Get on with it

“Why can’t salespeople just get on with it and sell stuff?

Probably because they have a muddled mindset

Let’s explore

🟠 Orange Hat Thinking 🟠

It’s not uncommon to see misalignment in sales

This happens at an organization and management and individual level.

❌ Organisation

The organization says “We're consultative. We're customer focused. We're buyer-centric. This is how we operate.”

But then at the end of the month, it gets transactional because it changes to “Get out there, sell this, discount, we need the numbers now”

It's a very tough one for people to deal with.

❌ Manager

Tough when motivating people

Stick or carrot?

Spreadsheet or conversation?

Am I looking at numbers here, or am I trying to help people get better at what they do?

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

❌ Salesperson

Tough because it’s confusing

And frustrating

They end up wasting effort because they're trying to work out what it is they're supposed to do


☹️ I've worked with too many people who are just lost

It's a horrible place for salesperson to be

We don't want it to be like this


▶️ The onus is on sales leaders to give clarity to allow coaching and to give confirmation


🔶 Clarity

Being clear about - This is how we sell. This is how we do it. This is our way

And we're going to stick by that

Now, of course, sometimes we need to course correct, to adapt to changes in the market, but be consistent and try not to change things and force sales at the end of the month or end of the quarter

🔶 Coaching

Managers can then focus on how they coach

They can support salespeople

They can help them to get better

As a salesperson being coached or at least getting some support to help you think about doing stuff right makes a big difference

🔶 Confirmation

Salespeople want to know they're doing the right thing

Once they start getting confused they can lose confidence in themselves

Should I do this? Or this? Or this?

It becomes a mess

It's amazing how much happier salespeople are when it's dead clear to them what they should be doing

Then we begin to tap into their intrinsic motivation and they are bouncing to get stuff done


The mistake that some organisations make is it's never been communicated how things should be done

Make sure we've got a model that is known and shared

(And works!)