The 6 Habits of Top 1% Sales Leaders

there is a problem with frontline managers, but I would say a lot of times it's not their fault.

And what I mean by that is I think about the majority of people, whether they've been that frontline leadership role for years, or they just stepped into that role.

And if you're like most frontline leaders, you were never properly trained or developed.

You might've been the best rep or you've lasted the longest and you kind of stepped into that role.

And by default, you're now the sales leader regardless of title.

And what happens is, as you and I both know, a really great rep does very different things and a really great manager.

It's like a wildly different skill.

In every role, we have what I call IPAs, income producing activities.

And these are things that when you do them, they're typically like maybe 20% of your overall things that you're actually doing, but they drive like 80% or more of the results, kind of typical 80-20 rule.

But a lot of times when you step into that sales leadership role, if you've been in the role for a while, You were maybe never taught what that 20% is.

And all you know is we need to hit our number.

Just get there somehow.

When I think about the elite top 1% of sales leaders, the IPAs they want to follow break it down to really six core things.

I call it charge.

The first C is coach for impact.

So that means they're working to develop the team and their confidence actually managing deals.

That means their calendar should reflect that in one-on-ones, on call reviews, going on calls with reps, in coaching and guidance to help become the best version of them.

Then there's H, hire for excellence.

And this is the one that a lot of them don't realize.

So they have understaffed teams or they have people that are about to quit.

They're scared.

They keep them on because they don't have bench players ready to go.

They don't have two in the drawer that can pull out.

They don't have red shirt freshmen who can just take over for them, right? So you need to be skilled in bringing coachable, high potential talent.

So you need to have an eye for talent.

That's a totally different skill.

You know how to interview.

It's really, really wild.

Most people don't know how to do that.

You need to have A, align on expectations, right? Are you able to set really clear expectations consistently across the board for activity and outcomes you want to do? So some leaders are really good at this and some are really bad.

They say one time they kind of forget about it, right? It's a flavor of the week.

So are you really good at aligning expectations? Then there is R, run the pipeline.

Are you good at driving hygiene, qualification, moving deals through? How about G, great performance.

Can you identify gaps early and fast? Far too often, I see leaders that they're waiting like three months into underperformance and they start to have conversations then.

You're costing yourself your own like future and your outcomes because of that.

And then you want to E, engineer a high performance culture, right? So you want to be able to show how to model and embed behavior that wins.

In reality is with this charge model, majority leaders have never been taught anything like that or even similar.

there is a problem with frontline managers, but I would say a lot of times it's not their fault.

And what I mean by that is I think about the majority of people, whether they've been that frontline leadership role for years, or they just stepped into that role.

And if you're like most frontline leaders, you were never properly trained or developed.

You might've been the best rep or you've lasted the longest and you kind of stepped into that role.

And by default, you're now the sales leader regardless of title.

And what happens is, as you and I both know, a really great rep does very different things and a really great manager.

It's like a wildly different skill.

In every role, we have what I call IPAs, income producing activities.

And these are things that when you do them, they're typically like maybe 20% of your overall things that you're actually doing, but they drive like 80% or more of the results, kind of typical 80-20 rule.

But a lot of times when you step into that sales leadership role, if you've been in the role for a while, You were maybe never taught what that 20% is.

And all you know is we need to hit our number.

Just get there somehow.

When I think about the elite top 1% of sales leaders, the IPAs they want to follow break it down to really six core things.

I call it charge.

The first C is coach for impact.

So that means they're working to develop the team and their confidence actually managing deals.

That means their calendar should reflect that in one-on-ones, on call reviews, going on calls with reps, in coaching and guidance to help become the best version of them.

Then there's H, hire for excellence.

And this is the one that a lot of them don't realize.

So they have understaffed teams or they have people that are about to quit.

They're scared.

They keep them on because they don't have bench players ready to go.

They don't have two in the drawer that can pull out.

They don't have red shirt freshmen who can just take over for them, right? So you need to be skilled in bringing coachable, high potential talent.

So you need to have an eye for talent.

That's a totally different skill.

You know how to interview.

It's really, really wild.

Most people don't know how to do that.

You need to have A, align on expectations, right? Are you able to set really clear expectations consistently across the board for activity and outcomes you want to do? So some leaders are really good at this and some are really bad.

They say one time they kind of forget about it, right? It's a flavor of the week.

So are you really good at aligning expectations? Then there is R, run the pipeline.

Are you good at driving hygiene, qualification, moving deals through? How about G, great performance.

Can you identify gaps early and fast? Far too often, I see leaders that they're waiting like three months into underperformance and they start to have conversations then.

You're costing yourself your own like future and your outcomes because of that.

And then you want to E, engineer a high performance culture, right? So you want to be able to show how to model and embed behavior that wins.

In reality is with this charge model, majority leaders have never been taught anything like that or even similar.