Great Salespeople Don’t Necessarily Make Great Leaders

When choosing whom to promote to management, business leaders will often look to the highest performing, most consistent salespeople in their team.

This makes sense. This person will understand processes, maintain high levels of motivation and the ability to get results.

However, it is foolish to presume that because someone was a great salesperson, they will automatically be a great manager and leader. The two skill sets are vastly different in several critical areas.

Sometimes, your best salesperson will be an atrocious leader when they first move into management.

Selling vs. Leading

When we consider the role of a salesperson, it is quite self-centric. That is, I am focused on my clients, my results, and working with my prospects to get mutually beneficial outcomes. Yes, in businesses with a more collaborative culture, you see more elements of teamwork and helping each other out, but ultimately great salespeople are focused on selling to their customers.

Great leaders require some of these cornerstones. They too need focus, accountability, consistency and people-skills. Unlike salespeople, their priorities are different.

Leadership is about getting the best out of a team.

That means understanding what makes different team members tick — figuring out how to tap into potential. Knowing how to motivate, coach, and develop people…