As a sales leader…how well do you understand your under-performers?
When you focus on the numbers it’s too easy to miss the most important clues…the human being behind the numbers.
I can’t tell you how many times I start a sales mindset programme with a new client and am told…he/she is not doing very well so don’t expect to see them on the next month for the next module.
In practically every case I come back the following month and they are doing better…and once they start performing, they just keep getting better. It’s not unusual for the person that was labelled ‘on their way out’ getting a promotion a few months later.
So what does that mean?
Do I have magical powers? Of course 😉
Do I cast a spell on them that turns their performance around? A little maybe.
Or is it simply that they get something from me that they aren’t getting from you. Definitely!
Now before you start spitting nails or firing arrows at me, let me explain.
You have to explore what’s going on for the whole person in your sales team. Not just the numbers!
- How is their life going?
- What positively impacts on their performance?
- What has a negative impact on their performance?
You can only know these answers if you have conversations with them…and observe them in action to calibrate what positively drives their performance and what gets in the way.
What they get from me when they attend the sales mindset programme is a person that’s interested in how they think and feel…and this has a massive impact on them being able to release the negative emotions that get in the way of their success.
No sales person deliberately comes to work to do a poor job
Every sales person wants to be a success.
Being interested in them as people, caring about the other areas of their lives not just what they do at work and supporting them to be a better version of themselves each and every day is how you build a team of top performers.
I’ll close with one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People from Stephen Covey…
Seek first to understand…then to be understood!
Until you fully understand the inner sales barriers (thoughts and feelings) that your underperformers are holding on to…it’s impossible to support them in the best way to achieving sales success!
Until next time,
