I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to learn that I recently installed a bidet in my bathroom.
It all started earlier this year when my son Zack returned from a photo shoot in Portugal and exclaimed,
We are so stupid in the US! I can’t believe we use toilet paper when the rest of the world uses bidets! It’s 1000 times better than the way we do it.
So, despite the dialogue bouncing around inside my head (“I’m not European, what am I going to do with a bidet?), I did some product research on Amazon, found one for $35, and gave it a shot (um…literally).
And you know what? Zack was right.
Sometimes in sales, like in life, we become so accustomed to doing things the way we always have – that we never even consider any alternatives.
Here are a some ways I’ve done this that might sound familiar:
#1 “I don’t have time to create a formal onboarding program.” Because you’re busy recruiting, interviewing and hiring, you don’t have much time for training. So you tell your new hires to “shadow the current reps and do what they do”.
What might happen if you invested the time and energy to thoroughly train new hires on how to prospect, pitch, and close? With one of my teams, our intense onboarding and training program helped get 95% of our new hires fully ramped in 30 days, with everyone hitting quota. It also reduced our new hire turnover to nearly zero.
#2 “I hire experienced reps so that we don’t have to babysit them.” Every sales manager loves having an All Star rep. The problem is that it’s impossible to predict if someone will become an All Star. In the meantime, that accomplished rep costs you big bucks and time until you see if he’s even going to work out.
What if instead you developed less experienced reps into All Stars with coaching, mentoring and 1-on-1s? I have tried it both ways. Occasionally, I got lucky by hiring an experienced rep. More often, that candidate who was a superstar in the interview didn’t turn out to be so great. My most successful sales teams were always made of reps who were developed from within.
#3 “The Reps who ‘get it’ will be successful here. We’ll just keep churning through the bad ones until we have a good team.” This is highly unlikely. The turnover will decimate your morale, your productivity and your sales numbers. I’ve never run a team like this but I’ve hear horror stories from reps who left places like this.
What might happen if your average rep stuck around for 3 years? Or 5 years? Imagine the possibilities when your rep has a longer history with your customer than your customer’s own employees. On one of my Enterprise sales teams, our reps’ average tenure was 8+ years. Their institutional knowledge and long term histories with our clients enabled us to close million dollar deals over the phone quarter after quarter.
You don’t have to install a bidet to have a business changing revelation*.
Instead, take a look at your own sales traditions and practices – it might be time to try something new.
*I’d still recommend a bidet too.
Liked this article? I send one out in my newsletter every few weeks, covering lessons learned in solving sales problems. Don’t miss the next one: [mc4wp_form id=”1491″]