“You have to understand that people stand in the shadow of the leader.”

This comment came from the top executive of a very large corporate client of ours. I had to ask, “George, what do you mean by ‘shadow of the leader’?” He replied, “It’s pretty simple, Tony. People will do what they see the leader do, not what the leader says.”

The profound concept of “Shadow of the Leader” helps us understand where to “fix” problems. The good and the bad of leadership at every level are reflected in the followership of your sales team, based on the commitment, work, communication, leadership, and management demonstrated by the sales leaders in the organization.

Sales Leaders Must Lead by Example

If YOU function inconsistently with the vision and mission of the company, then you can expect the same from your followers.

If YOU tell your salespeople that it is important to treat customers and clients with exceptional care and respect, but you show up late for meetings, then you can expect the same from your salespeople.

If YOU tell your salespeople that prospecting is critical and you don’t have a full pipeline of salesperson candidates, then where is the substance of your argument for a full pipeline?

If YOU expect your salespeople to be closers, but you fail to make timely decisions, then they will follow your lead.

As the leader, you have a heavy burden of responsibility to make sure everything you say is reflected in what you do. Your salespeople are like sponges. Their recorders are always running, and they capture your every word and action. So, what you must do is this: Make sure that you perform what you expect from your people.

The Role of Commitment in Sales Leadership

This takes complete commitment on your part as the sales leader. Our highly respected sales assessment resource from Objective Management Group defines commitment as “doing everything possible to succeed.”

Notice that the definition does not say “willing to do”; it says “doing.”

When I coach and consult with senior sales executives, sales managers, and salespeople, I address commitment as doing everything possible to succeed. Oftentimes, when I question someone’s level of commitment, I get pushback, and it is often with an element of emotional defensiveness.

No one likes to be accused of not having the commitment to succeed. I know I was defensive when I was approached with this idea in the past.

But my mentor was right.

I wasn’t doing everything possible to succeed. I was only doing what was comfortable and doing those activities that kept me busy instead of those activities that generated real results.

I made excuses instead of progress. As the leader of an organization, I was not casting the shadow that would ensure sales results.

Evaluate the Shadow You Are Casting

If you are currently failing to get the sales results you say you want, you must ask yourself:

• Am I doing everything possible to succeed?
• What am I doing that is not helping?
• Am I making excuses?
• What shadow am I casting?

Only after you honestly answer these questions can you begin the process of succeeding in sales at extraordinary levels.

This takes courage and a complete commitment to inspecting all of your sales leadership activities. The shadow of the leader begins and ends with you.

How many times have you been on a sales call and known that something was wrong but lacked the sales courage to do anything about it? As a sales manager or leader, how often have you identified this problem with your salespeople?

Red flags in selling include:

• The decision maker isn't there.
• The prospect isn't giving you all the information; they are holding back.
• They have a problem they really don't need to fix.
• They aren't going to undo their current relationship.
• They don't have the money or resources to invest in fixing the problem.

The Cost of Ignoring Red Flags

Most salespeople ignore the red flag and hope that it will go away. Think about the short- and long-term consequences of ignoring the fact that your prospect has not yet decided to change their current, problematic situation.

Certainly, the problem for you as the salesperson is that by ignoring the fact that the prospect can't or won't change the relationship, you will end up doing a lot of work and putting money in someone else's pocket. This is not good for you or your company. It takes time away from prospects who are ready, willing, and able to change. It also takes time away from existing clients who need additional services from you—and from your family.

As a sales leader, your company ends up supporting a sales prospect that has zero return on investment because the salesperson is not courageous enough to address a particular red flag in the selling process.

Salespeople will often think or say, "I think they will buy from me. They really liked what I had to say and enjoyed the presentation." It is a sales leader's job to challenge that thinking with questions, get underneath the red flags, and determine what should be done differently.

There are many reasons salespeople shy away from red flags in selling. In the Objective Management Group sales evaluation, two common weaknesses among salespeople are fear of rejection and the need for approval. Both of these weaknesses can send a salesperson back to the office before they ask the tough questions—even while they are replaying the sales call in their heads and thinking about what they should have asked.

How to Address a Red Flag During a Sales Call

If salespeople are going to sell more and become more productive and effective in their sales efforts, they must first have the sales courage to call out a "Red Flag" when they see it, hear it, or sense it. Their gut usually tells them when something is amiss.

Salespeople must have the courage to speak up and say, "If you don't mind, there is something I'd like to address. Is that okay?"

