How to Change Seller Behavior with a Sales Execution Process
Getting sellers to change the way they sell requires a change in their behavior. But changing seller behavior, even human behavior in general, is not an easy thing to do.
This challenge is best depicted in Kelly & Connors’ Emotional Cycle of Change (ECOC). Let’s explore it to see how it applies to the sales world.
The Emotional Cycle of Change
Kelly & Connors explain that there are five stages that people move through emotionally when changing their behavior.
The first, Uninformed Optimism, is the most exciting as people focus on all the benefits of achievement while discounting the commitment required. Unfortunately, as they begin to learn the desired result will not magically appear and that there is work that must be performed, the positive momentum can quickly turn.
This is the second phase, Informed Pessimism, and without a process to guide us through this anticipated phase, some will quit.
The third phase is Determination. If participants do not believe in the process and that lead activities will lead to their ultimate goal, they will go back to their comfort zone: the way they used to do things.
We should anticipate that we’ll have early adopters that will blaze a successful trail and we’ll also have some that will not want to leave their comfort zones until they see the final achievement of the trailblazers.
The problem is that by the time the resistors see the others’ success, they find themselves too far removed to attempt to do the same. Their best chance of success has been missed. By using our Sales Execution Process we provide a discipline that gives us the needed traction to move the entire team towards the goal.
We’ll come back the last two phases of the Emotional Cycle of Change, but first let’s take a look at our Sales Execution Process.
The Program on Persuasion Sales Execution Process
1. Focus on Targets
All customers and leads are not created equal. Sellers must identify which are the most important (where we stand to increase our share of wallet with specific customers or prospects that offer the biggest upside).
Here we establish deal stages to measure the progress for each target and an average deal stage for the seller’s collective group of targets. By focusing on 15-20 targets, each seller is able to gain traction quicker and instill a habit that will extend to all their other opportunities. However, measuring all accounts is too much when you are this early in the ECOC. Our goal is to move 90% of these targets to the final deal stage within the 12-week period.
By chunking it down to deal stages, targets create momentum with the sellers when they begin seeing the targets move closer to being won.
2. Track Lead Activities
We call this the seller’s moneytime. There are only three activities that we ask sellers to track and we have them do so only when they are engaged with Targets. These are the three tools that the seller learned during the two-day workshop. The required tool is determined by the location of the target within our deal stage.
3. Measure the Process Publicly
Games infer fun and competition. Therefore, we create a Scoreboard that is designed to create a game. It doesn’t measure everything, only the aspects that are most important to the seller (like a baseball scoreboard).
In every team, each seller sees everyone’s scores. If we don’t measure, then we are saying that it’s not important. If we measure everything, it dilutes the most valuable measures. Therefore, this Scoreboard is a Player’s Scoreboard, not detailed like a coach’s would be.
4. Hold Weekly Accountability Sessions
The entire team meets together once a week for 30 minutes. The leader reviews the scoreboards (average deal stage/progression and the lead activity performance). Then, each seller, using a specific cadence, reviews their week’s performance.
This takes a group of 12-15 people approximately 10-15 minutes. The remainder of our time is spent debriefing specific target calls and coaching to refine the application of the sales tools.
5. Front Line Manager Engagement
The best predictor of the engagement of the team is the commitment of the Front-Line Sales Manager. We believe that the primary role of the Sales Manager is the development of his or her people.
Although the Weekly Accountability Sessions provide a clear opportunity to ascertain who needs help, it is not the appropriate venue for a critical conversation. The manager is an extension of the Sales Execution Process.
We provide managers with the tools to hold critical coaching conversations with their sellers. We anticipate that each team will have some resistors as well as some that simply need some help. This fifth discipline ensures that we leave no seller behind.
At approximately the six week mark, sellers will begin to see the movement of their stated goal and targets will begin to steadily progress through the deal stages. This is the fourth phase of ECOC, Hopeful Realism.
Emotions are turning more positive as the sellers can actually see that the goal is within their grasp. By the end of the 12-week program, the team will be in the final phase: Informed Optimism. They’ll know that the lead indicators are moving towards the goal and they’ll be “all in.”