The Promotion That Destroys Teams
Sarah was unstoppable. Three consecutive years of quota-crushing performance. President’s Club winner. The client whisperer who could close deals others couldn’t even get to the table.
Naturally, when a sales manager position opened up, she was the obvious choice.
Six months later, her team was in chaos. Morale plummeted. Two top performers had quit. Revenue in her division dropped 23%.
What happened?
Sarah fell into the trap that claims roughly 70% of promoted sales superstars: She couldn’t make the mental shift from personal achievement to team development.
This scenario plays out in organizations everywhere, and throughout my career helping companies build high-performing marketing and sales teams—including achieving results like 186% revenue growth and developing over a dozen professionals into leadership roles—I’ve witnessed this pattern repeatedly.
The Mindset Chasm
Individual sales success requires a fundamentally different psychological framework than team leadership. Understanding this difference is crucial for any organization serious about sustainable growth.
The Individual Contributor Mindset
Top salespeople typically operate with:
- Personal ownership mentality: “This is my territory, my clients, my commission”
- Competitive drive: Fueled by beating internal peers and external competitors
- Immediate gratification: Monthly or quarterly success cycles with clear, personal rewards
- Control orientation: Direct influence over outcomes through personal effort
The Leadership Mindset
Successful sales managers must embrace:
- Organizational thinking: “How does this decision impact our entire team’s success?”
- Development focus: Finding fulfillment in others’ growth and achievement
- Long-term perspective: Building sustainable systems and processes
- Influence without direct control: Achieving results through coaching, not doing
The gap between these mindsets isn’t just significant—it’s often unbridgeable without intentional development.
The Three Critical Failure Points
Through extensive experience building and leading teams, I’ve identified three primary areas where star performers struggle when promoted to management:
1. The Control Trap
High-performing salespeople succeed by controlling every aspect of their sales process. They know exactly how to handle objections, when to push, and how to close.
As managers, this becomes their Achilles’ heel.
When they see a team member struggling with a prospect, their instinct is to jump in and take over. While this might save the immediate deal, it destroys something far more valuable: the team member’s confidence and development.
One client’s newly promoted sales manager was personally involved in 80% of his team’s deals. His individual numbers looked great, but his team’s independent performance was declining. He was essentially doing five people’s jobs while preventing five people from growing.
2. The Scoreboard Addiction
Individual contributors live for personal metrics. Their commission check provides immediate, tangible validation of their efforts.
But management success isn’t measured by personal sales numbers—it’s reflected in team performance, retention rates, skill development, and long-term organizational health.
This shift from personal scoreboard to team scoreboard proves jarring for many high achievers. They struggle to find satisfaction in outcomes they don’t directly control.
3. The Collaboration Blind Spot
Many top performers succeed through sheer individual will and capability. They might be naturally collaborative, but their success doesn’t depend on it.
Leadership demands a different skill set entirely: the ability to inspire, develop, and coordinate multiple personalities toward shared objectives.
This requires emotional intelligence, patience, and systems thinking—capabilities that don’t necessarily correlate with sales success.
The Leadership DNA Indicators
So how do you identify salespeople who have the potential to become effective leaders?
At Imaginasun, we help clients implement strategic hiring and development processes that look beyond pure performance metrics. Here’s what we’ve learned to identify:
Natural Mentorship Behavior
Watch for salespeople who voluntarily help their peers succeed. Do they share leads that aren’t quite right for them? Do they offer advice without being asked? Do they celebrate others’ victories genuinely?
These behaviors indicate someone who can find satisfaction in others’ success—a prerequisite for effective leadership.
Systems Thinking
Look for individuals who talk about processes, not just results. Do they understand how their actions affect the broader organization? Can they see beyond their immediate territory to market trends and organizational needs?
Emotional Regulation
Sales can be emotionally intense. Future leaders need to demonstrate consistent emotional regulation, especially during challenging periods. Can they maintain perspective during losing streaks? Do they remain professional when deals fall through?
Curiosity About Others
Effective leaders are genuinely curious about what makes people tick. They ask questions about motivations, challenges, and aspirations—not just about sales techniques.
The Strategic Development Path
Recognizing leadership potential is only the beginning. Developing it requires intentional, systematic effort.
Create Leadership Experiences Before Promotion
Give high-potential individuals opportunities to lead projects, mentor new hires, or coordinate cross-functional initiatives. These experiences reveal both aptitude and areas for development.
Implement Structured Leadership Development
Don’t assume that sales skills automatically translate to leadership capabilities. Invest in specific leadership training focused on:
- Coaching and development techniques
- Performance management systems
- Strategic thinking frameworks
- Emotional intelligence development
Design Success Metrics Carefully
When someone transitions to management, their success metrics must shift accordingly. Continue measuring individual contribution, but weight team development, retention, and long-term performance increasingly heavily.
The Imaginasun Approach: Talent Amplification
At Imaginasun, our Talent Amplification services help organizations identify, develop, and retain leadership talent across marketing and sales functions. We don’t just fill positions—we build sustainable leadership pipelines.
Our approach includes:
Leadership Readiness Assessment: Systematic evaluation of candidates’ leadership potential beyond performance metrics
Structured Development Programs: Customized training and mentoring designed to bridge the gap between individual achievement and team leadership
Performance Framework Design: Creating measurement systems that reinforce the behaviors and outcomes you want to see
Ongoing Support: Fractional leadership support during critical transition periods
The Bottom Line: Choose Leaders, Don’t Create Them
The most successful organizations recognize that leadership isn’t a reward for sales success—it’s a completely different role requiring different skills.
Your top performer might be your worst leadership choice. But your most collaborative, development-minded performer might be your next transformational leader.
The key is knowing the difference and developing accordingly.
Ready to build a leadership development strategy that actually works? Let’s connect to discuss how Imaginasun can help you identify, develop, and retain the leaders who will drive your organization’s next phase of growth.
Schedule Your Leadership Strategy Session →
About the Author
Cameron DeJong is the founder and lead growth strategist at Imaginasun, providing fractional marketing leadership and strategic talent development. With over two decades of experience building high-performing teams and personally developing dozens of individuals into leadership roles, Cameron helps organizations create sustainable leadership pipelines that drive long-term success. His data-driven approach has helped clients achieve remarkable results, including 186% revenue growth and significant improvements in team performance and retention.