Sometimes when the building is on fire...

Wouldn't it be great if "everything" worked out perfectly one hundred percent of the time... all of the time?

Well we know that doesn't happen; the same as we know that "everything" doesn't work zero percent of the time. On average I would say the range is somewhere between 60% and 80%; yes it may venture below or above once in a while, but this is a pretty good range on a daily basis. I also know I'm not presenting any science or hard data to support what I say, but I suspect you are probably thinking to yourself, "That sounds about right". 

As I suggested, sometimes it goes "really right", and the celebrations and accolades commence... but sometimes it goes really wrong, and that is a much different story — Anger, blame, despair, confusion, finger pointing, did I mention anger, and of course frustration. Sometimes it is just so broken it can't be easily fixed.

A number of years ago, in one of my various professional iterations, I found myself involved with a very messy transition where two fundamentally different companies were coming together; different systems, different cultures, different products, and different leadership philosophies — There were many things going on and much to do. In one of the more trying periods of this transition, a leader was offering a perspective on the situation to his team and was trying to alleviate the growing state of frustration in the group. He was the king of the analogy, and as he was offering insight as to how to work through the situation he said,

"Sometimes when the building is on fire you let it burn and move on to something that you can fix."

By no means was he advocating giving up or not taking on the difficult challenges — What he was saying was sometimes when it is so broken (or dysfunctional), it is best to recognize it for what it is, minimize it's impact, and move onto something you can fix. By doing this you:

• Identify and escalate the really big issues and problems in which good resources are being thrown after bad. This forces the need to step back and reassess the situation.
• Keep people focused on situations that can actually be fixed, and in doing so "move the needle forward".
• Prevent people from focusing on the negatives, and get them looking towards the positive energy of accomplishment.
• Remind everyone that it's all about prioritization and almost always about the net gain. In the end some fires will rage on, but more will have been put out.

It also should go without saying that you should not play with fire unless you have to because if you aren't very careful you can get burned.

Prevention, as they say, is everything.

iamgpe

The Windmill — A transferable example to selling anything.

They say you don't buy a drill but rather you buy a hole.

I suppose that also holds true when you buy a windmill because you are also buying a hole; it also makes for a creative example of Features, Benefits and Value as they applies to sales.

• The Feature of the Windmill is to spin with the wind and pump oxygen into the pond.
• The Benefit of the Windmill is the oxygen it pumps promotes aerobic bacteria and prevents ice from forming in the winter.
• The Value is aerobic bacteria will prevent the growth unsightly pond scum and leave open water for waterfowl in the winter.

At this point it should be pointed out that Benefits satisfy extrinsic needs and Value satisfy intrinsic needs.

• An Extrinsic need refers to the understanding that it is an overall general need.
• An Intrinsic need refers to the understanding that the need is specific to the individual.

If I am a bird lover and have a need to see birds as much as possible I am not so much interested in the control of pond scum, but rather allowing birds to enjoy my pond year round. The value that the windmill brings to me is creating open water in the winter for the birds. This is why I would want to buy a windmill if you are selling one.

People buy the Value of the product that is aligned to their intrinsic need.

Let's not even get into Windmills versus Solar.

iamgpe

PS: Feel free to transfer to about anything... 

PPS: It's much easier said than done... 

A time capsule: Memories of developing successful sales teams.

The following is the original and the rewrite can be found by clicking here.

I was recently rummaging around my makeshift office* and came across a very neat stack of papers held together with a large paperclip; on further inspection I just started to smile. It was one of those smiles that come with grand memories, special moments, and one’s refection on personal growth.

This stack of paper span about five years and in its totality could be called a “Sales Team Development Program”; it represented the iterative events that started with a dramatic expansion of an Inside Sales Team, included the development of an inside sales training program, and finished with the creation of a development program that included the hiring, training and strategic deployment of outside sales representatives. It contained the original “pitch slide”, detailed sales reports, an overview of the development program, people metrics, insight into managing the Y Generation, performance dashboards, “hits & misses”, recommendation slides, and a picture of the original inside sales team.

It was the time capsule from a very exciting time.

As you would expect, there were ample revenue metrics... revenue to plan, revenue growth, revenue by person, etcetera (there are many ways to look at revenue data it seems), but what also struck me was the amount of information and thinking we had regarding people, their development, and culture - I have always believed “people are everything" but can't help wonder if my beliefs shaped the documents or vice versa... I suspect a little of both.

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Armed upfront with the competencies needed to be successful in the role, I would hire and on-board people who showed abilities to develop into those competencies, were effective communicators, would fit into the culture (team), and had the potential to be promoted (exported) into advanced roles. An effective hire was important.

As important as an effective hire was, development of that hire was imperative. 

Development is the socialization of behaviours and competencies that leads to a highly skilled team, higher productivity, low unwanted turnover and a culture of excellence. Each team member is taken through an iterative process of Assessment / Planning / Implementation and Rhythm to develop competency and behaviour; a positive impact would be seen as the momentum of competency success increased, not only with the individual but the overall team. I should point out when I say positive impact I'm specifically referring to revenue growth and over plan performance.

Some of the competencies evolved over the years, such as SPIN selling changing to PSS or calling out Revenue Plan Achievement in a clearer fashion (in the beginning it was part of Accelerating/Closing) but I never changed the framework for developing successful sales teams. It just seemed to work.

I get that people development is time consuming and can get in the way of "hitting the number" or the rigor of those weekly deep dive forecasting calls with finance, but as my time capsule has reminded me, a well developed team can make "hitting the number" much, much easier.

iamgpe.

* It seems my office is now wherever my laptop is but I still have a designated area for my printer and important files. As a note to myself, I should look through those files to see if they really are that important.