The Sales Leader Of Influence

Where Leadership Under Pressure Becomes Predictable Revenue!

The operating system that prevents forecast variance, margin erosion, and leadership dependency.

Not coaching. Not training. 

Leadership infrastructure you can actually run.

THE NEW SALES LEADERSHIP PARADIGM

When sales leadership is under pressure, it not only gets lonely at the top but opportunities fall through the cracks.
This is the operating system that helps senior sales leaders trust their judgment, be decisive, hold their presence, and lead execution before volatility shows up in the numbers.

The reliable revenue model


The 3 Core Capabilities

Authority Under Pressure (Positioning) – forecast reliability when scrutiny is at its highest

Decision Psychology (Presence) – reading and calibrating resistance before deals stall

Commercial Execution (Precision + Profitability + Prominence) – leadership that delivers without relying on individual effort

If you’re leading a sales organisation today, you already know how to sell.
What’s changed is what leadership is now responsible for.

Deals stall later.
Decisions slow down.
Forecasts feel less reliable – even when activity is high.

This isn’t a motivation problem and it’s not a capability gap.

The Sales Leader of Influence™ has been designed specifically to help leaders:

  • take accountability earlier

  • identify in others, as well as make their own decisions that stick

  • make ownership clear so opportunities don’t fall through the cracks

  • stop stepping in late to fix avoidable issues – or not stepping in at all!

  • reduce revenue risk before it shows up in the numbers, or in front of the Board

  • future proof yourself, and the business, for market opportunities

If this resonates, it’s because you’ve already felt how times are changing and you might need to adjust your approach to leadership, too.

Because Some Of These Patterns Are Costing You

Leaders we work with often discover hidden costs when we measure:

  • Forecast unreliability (If the Board can’t plan, strategic initiatives stall)
  • Panic discounting (With 3-8% margin erosion typically happening in the final couple of weeks of a quarter)
  • Reactive vs intentional intervention (5-8 hours/week of executive capacity can be consumed)
  • Unnecessary late-stage escalations (deals stall internally before they even reach buyers)

These costs are actually measurable but most leaders just haven’t quantified them yet.

Take the Revenue Predictability Diagnostic (5 min) to see what these patterns might be costing your organisation.

Traditional Sales Leadership vs The Sales Leader of Influence Method™

Old Model:
Activity → Pressure → Control

New Model:
Influence → Precision → Profitability

The Sales Leader of Influence Method™ exists because what used to work is no longer enough under today’s pressure.

It equips leaders to shape behaviour, move decisions, and scale results without having to figure it out by themselves.

THE SALES LEADER OF INFLUENCE METHOD™

This strategic and energetic based approach equips senior leaders to shape behaviour, move decisions, and scale results – without carrying the load alone.

Sales leader of influence model

The layering builds leaders who can:

  • stay grounded when pressure rises

  • be more decisive before deals stall

  • identify decision resistance from buyers and sales teams that delay deals earlier
  •  
  • protect revenue through leadership, not by being the closer, the fixer or the hero.

Leadership becomes predictable when three things work together:

1. How leaders show up under pressure
They influence behaviour, handle resistance, and make decisions without creating drama.

2. How leadership responsibility is structured
Roles, ownership, and expectations are clear so work doesn’t fall through the cracks or escalate late in the game.

3. How results are produced and sustained
Performance becomes repeatable, not dependent on effort, personality, or needing to be rescued.

When these are aligned:

  • teams self-correct

  • deals stop stalling internally

  • forecasts stabilise

  • leaders stop doing everything themselves

Most leaders don’t need more answers – they need the conviction to trust the ones they already know.

EXECUTIVE ENTRY POINTS INTO THE SLI METHOD

Start With The Diagnostic- Identify Your Highest Risk Area

ASSESS YOUR REVENUE PREDICTABILITY

Revenue Predictability (5 minutes)

Identifies which of the 5 leadership dimensions needs attention: Positioning, Presence, Precision, Profitability, Prominence.

Fix Specific Leadership Gaps

1. FIX POSITIONING
(Authority Under Pressure)

Authority Under Pressure

Authority Under Pressure prevents forecast variance and margin erosion by focussing on decision consistency that holds you in good stead for when the Board is watching, quarters are closing, and scrutiny is at its highest.

Leaders learn to recognize and deliberately disrupt their automatic behaviours (Closer, Hero, Firefighter, Fixer, Pleaser, Protector) that cause them to trade their authority when they are under pressure – before those patterns erode pricing integrity, forecast credibility, or team capability.

Ideal for: CROs, VP Sales, and Sales Leaders accountable for forecast reliability, pricing integrity, and decision consistency when pressure rises.

2. FIX PRESENCE
(Decision Psychology Mastery)

Decision Psychology Mastery

Decision Psychology Mastery prevents late-stage deal slippage by reading buyer and sales team psychology early – before resistance causes deals to stall internally, and before objections surprise you. It means you can reduce late-stage escalations and accelerate pipeline velocity.

Ideal for: Sales Leaders, VP Sales, and CROs accountable for pipeline velocity, deal progression, and coaching teams to read and respond to buyer psychology.

3. FIX PRECISION
(Revenue & Role Clarity)

Role and Revenue Architecture™

The Role and Revenue Architecture™ defines role responsibility, revenue ownership, and pipeline clarity so sales teams move faster, prevent execution gaps, and deliver consistent commercial outcomes.

By creating alignment across roles, functions, and decision points, it improves forecast accuracy and revenue predictability.

Ideal for: CROs, VP Sales, and CEOs accountable for role clarity, pipeline integrity, forecast reliability, and revenue ownership.

