Reform for Sales Success
We don't typically use political jargon when referring to sales.
Yet, aren't politicians always selling? They are either selling us, as voters,
or they are selling other politicians on their ideas and programs.
As I read Decision Points- The Presidential Memoir of George W. Bush,
I couldn't help but recognize some parallels. For instance, in the chapter
titled Leading, the President discusses his decision that leads to the "No
Child Left Behind" legislation and says the following: "You cannot
solve a problem until you diagnose it."
While this isn't a huge "ah-ha" for any of us, he then
makes a quantum leap to "Accountability would serve as a catalyst for
reform". Again, this isn't big news. Everyone knows that, to exact change,
one must implement a system to ensure that necessary behaviors are being
performed. Right?
As I think about the dozens of sales organizations we have
worked with over the years, in nearly every instance, the chief executive's
objective is to achieve some variation of reform. While their companies are not
broken, they are working imperfectly, producing less than desirable results.
These executives need a different set of outcomes and they realize that change
is necessary.
In his book, the former president goes on to discuss the fact
that, as a nation, the USA finished 3rd from the bottom, above only Cyprus and
South Africa in the subject of mathematics. Sad placement for our country,
known as a super power and the most influential country in the world.
But how could this happen? Surely our educational programs
include quality math curriculums. It turns out the curriculums are not the
problem. Apparently a lack of accountability- no checks and balances- is to
blame.
Apparently there were no accountability measures set up to track
progress. This tracking would have helped schools and reformers determine how
to best duplicate occurring success or failure. As it was, there was no record
and therefore no statistics to which one might refer. Given a lack of
measurable data, accountability was impossible and success, or lack thereof,
became a judgment call.
Translating this analogy to the business of selling, this means
that if there is anything in your sales results that you can no longer accept,
you must reach beyond treatment of the symptom to find the root cause of a
problem. Then set standards. Then track the data. Then compare the data to the
previously set standards.
Achieving success is not a one-step process, done when goals
have been identified. Achieving success is a continuous and on-going job
requiring discipline and process.
In other words, if your sales are falling short, where are the
choke-points? Do your salespeople fail in closing? Or do they not prospect
consistently? Do they sell on price and neglect the value your product brings
to the prospect? Does your sales team even know that you, as chief executive,
are looking for volume? Or margin? Or to expand distribution into other
vertical channels?
In other words, your company's choke points could span
executive, management and sales teams. Minus a deep-dive to uncover all the
problems, you might easily address the wrong ones.
However the following issues typically come to light when we
perform our diagnostics to help companies discover their choke-points-- the
first step to reforming for sales success.
• Crucial Elements of Success are specific strengths or
weaknesses that impact an individual's ability to grow and to be coached. These
crucial elements include desire, commitment, responsibility and outlook, traits
that largely impact an individual's performance in life and in sales.
• Major Performance Factor are deficits that impact execution of
ANY sales system. These factors include need-for-approval, money issues, poor
record-collection, and non-supportive buy-cycle.
• Strategies and priorities for the business are not aligned
between senior management and sales management, thereby creating a disconnect
between what should be executed and what is executed.
• Hiring - the population that is supposed to execute the strategies
and priorities are incapable of doing so because they are not the right hires--
wrong hiring criteria was used.
• On-boarding - Accountability standards to execute sales
activities to drive early success are missing. Additionally, there is often a
lack of a consistent process to keep a new hire's pipeline full.
These are some of the major issues we uncover as we help
companies reform their sales organizations. While you may be successfully
treating some of your company's symptoms, chances are there are deeper issues
that will inhibit long term change and growth and, in order to compete in
today's hyper competitive environment, these issues will require deep diagnosis
and consistently implemented accountability measures.
To get you started, take advantage of our free assessment tools
on our website at http://www.anthonycoletraining.com.
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