CEO Mike Hoffman oversees operations and aligns business functions with SBI’s corporate strategy to deliver scaled growth and client success
The list of successful CEOs who started in sales is long. Howard Schultz, Mark Cuban and Warren Buffet are just a few examples of salespeople-turned-CEO. This is because CEOs who have the most success driving growth are those who understand their customers’ business drivers and the associated value of their product or service.
While some are natural extroverts, others are introverts who had to train themselves to be engaging and attentive. Whether instinctive or self-taught, CEOs must be able to connect with their customers and listen to what their needs are. They must be able to establish strong relationships based on trust and be good investigators who can uncover their clients’ needs and find opportunities to deliver solutions that will create a win-win for both companies.
The CEO must be actively involved in closing big deals and high-level relationship building. I am not saying the CEO must run the playbook by themselves. Any company beyond the startup phase must have a team of sellers who know enterprise sales and have deep networks. To make this quarterback/head of sales analogy work, you must be a CEO who is out in front interacting with customers. Equally important, the CEO must be surrounded by a team of people who can bring in deals on their own as well as take any ball they are passed and run with it.
Nothing is more important to sales and go-to-market success than the talent on your sales team, so prioritize finding your official head of sales while you continue to play the unofficial role of sales quarterback. This means identifying and nurturing people for the role who will bring with them a strong network that can be built out even further to maximize your sales channel through the following steps:
1. Keep expanding your network.
CEOs need meaningful, external guidance and should constantly seek to expand networks to both appear larger and achieve growth through connections. This is harder for small companies, but innovative CEOs will secure strategic alliances, establish partnerships, attract influential members for their board and generally broaden their spheres of influence to help drive sales.
2. Always be communicating.
You need to be a road warrior and regularly meet important customers in person. Maintaining these relationships will help you understand why you win, lose and how you can improve. It also develops client loyalty. You must always know why a customer would buy your product or service as opposed to the competition’s.
3. Understand your target prospect and market.
As CEO, if you are not consistent about your go-to-market strategy and customer segmentation, you cannot expect your salespeople to be effective in their efforts. You would be surprised how many CEOs I’ve heard from who will describe their clients as Fortune 500 and then reveal the techniques they are using, which are designed to target much smaller companies.
4. Know your limitations.
Be realistic about your team’s strengths and weaknesses. Conducting a talent assessment is critical to building and developing your sales team. Once you are clear on your team’s shortcomings and the important capabilities you lack, you can strategically pursue people with those skill sets. Every company has room for improvement. The hard part is to pinpoint exactly where you need to improve so you can hire and develop for long-term growth.
5. Enlist external resources.
Board members or consultants who know your industry and the competitive landscape can identify the specific execution areas you must bolster and provide expertise to punch above your weight and hit growth targets. Some consultants can go beyond product, strategy and data to take a deeper dive into your organization and tell you which talent cultivation strategies you need to employ to optimize growth and execution.
Conclusion
The importance of sales must be driven from the top, but CEOs cannot do it all by themselves. To be successful, CEOs must stay involved and assemble external resources and internal talent to achieve their GTM objectives. This means driving the process by leading from the front in customer and prospect networking initiatives while leveraging external expertise to identify resources and additions to your team.
Think of it as a combination of strategic players and “special teams” that can deliver the strengths you may lack and expand your network and outreach initiatives to create a force multiplier for running your playbook and maximizing your sales channel.
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