to devote primary attention to close supervision

Relationship-motivated leaders perform better when the situation is moderately favorable

> Combination of favorable and unfavorable

Rationale:Followers need support from a leader to help them cope with uncertainties about trust, task, and/or rewards.

Task-motivated leaders perform better when the situation is highly favorable.

> Leaders and team members work well together.> Task are clearly defined.> Leader has formal authority over reward system.

Rationale:Working from a base of mutual trust and relative certainty among followers about tasks and rewards, leaders can devote their primary attention to getting the job done

Highly Unfavorable Moderately favorable Highly Favorable

extracts and extends the key elements of leader

consideration and initiating structure around which

behavioral styles theory is centered.

proposes that the leader can affect the level of

satisfaction, motivation and performance of team

members by using appropriate leadership style in

several ways.

there eight central bahaviors, which together form the

latest version of path-goal theory: Participative

leadership styles, Suppertive leadership styles, Directive

leadership styles, Achievment-oriented leadership

styles, Path-goal clarifying leadership styles, Interaction

facilitation leadership styles, Networking leadership

styles, and Value base leadership styles.

The Path-Goal Theory Leadership

Extending the Path-goal Theory of Leadership to Sales Management

Sales Manager

Leadership Style

Participative Leadership Style

SupportiveLeadership Style

Directive Leadership Style

Achievement-Oriented Leadership Style

Path-Goal Clarifying Leadership Style

Interaction Facilitation Leadership Style

NetworkingLeadership Style

Value-BasedLeadership Style

Sales Environment Contingency Factors

>Task Structure>Team dynamics>Formal authority

Salesperson Contingency Factors

>Task ability>Locus of control>need for

achievement>Work experience>Team dynamics

Sales Manager Effectiveness

Salesperson>Increase in motivation>Increase in job

satisfaction>Increase in sales

revenue>Increase in production>Decrease in turnover

An interesting and intuitively appealing theory, leader-member

exchange was an outgrowth of the incorrect assumption that

leaders treat all their subordinates uniformly.

Was developed because existing theories didn’t account for

situations in which leadership is neutralized or placed by

characteristics of the subordinates, tasks, and organization.

Some of the more popular substitutes:

Ability, experience, training, and knowledge

Personal orientation

Task-provided feedback

Leader-Member Exchange Theory

Substitutes for leadership Theory

Some of the more popular substitutes: (continuation)

Organizational formation and inflexibility

Advisory staff

Closely knit work group

Compensation plans, quotas, and expenses accounts

Customers and competition

The classic theories we’ve looked at so far all examine

traditional leadership application.

Traditional leaders recognize the immediate needs of

their employees and communicate to them how those

need will be met through effective performance.

Traditional leadership, which takes a short-term

perspective to generate favorable results from the sales

force, tend to be the most frequently used leadership

approach in business today.

Four key characteristic:

Charismatic and visionary leadership

Inspiration

Intellectual stimulation

Individual consideration

Transformational (Charismatic and Visionary) Leadership

Charismatic and Visionary Leadership

Charisma has been describe as a “fire that ignites follower energy

and commitment, producing results above and beyond the call

duty.

a vision that is clearly articulated

willingness to take the risks to achieve the vision

sensitivity to environmental constraints

sensitivity to followers needs

behaviors that are novels

Characteristics of these charismatic leaders:

Inspiration

Another key characteristic of transformational leadership, is the

ability to articulate expectations subordinates, communicate

important purposes in simple ways, and use symbols to focus

their efforts.

Intellectual Stimulation

A transformational sales leader stimulates salespeople

intellectually by creating a readiness for change and by

encountering them to use ingenuity to find new approaches for

solving old and continuing problems or emergency ones.

Individual Consideration

The fourth characteristic of transformational leadership is the

manager’s ability to treat each as an individual, supporting their

career development and growth by providing mentoring, coaching

and counseling.

The leadership style is sometimes called the “Pygmalion’ effect.

One of the work is that “when manager communicates high

expectations to a subordinate, the subordinate is likely to raise

the level of his or her own performance expectation.

