A Sales Workshop Can Do Real Damage
Yes. It Can Do Damage!
A few years ago I was doing training at a chain that sells ceramics, bathroom fixtures, flooring and the like. Most of my effort went into strengthening the sales team's "drive to close." Until then, they'd been content to "give tours" of the showroom while silently praying the customers would buy on their own...
During that period I became friends with the chain's manager, and I'd drop by to see him every few months.
On one of these regular visits, when I asked how the team was doing, the manager told me that "a miracle had happened to him." Struggling to keep a straight face, he explained that his main competitor had hired an organizational consulting firm. Its people studied the company for a while and concluded that producing a price quote for a customer took far too long...
So they hired a talented programmer, who spent several months (at no small cost) writing custom software that could turn out a quote in just a few minutes. The salesperson no longer had to get up from his chair. All he had to do now was type in the catalog numbers of the items the customer was interested in and the quantity of each, and the computer would crunch the data in the blink of an eye and spit out a neat, very attractive and, above all, fast price quote...
The manager went on to tell me that the competitor had practically stopped taking orders. Every interaction (even with customers who were completely ready to buy) naturally ended with a price quote, which sent the customer off to keep checking and comparing...
"Customers walk into my branches holding the competitor's quote," the manager added. "All my people have to do is take it from them, knock a token amount off, or throw in an item or two on great terms as a gesture, or just do a little bit of manipulation that casts doubt on what the competitor told them, and then laugh all the way to the bank"...
Yes, you can do damage!
People tend to think a bad sales course won't do any good, but won't do any harm either. That's simply not true.
A salesperson's main source of strength is his professional worldview, his beliefs, his approach to the sales profession. These matter far more than any technique or trick you can teach him. If that orientation is warped, nothing else matters.
When someone who doesn't deeply understand the field (because he comes from the wrong discipline, lacks practical experience or relevant education, or for any other reason) takes on sales training, he can cause damage that is very hard (sometimes impossible) to undo.
If you look into it, you'll find that you don't need to make dramatic changes to a client's work methods and computer systems to do harm. You can lead a team with real potential straight to ruin using simpler, more readily available means...
In the early nineties I ran a series of workshops for a chain that sells air conditioners. Just a few minutes into the first session, I discovered that the team called their visits to customers' homes "consultation meetings"... I asked what exactly "consultation" meant, and one of the participants explained: "We're air conditioning consultants!"
"What does a consultation meeting involve?" I asked, and the answer was: "We get a feel for the place, decide which air conditioner is right, where to put it and so on." "And then what?" I pressed. "We fill out a consultation form for him with all the details, including price, payment terms and so on"... "And then what?" I went on. Nobody answered. Again and again I asked, "And then what?" and nobody answered. Finally one of the participants stood up and asked: "What do you mean?"... "I mean the customer whose home you're in doesn't want a consultation. He wants an air conditioner! He's hot!"... "You mean he wants to buy on the spot?" the student wondered. "Yes," I replied. "His downstairs neighbor recommended your company and a specific model, told him what he paid, and suggested he insist that Aharon the installer do the job... What then?"
"Oh, that's not a problem," the student told me. "If he wants to order on the spot, I can grab order forms from the car and write up an order... but usually it doesn't work that way. People who want to order call the company a few days later and order over the phone"...
If this sounds like an extreme case, let me point out that to this day I've come across countless cases just like it. I've met sales teams at residential construction sites who saw their job as "showing the customer the range of apartments"... I've trained teams at a leading, well-known car leasing and financing company whose people were defined as, and actually worked as, "financing consultants"...
I've come across quite a few sales "trainers" who insist on teaching "consultative selling" and don't understand the destructive effect it has on the sales team, which grabs onto the idea like it's found treasure. They're no longer expected to sell, close deals or deal with pushback, just to settle for giving polite, professional advice and hoping for the best...
I've met frustrated, confused salespeople whose "sales coaches" had convinced them that objections come from the salespeople themselves, and that the way to avoid them is... not to sell...
Yes. You can do damage!
I'm not dismissing the importance and influence of successful brands, but in the long run they'll just sit on the shelves and in the warehouse if a talented, high-quality team isn't there to handle them. In companies whose main business is marketing and sales, the sales force is the single most important asset, and it's what will ultimately decide their future. Nurturing and sharpening the sales team's skills can bring a significant jump in sales (often doubling or even tripling sales and profits). And in exactly the same way, damaging the team's orientation or work methods can bring down even long-established, highly successful businesses.