There are some approaches that come up with every Sales Leader I speak with and have written countless blogs about. They are the most common behaviours that Sales Leaders indulge in to achieve their goals and targets…that actually get in the way of creating a high performing sales team.
If you indulge in any of these behaviours, please don’t start beating yourself up. If you haven’t had the development and support to understand the psychology behind these behaviours and the negative impact they have…then how would you know you even need to change them?
So here’s my take on the most damaging behaviours that I see in practically every organisation I work with…
Stop telling your sales people how to overcome their challenges
Makes you feel good and stops your sales person from developing their own ability to overcome challenges for themselves. You’re also developing a sales person that doesn’t act proactively unless you ask them to. You have trained them to do so.
What do you do instead?
Coach them to come up with their own solution to the challenge. They will be so much more committed to a plan that they have created than the plan you’ve shared with them! If the plan isn’t how you would do it, please resist the temptation to jump in and tweak it. If they are way off track you can ask coaching questions that will enlighten them to something they haven’t considered which will enable them to tweak their own plan. If they are about there…let them get on with it. Allow them to scuff their knees and grow their own wisdom.
Stop saving your poor performers
Makes you feel good…even superior but you are disempowering them with every act of saving. Don’t be sucked into the illusion that you are helping them…you most certainly are not. By interjecting you are putting off the outcome which could be either a rise to success or a departure from the business. The stress and pressure you are creating is really not good for you or for your sales person.
What to do instead?
Ensure they have the skills they need via training and coaching…then monitor their implementation of new skills and approaches – coaching throughout.
Give them the space and support to take their chosen actions and work things out for themselves. They will relish their success so much more which will super boost their motivation going forward…or they will decide to go. Either one is a good result for all concerned.
Stop thinking you know better
You may have lots of experience. You may have achieved outstanding results. The only thing that proves is that you have used the right strategy in those situations. That doesn’t always take into consideration the nuances of the individuals in your current team. One approach definitely doesn’t suit all! Imposing your idea for what should be done disempowers your team and crushes creativity.
I am consistently inspired by the creative approaches of sales people that deliver great results…that are so different from the approaches I might use and also achieve the objective. There are many ways to achieve the prize.
What to do instead?
Create a structured and supportive environment where each sales person in your team can succeed. Adding their personality and ideas to the sales process in a way that works for them, delivers a brilliant customer experience and makes everyone involved feel really great about it.
When a sales person is in flow they are happier, more connected to their intuition and according to a Harvard Study generate 37% more sales!
That’s enough for today…there are more I could share but will save them for a future blog 😉
Until next time