The new year has rung in and feels like it is coming in at full speed.

Here is my list of what your team most likely needs from you in 2025:

• Wisdom
• Guidance
• More Leadership
• Empathy
• Motivation

Let’s run through each one, so you know what I think the focus should be.

Wisdom

Your team has information (just like your prospective customers). They have access to all the worlds knowledge – on your product, on sales, about human behavior. Whether they choose to utilize it or they want to just learn enough to be good enough to perform at some level that fits their mode – that is different.

They don’t need you for information or facts, features, and data. They should already have that for your company in the forming of training, a knowledge base, your website, the brochure, your slides, etc.

They are hoping that you bring the wisdom aspect into your role with them. They want you to help them do the right things with the knowledge and information. They are looking for the practical application of that info, that will help them succeed in their role.

Stop giving them more data points, info, and stuff.

Guidance

Again, just like your prospects, your salespeople think they are the Hero of the story. They don’t need you to be the Hero as well. Stop telling them about how great you were as a sales rep, or all the things you would have done differently in that sale they failed to close.

Be a Guide, not a Hero, for them. Guide them in their mission and help them succeed. Make it all about them and show them the path that they could take. But remember – it’s their path. You can’t jump in and close every sale for them. They have to learn – typically the hard way (falling down) – on their own so they can achieve their success.

Make their mission and their journey about them and not you.

More Leadership

Your team wants leadership from you. And then more of it. They want less management. Management is about pushing and manipulation in order to get what you want. Leadership is about a vision and mission – destination – and pulling people on the journey along with you.

If you need, study leadership to help you achieve a good balance of leading and managing (some amount of managing is always needed). You can also read all the leadership-related blog articles on here. :)

To lead better, you will want to do more of the two following categories.

Empathy

Empathy is about encountering someone – where they are currently – discovering where they would rather be, and then caring about them enough to find ways to support them on their path.

Not your path. Not your destination.

But theirs.

It’s the best skill you can have as a salesperson, and go figure – it is also vital for leadership (not a surprise…since persuasion is about leadership of the prospect). A lot of leaders I see think they know what each salesperson wants (money) and assume that they know how the salesperson will want to get there.

Make sure you help your people get to where THEY want to get to. If you aren’t sure how to do that, see Hero section above – make it all about them, and not you.

Motivation

Even when they want you to show them the money, it’s not about the money.

It’s what the money represents and/or will get them. But it’s never about the actual money part.

Get to know what each person wants AND the why behind it. Go as deep as you can. Find out what they get out of bed each day for…and where the role and financial aspects of it fit in with what they want more of in their life.

Again…if you haven’t noticed a theme yet - make it all about them! (Not about how much money you wanted to make when you were as salesperson, and what you spent that money on. No one cares about you…they only care about themselves.)



Conclusion

When you focus on these five things (which are really subcategories of the same generally thing – Leadership) – you will fill in the gaps your team has, which should propel them to closing more deals and making more money.

Which is also your goal for them!