How to Create a Template for Success
If you focus on a process, you’ll get results. If you focus on results, you’ll get frustrated.
I’ve been saying that for a while, and still stand by it. You can’t control results. Getting worked up about things outside of your control is a real recipe for disaster in sales as well as the rest of your life.
What you can control is your activity on a daily basis. Where you go, who you talk to, what you say… those actions, if appropriate, will lead to the results you’re looking for.
The paradox is thus: while we’re taught to focus on the things we can control, selling is a results-oriented game. There has to be some kind of accountability to the number at the end of the month, quarter, year… How do you reconcile the two? How do you know that the things you do on a daily basis will contribute to the result you desire, but likewise acknowledge that you can’t control?
If you focus on a process, you’ll get results. If you focus on results, you’ll get frustrated.
Start by Working Backwards
Start by looking at the results and work backward to see what led to them. Through this process you’ll be able to show your team members the way. Ultimately, hold people accountable to the results, but here’s the key… let them have their own own best practices.
People don’t like being told what to do. This is especially true of salespeople. Sellers don’t just want to feel as if they’re in control, they want to be able to creatively solve problems. Following strict scripts and marching orders just doesn’t do it for them. However, people do like to be held accountable. Showing interest and willingness to help makes team members feel supported and more engaged. Accountability creates an environment where success breeds success, and helps teams thrive.
A few weeks ago, Mike Weinberg and I were reviewing a concept from Sales Management. Simplified. for a client about the importance of one-on-one accountability meetings. Mike tells the story about his friend and mentor, the incomparable Donnie, who had a simple format for these meetings, RPA, which stands for Results/Pipeline/Activity. It’s not only an acronym, it’s an order of priorities.
Start by looking at current results, then review the pipeline, and only if necessary, dig into activity. When the results are where you want them, the activities that led to those results really don’t matter. Let people sell the way they’re comfortable selling, so long as they’re getting the results they need.
Accountability to the numbers will drive the activities that produce those numbers. When you try to manage in the reverse order, however, things can go sideways quickly. The cycle is either virtuous or vicious.
Use Results to Drive Activity
If the results are there, you can talk about what’s working, why it’s working, and distill those best practices that can become templates for others. These activities can become the pillars of a repeatable sales process across the entire organization. You can train it, use it to onboard new team members, and really empower your organization. As the process is executed, concepts get refined, pipelines get filled, results continue to improve, and the organization thrives.
When you know what works, you have a better filter for what a good customer looks like. You can refine your targeting and prospecting. You can pursue bigger deals with better prospects at higher margins. Nothing improves culture like winning big and feeling like you can do so again. It’s a virtuous cycle.
On the other hand, accountability discussions that start with activity go nowhere fast. Got 30 minutes to spare? Just ask a sales rep who hasn’t hit his number in eight months what he’s been up to and why he’s excited about it. He’ll effectively filibuster the meeting so that you run out of time before you even talk about anything important.
Teams like this become nightmares to manage because everybody feels like they’re doing their job, yet the results aren’t what they expect them to be. Now the excuse-making and finger-pointing starts, and it’s not long before things get really toxic. Sellers get desperate, settle for pursuing bad leads and turn them into bad customers. The whole organization becomes stressed and works harder for less profit. This is a downward spiral that must be avoided, and probably hits a little close to home for too many of you reading this.
It should come as no surprise that when you get your priorities straight, good things happen. While good selling activities will certainly drive results and should be managed, the results are really what matter and should be managed first and foremost.
What’s been your experience? When has managing activity been successful for you? When has it failed to deliver the right results? Has accountability to the number ever let you down? Hit reply or join the conversation in the Rethink The Way You Sell Community.
Jeff Bajorek
Real. Authentic. Experience.
There’s a big difference between knowing how to sell and being able to. Jeff Bajorek spent over a decade in the field as a top performer. He’s been in your shoes. He knows what it will take. He can help you succeed.
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