In other words, if your salespeople are performing well despite these behaviors, let it pass. You’ll gain more by giving them autonomy than you will by trying to micromanage the way they pack their briefcases.
QUESTION THREE: WHAT’S THE BIGGEST BLUNDER? When dealing with sub-par sales- people, you may have a dozen or more behaviors to correct. Don’t try to address them all simultaneously, says the behavior expert. “That’s a mistake many managers make – they want to change everything at once.” Instead, pick the most egregious habit and start there, focusing on one new skill or action at a time until it’s fully ingrained. Once a few behaviors are under control, you may find that the problem employee isn’t such a problem. “It’s kind of like a light bulb goes on for them,” says Davis.
QUESTION FOUR: ASK, “WHAT SHOULD THEY BE DOING?” NOT “WHAT SHOULDN’T THEY BE DOING?” Nature abhors a vacuum. Because of the way the human mind works, it’s easier to make a change when you focus on adding a new behav- ior instead of eliminating an old one. “You never solve a problem by simply stopping a behavior,” he says. Instead, you have to replace
SELLING TIP Pareto’s Principle
The Italian philosopher and economist Vilfredo Pareto is credited with the 80/20 rule, which basically states that 80 percent of a person’s production comes from 20 percent of their effort. It also means that 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers. To maximize your selling efforts, identify what you do really well and do
more of it. If you’re better at closing sales on the telephone than you are in person, concentrate on telephone sales. If you’re better in face-to-face situations, schedule more appointments. Following the same premise, 20 percent of a typical sales staff makes 80 percent of the sales. Commit to being in the 20 percent.
– WILLIAM F. KENDY 8 | APRIL 2016 SELLING POWER © 2016 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
the negative behavior with a posi- tive one.
For instance, if you want a sales- person to stop interrupting custom- ers, ask him to focus on waiting two seconds after the client has finished speaking before opening his mouth. If you’re trying to get someone to end her chronic tardiness, ask her to arrive at appointments 10 minutes early. “Pick behaviors you want to increase,” recommends the expert. It’s easier to reinforce a positive action someone assumes rather than a negative action they eliminate.
QUESTION FIVE: HOW CAN YOU GET YOUR EMPLOYEE’S BUY-IN?
All the action plans in the world won’t work if your employees don’t want to change, or don’t believe in the process you’ve put together. To motivate them, start by helping them see the consequences of their behavior, says a sales coach. “If a manager can quantify the impact of the problem, he or she can relate that to the rep to induce better behavior,” she says. For example, if a rep makes only 20 of his 30 daily calls, that means his potential earn- ings are reduced by one-third. This translates into X lost dollars to the rep and Y lost dollars to the firm. Once employees understand how their behavior is interfering with
their success, they can generate solutions. By involving employees, you’re not only getting their buy-in, you’re teaching them to problem solve for the future.
QUESTION SIX: HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHANGE? Many managers believe that, if they’ve gotten an employee to incorporate a new behavior once, the change process is complete. Not so, says the behavior. In fact, the majority of effort from a manager is still to come. Positive reinforcement is needed to cement the new habit in the employ- ee’s behavior patterns, and a pat on the back the first time they succeed isn’t sufficient. It may take weeks or months before the behavior is fully ingrained, he says. “It takes more than one repetition to make a habit of anything,” he explains, and the time involved depends on the complexity of the new behavior.
In the meantime, you need to be re-
inforcing, reinforcing, reinforcing. Does this mean you have to give a salesper- son a gold star each time he or she gets a call report in on time? Not nec- essarily. But it does mean you acknowl- edge the change in behavior once it appears, and continue to acknowledge it intermittently until they wouldn’t do things any other way. “People do too little in terms of reinforcement,” he says. “In the early stages, it takes as much as you can give. You want people to know you like, value, or ap- preciate what they’ve done.” It’s been said that the only person you can really change is yourself. But, while personal responsibility is a wonderful thing, it’s not only possible to influence other people’s behavior, says the expert, it’s your responsibil- ity as a manager. “It’s a myth that you can’t change people’s personali- ties,” he says. “Personality is made up of thousands of little habits, and changing it is sort of like eating the elephant – a bite at a time.”
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