What images, thoughts and feelings come to mind when you think of or hear the word “salesperson”?
- Stereotypical, slick-talking, used car sales people
- Well-spoken financial manager
- The guy everyone loves who sells his wares on the golf course
Whether you have positive thoughts and feelings about salespeople or decidedly un-positive, the purpose of this article is not to suggest or defend any of these images or thoughts. Rather, my purpose is to state an iron-clad fact:
Leaders are salespeople.
And, more importantly, great leaders are great salespeople.
You may not buy my idea (after all, I am trying to sell it to you, but keep reading I plan to succeed). If you don’t buy this premise it’s probably because you have some beliefs/images/thoughts about sales people that contradict your beliefs/images/thoughts about leaders.
If you already buy my idea then you will love what’s to come. If you don’t, then let’s see if I can change your mind by the end of this article . . .
Salespeople can’t make you do anything; neither can leaders. Both realize they can inspire and inform, and they recognize the ultimate choice to take action belongs to the customer or follower. Great salespeople and leaders also realize that when they remember this fact they are less frustrated and more successful.
Salespeople are selling a vision and ideas; so are leaders. You may think salespeople are selling a product or service, but the truth is they are selling a vision of what that product or service will do or how it will make people feel as a result ownership. As leaders help people to see a vision of something different in the future, they are doing the same thing.
Salespeople know they are in the relationship business; so do leaders. Neither a great salesperson nor a great leader focuses on becoming friends with his/her Customers/followers, but all focus on building meaningful and trusted relationships. Why? Those relationships make their work easier and far more rewarding.
Salespeople realize they are in the change business; so do leaders. If no one buys, nothing changes. If no one follows, there isn’t much leadership. To be successful, salespeople and leaders study and understand individual and group/organizational change.
Salespeople are influencers and persuaders; so are leaders. Notice I didn’t say manipulators, but influencers and persuaders. When you sum up the other four points above you come up with influence.
Are there manipulative, short-sighted salespeople?
Of course. (The same can be said about some portion of the leader population.)
But, are those the salespeople that create long term success for themselves and their Customers?
Not at all. (Not in the leader population either)
The best salespeople are persuasion experts who influence through relationships, insight, great communication skills, understanding people and more. They strive to support and improve the lives of those they sell to, knowing when they do they have created a Customer for life.
Read that sentence again, and with just a couple of changes . . .
The best leaders are persuasion experts who influence through relationships, insight, great communication skills, understanding people and more. They strive to support and improve the lives of those they lead, knowing when they do they have created a follower for life.
Those are just five reasons why the best leaders are great salespeople.
Regardless of what you might have been thinking at the start of this article, it is time to embrace your inner salesperson.
But only if you care about being a more effective leader.
Your right on Kevin, one of the barriers to being a better leader is one’s perception that sales is bad or negative. Everyone from a child, parent, date, friend are trying to influence others in some way. I think that is sales?
I couldn’t agree more, Kevin. I have fun with this in management/leadership development workshops. I’ll ask, “How many people in here are in sales?” Typically, few if any raise their hands. I then invite them to reconsider.
Both leading and selling are about influencing without authority.
Leader as like as Sales People. This is one of the Competency should have in leader.
Marisi Tambunan
Great article Kevin. You changed my mind!! I e-mail a daily quote of inspiration to my managment team every day, and plan to use bits of your article and quote you for my quotes this week. I think some of they will change their minds as well. Thank you Kevin, I really appreciate your tips and encouragement!!
Thanks for your note Bev – have a happy sales day!
And let us know how else we can help you.
Kevin 🙂
I think leaders are influencers, not sales persons. Both use influence but sales people are self-interested – they want someone to buy their product. The process of influence might be similar but the ends are different, in my opinion anyway. Yes, the leader wants to convince people to buy a vision, but this is not self-interested. See my article on leadership as a role for more on this theme: http://www.lead2xl.com/leadership-not-a-role.html
Mitch – thanks for your comments. The skills are the same, as it seems we agree. We disagree however on the potential interests of sales people. I’d submit that the best sales people (like the best leaders) are other focused – the opposite of self interested. Are some sales people self interested? Sure – and some leaders are too.
Thanks for your thought provoking comments.
Kevin 🙂
Thanks for the prompt reply Kevin, I found your post thanks to your recent tweet. I guess it comes down to how you define selling and leading. I think a politician who appeals to voters self-interests by promising them to give them what they want may be a great sales person but, in my view, this is just buying votes. Real leadership, for me, challenges people to think differently and to make sacrifices for the greater good. Yes, they may be equally persuasive, but I don’t consider this selling. I think this issues is important because I define leadership as an influence process but people often think that this implies that ALL forms of influence must therefore count as leadership, even TV ads. Hence, why I’m keen to find a way to differentiate leadership influence from other kinds of influence. I have wrestled with this issue in a number of articles of my own. See “leadership as influence” http://www.lead2xl.com/leadership-as-influence.html if you are interested. Best regards, Mitch
Mitch, I think you are right – the difference may be in our definitions. While leadership requires influence, as you said, not all influence is necessarily leadership. Thanks for the comments!
Kevin 🙂