To build leadership success, Susan had to learn how to manage goals and demands from above while protecting her team’s boundaries and maintaining performance.
Customer Journey Series: Susan
This article is part of a customer journey series following “Susan,” a biotech sales executive navigating rapid organizational growth, leadership pressure, acquisitions, and team scaling.
Each post explores a real coaching conversation or leadership challenge from that journey.
This is the fifth post in the series.
As Susan started to see the scope of what the new company wanted from her, new challenges arose for her team.
During this leadership transition, Susan had to learn how to manage goals and demands from above while protecting her team’s boundaries and maintaining performance.
First, she was asked to take on sales of another product. It was a competitor’s product that had been acquired about the same time. The new product had six sales in the last seven years, and now in the new company, they set a target of 18 sales this year. They believed Susan could do it.
The product had promise but it lacked the data to support it. In Susan’s opinion, it was a hard sell.
It was projected to account for 10% of revenue, but the company asked her to spend 50% of her team’s time on it.
I asked, why would they want to prioritize a product with so little revenue?
Susan reflected and then realized that this product push was more about a power struggle between the former CEO of that company and the former CEO of her company.
She worked with her team to increase sales of the new product without sabotaging sales of the product they brought to the merger.
It was a fine line, but small improvements for the new line seemed to satisfy them, and she kept her team focused on the bigger prize in terms of sales and revenue.
She knew that protecting the revenue they generated protected her team. She gave the organization enough visible support for the new product line while quietly keeping her team focused on the larger revenue priorities.
Two other products were added to her sales team targets, and she asked for six more salespeople.
She said, “My team members bring in 10 x their salary so it’s worth it to them to hire more.” But after a hard push, she was approved for just three more salespeople.
I asked: “How can you leverage what you know to get your team selling more?”
She said: “The fundamentals of good sales are always the fundamentals. If everyone applies them and works hard, they will do ok.”
She learned to scale the fundamentals.
- Hire good people with great track records. Personality is a big part of sales.
- Everyone had to practice their pitches. She scheduled regular peer-reviewed pitch practice sessions for feedback and mentoring.
- She spotted and developed high performers to develop and manage the next team of sales managers. Her message to them was: “Make your team feel safe and supported so they can take risks and grow.”
- She set up a system of 1:1s so everyone had a chance to be heard and high performers learned to listen and lead. All leaders were to prioritize giving the team what they need to succeed.
Sticking with the fundamentals and making them work at scale helped her break through some organizational barriers she was hitting just months ago.
She was able to promote a few people with full support from the CEO. She had three managers reporting directly to her, and two of them were part-time sales, part-time managers.
I asked, what accounts for your rapid success?
She said: the reason I succeed is that I take care of myself. I run 5 days a week and have a rowing club for fun on the weekends.”
That insight led her to start prioritizing self-care for her team. She started to emphasize that the key to succeeding long term is to integrate the work into your lifestyle and prioritize your own need for health and breaks. Get your rest, get some exercise, take your vacations, and when you’re at work, be fully present.
Continue the Journey
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