Building The Bond With Your Head of Sales
Anyone who has sat in the seat of CEO has loved and hated the person who runs their sales organization more than any other human in the world. When times are good your head of sales feels like a family member you could never live without. But, when times are bad that same person who was over each weekend for a BBQ can now feel like a daemon that just invaded the body of your beloved child and you want to expel.
But does it have to?
This question is what I want to tackle in this article. So many organizations I have walked into over the years having sales trouble has almost nothing to do with the service/product or many times the process. What the issue lives is in the relationship that the CEO and Head of Sales has.
The reason the relationship is the root of the issue is that at some point, normally the last down sales season, the two of them lost trust in one another. Now the Head of Sales is busy looking for their next adventure (new job) and the CEO is upset as they do not see the same passion from their head of sales as before.
BUT. It does not have to get this far in the first place! The trick to avoiding all of this is regularly scheduled one-on-one conversations.
I am not talking about a quick pipeline review or forecast presentation. I am talking about a weekly one hour or longer general conversation about how everything is going in both of your lives. A conversation that covers both professional and personal topics for both of you and your Head of Sales.
My suggestion has always been a regular weekly conversation with your head of sales in a place that allows both of you to open up. Below are some of my personal favorites that I did both as a CEO and a Head of Sales.
Go for a long walk together around the office grounds
Grab coffee together before you go into the office
Take a bike ride together (If you are into cycling which I am!)
Grab Dinner together (Not Breakfast or Lunch as those are for Sales Meetings!)
Drive Into Work Together
The most important aspect of all of this is being one-on-one and not worrying who might be listening. That is why getting out of the office works best.
The more you do this and open up to her/him you will start laying the most important building block of success for your business...TRUST!
Trust is the one thing that no matter what will carry both of you through good and bad times. It is the X-Factor element that will set your sales team apart from every other sales team in your industry. Beyond everything else Trust is the one thing that you MUST continue to work to build and earn both ways.
Without trust, all you will end up doing is reliving a never-ending cycle of hiring new sales leaders, keep them a couple of years, and then start all over again. With each cycle watching your sales organization become more and more fragmented and weak. But, if you just start these weekly conversations you will be shocked how fast you will watch the results speak for themselves and your sales results reflecting the bond you are building with your Head of Sales.
To Your Success & Prosperity!