Watch how you talk

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**Note: This is the fifth and final part of a five-part series entitled, “The Five Principles of Sales Team Leadership.”

Previous articles in the series:

• The Five Principles of Sales Team Leadership.
• Know Your People.
• Spend Time with Your People in the Field.
• Study and Know Your Selling Ratios.
• Meet Face-to-Face Each Week.

Perhaps the most oft-overlooked component of local sales team management is simply how you talk to people. You can do without the sarcasm, the condescending glances, the rhetorical questions, the cutting and demeaning remarks.

Your job as a sales team leader is to build people. To help them accomplish more than they thought they were capable of. As Henry Kissinger has said, “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”
How you talk to people demonstrates how you really feel about them. Words may affect them mildly, but your body language and tone of voice speaks volumes. Use words that uplift, encourage, inspire, challenge and build confidence. Make statements that remind them of what you see in them. Offer suggestions that help them tap into their existing strengths and personality traits, rather than stress them out as they focus on their weaknesses.

Always remember that you cannot manage your results as a sales manager. You can only manage the activity of those you serve and lead. And, in the words of Dale Carnegie, “The only way to get someone to do something is to make them want to do it.”

Watch how you talk to people. Bring out the best in them. Help them to develop the self-confidence they’ll need to be ultimately self-reliant.