4. FIX PROFITABILITY (Leadership Intervention)

Intervention As A Leadership Discipline™

Intervention As A Leadership Discipline reframes coaching from an ad-hoc activity into a repeatable leadership standard embedded within the sales organisation.

Leaders replace reactive firefighting with an intentional early diagnosis and decisive practice of intervention, advancing deals through clarity rather than pressure.

Ideal for: VP Sales and Sales Leaders accountable for shifting behaviour and execution – not just managing outcomes.

5. FIX PROMINENCE (Executive Influence)​

Executive Influence System

The Executive Influence System transforms invisible expertise into market authority by installing the frameworks, stories, and positioning infrastructure that differentiates leaders from the competition – internally and externally.

Leaders build their thought leadership positioning to attract top talent, command premium compensation, and create board-level influence.

Ideal for: Sales Leaders, CROs, and Commercial Executives ready to position themselves and the business as market authorities, influence Boards strategically, and market their influence.

Ready For Complete Transformation?

FULL SYSTEM INTEGRATION (All 5 Dimensions)

The Intensive

The Intensive is a 12-week, system-level integration for sales leaders who have outgrown surface tactics and want the full Sales Leader of Influence Method™ embedded across all 5 dimensions: Positioning, Presence, Precision, Profitability, Prominence.

Participants embed the complete operating system – not piecemeal fixes – so leadership capability sticks, scales, and becomes their new standard of leadership.

Ideal for: Sales leaders and commercial executives accountable for revenue reliability, decision quality, and sustained influence – not just a short-term performance fix.

This is full-system integration across all capabilities of The Sales Leader of Influence™ Method.

For Sales Teams

For Commercial Teams Facing Complex Buyers

Selling to Decision Makers™

Selling to Decision Makers™ is a leadership and sales framework that replaces bottom-up selling with top-down, commercially led conversations that accelerate decision-making and deal progression.

Leaning heavily into qualification and quantification, sales leaders equip their teams to engage senior decision-makers with clarity, relevance, and commercial confidence – reducing time to value and increasing deal quality.

Ideal for: Senior sales leaders and enterprise teams seeking consistent access, influence, and credibility at executive decision-maker level.

This system acts as the Execution Intensifier within The Sales Leader of Influence™ Method.

Stay Connected

The Sales Leader of Influence SHOW

The Sales Leader of Influence SHOW™ is a weekly leadership briefing for commercial leaders navigating uncertainty, complexity, and execution pressure.

Each episode sharpens how leaders think, decide, and influence—prioritising precision over volume and conversations that move both people and pipeline.

Ideal for: Senior sales leaders, CEOs, and commercial decision-makers seeking clearer thinking and stronger leadership conversations.

[Watch on YouTube]

[Listen on Spotify]

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What Happens When Leadership Discipline Is Embedded

“Bernadette helped identify where leadership behaviour was impacting execution. She brought clarity to how decisions were made, how people were held accountable, and where responsibility needed to sit. The impact was felt in leadership conversations and how the business moved forward.”
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David Tagg
SALES LEADER, CROWN POSTURE
"Bernadette you were AWESOME!! You kept our leadership team engaged and focused on what mattered. I applied the 4Ts framework immediately, which elevated the quality of our customer conversations. It shifted us away from generic sales dialogue toward commercially relevant discussions."
Damon
Damon Lembi
CEO, LEARNIT
“The Mastering Influence frameworks gave us a clearer commercial narrative. We applied them directly to an international approach and saw lead generating opportunities increase from an average of 50 to over 200 senior leaders.”
Jeff naylor
Jeff Naylor
CEO, SIRF ROUNDTABLES ANZ
“The greatest benefit was the clarity it gave us as a leadership team - how to train new salespeople, set expectations, and hold performance standards consistently. The system removed ambiguity and improved execution from onboarding onward.”
Sales leader of influence sam rowse 2025
Sam Rowse
CEO, MACHSHIP
“The frameworks clarified how leadership decisions translated into execution. It strengthened our ability to align strategy with action and move forward with confidence as a leadership team. To anyone considering working with Bernadette and may be hesitant – Dive in!
Darren paone crown posture mattress sales leader of influence sales leadership academy bernadette mcclelland 2025
Darren Paone
MARKETING MANAGER, CROWN
"Bernadette’s work with our sales leaders strengthened our leadership framework and improved alignment toward shared commercial goals. It had a direct impact on how decisions were made and executed across the organisation."
Tina economou
Tina Economou
CHIEF SALES & MARKETING OFFICER, RICOH ANZ

Architect of The SLI Method™ ~ Bernadette McClelland

Berrnadette mcclelland keynote speaker sales leadership influence identity impact 2025

I work with leaders in those moments where pressure builds and that pressure can change behaviour  – when decisions get heavier, the room feels smaller, and it can feel very isolated at the top.

This is why this layered method exists… to help senior sales leaders trust their judgment, show up in a state of certainty and conviction, and install a leadership infrastructure that makes results repeatable. 

  • 20+ years in commercial sales leadership

  • Former Tony Robbins Master Coach (APAC)

  • Mentor to Harvard MBA students and executives worldwide

  • Vistage and CEO Institute Speaker
  • Recognised by the U.S. Government as Top 1% of Global Sales Leaders

  • Mentor to the incarcerated in Colorado’s State Penitentiaries

  • Proven record coaching leaders from burnout to Board roles, pipeline chaos to forecast precision, and under-acknowledgment to executive influence

This isn’t just theory.

This system is designed to be installed, adopted, and scaled inside sales-led organisations with senior sales leadership. 

The Sales Leader of Influence is for experienced sales leaders and CEOs responsible for revenue who already know how to sell and want to lead people, decisions and revenue with influence and authority.

Every framework referenced on this site is fully defined and expanded inside the Sales Leadership Academy’s private glossary and schema system.