Making the leap into sales leadership? Read this first.

Yesterday I was hosting a live event on sales leadership and I asked the audience a question.

What's harder: Sales? Or leading a team of sellers?

Everyone said it was sales leadership. (Even the sellers in the room!)

Makes sense to me.

• Salespeople have to hit target.

• Sales leaders have to make sure everyone hits target.

Sounds stressful.

I mean, what are you supposed to do?

Chase your team around the office to make sure they are on track?

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After all, your job is to make sure everyone succeeds. Right?

Or is there something else that a leader should be aiming towards?

This quote from Simon Sinek sums it up beautifully:

“Leadership isn't about being in charge. It's about caring for those in your charge.”

Care. One of my favourite words.

Because with it, we can achieve great things.

For yesterday's live event, I was lucky to be joined by Lauren Reeves from Swap.

She's an inspirational leader, a female in sales advocate and like me... a forever SDR champion.

One of the common themes of a lot of the questions during our conversation was: How do you balance caring with hitting targets?

I knew Lauren would have some amazing insights on this, which made the whole event really inspiring.

(Don't worry, I've got the recording for you at the bottom of this article so you can catch the replay!) 👊

Lauren spoke with truth and openness. Which is one of my favourite things about her.

Here are three things I took away:

Give your team space

Lauren said yesterday that she doesn't go to every team drinks.

I'll let her explain:

"My team need time together, without their sales leader. A time to moan. Space to complain. I give the team that space because I know how important it is."

Being self-aware in leadership is so important.

Your team don't need you to be their friend, they need you to be their leader.

And the best leaders understand that their team will occasionally say unfriendly things about them.

It's just one of those things!

The best place to do this, is of course the pub.

Make mistakes (and learn from them)

Lauren, just like me, was an SDR for years.

So she gets what it's like to feel the pressure of that role.

She's also got three things that any former successful SDR has:

• Thick skin

• Curiosity

• An experimental mindset

SDRs like to try new things, see what works.

We're curious! As we should be.

We've also been told to f**k off more times than most people at work, so we have a thick skin.

Learning what works and what doesn't is crucial in the SDR role.

Lauren's taken that philosophy into leadership.

Learning quickly what isn't working, and making the necessary adaptions.

You don't know what you don't know

One of Nia Woodhouse's favourite phrases!

As a new sales leader, you can't ask the right questions if you don't know what questions you should be asking.

Find a mentor.

Someone who’s been there, navigated challenges, and can guide you through blind spots.

Mentorship accelerates your growth, gives perspective, and most importantly, reminds you that leadership isn't a solo journey.

If you set off alone, you won't get very far.

FREE RESOURCES:

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