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.
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