The main problem with introducing a new Sales Methodology

I often talk about sales methodologies with Sales Managers, consulting about what would be the most suitable for their business model, the service they offer and the maturity of their sales team.

I’m always surprised by their willing to shift rapidly from one methodology to another one and the previous methodology becomes the scapegoat for the low results of the sales team.

 

When we analyze the situation in depth we discover that the main problem is not the methodology itself but the lack of application, coaching and follow-up that should go with the training. When this happens, the methodology becomes a one-shot intervention, not a learning cycle.

The plain truth is that the methodology is applied science: salespeople should test it over and over to find out what works and what doesn’t.

 

The main problem in introducing a new sales methodology is that most of the time we don’t consider it as what it is: an innovative initiative, a new project in a company with an uncertain outcome.

Due to this characteristic its execution is not simple because companies are not built to innovate but for the ongoing operations, to be Performance Engines.

 

A well-routed Performance Engine is useful to serve the customer, it’s efficient, it identifies the responsability in a team making everyone accountable and so on.

More than everything, it does it every day, every week, every month, every year and it delivers results at least every quarter.

 

In other terms a Performance Engine strives for the predictable and repeatable while an innovation is non routine and uncertain by definition.

This is the main incompatibility between innovative initivative and ongoing operation which is how companies work and how managers are trained.

 

The real challenge is to get rid of this view of the methodology as a one-shot intervention but to consider it as an innovative initiative with an uncertain outcome, at least for the first time.

Only with this attitude we’ll be able to allocate the appropriate resources for its application in the long term.