Once you recognize the red flag and develop the courage to address it, you won't have to worry about what to say. The right words will come to you. Just remember to be assertive, not aggressive. Stay clinically detached, nurture your comments, and don't be afraid to walk away from the prospect if a mutual understanding and agreement cannot be reached.

4 Questions to Ask Yourself to Address Red Flags in Selling

1. What was a recent red flag you encountered in selling?
   Think of something you knew would take the sale sideways or compromise your ability to close the deal, but you ignored it, hoping you could find a way to handle it later—or that it would simply go away and resolve itself.

2. What did you want to say or do but back off from because you lacked the courage?

3. What can you do—and what must you do—about it now?
   What questions should you ask?

4. How will you handle similar situations in the future?

The next time you see, hear, or sense a red flag, do not ignore it and hope the situation improves. Pause, trust your instincts, and ask the question you may be afraid to ask. You might lose an opportunity that was never truly qualified, but you will protect your time, your pipeline, and your ability to focus on prospects who are ready, willing, and able to buy. That is not walking away from a sale. It is selling with courage.

This article was originally published by Objective Management Group and written by Kate Barsby. It is shared here with permission. Anthony Cole Training Group is a Certified OMG Partner, helping organizations hire and develop high-performing sales teams using OMG’s industry-leading assessments and insights.

Objective Management Group’s assessment data reveals a significant gap between Desire and Commitment among today’s salespeople. While 85% of current salespeople demonstrate strong Desire, only 55% demonstrate strong Commitment. The findings suggest that wanting success is common. Following through when sales become difficult is far less common. Understanding the differences between Desire, Responsibility, and Commitment helps explain why some salespeople consistently improve and perform while others struggle despite having similar goals. 

The Commitment Gap

Objective Management Group‘s assessment data reveals an interesting contradiction.

Among current salespeople, 85% demonstrate strong Desire, yet only 55% demonstrate strong Commitment.¹

If most salespeople want success, why do so many struggle to consistently do the things required to achieve it?

The answer lies in the fact that Desire and Commitment measure two very different things.

Sales leaders often assume that salespeople will naturally take the actions necessary to improve performance. The data suggests otherwise. While Desire is one of the strongest competencies among today’s salespeople, Commitment remains considerably lower.

Understanding why requires a closer look at three closely related, but distinct, competencies: Desire, Responsibility, and Commitment.

Desire, Responsibility, and Commitment

One of the most common mistakes sales leaders make is treating Desire, Accountability, and Commitment as though they are interchangeable. They are not.

Each competency measures a different aspect of sales performance.

Desire

Desire reflects how much a salesperson wants to succeed. Salespeople with strong Desire typically have ambitious goals and a genuine interest in achieving them. They want the rewards associated with sales success, whether that means higher income, recognition, advancement, or personal achievement.

Desire creates motivation and direction. But desire alone does not determine behavior.

Responsibility

Responsibility measures the degree to which a salesperson accepts ownership of outcomes.

When goals are missed or opportunities are lost, high-responsibility salespeople focus first on what they could have done differently. They concentrate on factors within their control and look for ways to improve. Others may point to market conditions, pricing, lead quality, competition, or management decisions as the primary explanation for poor results.

Responsibility influences whether a salesperson owns the outcome.

Commitment

Commitment measures whether a salesperson is willing to do what success requires.

The difference becomes apparent when salespeople are asked to change behaviors, adopt new processes, or push through difficult circumstances. Many salespeople want better results. Fewer are willing to consistently make the changes necessary to achieve them.

Commitment shows up in behaviors such as:

• Adopting a new process
• Following coaching recommendations
• Prospecting consistently
• Having difficult conversations
• Practicing new skills
• Changing habits that are no longer effective

Commitment is often tested when results are slow, conditions become challenging, or improvement requires sustained effort over time. That is where the gap begins to emerge.

Why Commitment Is Harder Than Desire

Most salespeople know what they should be doing.

They know they need to prospect consistently. They know they should ask better questions, qualify opportunities more thoroughly, and spend less time pursuing deals that are unlikely to close.

Knowing what to do is rarely the issue. Doing it consistently is where many struggle.

This pattern aligns with decades of research on goal achievement and performance. Researchers have found that performance is influenced not only by the goals people set, but by their commitment to achieving those goals when obstacles inevitably arise.²

Salespeople are expected to prospect after a difficult week, recover from lost opportunities, navigate lengthy buying processes, and maintain momentum when results are slow to materialize.

