Bernadette McClelland talks the leadership mistakes that hurt revenue

In an era where tech stacks and investments in agentic AI are near the top of business leaders’ to-do lists, the fundamentals of revenue enablement—from coaching to consensus building and alignment—are still very much in fashion. Bernadette McClelland built a career in sales leadership working for multinationals like Xerox. Today, she uses her platform to help leaders drive their top line through coaching and mentorship. Her upcoming book, Sales ≠ Revenue: The Five Leadership Decisions That Do, examines leadership patterns that negatively impact revenue, helping leaders become more aware of these behaviors and how to prevent them.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What was the inspiration for your book?

I thought, “There’s got to be more than just sales training that’s stopping numbers not being made. The economy is part of it—all of those external factors are part of it—but what else is there that perhaps is not being looked at?”

I came up with the premise: The belief is that sales creates revenue. That is the reality, but I’ve got to counter that [belief]. I’ve got a point of view that negates that: I believe revenue follows the leader. Think of a Russian doll. The outside doll is revenue. That’s what we see [and] measure everything on, but revenue doesn’t exist on its own. It’s the outcome of everything that is happening underneath it, and so underneath what’s happening is the leader either has influence or doesn’t. Their role is to multiply their influence in the team, the business, the industry.

What happens under pressure for all of us is that we stop leading from intention and we start reacting from instinct. That leader under pressure doesn’t become someone different; they actually become more of who they already are…We all say pressure reveals character; I thought another point of view was that pressure reveals patterns. Under pressure, the leader, instead of coaching, starts jumping in. Instead of listening, they start making assumptions. Instead of looking at opportunities through the lens of the buyer, they’re looking through the lens of their own bias. Instead of building capability, they are wanting to solve problems themselves. This is identity. This is identity-based.

I realized that there’s something deeper here because at the center of the Russian doll is identity, and all of us, especially leaders, have these unconscious behavioral patterns that show up under pressure. Those patterns meet our human needs that we all have, and also with that comes trade-offs.

What are those trade-offs?

There’s six patterns I’ve uncovered, and the “closer” is one. The leader who has the pattern of “closer” is actually meeting a human psychological need for certainty and control. When a deal is under pressure, they step in. They think it’s really good leadership and they’re wanting to win the business because that’s where they’ve come from…but they’re trading something so much bigger: their salesperson’s ability to learn [and] ownership of the deal or scenario. They’re trading the salesperson’s growth and confidence. The team is now in an environment of dependability on the leader instead of building their capability.

Another pattern, the “protector,” is meeting their human psychological need for connection, so they will do anything to defend their team. They’ll remove obstacles. They’ll make it really comfortable. They’ll protect them from difficult conversations. But what they’re trading is accountability and problem-solving skills.

These trade-offs—you won’t see them in the CRM, you won’t see them on sales reports. You will see them in revenue. That’s what the book is about. That’s why I say revenue follows the leader. The Russian doll is revenue, and then under that is performance and influence, the decisions that the leader makes come from their identity.

Do you see any specific behavioral type more often than others?

The “closer” is naturally a popular one because it’s the behavior that they’re used to, so there needs to be that awareness. They need to have this observation of themselves to see what those trade-offs are, and then, what do I do with that? What are the decisions that I need to look at strengthening to become a new version of a leader? The other one is the “pleaser.” I see that a lot in family-run businesses or smaller businesses.

What’s the trickle down effect of these leadership decisions to the rest of the sales funnel?

Imagine, for example, the sales leader who is a “closer”—or it could even be a “protector”—they want to step in and rescue the salesperson. That salesperson perhaps is coming to them with discounts. That leader is potentially unaware of that salesperson’s beliefs around money, and so by not being able to coach the human as well as the deal, that leader is stepping in and taking control because they have a need for certainty. That salesperson is not able to expand or to address their beliefs around money, so they will always have this fear of money and will always be wanting to discount, which is going to impact the business because you’re losing not just revenue, but you’re also losing profitability.

How should sales leaders become more self-aware to notice these behavioral patterns?

First and foremost, they need to understand what pattern is coming up. That’s why we’ve spent a fair bit of time developing this Decision Dynamics diagnostic. What it does is it uncovers the pattern and then the diagnostic is based on questions that relate to five key decisions that need to be strengthened for every leader.

The decision of alignment is: How do you lead? Do you lead from what your role is or who you are? The second decision is the decision of understanding: Do you make meaning or do you make assumptions? The third decision is the decision of perspective. When we talk about perspective as a revenue leader, are you measuring commitment with what’s happening with your team and the buyer, or are you simply measuring activity of your team? Because they’re two totally different things. The fourth one is the decision of ownership: Are you coaching the human, not just the deal? Because we really need to understand the beliefs and behaviors of our team…in order to move the needle. Then the fifth one is visibility and that is: In an era of AI, how do you make your wisdom visible, not just valuable?