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Don't Scare the Chickens
When his executive team wanted to make drastic changes to the sales organization, a wise old CEO replied, "Don't scare the chickens. If you scare the chickens, they stop laying eggs."
Translation - Be careful not to distract the sales team. If you do, they might stop selling.
This particular sales team was having a banner year in a difficult market. What the CEO artfully communicated was not to mess with momentum. He was a guy who understood the psyche of front line sales people and how easily they can be distracted or de-motivated.
Every day sales executives are faced with circumstances that may warrant change. Typically, it is a negative sales forecast that starts the change engines rolling.
Company executives and Sales leaders are constantly thinking about ways to build sales momentum. Unfortunately, many initiatives they introduce have a negative impact. Ideas that look good on paper (and spreadsheets) fall apart when implemented.
Over the past few years, I have observed companies make many chicken scaring mistakes such as:
- Fire the TOP 10% of their sales team and tell the remaining sales people that the group that was let go was making too much money.
- Cancel their annual sales conference because "they didn't want to take the people out of the field"
- Buy a competitor and not merge the two sales teams. The teams were pitted against each other, often competing for the same deals.
- Eliminate support resources forcing sales people to spend an inordinate amount of time performing administrative duties.
So, what can a sales leader do to positively impact momentum? Here are a few ideas:
- Get the chickens involved in the planning process. Top performing sales people will have insights on what would help the team be more successful. If they are part of the solution, they will influence other team members to buy in.
- Make sure your objective is perfectly clear - "We need to take sales from X to Y."
- Show HOW the objective can be achieved. Make sure it is achievable for the average sales person. Shoot for incremental improvement, not home runs.
- Provide tools that will immediately impact the sales people such as training, coaching and lead generation.
- Identify what activities, if executed properly, will lead to the desired result. Measure those activities and show how they are contributing to results.
- Make sure there is a clear "What's in it for me" for all involved. This could be a compensation spiff, a reduction of pressure, or even the ability to keep your job.
Anyone have any good examples of bone headed moves that scared the chickens?
How to Deal With a "Tiger"
The day after the Tiger Woods story broke, I posted the following question on LinkedIn:
What would you do ifyour top sales person pulled a “Tiger Woods”? Assume the person is married but not fooling around with people from the office…
I was curious to see how managers would deal with this situation. The question was posted before the full extent of Tiger’s exploits was made public.
The question generated hundreds of responses. People fell into three camps:
Fire immediately (20% of responders)
Try to help (20% of responders)
None of my business (60% of responders)
The majority of responders feel that employees should not be judged by what they do in their personal lives. As long as job performance is not affected, an employee’s extra curricular activities are of no concern.
On the other extreme, some people believe adultery is a character issue and equate it to cheating at golf. Since trust is such a large part of sales, can you trust a person who cheats on their spouse?
Many responders focused on the risk of not addressing the situation citing questionable behavior that becomes public may have a negative impact on the company. In addition, other employees may lose respect for management if the situation is not handled appropriately.
Three weeks after I posted the question, Tiger’s wife and sponsors (except Nike) have left him. Tiger is still in seclusion and has not yet publically addressed themedia.
Much can be said from the old adage “messy personal lives usually spill over to professional lives”. I fall into the be pro-active camp – if one of my top performers is engaged in risky behavior, I would address it. Employers make an investment in their people and should take action to protect that investment.
I wonder if Tiger’s sponsors were aware of his activities? I find it hard to believe that a sponsor paying millions of dollars for image marketing would not conduct extensive background checks on a regular basis. Accenture’s brand marketing revolved around the “Be a Tiger” campaign. How would you like to be the marketing person who came up with that idea? Yikes!
Our Company
Some of the largest companies in the world are using STM360 solutions to hire, on-board, develop, and retain top performing sales reps, sales managers, and sales executives.
STM360 solutions are a blend of consulting, coaching, and Web 2.0 technology. The majority of engagements are four to six weeks in length and structured to deliver a specific result:
- Improve the hiring process
- Recruit / hire a sales rep or manager
- Develop and roll out an on-boarding program for new hire sales people
- Immediately improve the skills and results of the existing sales reps
- Make sales leaders more strategic and effective
Since our inception in January 2008, we have worked with over 30 companies in nine different industries. Some engagements have been global in nature.
We are also the owner / manager of Linking Sales Leaders, the most popular sales leadership community on the social networking platform, Linkedin. Each day, over 7,000 CEO's, VP's of Sales, and sales managers visit Linking Sales Leaders to network, exchange ideas, and post jobs.
STM360 was founded by Mike Stankus, a successful entrepreneur and executive.
Mike has over 25 years of experience leading and building sales teams for companies such as Sapient and CompuServe. Prior to founding STM360, Mike built (and successfully sold) Akina, an industry leading sales consulting firm. As Managing partner of Akina, Mike and his team executed engagements for over 200 sales organizations in industries such as High Tech, Financial Services, Telecommunications, Professional Services, Manufacturing, and Business Services Industries.