If you believe people don’t like change…Think again!

Create changes, with your sales team, that deliver on the promise!

It is true, not all people have the mindset like “Pippi Longstocking” who’s a hilarious example of challenging the logic. The logic we are used to is something like:

1. It has never been done
2. There is no proof it will work
3. Let’s not even try!  

But let us think again using the logic of Pippi:

1. It has never been done
2. There is no proof it will not work
3. Let’s try!

In the business environment we see great examples, and yes, even worse examples on how leaders are trying to convince others that “They or You need to change, try something different and so on”! Often these approaches don’t work and lead to failing change initiatives.

If you believe people (your sales force) don’t like change…Think again!

How to create changes that deliver on the promise?

What could you do, to create changes that work, deliver on the promise, spike off even more positive change and make your team and organization a lot more agile?

There are 3 considerations and 3 actions we advise:

3 considerations:

1. You need their motivation to drive a change successfully; You are sales leader and you will have your own insights on the strategy and the corresponding key performance indicators which you agreed to with your management / executive team. For sure you like to achieve or even overachieve your targets and maybe also have your own development objectives which give you energy and drive. Just remember these are yours! That does not mean the same counts for your direct reports or your salesforce.  
2. You need their confidence: as for most people, employees are what they think they are. This is also a good indicator of what they believe they can do and what not! In case people don’t have the confidence, they can make the change, or the development needed they often turn out to be right! Like my son of 4 years old telling me he cannot cycle (without the training wheels) he is right! If he is convinced, he can not to it, it will not likely happen. We need to support the change by changing the mindset which will drive the behavior which will drive the success.
3. You are not that influential as you might think: For sure you are the sales leader and you have a huge impact on your team, you even could use your power which comes with the management position. But let’s face it, if you need the power to enforce the change you might end up with an “artificial and superficial” change! If we need to deliver on the promise, you are better off with true engagement and commitment of your whole team. It might take some more time to get there but then they will fly and drive the change the team wanted!

3 actions:

1. Ensure a process where all players are involved! Even if you know the outcome of the process it is not wise to cut some corners. You know so much more, have so much more data available and are even months ahead in your process on the required changes. As a fair process is as important as a fair outcome, you need to allow your team to have the same thought-provoking process to get to the same insights and conclusions to be ready to drive the actions full of commitment!
2. Combine negative, positive factors and competencies: There are always “negative” reasons why we “Have to change” (we need to move away from…), Competition is … market developments are… Customers want us to…these will surely help to generate energy on the short term but most likely these are not enough to drive change on the mid and long term. Combine these negative, factors, with positive factors… (we are moving towards something more beautiful) We like to become… We have the ambition to…We like to contribute to…will trigger the energy which is needed on the long run! And the last thing you like to add are the competencies, preferable where we can be unique, to ensure we all have the confidence we can do it!
3. Their story is always better than yours: Allowing your sales team to have their own thought-provoking process, analytics, conclusions, and actions as mentioned above also requires their own story telling. You’re better off letting them write their own change story, using their insights, their words, their actions, and their plan.

Our experiences:

Based on the sales excellence projects we run with our customers we apply the following stages to ensure people want change and do it themselves!

You want to know more: Contact us 😊

For more insights: HBR article The Inconvenient Truth About Change Management