When salespeople get promoted to a sales leader position, there are many traps to avoid and new things to learn from things like analyzing CRM data, conducting performance reviews, and figuring out how you are going to find the time to coach. These things get a fair amount of attention. One thing though that is rarely talked about – perhaps because it may be considered common sense – is the trap of not realizing the power of your words.
What’s interesting about this trap is regardless of tenure, we’ve seen sales leaders fall prey to it. Sales leaders are busy and all too often make off-the-cuff comments. Why can that be a problem worth thinking about? Here are three reasons.
Sales leaders have positional authority – so what they say is taken seriously – and that means off-the-cuff comments can have more influence than intended. Almost every sales leader with whom we’ve worked has shared an experience where someone on their sales team took an unnecessary or inappropriate action based on an off-the-cuff comment.
Off-the-cuff comments from sales leaders spread quickly and morph from one person to another as they zip through the organization. It’s the morphing part that can be particularly telling. You not only have to think about what you say but how you say it. The potential for morphing can be minimized.
What sales leaders say can be interpreted as conveying an official company position – particularly when a company is going through a period of change. This little problem can lead to inappropriate action, and on a bad day, get the sales leader in hot water.
The perils of off-the-cuff comments by sales leaders are not at the top of the list of pressing problems that are degrading sales effectiveness, but if you are a sales leader, and someone on your team asks for an update, how you respond and the words you use are important.