When Top Performers Become Sales Leaders: Will vs. Skill

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts as we discuss:
– The blurry line between personal and professional development
– ‘Will versus skill’ in leading salespeople
– Pitfalls for new sales leaders who were top individual performers
– Transferable skills and new skills to build
– The underappreciated importance of sales coaching

Sales Leaders Podcast Quotes from Kevin Eikenberry:

“Will versus skill — it’s very simple. Do I have the will to do it, which means do I want to, versus do I know how to, the skill?”

“A lot of the skills that help people be highly successful as salespeople are also skills that are very transportable to being a leader, like being a good listener, building relationships, and building trust.”

“Sounds like you’re pretty good at putting out fires. He goes, ‘I’m good at putting out fires.’ I said, ‘Guess what? Coaching is fire prevention…'”

“Ultimately, I would say this: if we want to build trust with others, I always like to start here, that trust is both a noun and a verb. So the question then is, how do I get more of the noun? If I want more of the noun, how do I get it? By using more of the verb. The more of the verb we do, the more of the noun we get. As the leader, we must go first. Rather than saying, “Well, why don’t they trust me more?” I need to be doing things that build trust, offering people the chance to do something, creating an opportunity for people to go try it without us being there to support them with a net underneath them, but not doing it for them. By listening more and remembering that our team members need our ears more than they need our answers.”

Additional Resources:

The Kevin Eikenberry Group

Kevin’s YouTube channel

From Bud to Boss by Kevin Eikenberry

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