{"id":16427,"date":"2023-01-18T20:53:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T20:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sandler.com\/?p=16427"},"modified":"2023-01-18T21:26:39","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T21:26:39","slug":"sales-leaders-7-reasons-organizations-air-traffic-controller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/sales-leaders-7-reasons-organizations-air-traffic-controller\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales Leaders: 7 Reasons You Are the Organization\u2019s Air Traffic Controller"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article\u2019s title is intended as the highest possible compliment. If you\u2019re a sales leader, and your team is producing, I really do believe that\u2019s because of your ability to do what an air traffic controller does. You\u2019re just like the skilled professional with the headset on, monitoring the screen, taking in all the relevant information, and ensuring that all the takeoffs, all the landings, and all the decisions in between proceed according to plan. You are the one making sure the right <\/em>plan gets implemented in the chaotic corner of the universe for which you have accepted personal responsibility.<\/p>\n

I first shared this idea at the 2022 Sandler Summit. I knew it was a powerful metaphor, but I didn\u2019t expect it to capture people\u2019s imaginations in the way it has. (The Forbes.com article inspired by my Summit talk can be found here<\/a><\/strong>.) As we lean into 2023, the air-traffic-controller comparison seems more apt than ever. Here are the seven most obvious parallels I see between a skilled sales leader and a skilled air traffic controller.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You both constantly process and adjust to never-ending waves of extremely complex data.<\/strong> Just like an air traffic controller, you\u2019re responsible for making a series of high-impact decisions based on your personal assessment of a firehose stream of information that never turns off. These decisions have very narrow margins for error, and they can carry huge consequences for everyone involved. Not everyone can be trusted to make all those decisions. Only a few people prove themselves qualified to do so over the long term. And honestly, I think your job is harder since your data is coming from people who can be considerably less accurate than pilots \u2013 as you probably know from doing pipeline reviews!<\/li>\n
  2. You must both maintain strong lines of communication in multiple directions. <\/strong>Air traffic controllers interact constantly with pilots, ground crews, and of course their own leadership team. Their ability to fulfill their responsibilities and avert disaster depends on their ability to communicate effectively, even in potentially stressful situations. So does yours.<\/li>\n
  3. You both have the responsibility of ensuring that people get where they need to go. <\/strong>For an air traffic controller, that\u2019s pilots, crew, and passengers. For you, it\u2019s the entire organization (because let\u2019s face it, everyone in it depends on the revenue your team generates) as well as everyone your organization touches \u2013 including, but not limited to, clients and customers. Bottom line: You\u2019ve both got a lot of people counting on you.<\/li>\n
  4. You both serve as a critical buffer zone.<\/strong> At any given moment, countless variables are in play that could affect a flight\u2026 but an air traffic controller doesn\u2019t simply dump all that information on the pilot. They keep pilots focused. Anything that isn\u2019t immediately relevant to the pilot\u2019s real-time priorities gets edited out of the conversation. As the sales leader, you play the same role for your team, because you occupy the all-important space between the salesperson and the rest of the organization. You edit out the noise, and you make sure they get the information they need to move deals forward. You keep salespeople focused on generating revenue.<\/li>\n
  5. You both know your process backwards and forwards, making sure all the boxes get checked off in the right order. <\/strong>Air traffic controllers don\u2019t \u201cwing it.\u201d They can\u2019t\u2014the stakes are too high. They follow clear, documented procedures. Don\u2019t you do the same? And aren\u2019t the stakes high in your world, too? You set clear, comprehensible exit criteria for each stage of the sales process, and you make sure everyone on your team has been trained to recognize and honor those criteria. No exceptions!<\/li>\n
  6. You both get paid to focus on where things are going, not just where they are right now. <\/strong>And of course, you both must be accurate in your assessments of where things are going and when they\u2019ll arrive. For each of you, that means following a proven process (see #5) with total commitment and forecasting responsibly from process outcomes, using verified data.<\/li>\n
  7. You both leave the drama outside the workplace. <\/strong>Air traffic controllers know that there\u2019s no time to play head games when communicating with a pilot \u2013 and no conceivable advantage to doing so. Communication is always peer-to-peer and focused on the facts. If something goes wrong, the big issue is always what happens next, not who should be blamed. Who has time for blame? Effective sales leaders (and salespeople) live and work by the same principle.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, hold your head up high \u2013 you\u2019re one of the elite few keeping all those \u201cplanes\u201d flying and landing safely!<\/p>\n

    And for lots more ideas on focusing on where your team and your industry are going (as opposed to just understanding where you are right now), join us for the <\/strong>2023 Sandler Summit, March 16-17 in Orlando, Florida<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> You can register <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This article\u2019s title is intended as the highest possible compliment. If you\u2019re a sales leader, and your team is producing, I really do believe that\u2019s because of your ability to do what an air traffic controller does. You\u2019re just like the skilled professional with the headset on, monitoring the screen, taking in all the relevant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":16433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1126,1448,1377,1220,1105,1225],"class_list":["post-16427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-adapting-sales-techniques","tag-confidence","tag-sales-leaders","tag-sales-leadership","tag-sales-process","tag-sales-process-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSales Leaders: 7 Reasons You Are the Organization\u2019s Air Traffic Controller - Sandler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here are the seven most obvious parallels Dave Mattson of Sandler sees between a skilled sales leader and a skilled air traffic controller.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/sales-leaders-7-reasons-organizations-air-traffic-controller\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sales Leaders: 7 Reasons You Are the Organization\u2019s Air Traffic Controller - 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