What makes a good vice president of sales?

A strong VP of sales must have a strong business foundation and have the attitude and ability to adapt to any situation.

A VP of sales needs to be the opposite of complacent with the status quo because what worked last year may not work again this year. A key characteristic is that the leader knows how to apply lessons learned from past results to improve the new results.

Without the right sales team, it doesn't matter whether a VP of sales is a business guru. Hiring the right sales team is extremely important because paying a salary to someone who cannot help salespeople perform is cause for termination.

VPs of sales need to know what are successful attributes to look for when hiring a new sales leader.

For this reason, a VP of sales must think strategically. The VP of sales needs to successfully navigate the B2B selling landscape. They also need to strategize based on how they want to see sales improve.

This can be more difficult than it seems, with lots of nuances. The best VPs of sales make sure sales goals are specific enough to warrant highly specific tactics.

A large part of a VP of sales job is in developing strong relationships. A solid VP of sales should have strong relationships within the sales department, the marketing department, the C-suite executives, and customers.

They need to understand that relationship selling and relationship marketing are key to retaining customers in the B2B industry.

Finally, a successful VP of sales must have a high EQ. They need to know how pivotal emotional intelligence is to sales success, especially in relationship-selling.

The top sales VPs intentionally come up with ways to develop the following core competencies/traits among the sales team:

• Self-Awareness

• Self-Control

• Self-Motivation

• Empathy

• Curiosity

• Resilience

• Relationship Management

• Socialization

• Stress Management

• Active Listening