A former colleague of mine works for a global 100 firm as a program manager. Her duties include helping business units choose technology vendors and negotiate the service contracts. As you might expect, she interacts quite frequently with sales reps and sales managers.

Sound like a fun job? Wrong.

Every time she recommends a vendor, her reputation is on the line. Countless times, sales teams that receive her blessing fail to impress the business units. Before she introduces a vendor to a business unit, she asks the sales person to do three things:

1. Send the business unit a meeting confirmation email that includes the agenda and objectives for the meeting
2. Schedule a conference call with her 48 hours prior to the meeting so she can help the sales team prepare
3. Once the meeting is complete, summarize the key points / next steps in an email and copy all attendees
   

What percent of sales teams follow her lead? About 10% do all three. The rest of the 90% are either too stupid or lazy to do so.

She is not asking for much. The fact she has to ask at all is the root of the problem.

Most sales people / teams today are not interested in doing the "little things" that make a huge difference. As such, the "bar" that classifies a sales rep as a professional is quite low.

Why is it so hard to get sales reps to do the "little things"? It's just common sense - right?