Let’s be honest, sales leadership isn’t easy.
You're expected to lead with confidence, deliver growth under pressure, and solve the problems no one else wants to own, all while keeping your team (and yourself) motivated and your numbers moving.
And for many, that leadership role came without any formal development. You may have been great at sales, so you were promoted. But suddenly you’re in charge of more than targets, you're shaping culture, building capability, hiring, firing, coaching, and being the go-to problem-solver. Sound familiar?
Add to that the market pressures, internal expectations, and the unspoken truth most sales leaders won’t say out loud: it can be lonely at the top.
When you're the one your team turns to, where do you go to talk openly? As Jody Humphrey, National Sales Manager at Mitre 10, puts it: “You can’t download to your team… having a group of colleagues to lean on every month has been invaluable.”
That’s exactly why we founded Sales Syndicate just over 10 years ago.
What started as a simple idea, bringing together sales leaders together each month for real conversations, expert insights, and practical tools, without the competition or ego, has grown into a trusted, peer-led community. A community where hundreds of sales leaders have found support, sharpened their leadership, and, in many cases, rediscovered the joy or motivation for their role.
Some years ago, before I joined Indicator, Sales Syndicate provided me with that support. The business I worked in, took on the operation of another company and attempted to fold it and its people into our existing business. At the time I was fortunate to have a great mentor in the business, which many Sales leaders don’t, but I don’t think any of us quite realised the challenges and complexity of bringing two completely different cultures together under one roof. I definitely didn’t have the answers. Which business had the better culture, or the traits we wanted to nurture? Having the ability to soundboard with other leaders at Syndicate, drawing upon combined experience in the room, really helped me to navigate that landscape and challenge my thinking on the way forward.
Sales leadership will always come with pressure, but it doesn’t have to come with isolation. The smartest leaders know you don’t need to have all the answers, you just need to stay open, stay learning, and surround yourself with the right people. That’s what Syndicate offers, and it’s why it’s made a real difference for so many of us.
That’s why Syndicate exists, and why it’s still going strong 10 years later.
This month Syndicate members will hear from Michael Henderson (Cultures at Work). Michael will deliver a workshop on - The culture difference, that makes the difference.
