We know why sales transformations fail. We also know why successful sales transformation strategies succeed. When a progressive sales leader recognizes that how they sell is no longer effective enough to allow them to reach their goals, they look for a new methodology.
The new methodology will provide new strategies, different from their current sales strategies. When one has done something the same way for years or decades, changing how they sell will they will have a difficult time believing what worked for them for some time, is no longer the best way to pursue their clients. This is the first challenge of a sales transformation.
Not Answering Why Change
The first challenge in a sales transformation process is answering why the salesforce must change how they sell. This is made more difficult due to the sales force believe the way they sell is how they won deals in the past. The longer a salesperson has sold, the more comfortable they are with their current sales approach.
The sales leader and their sales managers will need to prove that what they are doing is no longer effective and how the elements in the new methodology will improve their sales effectiveness and their win rates.
Those who believe they can have this conversation once before moving on will find that it didn’t take. This is the first way to fail. A successful sales transformation will take time and effort. To succeed, you will need to make every meeting about the sales transformation.
Sales Manager’s Leading Transformation
The second way you might cause your sales transformation to fail is by not having sales managers lead the transformation. It isn’t enough to have a trainer teach and train the sales force to use the new methodology, even if you spend three days with a trainer working through the sales methodology and the execution of the strategies and tactics. Without the sales managers and leaders leading their teams, you risk your transformation failing.
You can improve your chances of success by training sales managers to train their teams will improve your chances of succeeding. Your sales force tends to trust their sales managers, as they work with them every day. You can make it easier to make the changes when their sales managers do the training.
Sales Managers and Behavioral Changes
If you are right-handed, try to brush your teeth with your left hand and see how difficult it is for you do something as simple as switching hands. Now imagine being told that you have to do something different from what you know and have practiced for a long time. The longer the sales force has used their current methodology the more difficult for some to believe they can improve their results by making a significant change.
You can improve your ability to help your sales managers will need to work with their sales reps to execute the new sales methodologies and the new strategies. Those who fail to have their sales managers lead their teams and force the behavioral changes will risk their transformation failing.
Sales Leaders and a Lack of Patience
There is every reason to accelerate the changes, making it difficult for your team to go back to how you used to sell. But leaders that believe a transformation concludes after the training and the exercises that allow their teams to sell more effectively will introduce a new threat to their transformation.
You should not go into a sales transformation without committing to work on the transformation until your sales teams are making the behavioral changes and winning a greater percentage of their sales pursuits. If you will not spend a year on a transformation, you may be better off not making this change.
Playing Favorites with Senior Salespeople
It is not uncommon to find senior salespeople being allowed to continue to sell as they always have. The risk to the sales transformation is that when some are not required to make the changes, others will believe they shouldn’t have to go all-in on a new and more effective sales methodology.
When one tells other salespeople they are not making the change, they make it easier for those who know that some are not participating in the transformation to believe there is a way to avoid changing how they sell.
Sales Transformation and a Lack of Managerial Will
Those who start down the road of a sales transformation must be willing to use their managerial will to be able to change. Your will must be greater than any resistance from sales managers or salespeople. As soon as a sales leader starts to talk about anything other than the sales transformation, the more certain the sales force is likely to believe they can go back to how they sold in the past.
Sales leaders should use their managerial will to continue to do the work of adopting a sales methodology you believe will improve each salesperson’s win rates. No matter how long it takes, you must continue to reinforce your sales transformation. Every sales meeting should include your sales transformation.
Sharing Success in the Sales Transformation
Any time a salesperson succeeds by using the new methodology must be shared. In one transformation, the company decided to have each salesperson who found success told the story on their smartphone and sent the videos to their peers.
It is a mistake not to continue to show the laggards that others are already finding success. By providing examples of what good looks like and how it has improved results, you can convert a greater percentage of your sales force.
Sales Transformation
We know why sales transformations fail, and we know why they succeed. This list of ways you might struggle to make a sales transformation to a better, more effective, and more client-centric approach. If you want to know what I do to ensure the transformation starts with a compelling why change, send me a note on the contact page.
