CHAPTER 29

Managers or Leaders?

As was suggested in Chapter 28, salespeople, like many other employees, naturally look to the next step on the corporate ladder as a way to satisfy their motivation for growth, status, and development. Most of us want and need to keep moving forward with our careers. So what are the very best salespeople supposed to do if they want to climb the corporate ladder? For many of them, it would be like defying gravity. As our studies have shown, the characteristics of the best salespeople are often in conflict with some of the key tasks required of managers.

Yet many topflight salespeople have, in fact, gone on to become superb leaders. They bring vision, momentum, and energy to an enterprise that can be contagious. ...

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