AMA: HubSpot Head of Corporate Sales, West Coast, Sarah Mercedes (Osborne) on Developing Your Sales Career

Must-Have Sales Leader Hard Skills: * Data Analysis and Decision Making * Decisions can't be made on a whim-they need to be based on data * You need to be able to analyze data to understand the health of your business and the businesses of those who report to you * You need to be able to pull key insights from data to drive strategy and as a way to get your team bought into executing on the strategy you set * Communication Skills * With customers, other leaders, cross-functional partners, and reps * You need to be comfortable having tough conversations when necessary * You need to inspire your team to take action and execute * Time Management * Time is limited- you need to understand how to maximize it, free it up (delegate), and prioritize/deprioritize * Negotiation Skills * Not just with customers, but internally with cross functional partners and key stakeholders in order to get things accomplished within the business

With any job you want, the best thing you can do is to do the job without having the job. You want to show the hiring manager that you are a de-risked candidate. If you are a sales rep wanting to become a sales manager, you could start doing things like driving broader org initiatives based on problems and opportunities you or the business identify. You could start coaching other reps, booking time with existing managers and learn how they forecast or use data to understand the health of their business, etc. Breaking into a new industry looks a bit different, but I'd follow the same principles. Either do some research online and/or connect with some recruiters to better understand the ideal candidate profile for the tech companies you're interested in. What experience do you need to gain or what stories do you need to prepare from your existing experience to give the hiring manager full confidence that you embody the right attributes to be successful in the role even if the relevant experience isn't there. You should also be prepared to take a step down when entering a new industry and decide in advance whether or not you'd be open to that.

In my opinion, it isn't one specific metric, but rather your consistency across all of the key leading indicator metrics. Attainment is one thing, but the "how" and what you do and accomplish consistently to maintain a steady business is far more impressive and indicative of long-term success and your value as a leader than a one off performance defined by outputs.

There are a number of critical skills required to be successful in sales leadership, but these four are most critical in my opinion. * Time Management * When leading a team of reps or managers while also working on the business and not just in it, time becomes even more sparse and it's critical to manage it effectively. Highly recommend getting familiar with the Eisenhower Matrix and using it as a mechanism to decide what gets your time and when. I'm always working on improving in this area personally! * Coaching and Accountability * It's one thing to be able to learn, improve and hold yourself to a high bar consistently. It's another thing to get others to do these things. Understanding how to get buy-in, how to diagnose gaps and opportunities, how to effectively coach and how to hold people accountable are critical skills for any leadership role. * Managing Complexity * For Director role specifically, being able to uncover problems and opportunities and put together and execute a plan to attack or exploit them is critical. As part of that, it is necessary to also be able to navigate relationships cross-functionally and ensure that you're aligning your incentives with those of your key partners. * Mission-first Mindset * Once you get into leadership, it is no longer about you first- it is about the customer, the business and the broader team. Being able to solve for the right things in the right order is crucial to being an impactful leader and a trustworthy teammate.

The most important thing you can do when assessing new opportunities is first getting really clear on what matters to you most. Comp, remote-friendly, leadership, size, industry, etc. Once you are clear on what matters most and in what order, it's easier to narrow down what opportunity it is you want to prioritize.

I'll never forget what my VP said to me when I was first kicking off my sales career: You know you're meant to be in sales if the end of the fiscal year excites you more than stresses you. Sales is a grind. There will always be ups and there will always be downs. If you are going to commit to being in sales long term, you have to love and appreciate the hustle. You can't get too high and you can't get too low. An additional tip I often find myself giving reps who are in one of those lows, who are newly ramping into the role or who might be ramping back from an LOA is to reframe success. Instead of defining success strictly by attainment, define it by accomplishing the inputs you know you need to hit consistently in order to achieve the attainment outputs you're after. That reframing of success changes your sense of control over your success and your self confidence, which ultimately empowers you to more quickly get back on track.