10 Leadership Quotes from the Leading Ladies in Sales
As you may have heard, March is Women’s History Month. It also marks the end of the all-important first quarter for many B2B sales organizations.
To wrap things up before the calendar turns to April, here are 10 quotes from some of the smartest and most respected women in the world of sales leadership. Sales professionals, male or female, can no doubt learn a lot from these women.
“Nothing is more dangerous for enablement leaders than following each idea and requirement without having a clear strategy and a solid plan for what to achieve. The risk is that many things will be done, but no goals will be achieved.” – Tamara Schenk, Research Director, CSO Insights @tamaraschenk
“I think that listening is one of the most important skills that you can gain, and I bet if you ask the more successful salespeople in the room, they’ll agree. One of the best things you can do is stop and listen; that’s why it’s good to not just immediately respond when someone talks to you. Just stop and make sure you internalized what they said.”—Lori Richardson, Founder and CEO of Score More Sales @scoremoresales
“The one thing you’re putting off or dreading? That’s your brain telling you it’s the thing you need to do most and next. Get it done. Stop dreading. Do.”—Nancy Nardin, Founder of Smart Selling Tools @sellingtools
“We make mistakes every time we lose a deal in sales. For most sellers this is 50%-67% of the time! We have to accept that. The key is recognizing what went wrong and correcting the mistake so it only happens once. Accept that mistakes will happen. Address them and move on. I think the biggest mistake we can make in sales is dwelling on the past rather than learning from it.”—Colleen Francis, Founder and President of Engage Selling @EngageColleen
“On average, managers are spending 2.4 hours per rep on monthly coaching – we need to do better!”—Trish Bertuzzi, Founder of The Bridge Group @bridgegroupinc
“Sales leaders must spend equal time on enhancing sales force performance around personal (soft skills) development, business acumen (understanding a market, segment or vertical) and new behaviors (from hunter and farmer to guide) as they do on pipeline development and closing deals. Otherwise, even the greatest products built for the right customers won’t sell themselves, and success won’t materialize where it matters — in the mind of the customer — and in revenue numbers.”—Tiffani Bova, Global, Customer Growth, Sales and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce @Tiffani_Bova
“It’s your job to help your sales reps understand their part in the company’s success and to develop personalized success plans. Again, this may mean they have to change. We all know that change is hard and one of the reasons it’s hard is because we say it is. Training does not equal behavior change. Coaching makes it easier to change as well as having an accountability partner and some incentive or reward.”—Alice Heiman, Founder and CSO at Alice Heiman, LLC @aliceheiman
