Inspirational sales leadership: A systematic approach to motivating the sales force

Executive summary

Today’s complex business-to-business sales environments call for a different sales leadership approach than the tried-and-true methods that worked when selling was more transactional. The drivers of success in a complex selling environment — such as investment in strategic relationships and insights, tolerance for risk, high-quality teaming, relentless focus on differentiation — require a new approach to sales leadership. “Inspirational sales leadership” leverages a deep understanding of current sales performance to systematically identify leadership behaviors that actually drive results, and then provides the right tools for change. This leadership approach is every bit as disciplined as more traditional approaches, and extends focus and discipline to performance drivers that too many sales organizations leave to chance and individual temperament. Strategy&’s research and practice has demonstrated that this model works effectively across a broad range of B2B contexts, and will become increasingly critical to master as the complexity and value of strategic selling continue to increase.