A Funny Thing happened when he quit (Part 1 of 3)
We know of a company in the Midwest that sells construction supplies through an outbound sales force of about 10 reps. Although they had a few new people, most of their sales team consisted of veteran reps who had been in the business for 10 years or more. They had the usual mix of a few underperformers, a few Top Guns, but with the majority of the team falling in the “average” category. One of those average performers (we’ll call him Robert) was well respected because of his knowledge of the industry and the market, but never really seemed to be able to make anything but a mediocre contribution to the top line. Interestingly though, Robert had appointed himself the “guardian” for the rights of his fellow team mates, making sure to question management on their every move concerning comp plans, perks, marketing, pricing and other strategies. Also, it wasn’t unusual for Robert to recruit his team mates to gang up on management to insure they had frequent and active “bitch sessions”
Here’s the surprise
As disruptive as Robert was to the daily operations, he was considered “too valuable” to terminate or re-assign because of his relationships with key customers. The fear was that if he left, the competition would storm in, taking critical business that was needed by the company. Although management coddled him, gave him his way sometimes, and tried to reason with him, nothing much seemed to change until the economy stepped in with the answer. With sales down, the company had no choice other than to start cutting salaries. Management took the first hit, and then it was time to talk to Robert about his big fat salary. So Robert, being the “guardian of all things righteous”, decided to resign and go out on his own rather than suffer the indignation being offered at the heavy hand of the wrong doers.
Now it gets interesting
With Robert gone, his sales manager began to do damage control by visiting all of Robert’s key accounts. At the very first place he visited, within 30 minutes, he walked out the door with one of the biggest orders ever placed by that client. And it didn’t stop there. Many opportunities were popping up that seemed like they had just been laying there waiting for someone to take the business.
The lesson learned
Just as many banks were deemed “too big to fail”, it’s not uncommon to find companies that have reps or other personnel that are deemed “too valuable to let go”, even though they are no less a drag on the company than the banks were to the economy. Field reps need to have only a few key ingredients in their “sales DNA” to succeed. While everyone knew that Robert “could sell”, the truth was that most times he “wouldn’t sell”. While there could be many reasons for this, the lack of the desire to be the best, and the lack of commitment to his profession are surefire signals that mediocrity is about the best you can expect.
Passion for selling … a blessing or a curse?
Curse #1
What leaves a bad impression more than encountering a salesperson that is just going through the motions? The smell of the of lack of interest and commitment seems to linger after these folks have dropped off their literature, business card and limp hand shake. The sad part is realizing that you lost interest almost immediately in what they saying and found yourself feeling sorry for these miscast pretenders. You may want to tell them that if they could just show a little emotion they might actually sell something someday.
Curse #2
On the other hand, there are the salespeople that love selling so much it scares prospects away. They love the company, the product, the marketplace (and probably you too) by the end of a call. When they leave, you can find yourself shaking your hand to make sure the gooeyness of the hand shake is gone. The passion these people have overwhelms your interest in what they offer, and you can’t help but wonder what all that emotion may be hiding. If something sounds too good to be true, well you know the rest.
The Blessing
Somewhere in between are sales pros that love to sell, but still remember that the customer is more important than their emotions. You can sense a balance that looks and sounds like confidence in what they are doing, a confidence to succeed with or without you as a customer. There is a genuine interest in helping you find solutions, but not in making a commission if the sale isn’t in your best interest. In short, these people act and carry themselves as winners. Aren’t things more comfortable when you get to interact with these kinds of people as opposed to the ones that can’t even muster the strength to quit a job they hate, or the ones that can’t quit selling so hard you want to run away?
Important Event
Don’t miss Dave Kurlan’s Live Streaming presentation on Tuesday, November 3rd. This is not a webinar!
After the Cutting …
How Successful Companies Sell Their Way Back to the Top
With Dave Kurlan: Best-selling author, top-rated speaker and internationally acclaimed business authority
One of the hardest things a sales manager has to do …
Telling the truth is often one of the hardest things to do in sales management. When the economy tanks and everyone’s excuses seem to make so much sense, a sales manager’s job gets tougher every day. When the parade of struggling producers marches through your office and tells you all the sob stories about why no one is buying, why price is all that matters and that even your biggest competitor is off 40%, even the toughest task master can find it hard not to be sympathetic.
So what’s the problem?
And that would all make more sense if you didn’t have two or three guys or gals that seem to be getting the job done under the same conditions. For some reason there is often a couple of people that never seem to get caught in the morass of self pity and resignation that afflicts so many others. When that happens someone has to step up and tell it like it is, and if you are the sales manager, that is going to be you.
The truth is that some folks just don’t want to be responsible for where they are and what they are doing … or not doing. And the other truth is that some managers don’t want to be responsible for selecting or keeping these folks either. It’s time to decide; are you going to believe the winners, or are you going to allow the others to make or break your commitment to get it done? Tell the truth.
It isn’t easy
Selecting and keeping reps that resist making excuses and that are self responsible isn’t easy. It’s human nature to want to defend performance that is less than expected. But accepting excuses implies permission to do it more, and that is usually what happens. And that leads to a whole array of other trouble. If you want to know more, drop us a line and we’ll tell you how to train that habit out of your sales team. Otherwise, go out and Google “Excuses” and you’ll find a number of good books like “Let’s get results, not Excuses.“
Sales Teams … Should you play the hand you’ve been dealt?
