Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

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  1

  Ian P

  05/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

  I guess it is very easy to point to examples that both 'prove' and 'disprove' the case.
  And it all depends on how you define a salesman.
  My view;-
  
  Top class salesmen that are/were great CEO's
  Richard Branson - Virgin
  Steve Jobs - Apple
  Bill Gates - Microsoft
  
  World class CEOs that could never sell chocolate cake in a teashop
  Ian King - Who? - BAE Systems
  Alan Mulally - Ford
  Jack Ma - Alibaba
  
  The fact is that being a successful CEO is almost an accident and being greedy for success is the most important trait, rather than a specific skill such as selling or people management or whatever.

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  2

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  05/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

  Re: Note 1:
  If I recall, Gates and Jobs were college students when they began as entrepreneurs. Jobs may be a "natural" when it comes to sales, but it's my understanding, from people who know him well, that Gates has asbergers syndrome and his "selling" ability (such as it is) is an overlay to his basic personality.

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  3

  keithfward

  05/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

  One of the most important traits of a good CEO is to surround himself with people who are better at certain tasks then they are. The best and most successful CEO's that I've known normally are good in one or two areas of finance, sales, marketing, manufacturing, engineering, research, mergers & acquisitions, etc. They are then very good at hiring the best people to join their team. That said, I still beleive that a sales pro can aquire the skills to be a CEO but a CEO type would probably never be able to aquire the skills to be a sales pro!

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  4

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  05/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

  Re: Note 3:
  What worries me about this is that some companies use the CEO as their ultimate closer. Although, maybe that's not a bad idea, since closing is the easiest part of the sale...if someone else has already done the heavy lifting....

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  5

  Ian P

  05/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

  Re note 2
  As I said it depends on how you define a salesman.
  Gates became a salesman after he founded his company, not before and he was effective in a way that left me in 'shock and awe'. He effectively made Microsoft products the world standard for general business software, firstly by focussing his personal sales efforts on big government and very large corporations and subsequently by 'marketing' his products to the rest of us as a de-facto standard.
  My, admittedly limited, view is that Gates sold in ways the rest of us don't really understand yet. He had to because his early products were basic and clunky and limited and his reputation was damaged as the competition played nasty.

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  6

  bobchaif

  05/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

  I think the real question is "Which has served the business community better"?
  CEOs that came from sales or ones that didn't. A balancing of skills may be in order.
  Maybe if the CEO had more focus on people skills and the ability to get more out of the organization, we would see expanded innovation, functional workforce relationships and commitment to the results blended to more than just the numbers.
  A specific solution my be efficient or profitable, but the environment can foster stagnation.
  When I look at the state of business in North America, I see the trend to install the type of CEO you described, when a market starts reaching maturity or to safeguard larger revenues. The other question is "How is that working out for us"?
  North America runs on business, Business runs on people (workers & customers)
  Let me know what you think.
  

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  7

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  05/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

  Re: Note 6:
  No question that we need a reality check when it comes to CEOs. Certainly their pay is completely out of whack when compared to the value-add. Especially in the United States.

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  8

  Brucejones1995

  05/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Do Sales Pros Make Good CEOs?

  In my experience, as a business consultant, the answer is clearly "maybe"! I have worked with CEO's with sales background who only thought "more sales is better". Likewise I've worked with technical CEO's who thought "only new technology is better". In truth a good CEO is a "quick study" with the capacity to be empathetic and understand the other guys problem.
  A good CEO needs to see the complete business, in it's context, not just as a salesman, nor as an engineer. In my expereince, again, the best way to get a CEO there is to get him/her to take ownership of the comprehensive Business Plan and the details of it's ensuing Business Case.
  When you learn to tie the Dollars and cents directly to the people and the processes they support, then you become CEO material. Of course character, diligence, discipline, sincerity and well-roundedness are good too.
  
  Bruce Jones
  bruce@verdevalleyconsulting.com