How to Create Sales Stars out of Garden Variety Sales Professionals
My 8 year old daughter has some basic responsibilities around the house. One of which is to keep the bathroom she uses cleaned up (i.e. cleaning up the toothpaste that gets loose from a wild night of bedtime brushing, rounding up rowdy bath toys, swapping clean towels for the dirty ones, etc.)
One day, with inspired motivation, my daughter decided it was time to give the bathroom a serious cleaning to the standard set by her mother and well beyond the mundane challenges of wrestling with escaped toothpaste.
Once she completed the task to her satisfaction she flew through the house, rattling the stairs on her descent like a herd of stampeding cattle on her way to tell us of her accomplishment.
She was grinning ear to ear, beaming with pride and self satisfaction as she talked about how she cleaned the bathroom the way Mommy did it, not just the kid way.
At my daughter’s announcement, my wife was off like a herd of equally shocked and stampeding cattle, make that graceful gazelles, to survey the damage in the upstairs bathroom.
I knew what was coming next. Ten seconds later, with precision matched only by the Master Clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory, I heard it.
My daughters name was called with a stern tone and frequency formally set aside by the FCC for the exclusive use of angry mothers. When I was a boy this broadcast typically originated from my front porch and could be heard for blocks in all directions.
I watched my daughters face, beaming with pride mere seconds ago, register a look of shock and horror, as if she had just watched me punt Fluffy the cat over the back fence.
We resolved the issue and restored order, but suffice to say my daughter would have rather been airborne with Fluffy than make the death march to her mother upstairs.
Given some time to think and laugh about the situation I began to draw some parallels to managing sales professionals.
We continually reinforce the idea that our daughter should stretch herself; try new things and new foods for that matter. We tell her don’t be afraid to fail, that is how you learn.
We tell our sales representatives the same thing and have for years, give or take the “try new foods” part.
My daughter took our direction. My daughter felt she had mastered the basics and was ready to stretch. She felt she could do more and had the desire to prove it even if it meant breaking a rule or two in the process.
Was she rewarded for her attempt to stretch herself and hit the higher standard? No, just the opposite in fact, being blasted for the final result somewhere shortly after I heard my wife exclaim “You put bleach, where???”
In trying to do more she found herself in more trouble than she would have been in for doing nothing or just meeting the standard set before her that she found unacceptably low.
A great opportunity to reinforce her positive behaviors (even if the end result was wildly off target,) show some appreciation for the effort and initiative, and coach her on some specifics to help her improve next time were lost.
Instead, she could have walked away with an attitude of “My work is not appreciated. I tried my best. Fine, from now on I am just doing the basics, it is not worth it to do anything more.”
I am not suggesting that the final results are unimportant. What I am stating is that the final result, while being very important, is not the only measurement that counts in developing a sales organization.
Handled correctly, these opportunities can truly help you develop the middle 60% of your sales team and help some middle performers move to top performer status.
Handled poorly, the same sales professional that dared to stretch himself to achieve can become an uninspired team member doing the minimum, working themselves out of your organization, and increasing churn.
Look beyond the end result. Reinforce the right behaviors even if they deliver the wrong result.
After being whacked upside the head by my daughters misguided initiative the lesson seems clear, minus the small stars floating in a circle above my head.
As a manager you can make a huge impact in your sales organization by taking a step back, recognizing not just the end result, but the behaviors that led to that end result and carefully selecting the tools and response that will help you develop your sales organization without gutting personal initiative or weeding out their desire for growth.
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