The salespeople who remain committed through those challenges often separate themselves from the pack.

The Cost of Weak Commitment

Many sales improvement initiatives are built on the assumption that performance problems stem from a lack of knowledge or skill.

Organizations invest heavily in training, technology, coaching programs, and process improvements. Yet sales leaders frequently discover that training alone produces uneven results across the team.

One reason is that learning something new does not automatically lead to applying it. Two salespeople can attend the same training program, receive the same coaching, and leave with the same information. One immediately applies the recommendations. The other gradually returns to familiar habits and routines.

The difference is often Commitment. Research in organizational psychology has consistently shown that individuals who are committed to achieving a goal are more likely to persist, sustain effort, and follow through on difficult tasks.³

Without Commitment, even well-designed training and coaching programs can fail to produce lasting behavioral change.

What Sales Leaders Should Watch For

Commitment is not always easy to identify during an interview or quarterly review. It tends to reveal itself over time.

Sales leaders can often spot commitment by observing how salespeople respond to adversity, feedback, and change.

For example:

• Do they embrace coaching or defend existing behaviors?
• Do they adapt when an approach stops working?
• Do they maintain activity levels during difficult periods?
• Do they follow through on development plans?
• Do they consistently execute the fundamentals?

The answers to those questions often provide a clearer picture of future performance than enthusiasm or confidence alone.

This is one reason sales leaders often see dramatically different results from the same coaching initiative. The issue is not always the quality of the coaching. In many cases, it comes down to whether the salesperson is willing to make meaningful changes to established behaviors.

Commitment determines whether coaching becomes action.

Final Thoughts

The gap between Desire and Commitment has meaningful implications for hiring, coaching, and sales leadership.

Most salespeople want success. Objective Management Group’s data makes that clear. The challenge is that Desire, Responsibility, and Commitment each contribute something different to performance.

Desire creates motivation. Responsibility creates accountability. Commitment influences whether a salesperson follows through when success requires effort, change, persistence, and discomfort.

The data suggests that Commitment is where many salespeople struggle. Most want success. Fewer consistently demonstrate the behaviors, adaptability, and persistence required to achieve it.

For organizations seeking stronger sales performance, that distinction is worth paying attention to.

References

1. Objective Management Group. Finding Statistics Tool. Average Desire and Commitment Competency scores and percentage of salespeople strong in Competency. 1/1/2025-12/31/2025.
2. Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717.
3. Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Erez, A., & Locke, E. A. (2005). Core self-evaluations and job and life satisfaction: The role of self-concordance and goal attainment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(2), 257–268.

Does your company need more sales? In my experience, the answer is always a resounding “Yes!” So, ask yourself: when did you last schedule and spend an hour prospecting for your business? With the mountain of things to get done each day and the number of people looking for time on your calendar, it seems impossible to fit it all in. As a sales leader, maybe you don’t prospect, but instead leave this to your sales team.

Big mistake! And here is why: as the leader, you cast the shadow. You must be the lead prospector with a focus on increasing sales so that your team understands that prospecting and bringing in new business is the number one job for everyone.

Step into your salesperson’s shoes for a moment and consider the following.

Change Your Attitude Toward Prospecting

Your attitude about prospecting will determine how successful your sales career will be. If you feel that prospecting is an “obligation,” then you will view it as drudgery. You will resist it. You will find things to do other than prospect. You will not improve this skill. Therefore, your performance and success in increasing sales will suffer.

The key is to change your attitude. Learn to embrace prospecting. Understand that prospecting is the job. You get paid a lot of money because you are willing to do what others won’t: prospect and increase sales. The operative word is WILLING!

Is your daily leadership communicating a strong and positive attitude about networking, connecting, getting out and making calls? Are you setting the standard for performance on increasing sales? Are you congratulating those salespeople who are consistently making phone calls and setting appointments? Are you holding them up for all to emulate? Are you encouraging their use of you as a resource to help get in the door? Are you sharing your company’s unique selling approach numerous times a day? Are you holding daily and weekly sales huddles? Are these huddles focused on what is in the pipeline, what is going to close, what is coming out, and how to refill the pipeline?

The Real Job of Successful Salespeople

The people who are most successful in sales are not making big money because they are brighter or have better presentations, or because their product is better than others. They are making big money because they have figured out that the real job is getting in front of people or businesses that need, want and can pay for the product and services they provide.