Anyone that’s played poker knows how hard (or stupid) it is to push a pile of chips into the pot when you’re holding a marginal hand. Yet month after month, thousands of companies push out a paycheck to sales reps that have very little chance of delivering a win. A good poker player always knows the odds of winning based on the cards he has in his hand. However, those that lead a sales team often don’t have any quantitative appreciation of what they have on their hands other than what happened last month or last quarter. And if they don’t know what they have, then how can they continue to make those monthly bets that a miracle hand will suddenly appear?
Are you “All in”?
Fortunately for the poker player, he can always fold and save his bets for the next hand. Not so easy with a sales team though. Since many companies are already “all in” with the bets on their sales team, they attempt to change the odds by motivating, training, pleading, intimidating or any other tactic they think will change the outcomes. But what if the odds are so heavily stacked against you that no amount of continued investment will make any difference? How would you know if certain reps are not trainable, are not coachable and can’t be motivated? Who are the real winners or the potential winners?
What next?
The answers lie in not relying too heavily on gut instinct, or hope, or other intuitive or traditional approaches that don’t have a predictive validity. Many sales leaders are aware that there are many profiles, assessments and other tests available that apply some science to evaluating what they have on their hands. The challenge is in finding the right tool for the job, and to make sure that it is being used by a qualified practitioner. Too many times, the wrong assessment is used for the wrong reasons and another bad bet gets made. You can increase your chances of success by finding a Sales Force Development expert that has the right tools to evaluate the make-up of your current team and show you what your chances are.
Take out the risk
If you want to start seeing how you sales team rates, check out our tools section and try out some of the free assessments from Objective Management Group.
Economic momentum is building
An article today in the Washington Business Journal confirms my belief. How about yours?
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke sees the bottoming out of the housing market slump and increasing spending by consumers as signs the U.S. economy will be on the mend later this year, although he forecasts the recovery will be gradual.
In testimony before the congressional Joint Economic Committee Tuesday, Bernanke also warned another jolt to the banking system will stall any recovery.
“We continue to expect economic activity to bottom out, then to turn up later this year,” Bernanke said. “Key elements of this forecast are our assessments that the housing market is beginning to stabilize and that the sharp inventory liquidation that has been in progress will slow over the next few quarters.”
The forecast assumes a continued gradual repair of the country’s financial system, and a relapse there could cause a recovery to stall, he said.
While a recovery is now expected to begin, the Fed’s forecast cautions that the rate of growth is likely to remain below its longer-run potential for awhile. Businesses will likely put off hiring, meaning unemployment will remain high even after economic growth resumes.
Bernanke also believes inflation will remain low for some time.
A report Tuesday from the Institute for Supply Management showed U.S. service industries, which make up 90 percent of the economy, contracted at the slowest pace in six months in April, seen as another sign the recession is nearing an end.
Can you believe a company cannot fill job openings?
This article in the Pittsburgh Business Journal caught my eye this morning:
I guarantee you 95 out of 100 people I ask would tell me there are no jobs out there. Yet this article relates two companies who cannot find qualified talent. I especially liked this comment: “Many candidates’ resumes they’ve received, however, have been job-searching for months and seem to be more interested in getting a paycheck than being a fit with the company.”
When in our upbringing did we get the message ‘the world owes us a living’? I talk to many folks in their 20′s and 30′s who have not yet figured this out, and people in their 40′s and up who still don’t get it either. Perhaps this recession is just what the doctor ordered for our country? It is not outsourcing, illegal immigrants, government bailouts, the Internet, or any other excuse you want to make for not being able to find work. It is the fact that somewhere along the way, our skills did not keep up with what the marketplace is willing to pay for. Go find a marketplace problem and commit to helping to solve it. Someone will pay you to do that!
Positive Economic News
So in the interest of keeping my own sanity, and helping our clients do the same, I began recording what I viewed as positive economic news from the business world in about a month ago. You might be interested to learn that I now have collected ten pages worth of information covering such broad topics as manufacturing in China, the banking industry, retail sales, consumer confidence, new home sales, land acquisition, etc. Our economy is still 70% consumer driven, and our desire for the incredible standard of living we enjoy in the States is not going away. Hopefully we are going to be more realistic in our use of debt to pay for that standard of living (which is a good thing), but we are emotional and frequently irrational human beings when it comes to our consumption of “stuff”. So let me know if you need a sample of my “Good economic news” and I will begin to share them as I collect them. Three cheers to the recovery that I believe has already begun!
It’s all about attitude
As I spend my day in the office talking to clients supporting their efforts, one thing separates the tone of the conversations we share. That essential element is the right attitude that allows those that want success to see opportunities for success. We can’t deny the econimic challenges we all face, or disavow the truth about people losing jobs, homes and even hope, but we do have a choice to behave with an attitude that allows us to believe there is business to be won and money to be made. So kill all the permission to fail behaviors. Stop all the whining about no one will pay anything but the lowest price, forget having nothing to do or no one talk to, just commit to doing something positive when it feels like the whole world is negative. You must own your attitude and protect with all the energy you’ve got. Find others that believe that these times aren’t bad, but instead just a different challenge that demands different solutions and increased commitments. Some one is going to have to buy something from somewhere. Go make sure you can say you’ve done all you can to be that somewhere. Good selling!
Fred
Mike Shannon
Charlie
