In a moment, your life can change direction quickly. You probably don’t have to think too hard about a moment that has impacted your life forever like a new job, a promotion, the birth of a child, or even a pandemic - these are pivotal moments.
What about those moments that don’t have as noticeable or as serious of an impact? What about the series of smaller decisions you need to make as a leader? Those are the decisions that collectively define your leadership career and ultimately determine your legacy.
That may sound like an extreme statement, but if you take a look at your own career, you can unpack patterns and decisions that have defined your trajectory.
For example, you hire someone, and they are not meeting your expectations. You personally rallied to get them hired. Now that they have been with the organization for well over a year, there is little to show for progress much less increased revenue. What did you do?
Likely one or more of these examples resonates with you. What you did or do (if you haven’t experienced these moments yet) will set your career in a direction based on how well you handled it.
The more situations you are able to navigate well, the more successful you will be.
Navigating these moments sounds easy enough, right? Like most things in life, it’s not. These Pivotal Moments come into play more often than most sales leaders recognize.
Sales leaders are paid to drive revenue and profits, build and develop their teams, keep their boss informed so they can make sound business decisions, and ensure their customers stay happy. The weight of carrying the revenue and profit burden for an organization is great. Especially with specific challenges and variables.
Where do sales leaders go to get the training and development they need?
Do they take an executive course? Call their mentors? Pick up the latest sales book? Scan for a podcast based on the challenge of the day? They are cherry-picking from a variety of sources that may or may not work for their organization.
With all of this inconsistency, it comes as no surprise that the average tenure of a sales leader is about 20 months. Ask any salesperson how many bosses they have had. Some can’t even count. And when they do get a new boss, some salespeople tend to just sit back and ride out any changes that are implemented. They know there will be another new boss soon, so what is the point?
Does this sound familiar? What is this sales leadership crisis costing your company? From a monetary perspective, it can cost you from $250k - $300k. The United States Department of Labor states “the cost of a bad hire at up to 30% of the employee’s wages for the first year.” That doesn’t account for the opportunity cost and the negative impact on your company culture.
There are success stories out there, sales leaders who have defied the statics and have driven strong results for their companies, their teams, and themselves. What sets these sales leaders apart? Do they read for an hour a day? Did they get an MBA? Are they listening to motivational speakers to project a positive front to their teams? Maybe. But that’s not the root of why they are successful.
They are taking ownership of their Pivotal Moments, getting the resources they need, continuing to learn and seek sound advice, and have a solid Sales Operating System in place. One misstep or blunder won’t take them down. They are able to pick themselves back up, and of course correct. They’ve learned how to find that zone where they have their team working on all cylinders are aligned with their boss, and their customers are reaping the benefits.
Now does that sound easy? It’s not. It’s not for everyone. Do you want your company to have a competitive advantage with a sales engine that is well-tuned and achieving the results you want? Do you want to grow and scale your business consistently? The answer: Grow through Pivotal Moments.
If you want to learn more about how to leverage your Pivotal Moments contact us at info@pivotaladvisors.com.
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