{"id":2580,"date":"2015-06-03T10:09:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T15:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/?p=2580"},"modified":"2015-06-03T10:09:44","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T15:09:44","slug":"the-importance-of-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2015\/06\/the-importance-of-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance Of Accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I harp on this topic frequently, but it is a foundational need for all strong sales leaders.\u00a0 You must hold your people accountable to reach goals, close deals and follow your system (a broad word that entails <em>your<\/em> requirements for performance).\u00a0 The key is to simply do it\u2026you don\u2019t have to be \u201cgood\u201d at it, but you do have to do it.\u00a0 Many sales leaders miss this important point.<\/p>\n<p>So I give you <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sellingpower.com\/content\/article\/?a=4350&amp;utm_campaign=Sales+Management+Digest&amp;utm_source=Article-4350-Link&amp;utm_medium=06022015\/6-essentials-for-successful-sales-coaching\" target=\"_blank\">this Selling Power article<\/a> with a comprehensive view of this accountability need for all sales leaders.\u00a0 The author makes a significant point that often gets overlooked by sales leaders who like to use the stick before the carrot.\u00a0 First the accountability piece:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>3) Hold your team and each member accountable for goals.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to threaten your team members to remind them that they\u2019re responsible (to you and to one another) for meeting the goals they set.\u00a0 Instead, inspire their best effort by reminding them of their importance to the team and company.\u00a0 Tell them you\u2019ll hold them accountable for succeeding because you have faith in their ability to get the job done.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well said.\u00a0 And to go further, you will have to discipline the underperformers.\u00a0 Do not skip past this requirement.\u00a0 Now for the part that I have seen some overzealous sales leaders dismiss (emphasis mine):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>4) Be supportive.\u00a0 Meeting sales goals is a team effort, and you\u2019re an important part of that team.\u00a0 You can\u2019t make the calls for your salespeople, but you can give them every chance to succeed by providing your support and guidance.\u00a0 Remind your salespeople that you\u2019re on their side, and that you\u2019ll be available to help them in any way you can.\u00a0 <strong>If you\u2019re going to hold your salespeople accountable for meeting their goals, you have to hold yourself accountable for helping them.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Absolutely spot on.\u00a0 You have to help them in the manner in which they need help to develop and succeed.\u00a0 Don\u2019t close deals for them.\u00a0 Don\u2019t read them the riot act and not help them.\u00a0 Don\u2019t go silent with the underperformers.\u00a0 You have to be a coach right in the middle of the huddle helping call the plays that will lead to their success.\u00a0 Anything short of that and you are not holding up your end of the leadership equation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I harp on this topic frequently, but it is a foundational need for all strong sales leaders.\u00a0 You must hold your people accountable to reach goals, close deals and follow your system (a broad word that entails your requirements for performance).\u00a0 The key is to simply do it\u2026you don\u2019t have to be \u201cgood\u201d at it, but you do have to do it.\u00a0 Many sales leaders miss this important point. So I give you this Selling Power article with a comprehensive view of this accountability need for all sales leaders.\u00a0 The author makes a significant point that often gets overlooked by sales leaders who like to use the stick before the&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2015\/06\/the-importance-of-accountability\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31,4],"tags":[1711,893,894,1415,1708,31,1750,213],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-FC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2582,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580\/revisions\/2582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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