The ‘X’ Factor to Sales Performance 

Relationships comin’ in clutch – especially this year.

The start of a New Year generally starts off in really similar ways – we’ve got resolutions, packed gyms, and of course, predictions on the key themes and trends.

One prediction that piqued my interest was key things that leaders are going to absolutely need to do in 2023. While this prediction was geared towards what seems like VP- and C-Suite leaders, we can also start to think about what this means for us managers in the middle.

Per the article, there are three skills that leaders absolutely need this year, but one in particular really caught my attention – deepening relationships with key stakeholders.

What the f*** does this mean for managers?

Deepen relationships with key stakeholders.

Linkedin’s State of Sales Survey reports that “the overwhelming majority of sellers (86%) say they have had deals lost or stalled in the past 12 months due to a key stakeholder leaving a client or prospect company”. 

We know the pains of poor or missing stakeholder relationships from the seller – buyer relationship. But what does a key stakeholder relationship mean for front line sales leaders? 

To start – there are different types of key stakeholder relationships we’ll have:

1. The relationships we have with our people
2. The relationships our people have with their prospects + clients
3. The relationships we have with cross functional partners

Relationships with our people

Remember this: no relationship, no performance. It’s as simple as that. Sure, you can get by having no or a limited relationship with the people on your team. But that never lasts very long.

Relationships our people have with their prospects + clients

I can hear the Challenger Sales Mafiosos rolling their eyes now about the importance of relationship building. But hear me out – there’s something to relationship building that we have so much more to explore in sales. 

Assist: Sales Navigator is an absolute go to resource that helps keep track of who coworkers can introduce you to, when key stakeholders move to companies in your patch, and who the new key stakeholders are at your accounts.

Relationships we have with cross functional partners

One of my favorite sayings is, “it takes a village”. You might have heard it used when talking about raising children. But it applies to leading teams and developing people too.

Whether it’s our Human Resources team, the Marketing team, our Sales Enablement peeps or our counterparts in Customer Success…there are so many parts of the business who we can partner with to better support our team’s success.