You guessed it, I’m still on vacation soaking up some sun and working on my tan (Canadians tend to get very pale in the winter!). Tibor Shanto was kind enough to substitute for me today.
There are dozens of fine newsletters and blogs appearing each month, hundreds of books published, webinars, and multitudes of other sources of sales advice. Yet despite this wealth of quality advice and techniques, consistent application and results continues to be an unattainable for many. Why is this and how does it reflect on the entire sales training (coaching, consulting, enabling…) profession?
I gained some interesting insight from an executive with the Canadian subsidiary of a Fortune 10 company. They have been committed to training throughout the company; have used a range of well-known and lesser-known sales knowledge providers like ourselves. As we talked about his experience, expectations, and results from sales training, he presented an interesting view that helped reinforce a view I’ve held for some time. His view was that sales improvement and by extension training, like most things in life, is a continuously evolving process that brings with it complexity and accountability. Accountability for all involved, the trainer, the company bringing in the trainer, but mostly the reps. For sales training to fully pay off, the reps bear the brunt of the responsibility for success.
Specifically, the view is that any process of improvement involves four key interdependent elements.
• Willingness
• Skills
• Action
• Personal Responsibility and Commitment
Willingness: The most straight-forward of the four: how willing and open are you to learn and take on change. If as a rep you are not willing, then the rest is for not. This also extends to the organization. I read that only 43% of companies in the USA provide formal and organized sales training centered around a core process. There is the question of the companies’ willingness to invest in continuous improvements and the ROI delivered. But, where the organizational commitment is present, success depends on the rep’s own willingness.
Skills: Does the individual have the requisite skills to not only complete their job, but a means of continuously improving skills to keep up with or ahead of the market. By engaging with improvement organizations, my client is ensuring that his teams have the resources and means of learning and improving skills. The onus here lays primarily with the company to ensure access to improvement, but there is need for the reps to step up and fully embrace and utilize the resource. Not entirely but partly evidenced by the Willingness discussed above.
Action: Once the skills transfer is complete, it’s all down to execution by the individual rep. If they do not put things into practice, if there is no action on their part, then it’s all over. Reps do not like to be micro-managed, nor should they need to be, it would do little good to force them to implement the learning. You can and should set expectations, then coach and help them implement and improve their acquired skills. Assuming this exists, it’s all down to the rep, and if they do not act and put it into practice, it becomes a different issue beyond the scope of this discussion.
Personal Responsibility and Commitment: While this underpins the other elements, it is nothing new, not in the fact that too many reps lack the commitment. While they may seem willing, actively participating during the workshops, they merely go through the motions when it comes to adopting the skills. Putting them into practice in the most superficial way, and when results do not instantly materialize, they quickly conclude “this does not work” and revert back to their previous ways. Now if they are in the 20% that usually delivers, one can live with it; if they are one of the 80%, you have a challenge.
For example, we recently trained a group of B2B sales reps. One fellow with eight years experience, no pipeline to speak of, has failed to hit quota for months, and in fact had not had a sale for a couple of months. Very engaged in the workshop, proclaiming he can’t wait to get back and try “things out”, he was ready to go. Three weeks later during one of the follow-through sessions we conduct, he began to tell us why a program that has delivered results for thousands of sales people across Canada, “doesn’t work!”
He tried it, and can categorically and confidently report, that it does not work. Turned out he made two cold calls over two weeks using our techniques, and based on that “it just does not work.” No will, no action, no commitment, all despite the fact that his employer provided the skills learning. Sadly, this is very common, usually not this bad, but many “veterans” stuck in their ways, and while given repeated opportunity to expand and renew their skills, they pass it up.
Improving in sales is not very different from improving other things in life. We have a choice; we can continue doing things the same way or we can improve grow and prosper through a commitment and action or blame others or other things. That is why, even when companies do step up to provide training, follow up, the ongoing support, the management support to help adoption and success, the fact is that most of the success in change and improvement is very much dependent on the reps. After all, they have to be willing, put in to practice and commit to it.
My client continues to provide the skills improvement piece as a means of avoiding Einstein’s “insanity is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results”. His ongoing challenge is to establish and maintain a culture and atmosphere that fosters acceptance of change, (much like the change we entice and want our clients accept), and the accountability it brings.
Tibor Shanto – Principal – Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., is a recognized speaker, author, and sought after trainer. He is co-author of the book Shift!: Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects Into Customers. Contact him at Tibor.Shanto@SellBetter.ca, or + 1416 822-7781. You can follow Tibor on Twitter @Renbor.
