Do you have time to lead your sales team
Leadership is an interesting thing.
Many people think it just comes instinctually and it’s part of your DNA, but in fact it takes time to learn to lead effectively.
Leaders need to plan to lead
It’s been my experience that salespeople look to a leader for direction, and it’s up to the leader to be well enough organized to offer direction. In other words, if you want to take a market by storm you have to plan it out and develop a strategy and coaching so that you can meet the goals that you want to reach.
Understanding that as an underlying principle means that you as a leader need to take the time to be available to lead your team. You have to be focused on allocating time during your day to help your sales team grow and solve their day-to-day problems.
Yes, this can take place on the golf course, or on the tennis court, but it’s more effective when the meetings are one-on-one, most likely in the conference room or an office. Those that are getting coached prefer to be coached one-on-one. From a leadership standpoint that is hard to do on the golf course.
As we know from the military, leaders get up before their team, go to bed after their team goes to bed and make sure, they have dry socks and food in their belly. They tell you that it takes tremendous logistics to move an army forward. That translates into you planning your marketing and sales efforts so that people can follow what you want to achieve for your company.
Lack of sales leadership can bankrupt your company
I had a boss, who was the president of our fifty-employee company, who was an engineer. I loved working for this company, mostly because we had a helicopter and we got to fly all over the place. It felt like a successful company. Unfortunately, the president paid no attention to his sales team.
That metal stud manufacturing company went bankrupt. It went bankrupt because of nonexistent leadership. It went bankrupt because its cost of doing business was way beyond what the market was willing to bear. It went bankrupt because its sales operation was virtually nonexistent. The sales manager was based eight hours away and he could not be available to supervise the other salespeople in the company.
The sales manager had been promoted because he was the best salesperson in the company, he did not have the time to supervise a sales team because he was busy drumming up sales to keep the company afloat and pay his own bills. The regional salesperson based at the factory couldn’t close a transaction if his life depended on it. He should have been fired, but the sales manager did not have time to do that. It was a primary example of the lack of time to lead.
As you grow your company
When you have a small business, you wear a lot of hats, and it makes it difficult to lead in all the different directions you want to grow. It makes sense to pick one growth area at a time and develop that business, increase your cash flow and then have the money available to hire an additional leader that can then supervise your next growth surge. That sales leader needs to have the time to help your company grow.
Leadership skills are developed over time. It’s your job to focus on improving your skills and the skills of those who work for you. In that way you can use your leadership to grow your company successfully. To do this you need to take time to plan, recruit, train and listen to your sales team. You need to make the time to lead.
Clifford A. Hockley is Principal Broker at SVN | Bluestone, as well as the managing member of Cliff Hockley Real Estate Consulting, LLC. As a Certified Property Manager & Designated Managing Broker, Cliff has 41 years of experience in the brokerage and management of Real Estate companies. Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services manages condominium associations, multi-family, and commercial properties in the greater Portland area. He was focused on running the company and involved with investment property brokerage. He worked with financial institutions, governmental agencies, private investors, and not for profit organizations. He also has vast knowledge in budgeting, organizational management, and building structures. His previous experience includes over five years in accounting, production supervision for a manufacturing company, and work for state agencies in California.
Cliff grew Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services into a 100 employee company that managed over 2 billion dollars of real estate assets before he sold the company in 2021. He also supervised a sales team of over 15 real estate brokers for over 35 years. His monthly newsletter, QuickFacts has over 2,300 subscribers. He has been involved in numerous real estate transactions that include industrial, retail, office, and multifamily properties. Cliff has also written a book called “Successful Real Estate Investing; Invest Wisely, Avoid Costly Mistakes and Make Money” published by Morgan James Publishing in 2019.
Cliff has successfully coached real estate investors and CEOs located throughout the United States since 2015. He has acted as a sounding board to help untangle knotty issues that need an experienced outside opinion. He guides leaders who find it is “lonely at the top” and need an experienced hand to help set a strategic direction, sort out operational problems and want to talk through challenging business decisions.
He has served as an adjunct professor at Portland State University from 2028 – 2021, teaching classes in: Intro to Real Estate, Basic Real Estate Finance, Property Management as well as Real Estate Investment Fundamentals. He has instructed hundreds of students and believes that substantial preparation and active student engagement are crucial for learning and appreciating the field of real estate. Students appreciate his candor and real-world experience.
Among his many civic activities, Cliff served on the Board of Directors for the Portland Chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) and the Rental Housing Alliance of Oregon. In 2014 he was recognized by IREM as board member of the year, and in 2015 he earned an achievement award in brokerage from SVN International. In the years 2000 & 2003, he was recognized by IREM as Certified Property Manager of the Year.
