Effective sales leaders have a way of creating, communicating, and driving a top-down vision that mobilizes their sales teams and catapults their organizations to the next level.

Effective leaders tend to fuel the creation of their vision through brainstorming with others. They collaborate up, down, and even outside their organizations, harvesting ideas to identify what’s working and what isn’t, to determine the optimal way forward for their teams and how to best get there. Equipped with feedback from thought leaders and top performers, they begin to build a success vision, and by taking a collaborative approach, they gain greater buy-in for that vision because of the way it was formulated. People feel they are part of it, that they have equity in it, and as a result, the vision becomes shared. The likelihood that implementation will be successful is greater simply because of the process.

Once the vision is defined, effective sales leaders seek out opportunities to validate it with key members of their teams, including sales managers, salespeople, and stakeholders in other organizations (including, for example, marketing, finance, services, and engineering). Some leaders even vet their vision with partners and customers so they can articulate it with their people from a platform based on teamwork and open communication. Their message is well-received and clearly understood because it already responds to the most likely objections and challenges. As a result, these leaders are able to sell their visions to the people who will be essential for successful execution.

Effective sales leaders also look for opportunities to demonstrate core components of their vision by “walking the talk” themselves. And through leading by example, they drive their vision to greater adoption and traction. When casting a vision of success for their sales teams, sales managers and leaders should consider including a plan for engaging, winning, and growing with customers, because when you do the right things for your customers, your visions are more likely to become realities.

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