[Karen37a]

I saw a Cartoon once

The cartoon showed a king in his castle, about to be attacked and conquered by an enemy force. The king’s assistant is tapping him on the should to let him know a salesman is waiting outside to see him. The king tells him he’s obviously too busy to talk to a salesman right now so “tell him to go away”. Needless to say, this particular salesman was selling machine guns.

Salespeople vs Management

The best salespeople have a proactive outlook on things, management has a reactive. They move on the information and trends, patterns they see live, they stay ahead of the curve; not sit in think tanks to invent ideas then try to put them in play , lecturing the top producers on how to do things right. ( especially when they cant do it themseleves )

Leadership vs Management

Leaders lead from the front and are usually the best at what they do, so the team follows them. Management bosses people around and only earns respect because they are paying them or have something they want from them ( temporarily).

The sales profession is not for people who do not want to actually engage the merchants or clients or do not have great leadership skills ( not management).

Look behind you and see the quality or level of people following you, it tells the tale ( or production levels) that's your leadership level. If you are a 5, you cant recruit 8's on your team or you can and they really do not respect you and its a temporary thing. Spend time increasing your personal level.

Leadership Levels are based on character, integrity, sales know-how and good old-fashioned production ( not shifty moves to always try to build a bigger mouse trap avoiding the interaction or the sale )