Recently I’ve been working with more and more businesses where sales are cratering. Business itself seems to be faltering.
Whether its from a dysfunctional government or the uncertainty of the business climate increasing profitable sales seems to be harder than ever. People have been asking me why? Or at least what can be done about it. That has gotten me looking at some important ideas, sometimes unpleasant ones.
Like – we’ve got a lot of hammers running things but far less nails that need pounding.
Let me explain
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, or perhaps any time at all you’ll know that I primarily look at two questions
Why aren’t our sales teams as effective as they should be?
And
How do we turn sales around?
Those questions go directly to what is a hammer and why is everyone using them
A famous psychologist, attribution unknown, said, that
To a man with a hammer everything is a nail
What that means is that while you often need a hammer – the device that pounds in nails – if all you have in your tool bag is a hammer – everything will be treated like a nail.
Many Problems – One Answer
The problem is that every challenge isn’t a nail. Different situations call for different tools. A hammer is great when the need is to set a nail. However like in sales, building something requires far more than nail driving. It requires many tools, many skills, and many different techniques depending on the situation and where in the process you are.
So ask yourself, either as a Manager or a Sales Person, how big is your tool bag?
I know plenty, if not most, Sales Managers that esposose “ABC, Always Be Closing.”
Not enough sales
Oh well, they must not be ‘Closers’
Pipeline thin
Oh, well, they must not be ‘Closers’
Missed expectations and customer regret
They’re just not ‘Closers’
Seriously, this really happens.
And not only on the topic of closers, it goes on whenever there is a problem that the person has a limited set of responses or understanding. Again, to those with only a hammer everything looks like a nail.
There is a reality TV series called “Wife Swap.” I wrote about this on at 180SalesCoaching on “How to Hire a Sales Manager.” In the show the spouses in two marriages swap lives – without the sex of course. They go into another couples home. For the first week they have to live as the other partner did exactly emulating the other marriage. During the second week they get to change the marriage’s rules and live however they think a good functioning home and marriage should work. A fascinating thing happens every time. No matter how dysfunctional the person’s marriage is when put into another situation they duplicate their dysfunction.
In one case the woman had her new family raise Lamas – that’s right a kind of large wooly camel.
Seldom does the person learn from their surroundings or adapt to a new way of thinking.
- If they were a harsh disciplinarian they bring that in
- If they think children should raise themselves, they party and the children languish
- If they are drinkers they drink
- Just name the dysfunction – they implement it.
All kinds of craziness ensues. I guess that makes for good TV but it never makes for a good marriage, or for any kind of family improvement what-so-ever.
It happens in Sales all the time.
One example is listed above – thinking that every sales problem can be solved by being a hard closer.
So How Do You Fix This?
The fix is simple. Not without work, but simple:
Understand the problem and have a big tool bag. You need both. It isn’t one or the other. It requires both.
Understand the problem
Doing the right thing with the right tools requires knowing the problem and having some ideas on the solution. You start with asking:
- What is the real problem?
- Who owns the problem?
- What is their input on the situation?
- What has been done in the past to solve it or something like it?
- What is the best outcome desired?
- What is the worst outcome?
- List several alternatives to solving that challenge
The Right Tool for the Right Job
Once you know the job you’re going to do, with the desired results, you can then select the best method, tool, for working on it.
Of course this requires that you have more than a hammer.
- Can you match your personality to the person you’re selling to?
- Can you adapt your thinking?
- Can you use a process that you’re not tried before?
- Are you willing to get advice and adapt your techniques even if they seem risky?
Everyone has strengths. It is those qualities that have gotten you this far. However sometimes those strengths become weaknesses if they are used where inappropriate or not the best fit.
You may be a strong closer or a great negotiator. Before applying those talents to the current problem ask if they are the best method to achieve the desired results.
Perhaps you need to mentor
Or just listen.
Some Sales Managers are people persons. They hate conflict and they really, and I mean really, want to be liked.
Is being liked working for you?
Perhaps a person needs to find other employment because they just don’t fit or sell to your expectations.
Do you have the right tool for replacing a salesperson?
Every job has multiple facets. A Sales Person has to find business, qualify it, and then close it. A Sales Manager has to build a sales culture,mentor and train, design playbooks and compensation plans all while driving results. Multiple needs, multiple jobs, many tools are needed.
But the one thing that makes this simple
Much of this has to do with fit. Gallop did a study on a vast number of sales people. They found that 50% of salespeople shouldn’t even be in sales. A whopping 25% of those who should be in sales have the wrong job.
Fit with your boss and your job will go a long way to matching your skill set to the desired results. A carpenter doesn’t try to do plumbing (at least a smart one doesn’t), nor does a plumber to electrical. Find the job and the Sales Manager where your talents can be maximized instead of trying to fit a round peg in a square hole.
If you’re a Sales Manager the same applies. For example, I manage from data. I know the outcome expected and plan to that result. I use numbers and empirical data. Some companies love that, others hate it.
Recently I was asked to come up with a sales plan that increased sales over 200%. I asked, if I was able to deliver that result how could the business support it? I mean do you have the product, the installers and the support people to handle that much business.
I was told, “hey, that isn’t your problem. Just do it.”
I declined.
You see, they didn’t want to manage their business from numbers. They wanted a Sales Culture that I couldn’t support. So I passed.
You may need to do that too.
But first,
Before changing jobs or bosses, ask yourself if your tool bag is full. Learn, grow, become adaptable and flexible. Learn how to handle a wide range people and situations using all the skills professional sales people have
- Rapport Building
- Negotiation
- Conflict Resolution
- Problem Solving
- Listening
- Mentoring
The wider range of skills you master along with flexibility and the knowledge of where to use what, the more successful you’ll be.
If sales aren’t what you expect or need. If you sales team isn’t performing well. If business seems harder than ever..
Ask yourself if you’re working on the right problem with the right tool.
Not every problem is a nail. Not everything can be solved with a hammer.
