Does your sales force have an identity crisis? Are your salespeople confused about "what" or "how" they should be selling?
Mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, or even a change in sales strategy can have this effect. Even though these changes can stem from a business necessity, research by The Gallup Organization shows that many efforts to reposition sales forces fizzle. Why? At the heart of this problem are two underlying myths.
The first myth is that "a good salesperson can sell anything." The second myth is that there is "a right selling approach." Gallup's study of more than 250,000 sales representatives destroy both of these misconceptions. Each of these mistaken notions flies in the face of a common denominator we found among the world's best salespeople, a phenomenon we call "fit." In this column we will talk about what we mean by "fit," and describe the fallacies behind each of these myths.
"A good salesperson can sell anything"
Companies frequently make a change in the kind of products they sell. This might happen as result of a merger, or a new product offering, or from a change in the customer base the sales force calls on. If they have a good sales force, many sales managers may assume that their salespeople can easily adapt to the changes. After all, a good salesperson should be able to sell anything, right? Not quite!
Believing that "a good salesperson can sell anything" is similar to believing that a good athlete can play any sport, or a good musician can play any instrument. Well, they probably can, but will they play them equally well? Was Michael Jordan as good at baseball as he was at basketball? You already know the answer.
If you were putting together a team of volleyball players, you would probably stand a better chance of winning if you recruited from the ranks of professional athletes than if you recruited from the ranks of professional librarians. However, in real life, athletes don't play against librarians; they play against other athletes. In this case, your team of professional athletes would have to compete against other teams whose athletes were specifically recruited to play volleyball. Chances are that unless you recruited athletes who specialize in playing volleyball too, your team would get creamed.
In the real world of selling, salespeople have to sell against other professional salespeople. Business today is as competitive as any sport and it is not going to get any easier in the future. Just as an athlete will be best at a specific sport, our research shows that salespeople are best at certain kinds of selling.
One of our clients has a large sales force that sells property and casualty insurance. Without question, some of their salespeople are the best in the industry. So the company decided to use this sales force to sell life insurance. If they had to compete with librarians to sell these products, they might have been successful. But they had to compete against highly talented life insurance salespeople. Even the company's best representatives struggled.
In the companies we have studied, we have found repeatedly that the salespeople who excel are individuals who have a configuration of strengths that closely matches the actual requirements of their job. These individuals may do exceptional work for a company in one kind of sales and do a mediocre job in a different sales arena. Similarly, when a company changes product lines, the sales force's performance often suffers because their dominant strengths no longer match the role they are now required to perform. Unfortunately, no amount of training can correct for this mismatch. Often, the consequence is considerable turnover. Even slight changes in selling requirements can produce big differences in sales outcomes.
Matching sales to strengths
Nelva P. is the top residential home sales person in her area. Year after year she sells more homes than anyone else and constantly breaks her own records. When she talks about her work, it is easy to see how engaged she is. When her previous clients prepare to sell their homes, Nelva is the person they call. But success was not always so sweet for Nelva.
She began her career selling commercial real estate. In her view, commercial real estate was the more coveted and respected arena in the company. It was also a more difficult job to get. The agency she worked for would hire anyone to sell residential real estate, but they were very picky about the people they put on the commercial side of the business.
Much to her disappointment, Nelva never did as well as she hoped to in commercial real estate. "In my very first year, I made it to the middle of the pack," she told us, "and that is where I stayed." Her manager was satisfied. She was selling her share and she was easy to work with. But being average frustrated Nelva. No matter what she did, she never really improved her standing. "I was so discouraged. Sometimes I thought I should give up sales altogether."
But she didn't. Instead, she moved over to residential real estate. Much to her surprise, she loved it. Many of Nelva's strengths were not used in a commercial real estate setting. But her strengths were just right for residential real estate. In Nelva's case, her change was for the best.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Sometimes companies change their sales mission without realizing that their existing sales force is not the right "fit" for the new venture. Cross-selling or synergistic product offerings have become popular growth strategies. Occasionally, companies seek out new customers. But even slight changes can have big impacts. The sales force at a medical supplies company we work with called on nurses for years. Suddenly, a new product was introduced that required salespeople to call on physicians. The sales force did not adapt to this change at all. Slight changes can often require a very different kind of salesperson, and companies -- or salespeople -- cannot always make the necessary adjustments.
This becomes especially costly when your best salespeople no longer "fit" the new mission, and fail to deliver exceptional results. Sometimes when this happens, we entertain another equally harmful misconception: We try to re-train our best people and have them sell a "new" or "different" way.
The "right sales approach"
Many companies have come to believe that a certain selling style is more effective in their industry than any other style. A company may decide that their salespeople should be "consultants," and so they will attempt to re-train the entire sales force on a new selling method. But is there one right sales approach?
We are constantly surprised at how dissimilar the sales approaches of the best people are. Within the same industry, and even within the same company, our research for Gallup uncovers very different approaches to the sales process.
One salesperson we know is consistently in the top 10% of his sales force. When we worked with him in the field, we discovered he made just about the worst sales presentations we had ever heard. Even so, his customers did not seem to mind this at all. Why? Because he has developed incredible relationships with his customers -- relationships based on trust. For each account, he always starts his presentation with a product that would be exactly right for his customer. He has built on this trust over time and has gradually gained more and more business.
In the same sales force, another individual is also routinely in the top 10%. This person has little in the way of relationship-building strengths, and quite frankly is short on "trust." Instead, he is incredibly persuasive. His presentations are so compelling that his customers can't help but say "yes" when he asks for their order.
These two sales approaches are as different as night and day. Both salespeople work in the same industry. Both of these highly successful individuals have developed their own unique style, which is built around their unique strengths. For one to try to imitate the other would spell disaster.
Is there a right sales approach? Yes, but it is one that is built on an individual's strengths, not on the industry, nor on the products, nor even the customers. The best salespeople often have highly idiosyncratic methods, but they are the right methods for them.
The right fit
The concept of fit counters both of these myths. The very best salespeople we have studied have a configuration of strengths or talents that make them exactly suited for their sales job. These salespeople fit perfectly in their role. In the same way that Michael Jordan's talents are perfect for basketball, and Tiger Woods' are perfect for golf, the best salespeople are perfectly suited to the sales mission they need to fulfill.
However, there is not one perfect "mold" which works or is essential for any given industry. "Fit" is a subtle combination of motivation, impacting talents, relationship-building abilities, and job themes. Many different combinations might work within one industry or company. No cookie cutter or mold exists. That's why a company's efforts to turn their sales force members into "consultants" or "financial advisers" usually don't work.
All of the great golfers in history were uniquely suited to playing golf. But they all played the game somewhat differently. Their swing pattern, putting stroke and level of concentration differed dramatically. In the same way, the best salespeople are uniquely suited for their sales mission, but that same mission usually accommodates a variety of very different selling styles.
Yet as gifted as these golfers are athletically, if you tried to turn them into hockey players, they would be woefully unqualified to compete at a professional level. When you consider implementing a new business strategy that will change your selling mission, think carefully about the impact it may have on your sales force. Don't expect your football team to suddenly become baseball players. Such changes can inadvertently destroy the great "fit" that many of your best salespeople have with your current mission. Similarly, by trying to make everyone in your sales organization sell the same way, you may be doing more harm than good. In the end, your business strategy and your sales strategy have to coincide -- and that is hardly ever a coincidence! It takes a good understanding of what sales "fit" means within your business.
In our next column, we will discuss "fit" and how it applies to the growing trend toward turning salespeople into "consultants."