Extending Transactional versus

Transformational leadership to Sales Management

Transactional Sales Managers Transformation Sales Managers

>Identify and communicate tasks to >Inspiration-effectively communicate

salespeople expectations: are emotionally arousing

and reassuring to salespeople

>Recognize immediate needs of >Charisma-have a vision, a sense of

salespeople and suggest ways to meet mission, and a strong emotional appeal

more needs for salespeople

>Suggest ways to execute tasks >Intellectual stimulation-helps salespeople

become better and identifying and

solving customer problems and needs

>Provide appropriate rewards and >Individual consideration-display individual

feedbacks consideration to salespeople through

mentoring, coaching, and counselling

Pygmalion Leadership

The concept of empowerment focuses on distributing power to

lower-level employees. Empowering employees means to

recognize and release the potential power that people already

have in their reservoir of useful knowledge, experience and

intellectual motivation.

No Sales Force Involvement in

Decision Making

>Sales manager makes all decision

>Salespeople have no decision-making authority or discretionary power

Sales Force Consultation in

Decision Making

>Sales manager makes all decisions, but periodically elicits input and suggestions from salespeople

Sales Force Participation in

Decision Making

>Sales manager and salespeople jointly provide input and suggestion in decision making

>Some power sharing but sales manager is still superior due to position on firm

Sales Force Involvement in

Decision Making

>Sales manager delegates power and authority to salespeople for decision making

>Equal power sharing on decision but sales manager implements decisions.

Sales Force Self-Management

>Power and authority distributed between sales manager and salespeople

>Sales manager and salespeople equally involved in formulating and implementing

LOW HIGH

LOW SALES MANAGER-SALES FORCE COOPERATIVE LEVEL HIGHLOW SALES FORCE SKILL LEVEL HIGH

LOW SALES FORCE POWER HIGHLOW SALES FORCE LOCUS OF CONTROL HIGH

Leadership and environment: Distributive Power Sharing

Trough Participative management

Four levels of control:

Diagnostic control systems

Benefits systems-Sales

Boundary system-Sales

Interactive control system

Implementing an Empowerment Program for the Sales force

Salesperson Character Development

>Commitment to firm and team studies>Trust, honest, adaptability, flexibility, and accountability>Desire to grow>Ethics, values, and morals

Salesperson Skills Development

>Technological skills>Time and territorial

management skills>Communication skills>Self-management skills>Team dynamics skills>Statistical analysis of sales

data

Developing an Empowerment Culture

>Cooperation>Collaboration>Mutual trust>”Win-win” mindset>Open communication>Access to critical information>Holding salespeople accountable and tying rewards to meeting goals

Providing Empowerment Opportunities

>Distributing power>Delegating decision-making authority>Participating in decision making>Developing and implementing sales strategies

Sales Force Empowerment

Program

A proven way to develop leaders is through mentoring. A mentor

is someone who systematically helps develop a subordinate’s

abilities through careful tutoring, personal guidance, and example

All organizations used to be on guard against stereotyping.

Women in growing numbers are taking leadership roles in

industry as well as government.

Mentoring

Women as Sales Manager

Its most basic level, leadership requires communication as a way

of transferring ideas, facts, thoughts and values from one person

to another.

One of the most overlooked qualities of a good communicator

and thus of a good leader is listening skills.

Effective listening has become so necessary a component of

business success that many companies now train their

employees in listening.

Four basic types of listening:

Content listening

Critical listening

Empathic listening

Active listening

Communication

Listening

Nonverbal communication takes place largely through body

language: facial expressions, gestures, and body postures.

communication via space

communication via style in dress

communication via body movements

Most important to sales managers

Organizational Barriers-communication problems are

likely to occur between a salesperson and a sales

manager due to the structural hierarchy of most org.

Individual Barriers-sales managers must be able to send

clear, effective message that the entire sales force can

understand.

Understanding Nonverbal Communication

Breaking Down Communication Barriers

Overcoming Barriers-sales managers can overcome the

barriers to communication if they acknowledge their

existence and take the time necessary to work them out.

Breaking Down Communication Barriers (continuation)

Some useful strategies

Regulate information flow

Provide and elicit feedback

Use simple language

Practice effective listening

Keep emotion in check

Give nonverbal cues

Use the grapevine

THANK YOU

By: Mary Lilibeth B. Alonzo