Step Up To Sales Leader: How to lead your new sales team to thrive and grow

by Amanda Downs

Overview

The ultimate sales leader playbook

Sales is the lifeblood of every organisation, and more than ever we need strong, capable, humble, authentic and inclusive commercial leaders who know how to get the best out of their sales teams.

You were at the top of your game as a sales person. But now you’re a sales leader, and getting results through a high-performing sales team is a different game. There are so many different hats you need to wear: Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Team Motivator, Chief Value Storyteller...

Discover a simple, powerful framework to help you make that transition, mastering each critical area of sales leadership step by step. Easy to read and packed with real-life examples, tips and coaching questions you can use today, together with downloadable tools and templates, this is the essential guide to success in what can be one of the toughest, loneliest jobs in business.

Amanda Downs is Director of Commercial Leadership at The Uspire Group and Founding Director of her private coaching practice, Sales Growth Expert. A sales leadership capability expert, she brings decades of hands-on management, training and coaching wisdom to her sales leader clients globally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788609500
Publisher:	Practical Inspiration Publishing
Publication date:	04/20/2026
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176

About the Author

Amanda Downs’s aim is to support sales leaders to drive the value they bring to their customers, and the capability of their people to sustain it.

She uses her practical mix of mindset, skillset and toolset for leading edge commercial influence to help sales teams to work better with each other and with their customers.

Amanda has worked with teams in publishing, biscuits, industrial cleaners, banking, desserts, sandwiches, construction, fine art, engineering, fintech, healthcare, beer, bus tickets and baby food.

She provides commercial strategy facilitation, leadership coaching and sales capability training to multinational brands as well as SME business owners and the UK health service.

Amanda’s career started in sales and marketing, where she has held board director positions in the UK and Ireland. She has focused on commercial leadership and and team capability since 2006.

Amanda is Director of Commercial Leadership at The Uspire Group and Founding Director of her private coaching practice, Sales Growth Expert. She hosts the podcast Sales Leader Secrets.

Amanda Downs’s aim is to support sales leaders to drive the value they bring to their customers, and the capability of their people to sustain it.

She uses her practical mix of mindset, skillset and toolset for leading edge commercial influence to help sales teams to work better with each other and with their customers.

Amanda has worked with teams in publishing, biscuits, industrial cleaners, banking, desserts, sandwiches, construction, fine art, engineering, fintech, healthcare, beer, bus tickets and baby food.

She provides commercial strategy facilitation, leadership coaching and sales capability training to multinational brands as well as SME business owners and the UK health service.

Amanda’s career started in sales and marketing, where she has held board director positions in the UK and Ireland. She has focused on commercial leadership and and team capability since 2006.

Amanda is Director of Commercial Leadership at The Uspire Group and Founding Director of her private coaching practice, Sales Growth Expert. She hosts the podcast Sales Leader Secrets

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Foreword by Shaun Smith (General Manager for Birds Eye, UK and Ireland)

Introduction

PART 1 – Set Up For Success

Chapter 1 – Start With Great Expectations

Chapter 2 - The Sales Leadership G.R.O.W.T.H Framework

PART 2 – The G.R.O.W.T.H Path

Chapter 3 – Goals For Growth

Chapter 4 – Release The Reins

Chapter 5 – Opportunities And Options

Chapter 6 – Ways of Working

Chapter 7 – Train Your Talent

Chapter 8 – Harness Your Value

PART 3 – Positive Action Steps

Chapter 9 – What’s Stopping You?

Chapter 10 – Make It Happen

Conclusion