Congratulations on stepping into a new leadership role! 

Remember that great onboarding experience as a new rep? Yeah, that’s not happening for you as a new manager. 

Remember all those playbooks, coaching, and super consumable learning journeys you got? Yeah, well, if you’re still getting all that, you have won the pro dev lottery.

Here’s the good news: You are not alone, intrepid adventurer, in having to figure it out on your own!

To help you and other new revenue leaders, we’ll be capturing stories from veteran sales and marketing leaders and sharing them in future installments of this series.

They will help you get off to a good start by answering the question: What would you tell your younger self to do in your first 90 days if you could do it over again?

In the meantime, here’s our take on eight top tips for those moving into a new leadership role. 

And believe me when I tell you, for many of these, I learned the hard way… 

• Focus on People, Process, Tools…in that order
  • Start with asking: “Do you have the right people in the right roles and do they have what they need to succeed?”
• Slow your roll – patience is a virtue
  • Get to know your team and your colleagues. This includes not only your direct reports but also your peers, leadership, and colleagues in marketing, demand gen, product, and customer success 
• Actions speak louder than words 
  • Be mindful of the signals you send. Consider this: You’re crafting and sending emails late into the night. While your dedication is commendable, think about the expectations you’re signaling to your team to be available around the clock
• You know how to sell, now you’re applying that skill internally
  • How do you get your team to commit to personal growth and embrace change? 
  • How do you advocate your vision both horizontally and vertically and get the investments in people and resources you need? 
  • Apply what you have mastered externally to your ‘buying groups’ inside your own organization
• Master navigating the matrix
  • Understanding your organization’s ecosystem is fundamental. You have to understand how the sausage gets made
• Incremental change is > complete overhaul 
  • It’s tempting to be the Che Guevara of your organization. Here’s the thing, revolution is messy and Robespierre is not viewed as a role model. Iterative and incremental is preferable  
• Say no to DIY
  • Guard against the “do-it-yourself” mindset
  • Effective leaders are always asking themselves: “Can I delegate, automate, or stop doing this activity?”
• Develop a taste for humble pie
  • Mistakes and failures are inevitable. It’s OK. Learn from it

Leadership can be the most gratifying of adventures. But it will be an adventure, with highs, lows, and stops in between. But if you prioritize people first, then process, then tools you’ll always be starting from and ending in a good place.