Categories: Sales Transformation
The Sales Curmudgeon is a sales management veteran who has suffered countless sales initiatives. He knows why some projects succeed wildly and others fail miserably. Experience has taught him that very few leaders will risk what it takes to make a real difference.
The Force Marketing Team painstakingly convinced him to put forth the effort to write this five-part blog series. He has a military background and often equates sales initiatives with military campaigns. Please forgive the brutal tone. We apologize. After countless sales campaigns, he’s too exhausted to mince his words.
This is the second of a five-part series where I essentially predict your future, and give you the top reasons why your sales initiative will blow up. Forewarned is forearmed.
Today’s blog is about the second reason you will probably fail your mission: you’re too lazy to do any real work, so you rely on hope to get you through. Or, as I like to call it: living in the Miracle Cloud.
Reason #2 Your Initiative Will Fail: Living in the Miracle Cloud
Here’s the Miracle Cloud you’re probably living in:
The story goes something like this … “I’m the executive sponsor of a global sales initiative that is fouled up beyond all recognition. And then a miracle happens. Suddenly, spontaneously, and with no effort on my part, the initiative is a smashing success. Everyone instantly adopts the new sales process and our revenue-per-rep doubles overnight. I am so proud of myself.”
And then you wake up.
Miracles do happen – I’ve witnessed a few. Just not in the world of sales enablement. The reason some sales leaders depend so heavily on miracles is because they don’t fully grasp the key ingredients to successful sales transformation. In my experience, there are three: Relevancy, Reinforcement and Measurement.
Relevancy is achieved through “sales consumable” processes and tools that reflect the real world that sellers confront daily.
Reinforcement is achieved primarily through the inspecting, coaching and developing behaviors of front-line managers. If you win over the hearts and minds of your front-line managers, you’ll win over the hearts and minds of your troops.
Measurement is achieved by tying the results of a sales initiative to the key metrics that run your business – and that compensate your people.
So what is the common thread across these ingredients?
Your active involvement.
You are responsible for the relevancy of your sales disciplines. You are responsible for ensuring that your front-line sales managers do their jobs. You are responsible for measuring and sharing results. You can’t abdicate these leadership responsibilities.
Well, I guess you can … but you will fail your mission.
The other thing that whisks some sales leaders into the Miracle Cloud is not fully grasping why they launched a sales initiative in the first place. Often, this lack of knowledge results from what I call management-by-the-last-book-I-read. You read the introduction and, maybe, the first chapter of a trendy sales management book and lose your mind over the latest buzz words, like “sales motion” or “social selling”.
I know Attention Deficit Disorder is a constant demon in your life – and causes you to start many things and finish few – but please don’t whipsaw your troops by changing your priorities every few weeks.
What does “sales motion” even mean? If I asked a hundred sales leaders, I’d get a hundred different answers. But this isn’t the problem. The problem is that you’re parroting what some research analyst told you to say rather than fully understanding what’s really going on.
Don’t get me wrong – you may really need to tidy up your “sales motion”, but it would be helpful to know what you mean by that before launching your minions. And keep in mind that the people who are writing all those trendy books are just recycling age-old concepts. Most certainly, we need to keep pace with changing buyer behaviors and the enormous impact that technology has had on our profession. But that isn’t an excuse to abandon the basic blocking and tackling aspects of sales that have served us well.
From a sales leadership perspective, it’s all about standing in the future that you want to live in, inspiring confidence and conviction around this vision, then rolling up your sleeves to get it done.
Don’t live in the Miracle Cloud. Come down to earth with the rest of us hard-working souls.
