I applaud DirecTV with their diversity. Not only are they continuing to make an impact within the cable TV wars; but they have also made a substantial impact within the sales world (more in a bit).
Their recent campaign plays on one single phrase, showcasing a frontier-era family in a suburban neighborhood who stick to antiquated ways such as a horse-and-buggy and, by the way, cable.
“We’re settlers son, we settle for things,” explains the father in “Neighbors” when his son politely asks why they can’t have DirecTV like their modern neighbors. In another spot, “Satisfaction” boasts of DirecTV’s and their outperformance of cable in customer satisfaction, highlighting the family’s own means of satisfaction: a stick and hoop, a faceless doll, cabbages and foot-stomping.
"Status quo, you know, is Latin for the mess we are in" Ronald Reagan
Settlers, complacency, content, relaxed, peaceful; it is out there right now within the closet of sales teams. Lurking in the dark shadows of their success. Hiding where you least expect to find it, a great balancing act of excuses. It is the silent business killer, lurking and striking sales teams without warning. It can bring even the biggest and brightest teams to their knees. What is this hidden terror, Settling!
Don't think it can happen to you? It strikes, every day. Settling, it happens to small sales teams even to the big and almighty. Settling is a ruthless disease. It cares not of the size of your sales team, length in business, or what day of the week it is. It cares only of the cold and timid, the hard reality behind this is while your sales team became content some other sales team was not. With extreme precision they rewrote the playbook.
They remodeled, retooled and engineered your sales business model turning it over making it better, leaner, rebranding it to resonate with today's modern business executive and KABOOM your customer has become their appetite for destruction. You welcomed them right into your sales jungle and your client base has become their paradise city.
Allow me to address a few elephants in the room. Unguarded, they have been lurking within the sales broom closets for quite some time.
Lack of Sales Team Goals
A monthly quota, sure it is a goal, however; salespeople tend not to set personal goals, even if they do, these tend to be a wish list or a hope list rather than a must have list. Where is the burning desire?
No Pressure from Management
There may be some disagreement as some salespeople will bitch regarding their sales manager constantly riding their backs. Yet most sales managers tend to focus on the underperformers, and spend less and less of their time focusing on the top performers. As a recovering copier sales rep, I’ve been in bullpens and heard mutterings of “I don’t care what they’re doing if they’re hitting their numbers”. Coach, coach and coach my friends. This is why sports dynasties exist.
Salespeople within Sales Teams are Tired and Jaded
Often times this radiates in salespeople who have been in the same company for decades or in the same industry for eons, particularly if their sales role hasn’t progressed much.
They’ve been seeing the same clients and prospects for years. Day after day, month over month talking about the same products, same services to the same people, monotony of their activity shows up in their attitude towards pushing themselves to the next level; leading to apathy, complacency and taking clients for granted.
Unless these salespeople find a way to invigorate more energy and interest back into their role, they’ll just mutter along in mediocrity until something shakes them out of the state they are in. Unfortunately, this translates into losing a client or the threat of losing their job. Coach them out of this state before you lose them.
The Settler Signs within Sales Teams
- One or two top performers without any close challengers
- Same set of prospect and client names appearing on the 30, 60, 90 day sales funnel reports.
- Some of your sales team not responding well to your questions. Displaying an "I know what I’m doing" mentality.
- Some of your sales team trying to divert the conversation from prospecting and new business development to how busy they are with existing clients or paperwork.
"Salespeople have hypnotized themselves into believing what they aren't doing doesn't work"
Sales Management I challenge you! Ignite the fire within your sales teams and help them kick the nasty settlers habit.
There is a great quote within Jim Keenan's book, Not Taught...
"There isn't the luxury of time. We used to say, wait until this crisis is over and we'll get back to normal, but that never happens. We have to be change animals" Michelle McKenzie, President & CEO, Canadian Tourism Commission
The luxury of time no longer exists. Settling has become a rampant epidemic within sales departments. Time is of the essence, as Michelle states, "we have to be change animals"
Do not Settle, Create the Change
Speaking of change animals, I have been inspired by the friendship I have developed with Jim Keenan, known to most as Keenan. He smacks change right across the top of the head and strongly challenges the status quo. Keenan brings an acute awareness and understanding that acceptance of change is critical within the information age we live in. This applies directly to the settler's mentality.
We have only three responses to change --- resist it, accept it or create it. A change resistor likes things just the way they are. A change acceptor will wait to see what is happening. While change creators have become today's problem solvers.
Attention to all sales teams out there... become the change creators in your industry. Take charge of the buyer's journey. The reason why the buyers are so far along in their journey is your fault.
"95 % of B2B decision makers expect new or different insights from sales professionals."
LinkedIn SalesConnect Conference 2014
Change creators pull organizations forward.
Change creators take action!
Change creators identify new processes, look for new opportunities, bringing new and different insights into businesses with the goal of helping corporate executives solve problems or challenges.
Adopting a change creators mentality your sales team will become true professionals focused on helping their prospects and clients for all the right reasons versus closing the "big deal" for their personal benefit.
Time to plow the fields with a combine as opposed to a horse drawn plough.
Stop playing with sticks and hoops. Let's foot stomp the wollering and complacency attitudes. As a sales team, adjust and stop settling.
If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.
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I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my LinkedIn stories. Integrating the use of LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive copier world. With great pride I transform and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy
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