Relationships done well and right are the backbone for a long-lived career in sales. And as a sales leader, relationships are mission-critical to what you do daily.
Think about the power of relationships for:
- Hiring
- Retention
- Team building
- The buyer journey
- Having hard conversations when things get tricky in startups
- With Founders
- Missing a quarter
- Performance management
- Partnerships
I firmly believe that the tone and expectations start at the top. As a sales leader, it’s your job to set the stage early and often for your team, the Founders, Board, and your colleagues. You can never lose the ‘sum of our parts’ mindset as a sales leader — it’s virtually impossible to do anything without the right people, in the right roles, and doing the right work consistently.
This quote from McKinsey captures this well:
“The people you are leading have big expectations of you. They want you to be perfect and often forget that you are human. But the more human you are with them, the more trust and empathy they lend to you.”
