I had an interesting conversation recently with a sales manager I'd worked with some years ago. This guy was exactly the kind of sales manager businesses need - enthusiastic, engaged, and driving results.
Now he's looking elsewhere. Not because he's lost his passion, but because his organisation's leadership has.
The issue? A complete disconnect between leadership and the frontline sales team.
His situation isn't unique. I see it constantly - leadership teams crafting strategies with no real experience in the industry or understanding of their customers. They're making decisions in a vacuum, and it's suffocating their organisation.
It reminds me of the famous Millennium Challenge in 2002. A war games exercise simulating a clash of US forces and a Middle Eastern enemy. Lt. General Paul Van Riper was given the task of leading enemy forces – it was supposed to be a losing proposition.
But it wasn’t.
Despite being up against an opposing team using the latest US Doctrines and much superior technology Van Riper dominated the exercise to the point where they had to reset and start again. How did he do it?
He put command and control back in the field. Rather than relying on disconnected central command giving their best guess on theory he understood those on the frontline had the most accurate information and trusted them to inform the strategy.
He also used low-technology messaging systems that could not be intercepted.
And I can’t help thinking a similar thing happens in sales teams. Leadership sits in “central command”, applauding each other’s “in theory” brilliance and forget to sense-check it with those in the field. We can over-rely on electronic messaging and forego personal face-to-face check-ins. This is a contact sport after all, and the sharing of information in a quick personal check-in can be invaluable.
As a leader, staying engaged with your sales team isn't just good practice - it's survival. Your strategies might look brilliant on paper, but if they're not relevant to the people executing them, you're going to drain the passion out of your organisation faster than a punctured tyre.
The sales team isn't just where the money is made - it's where reality happens. It's where theory meets practice. It's where you discover if your brilliant ideas actually have legs or if they're just corporate daydreams.
When leaders disconnect, the impact ripples through the entire organisation. Your most engaged people - like this sales manager - feel it first. They're the canaries in your organisational coal mine, and when they start looking for the exit, you've got a serious problem on your hands.
I've seen high-performing teams turn into clock-watchers. I've watched engaged sales managers become mere message-passers. Not because they wanted to, but because their enthusiasm kept hitting the brick wall of disconnected leadership.
If you're in leadership, ask yourself: When was the last time you spent meaningful time with your sales team? Not a scheduled walkthrough or a performance review – real-time understanding of their daily challenges and needs.
Getting it right isn’t complicated, but it does require commitment:
When your sales team feel heard and supported, they'll move mountains for your organisation. When they feel ignored and disconnected from leadership decisions, they'll start updating their CVs.