Five Practices of Effective (Sales) Executives Adapted from the Daily Drucker

By Michael J Griffin

2 min read

Peter Drucker words of wisdom resonate with executives all over the world. We, in B2B sales, are the “executives” of our ability to create loyalty through influence and problem solving with our customers.  I have adapted Dr. Drucker’s Insights on what he says we executives need to be effective by adding the sales to the word executive. Read on.

All that effective sales executives have in common is the ability to get the right things done. The effective sales executives I have seen differ widely in their temperaments and abilities, in what they do and how they do it, in their personalities, their knowledge, their interests—in fact, in almost everything that distinguishes human beings. But all effective sales executives I’ve known perform only necessary tasks and eliminate unnecessary ones.

Five practices have to be acquired to be effective.

1.  Effective sales executives know where their time goes. They work systematically at managing the little of their time that can be brought under their control.
2. Effective sales executives focus on outward contributions.
3. Effective sales executives build on strengths—theirs and others. They do not build on weaknesses.
4. Effective sales executives concentrate on superior performance where superior performance will produce outstanding results. They force themselves to stay within priorities.
5. Effective sales executives make effective decisions. They know that (selling) is a system—the right steps in the right sequence. They know that to make decisions fast is to make the wrong decisions.

Whenever I have found a person who—no matter how great in intelligence, industry, imagination, or knowledge—fails to observe these practices, I have also found a sales executive deficient in effectiveness.

Your action point: Commit these five tasks to memory and practice them: know where your time goes; focus on outward contributions; build on strengths; concentrate on superior performance; and make effective decisions.

Adapted from Dr. Drucker’s book “The Effective Executive.”

Try practicing these five tasks from Drucker this week and see how effective you can be in B2B sales.

Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep succeeding.

Michael J Griffin
ELAvate Sales Productivity Coach
John Maxwell Team Founder