The Need For Drastic Changes in the Sales Profession

(This is the companion post for the Business Journal column questioning the craziness and ineffectiveness of the traditional sales model, and suggested solutions to enhance the sales process, and profitability)

Yes, that’s our old Looney Tunes friend, Wile E. Coyote (heavy on the Looney).  His passion was always evident when attempting to capture and devour the Roadrunner, though his inability to adjust strategy (change!) caused him to be The Biggest Loser … literally, and from a weight-loss perspective.

For the last 15 years of my corporate sales career, I shook my head at what passed for sales sanity and logic.  While almost always part of the senior leadership team, I kept my progressive methods to myself in the name of maintaining peace.  Because of the pervasive nature of the age old sales model paradigm, straying from the norm was akin to voodoo or witchcraft in the CEO and President’s eyes.

At the risk of being placed on a wooden pole, with rocks hurled at me as people screamed “Witch!  Burn him!” and marshmallows toasting below as angry flames grew tall, I performed my magic without the top dogs knowing a damn thing.  I knew in the end that as long as my teams drove big numbers, I’d never get asked a thing.  Not only was I right, those salespeople are top producers to this day.

Still, it was disheartening to know that my boss – the leader of the enterprise – often had no interest in what affected the most important objective of any company:  driving customer demand.

Here are five more items to consider when breaking free of the “looney – cy” of what’s passed for sales and business development for over one hundred years.  Thanks a lot, mssrs. Ziglar, Hopkins, Tracy, et al for setting us back to the Salem, MA witch hunts.

1. Sales, Marketing, and yes – Operations – should report to one incredibly enlightened, talented and customer-centric leader.  How else to ensure that the right thing will be done every single time without conflicting interests?
2. Create new metrics centered around relevance, customer connectivity, competitive advantage(s), and ideation activities (helping the customer advance their value proposition).  End-of-process metrics do absolutely nothing to enhance your company’s continuous improvement initiatives.
3. If your customers have not become your sales force – and a passionate, enthusiastic sales force to boot – you’re doing something wrong.
4. Recognize that salespeople do a lot more than just “sell,” so PLEASE pay them a fair salary for all of the other necessary (and beneficial) work they do.
5. Directors, VPs, and the entire senior staff – including the CFO, CIO, CMO, and others – should get off their duffs and go build relationships with the top 20% of customers that’s driving 80% of the firm’s business.  If the company and its senior staff aren’t the reasons why customers do business with you – which then only leaves the salesperson – then the company is highly vulnerable to losing its largest accounts.  And, this happens all … the … time.  It’s usually the primary reason why I get the call.  CARE about the customers who make it possible to live the lifestyle you do.  They’re not the enemy; they’re your boss.