Sales Success — The Common Denominator

Recently, when speaking with a Global Sales Leader from a Fortune 100 company the conversation turned to what drives greater sales performance. What is more important: skills, attitudes, or behaviors? The answer is all three. The real question becomes how can a sales leader drive greater sales productivity systemically through the organization? What is the silver bullet that can yield greater sales results? Is it process, technology tools, training, compensation or something entirely different?

While it is an interesting debate, the reality is that there is no single answer outside of discipline and execution.

The common denominator of success, according to Albert Grey, is that the difference between successful people and failures is that successful people make a habit out of doing the things that failures hate to do!

So how does a sales leader help everyone in the organization create the successful habits for success? What is the common denominator of a successful organization or the common attributes of a performance based culture.

Once the sales leader has determined that creating new habits, behaviors, attitudes, skills or processes is key to driving performance – the key to implementation goes far beyond training and education. The key becomes execution.

The desired solutions can be simple or complex. From sales training, CRM tools, market analysis, new product introductions to revamping the entire channel strategy – there is no lack of possibilities facing sales leadership today. Yet there is more debate on the right solution than there is on how to implement any solution the right way.

A true leader is the one who can reduce the complex to the manageable and then lead the entire team to execute purposefully and effectively. The key to success for every initiative lies in execution and discipline. It is truly the art of getting things done – the right things done. Often, the he reason sales process or sales tools go unleveraged with sales teams is due to the lack of management focus, alignment and inspection.

Here are three keys to success in driving sales productivity and ultimately improving both individual and team results:

1. Systematize the Work: Many sales organizations have individuals continually “reinventing the wheel.” To improve the ability for the organization to become more effective, leveraging best practices and creating a process that can be followed and adhered to is critical. Tools, processes, and the behaviors can then be aligned to support the process and have the integration appear seamless to all professionals involved.
2. Communication: In times of stress and change, it is critical to communicate consistently and communicate often. Leadership is determined by the ability for everyone to know and understand their role and their contribution. Changing behavior is difficult for most people. If there is a lack of communication, people will invent their own stories – and often that will not be productive. Over communicating and finding many mediums for the message is a tenet of any successful change management strategy.
3. Discipline: Many experts will tell you that it takes at least 28 days to build a new habit. That is 28 days of doing something that may seem awkward and uncomfortable. During that time, many people give in to frustration and revert to what is comfortable and sometimes even automatic. Successful sales people have the discipline and dedication to continuous improvement. They are willing to do the uncomfortable with conviction in order to reach a higher level of performance. Good things take time and good results will not happen overnight. Celebrate every positive indicator and learn how to recognize the leading indicators of success – not just the bookings.

Doing the right things right is not always easy and not always the path of least resistance. Yet installing new processes, new behaviors and new attitudes can happen with top to bottom and bottom to top effort. Positive and intentional change does not happen by accident and it does not happen without strategic directive and purpose action.

If you were training for a marathon, you wouldn’t expect to be prepared in a two day session or better yet a single memo communicating what needs to take place. To effectively prepare and train for a marathon, you would begin a running regimen, you would go procure the right equipment, and you would look at your diet. The training would be a daily and weekly effort over a period of months. Some days would go better than others – yet with the goal in sight, with purpose and discipline, you would stay on track.

Can we look at how we approach our marketplace as sales executives with that same rigor? Do we have the right habits, are we out there every day, even when it is uncomfortable, doing the right things?