How to Plan Sales Leadership Development

Planning sales leadership training can be tricky. Sales leaders are under constant pressure to deliver results, coach their teams, navigate market differences and build a consistent sales culture across geography. Knowing this, using training that is focused on experiences is an ideal way to develop sales leaders. For more than 25 years, PPS International Limited has focused on building leader capability, including sales leaders. This expertise points us to a few pieces of advice to consider when planning sales leadership development. 

Start with the business outcome, not the training topic.

Before deciding what to develop, clarify what the business needs sales leaders to do differently. Is the goal stronger forecasting, better coaching of sales representatives, improved use of business acumen, more consistent account planning or stronger cross-region collaboration? Planning sales leadership development should ensure that any activities connect directly to commercial priorities and sales strategy, not sit beside them. It’s almost always appropriate to link sales leader training to capabilities such as commercial execution, strategic account thinking, financial and business acumen, coaching, cross-functional influence and leading distributed teams.

Use 70-20-10 as a design discipline for sales leadership training, not a slogan.

The value of using the 70-20-10 model in planning sales leadership development programs is that it forces leaders to think beyond the workshop. Ask: What experiences will build capability? Who needs to coach, mentor or provide feedback? What formal learning is truly necessary? In sales leadership development, the “70” may include territory business reviews, strategic account assignments or cross-regional problem-solving. The “20” may include peer coaching circles, mentoring and field observation. The “10” may include targeted sessions on commercial acumen, financial literacy or sales leadership tools.

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Embed development into the sales operating rhythm.

Sales leaders are already busy. Rather than adding a separate development burden, build learning into existing business routines: pipeline reviews, forecast meetings, quarterly business reviews, territory planning, ride-alongs and team calls. This makes development more relevant, easier to sustain and more likely to translate into behavior change.

Equip sales leaders’ managers to coach, not just direct.

When planning sales leader development, remember: a strong development strategy requires manager involvement. Managers need simple tools to observe, inquire, debrief deals, give feedback and connect daily work to development goals. The managers of those sales leaders need to be able to support learning from experience and exposure (the ‘70’ and the ‘20’). They need to shift from directing to observing, inquiring, developing and exposing people to growth opportunities.

Plan for team cohesion, especially in distributed sales environments.

Field sales leaders often work independently, which can create inconsistency, isolation and uneven sharing of best practices. Build in peer cohorts, cross-region problem-solving groups, virtual field-sharing sessions, collaborative account strategy sessions and peer coaching partnerships. These mechanisms develop capability while also strengthening the sense of team.

Assess before prescribing.

Use stakeholder interviews, self-assessments, multi-rater feedback, commercial diagnostics, territory planning reviews or observation of sales reviews to understand where capability gaps actually exist. The output should be clear: individual development profiles, group heat maps, priority capability gaps and segmented development pathways. When planning sales leadership development, assessments provide a valuable source of intel on where to prioritize learning.

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Measure application and business impact when planning sales leadership development.

Do not stop at attendance or satisfaction. Look for evidence of changed behavior and business relevance to measure outcomes for learning: stronger coaching conversations, better account strategies, improved forecast discipline, more effective business reviews, stronger collaboration across regions and progress against commercial metrics.

PPS helps organizations build the capability of sales leaders through experiences that are practical, measurable and embedded in the business cadence. Contact us to explore how we can help strengthen your sales leaders’ capabilities and accelerate commercial results.

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