This is the final of my dive into human patterns that you and each of your team exhibit on an ongoing basis. Understanding them allows you to recognise what’s going on behind the words and to make better decisions to develop your team.
In this blog, I share why some of your sales people don’t say too much and you have to pull information out of them whilst others give you way more than you need.
If you haven’t read the background to these human patterns…you can find it here before diving into this week’s blog.
Big Picture and Small Detail
Have you ever been at a sales meeting talking about your vision and strategy for the new sales year when one of your team interrupts to announce that their laptop is running a bit slow?
What??? Why are they mentioning it now?
You’re talking big picture stuff right now…can this wait?
Your sales people all have different needs. Some only want a big picture outline of the situation and others want to know or share every small detail. Some sales people emerge from your meetings saying you do not give them enough detail to work with, while others will be frustrated that the meeting dragged on and covered too much detail.
When you chat with each sales person it’s important to ascertain how much information they can digest so that you can ensure you craft your communication to get the important points across. Some people will simply like a big picture overview, whilst others will be seeking every small detail and won’t be happy until they’re able to mentally rehearse every step.
One way of thinking about this relates to the level at which we think. Ask a person with a big picture preference…”How was your holiday?” and they’ll respond with something like…”Great thanks.”
Ask a person with a small detail preference the same question and you could be there for some time while they share their journey there, the hotel, weather, food, people they met, the shops, what they bought, the journey home and whatever else they think you should know!
When planning as a team it’s useful to have a blend of people so that you have a big picture and small detail focus.
Keep to an agenda and timings giving the small detail team the time they need to have their say without getting lost…or overwhelming the big picture team. It’s a fine balance!
Most Noticeable Traits of a Big Picture Preference
- Only interested in top-line information
- Will go into overwhelm when presented with too much information
- May deprive others of the necessary information they need
- Visionary
- Good at understanding the landscape quickly
Most Noticeable Traits of a Small Detail Preference
- Go into lots of detail regardless of requirement
- Can lose people without realising
- Good at identifying the small things required to make the big picture vision work
- Need more time to process their thoughts
- Require a greater depth on information to do their job
Influencing Strategy
It’s important to identify the volume of information a sales person needs in order to function as their best self.
Too many details will overwhelm a sales person with a big picture preference and too much vagueness will destabilise a sales person with a small detail preference.
Give each the level of detail that works for them and check for understanding.
Leading the preferences in your sales team
So there you have it…my take on the 5 most important Meta Programmes to focus on to develop and grow your team and sales success.
It’s useful to remember the following pointers when it comes to leading your team:
- Meta Programmes preferences are context dependent
- They are fixed in place by the time we are around 7 years old
- A preference is neither good or bad…they are simply a fixed perspective
- All people have a multiple of preferences in a multiple of contexts
- Significant emotional events have the power to change preferences
- Each preference likes to be communicated with in a specific way
- Identifying and understanding each preference is an essential skill for a sales leader
- Communicating in a preference specific way is best for you, best for your sales people, best for growth mindset and best for achieving greater sales success
Identifying how each of your sales people operate in the world gives you a huge amount of influence. Knowing what makes them tick gives you the key to ramp up their motivation, increase their self-belief and confidence to step into their learning zone and grow exponentially. Giving you all the ingredients you need to build a high performing team that is happy, balanced and deliver results.
I cannot stress enough that aligning yourself with each sales person’s preference will have a huge positive impact on the results you can deliver as a team and well worth the effort of mastering each one.
Until next time,
Leigh 😊
PS If you want to discuss how you can support your sales team’s preferences do get in touch.
Thanks Karolina Grabowska for the great photo 🙂