In analyzing the salespeople who are successful year after year, we find significant consistencies in behavior and practice management. Managers, listen up: these are the behaviors and activities that you must be expecting and inspecting to increase sales.

7 Keys to Increase Sales

1. Don’t let anything interfere with consistent prospecting. You don’t have to like prospecting; you just have to do it. But if you learn to like prospecting, you will do more of it. Adopt the following mantra: “My only A priority is prospecting.”

2. Don’t look, act or sound like every other salesperson. Create a unique approach. Don’t just say that you are different. Develop a niche you serve better than anyone. Put yourself in your prospect’s place. Would you take your phone call and be responsive?

3. Don’t see just anyone who will see you. Successful prospectors understand that the purpose of a call is to set an appointment with a qualified candidate. Make sure the prospect qualifies to do business with you.

4. Identify on the phone if your prospect has a problem that you can solve. Ask questions about why the problem they identify is a problem and how much that problem is costing them. The quality of the phone call determines the quality of the appointment.

5. “Drill down” past the pain or problem indicators (symptoms). The following is a list of questions or prompts to get past the initial problems verbalized by a prospect and engage the prospect in meaningful dialogue:

   • Tell me more about that…

   • How long has this been a problem?

   • What have you done to fix…?

   • What has your current provider done to make this problem go away?

   • What happens if you don’t fix…?

   • How much is it costing…?

   • Is that a problem?

   • Do you want to fix it?

6. Get introductions. Your first and most successful way to increase sales is to ask your best advocates, your current best clients, to introduce you to others.

7. Track your activity and look for ways to improve your techniques. You may be great at getting first meetings but not great at uncovering real opportunities. If you track your activities, then you can improve your choke points.

Salespeople, the moment you realize that prospecting is the #1 job, you are on the way to growing record sales for your company. Sales leaders, it is your job to demonstrate and lead that focus and effort as your team will follow the Shadow of the Leader.

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“Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” I am confident that at some point in your sales or sales management career, you have heard this expression about emotional selling. As I read Seth Godin's post “In the Mood,” it reminded me of this fundamental sales principle. The short version: Music doesn't teach us how to fall in love; it just creates the emotion of falling in love, being in love, or looking for love. In other words, music, books, theater and movies sell emotion, or the “sizzle.”

So how does this relate to selling? How does it relate to why a salesperson's prospects fail to become qualified buyers, and why their qualified buyers fail to become clients? They likely showed them exactly what the prospect needed to see, or told them exactly what they needed to hear to solve a problem that they have. Emotional selling is more than explaining and telling; it is about creating a feeling. It is about uncovering how much something means to a buyer, and what the impact will be if they do or do not fix the problem. And yes, that means emotionally, financially, and intellectually. If a salesperson does not appeal to the potential buyer on each of these three levels, their likelihood of selling the deal decreases. More importantly, without the skill of emotional selling, a salesperson will not become a true and trusted business advisor.

A great book that will help you and your salespeople refine skills in storytelling and emotional selling is Story Selling for Financial Advisors. This book will help you understand how to more effectively motivate prospects to take action.

Here is my take on the four most important things to do to get people to take action, by appealing to their emotion. As a sales leader, this is a great topic and practice session for an upcoming sales meeting with your team.

The 4 Keys to Emotional Selling

1. Accurately identify the real problem or benefit. The initial problem that someone describes to you, or the “need” that is being expressed, isn't typically real. A salesperson must ask great questions to peel back the layers to uncover the real motivation.

2. Once you identify what is real, you must ask, “What happens if you don't fix the problem or realize this benefit?” You must get your prospect to describe an outcome in detail. Find out how it will affect their job, career, ability to drive growth, capture market share, etc. What is the impact on a professional and personal level?

3. Then, top producers ask if “not realizing the benefit” is a compelling enough reason to invest time, money, or resources to take action. Take yourself out of the picture. In other words, your salespeople should not try to sell themselves, your company, or your products at this time. The most important decision that the prospect has to make is: will they take action to fix it?

4. Once that important decision is made, the questions and positioning of why you and your company begin. Emotional selling, when done well, uncovers the why. Why someone must fix the problem or take advantage of an opportunity, on a visceral level. Once that is determined, where and how becomes important.

Selling the sizzle, or emotional selling, is all about asking the right questions so that the prospect falls in love with the sizzle of buying.

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