Let’s pretend that your sales force has a specific sales methodology that it deployed three years ago. And during those three years, sales results have not improved the way you had expected. You decide to conduct ‘refresher’ training for the sales reps to ensure they know how to use the methodology. Now it’s one year later. Still no results. What do you do now to improve your sales performance? Refresh them again?
This was the exact situation faced by a company that called us roughly 6 months ago. How were they reacting to this common problem? In common fashion, they had decided to purchase a new sales methodology. If this one isn’t working – they reasoned – then a different methodology might be more successful. Hey, it makes sense. If something isn’t working, then try something else.
It happens that this company wanted us to develop a new sales methodology for them. The conversation went something like this:
Me: “So what do you think is wrong with your existing sales methodology?”
Company: “Nothing really, except we’re not getting the results we want.”
Me: “Do the sales reps like the methodology?”
Company: “Sure… They like it well enough. And it does provide us with a common language.”
Me: “Then why do you want to replace the methodology?”
Company: “Because we’re not getting the results that we need.”
Me: “Did you have a sales methodology before this one?”
Company: “Of course. We’ve had several sales methodologies over the years.”
Me: “So why do you think another methodology is going to be any better?”
Company: “Well, this one’s not working, so what else can we do?”
What else can we do’ is a remarkably common justification for replacing a sales methodology. However, it’s not always the best question to ask. A better first question might be: “Why is this sales methodology failing us?”
It's been our resounding experience that an existing sales methodology is rarely to blame for poor sales performance. Any sales methodology that is carefully selected and makes sense for the sales force SHOULD be capable of boosting sales. What’s more often to blame is poor execution of the methodology. And we blame poor execution not on the methodology or even on the sellers… We put the blame for poor execution squarely on the front-line sales managers.
When a new sales methodology is deployed, it should be accompanied by a full-on change management effort. This would involve new processes, supporting tools, continued coaching, extensive measurement, and constant course-correction. A methodology must be pushed and prodded until it becomes muscle reflex in the sales force and the anticipated improvements finally appear. This improvement can’t be accomplished in 3 days, but it certainly shouldn’t take 3 years. With methodical reinforcement, you can hope to see altered behaviors and improved performance in a matter of a few months.
And here is where many sales forces (even very sophisticated sales forces) trip up. They fail to equip the sales managers to manage this change after the training event. Perhaps they’ve been trained along with the sales reps (though not always). And perhaps they’ve been trained on how to coach to the methodology (though not always). Our observation is that sales managers are typically underprepared to manage substantial change by an order of magnitude. If the front-line sales managers aren’t equipped to make change happen, then it will never happen. Ever. Period.
So the rest of our conversation with the above-mentioned company went like this:
Me: “So, if you like the methodology and it’s embedded in your culture, then we would have to question whether you really need replace it.”
Company: “Well, what would you suggest we do?”
Me: “Do you have a sales management methodology to sit on top of this sales methodology, so that the managers know how to wring the most out of it?”
Company: “No.”
Me: “Do you think that your sellers’ performance would improve if their sales managers were able to get better and more consistent execution out of them?”
Company: “I would hope so. That’s what we expected of the managers in the first place, but it never really materialized.”
Me: Then you might consider leaving the sales methodology in place and examining how your sales managers can more effectively manage and reinforce it. Training your sales managers how to leverage the existing methodology will be much less expensive and disruptive than deploying a new methodology to your entire sales force.”
Company: “No doubt.”
This company is now our client. We are training their managers to maximize the potential of their existing sales methodology, and it’s working. It is exactly what they needed to happen the first two times they trained their sellers, but they short-changed the importance of their managers in making the methodology come to life.
The lesson in this true story is that sales managers are often overlooked as the key change agent in every sales force. So they are typically unprepared to manage the change that they are expected to enact. Salespeople have been trained and re-trained for more than a century, but sales managers (by-and-large) have not been taught how to manage. We can give you example after example where we helped our clients improve their sales performance without ever training a single salesperson. It all comes down to the manager.
So if you are struggling to improve sales performance, we would encourage you to not re-think your sales methodology until you examine your sales management methodology. A far less expensive and disruptive path may lead you to the promised land… And that path will go straight through your front-line sales managers.
