Salespeople and their managers do a lot of stuff during the course of a day, but is all of that stuff productive? View this 60 second video to see if you recognize anyone you know:
Both Jane and Bob seem very busy, but are they doing the right things to improve sales performance? Well, this should be kind of obvious, but… No, they’re not.
Jane is busy selling, but she knows she’s not doing the right things. She admits that she’s not making the volume of sales calls that her organization expects, but that’s not the worst part of her confession. The real tragedy is that she’s not going to hit her quota, and she doesn’t know what to do about it. She realizes that if she continues to do what she’s already doing, the outcome will be the same.
As we all know, Albert Einstein famously said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different outcome. Well Jane is not insane, she’s just frustrated. She wants a different outcome, and she’s willing to behave differently. But alas, she’s doesn’t know what to do. And like most good salespeople we know, Jane wants to be coached. But Bob isn’t available to help.
In defense of Bob, he wants to coach Jane. Almost every sales manager we work with tells us that they wish they had more time to coach their reps. They know it’s important, and they know it’s impactful, but all that other stuff that gets in the way. Reporting. Forecasting. Fire fighting. All of the urgent stuff that somehow trumps the important.
So sales managers aren’t insane either – They too want to change. They know they need to do things differently to improve sales performance, but all that other stuff gets in their way. And no one is coming to their rescue, because their bosses want those reports and forecasts. So how do we get our ‘Janes’ and ‘Bobs’ of the world a little bit of freedom to do the right things? Well, the answer is actually quite simple.
We need for sales managers and their salespeople to get better at prioritizing their effort. They know intuitively what are the important things to do, yet they don’t get around to doing them. But what if sales managers decided to say one day, “You know what, the sales forecast can wait. My priority should be to coach my reps, or else the forecast won’t be achieved anyway.” And what if sellers decided to say, “You know what, I’m not going to make 40 senseless sales calls this week… I’m going to make 20 really great calls.” I’m just saying… What if?
Again, most of us know whether or not we’re doing the right things to succeed, but there are often significant barriers to change. But if we don’t change, we become insane by Einstein’s definition. So Bobs and Janes… We need to end the insanity. Stop doing what you ‘have’ to do, and start doing what you know you NEED to do. Only then will your outcomes change. And that will be… “Awesome.”
