Sales Leadership During and After the Crisis

Note: This article originally appeared in Top Sales Magazine May 2020 issue pages 28-29. You can find digital access to this article here.
Even in good times, life in a sales organization is filled with short­ term deadlines and pressures: sales per quarter, sales per rep, did she or didn’t she meet quota. As a sales manager once said to me, “In this job, if you don’t survive the short term, you don’t need to worry about the long term.”
So, it’s not surprising that, in the current crisis, sales managers daily receive advice about the short term: “3 Steps to Survive the Downturn . . . 4 Ways to Embrace Your Customer . . . 5 Ways to Do Online Events,” and so on. These suggestions are relevant: survival is at stake for many businesses. But eventually the pandemic will abate, and you must live with the resource decisions you make