We talk about sales leadership a lot.
And we should. The leadership directly responsible for driving sales is mission-critical. Without it, targets slip, teams drift, and revenue becomes unpredictable.
But here’s what I’ve been sitting with lately.
I think the way we’ve defined “sales leadership” has quietly become too narrow. And in a world that is moving faster than most of us can keep up with, that narrowness is starting to cost businesses more than they realise.
The world your sales leaders are operating in has fundamentally changed
I was thinking about this just this morning. Every time I open an app, AI agent, or fire up a piece of software – there’s been an update. It looks different. It works different. And it requires something new from me… even if it’s just adapting to the newness from what I’m used to.
Now I love change. Growth energises me. But even I’m starting to feel the fatigue of it at times.
The thing about being human in 2026 is that we are not wired to process the volume of information, change, data, and technology that now hits us minute by minute, second by second. Of course, there’s a level of positive stress that motivates us. But it’s easier than ever to pass that threshold on a typical working day.
Think about what has shifted in only the last 12 months alone – the pace of change, speed to market, service offerings, the transparency of data, the rise of AI inside everyday tools. The complexity of what it means to lead a sales team today is genuinely not what it was three years ago.
So the question I keep coming back to is this: if everything else has evolved, why are we still leading sales teams the same way?
Chase the target. Hit the target. Onto the next.
This is the version of sales leadership that’s become outdated. And yes – hitting targets is non-negotiable. I’m not here to tell you revenue doesn’t matter. It absolutely does.
But “hit the number” as the primary leadership lens? That’s a one-dimensional approach to a multi-dimensional opportunity.
When sales leadership stays transactional, here is what tends to happen:
- Leaders focus on results but not the behaviours that drive them
- Coaching becomes a tick-box exercise rather than a genuine performance lever
- The people doing the selling feel the pressure but not the support
- Culture becomes performance at any cost – and that cost shows up eventually
- The business becomes reliant on a handful of high performers holding everything up
That last one is the one that keeps business owners up at night. And rightly so. Because a few standout people can create the illusion of a healthy sales function while the system underneath stays fragile.
What if sales leadership evolved into commercial leadership?
This isn’t just a rebadge. It’s a meaningful shift in how leaders show up and what they’re actually responsible for.
Commercial leadership still includes driving targets. Of course it does. But it’s built on three broader foundations that make growth sustainable, not just achievable.
1. Intentionally building a high-performance sales culture – from the top down
Culture is not a ping pong table or a values poster on the wall. Culture is what leaders reinforce, tolerate, coach, and role model every single day.
A reactive leader creates a reactive culture. An intentional one creates something very different – a team that knows what good to great looks like, holds the standard while still engaging people, and brings commercial consideration to every client interaction.
This is the difference between a leader who has a sales team and one who builds a sales engine. It’s not accidental. It’s designed.
2. Upskilling leaders to become great sales coaches
I read the Salesforce State of Sales report from earlier this year and found these stats interesting… and very telling.
75% of people surveyed said they’re more likely to hit their targets when they have a coach or mentor. And yet only 34% of salespeople said they receive regular 1:1 meetings. Less than 40% receive meaningful development support – things like training materials, personalised action plans, or structured skill-building. And just 26% get role play sessions to actually practise their craft.
What this tells us is that there’s buy-in and value attributed to investing in coaching and development and yet, there’s a very big gap in maximising this fundamental driver of commercial performance.
It tells us that many businesses are leaving performance on the table. Consistently. At scale.
The biggest barriers? Managers citing lack of time (38%), lack of training expertise (37%), and insufficient leadership support (29%).
This shows us that the lack of coaching problem is not a motivation problem. It’s a capability and capacity problem. Leaders don’t coach consistently because no one has invested in building their coaching skills, and no one has created the structural space for it to happen. (Pssst: Take a look at this episode of Smart Business Growth to learn more about what holds leaders back from coaching consistently) YOUTUBE LINK TO EP 24
As you read these stats above, I’d invite you to ask honestly – how consistent is the coaching and development inside your business right now? Not the version that gets talked about in leadership meetings. The version that’s actually happening at the coalface.
Because that gap – between the coaching that exists and the coaching that’s needed – is one of the most expensive and invisible gaps in a growing business.
3. A holistic view of people and performance management
Sales performance is not solely about skill. It never has been.
A commercial leader understands that what shows up in the numbers is the downstream result of what’s happening in the team. Confidence levels. Clarity of role. Quality of feedback conversations. Whether hard conversations are happening or being quietly avoided.
When performance management is inconsistent – when standards are unclear, when underperformance is tolerated, when follow-through is patchy – the whole team feels it. Not only the person being managed. Everyone is watching what gets accepted and what gets addressed.
Commercial leadership means holding the standard with both clarity and care. It means having the tough conversations early, not when things have already deteriorated. And it means building the kind of accountability rhythm that makes performance visible, manageable, and sustainable.
The real risk of staying in sales leadership mode
The risk is that it becomes a single-lens approach in a multi-lens world.
When leadership stays purely transactional – focused only on numbers, targets, and short-term output – the business becomes structurally fragile. It might look strong from the outside. But underneath, it’s reactive where it needs to be intentional, scattered where it needs to be consistent, and dependent on a few people where it needs to be building capability through the entire team.
Commercial leadership is where sustainability and smart growth come to life.
It’s not about doing more. It’s about leading differently. Building the culture, the coaching, and the performance structures that let your team perform at their best – without everything needing to run through you.
That’s the shift. And in the environment we’re all operating in right now, I’d go as far as saying it’s not optional.
Curious to see your strengths and blind spots when it comes to the three levers to drive sustainable growth in your business (including commercial leadership)?
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