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You are here: Home / Blog / 5 Key Characteristics NZ’s Top Sales Leaders Have

5 Key Characteristics NZ’s Top Sales Leaders Have

September 19, 2018

According to the most successful business owners in New Zealand, these are the most important characteristics you must have to be a top Sales Leader.

Sales Leaders

Leadership

Managers improve – leaders inspire! As the Sales Leader, you are in a critical role charged with increasing your business turnover annually, via your sales team. Inspiring and empowering your staff and getting buy-in from them is critical to achieving your targets. Sales Leaders base decisions on data, not gut instinct. Eisenhower described leadership as: “the art of getting someone else to do something you want done, because they want to do it”.

Integrity

Being honest and having strong moral principles is key as a Sales Leader. Your team will be drawn to you because they trust you and depend on you. Keeping your staff in the loop with issues allows them to feel like they know what is going on and they’re not left in the dark. Taking responsibility and owning errors on your team’s behalf creates respect for you from them. “Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, and treating people with respect.” – Stephen Cove

Empathy

Both customers and staff respond to empathy – in fact, most people do. It’s a core requirement in building long-term relationships, and it’s crucial your team understand it’s power. Empathy will be the difference between getting a sale or not, and having return-business from your customer, and not. “Leadership is about empathy.”– Oprah Winfrey

Great Listening Skills

Greek philosopher Epictetus once said “you have two ears and one mouth – you should be using them in this proportion”. Understand and then teach your team that your conversations with your prospective customers should weigh in at 80% of the conversation being made by the customer, and 20% by you. As soon as you talk over your customer, you’ve lost them.

Transparency

Great Sales Leaders, in general, are transparent about their objectives, goals and motivations. Being open to opinions from your team and valuing their feedback is very important and allows your staff to trust you as their leader.  “A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” – Dalai Lama

Does your sales leader have these 5 key characteristics?

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Helen Slater – Strata Communications

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As a small business owner Fiona gave me the confidence to think about my business differently. I have been in the Travel Industry nearly 20 years, and after working with Fiona I have increased the leads I am getting and turning those leads into actual sales. She has helped me identify new opportunities, put good structures and processes in place, and take control of my business which has had a huge impact. She has enabled me to get excited again about my business and working with her is the best thing I could have done.”

Anita Gatley Travel

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We contracted Fiona to help formulate a practical Business Plan for the next 12 months. She was generous with her time and expertise, quickly grasping the nature of our business and identifying the main issues needing attention. Fiona is highly organised and motivated, with a great sense of humour and a determination to see her clients succeed. We have enjoyed working with her and now have a clear step-by-step plan to implement, along with practical strategies to make it easy.

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Sara Morles – Business Development Manager – Peter Hay Group

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Fiona has helped us look at our business from a totally different perspective. She has helped us to develop new strategies and approaches and we are working more ‘on’ the business rather than being consumed by it. The staff training we have had has gone very well and the staff have really stepped up and even surprised themselves by what they have achieved. Fiona makes you accountable to yourself and has a fabulous way of working. I would definitely recommend her.

Mavis Griffiths – The Prenzel Shop

Now we are more customer focused rather than product focused

We have worked with Fiona to help increase our business and also for Staff Sales Training in our retail stores. We have good staff and have done training ourselves in the past, but it has been more product focused rather than customer focused. Fiona has helped us to work on our approach, add value to our customers, recommend the ‘right’ kind of product and change the way we focus on targets with staff. Her support and attending of staff meetings has been great and her advice invaluable.

Sarah Dodson – The Prenzel Shop

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In the past couple of years, we have had changes in ACC funding which affected our business and resulted in a large decline in turnover. We got Fiona on board and started developing new ideas and growth strategies. Our turnover increased to the point our Bank Manager noticed the results and wanted to know how we were increasing business! And Fiona has also given us a new skill set we didn’t have before, which adds strength to our business.


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Vicki Sykes – CEO – Friendship House

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Fiona was highly recommended to me by another business person who said to me “Fiona turned my business around”. So I met with Fiona and knew instantly that she “got my business and what it was about”. I was drawn to Fiona also by her expert knowledge and experience in sales and marketing. Fiona is thorough, detailed and very personable. She is a pleasure to work with.

Kirsten Laurence – Managing Director – Proficient Debt Recovery

Seen a marked increase in turnover of more than 40%

After working with Fiona for the past eight months I have seen a marked increase in the turnover of my business of more than 40%. Fiona has helped to develop clear strategies for marketing, and put in place a structured approach that will allow the business to continue to grow long after the association with her ends. The strategies suggested by Fiona were low cost (some around $50) and produced an impressive return on investment. Fiona’s influence has helped to give greater direction, focus and results to my business.

James Hutchinson – Total Osteo

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