Can you get new salespeople up to competency in the right way in an ideal timeline? Is either of these two modes what your current new hire training is structured like… #1 – Sink or Swim You bring on a new hire, provide some training about the company, the product, and how it’s sold. Maybe just a few days of this. Then you put them into sales conversations. Since you hired salespeople, they know how to sell. So, you don’t feel the need to teach them sales—just how to speak about your product. Basically, you are walking them up to the edge of the pool, telling them how to move their arms and feet, and pushing them in. Since they have made it in life this long, they should survive being in water. #2 – Everything You bring them in and put them through days and days (maybe weeks and weeks) of classroom training on the product, program, company, and sales process. You have them go through the sales process over and over again, from front to back. You might not have hired experienced salespeople, which means you feel like you need to teach them everything about everything. Of course, if your product is complicated, it makes sense to go with mode #2. But for that scenario, what I see is a company spending weeks of training on the product but almost nothing on actually talking to scared, confused humans who don’t know what the right decision to make is. Which is the Ideal Way to Go? First, as you expect me to say – it depends. I have built longer training programs, only to find out that when someone does finally speak to prospects, they literally forget everything that we covered and have to learn all the lessons again – the hard way (by losing sales). I have built abbreviated programs where we are shoving people in the pool on day two, but with lots of lifeguards present to help them survive long enough to learn how to swim. To me, I think the best ideal – no matter the length – is to focus on what matters most: being able to master your successful sales process. Products/programs are easy to learn. Proficiency with the admin side (CRM, applications, agreements, POS systems) will come with repetition. But what hangs most new reps up is the actual stages and phrasing of your sales process. A Visual Comparison: Coaching a Kid’s Basketball Team Imagine you are the new coach of a kid’s basketball team, and no one on the team has ever played before. They have no idea what they are doing or what the rules are. If that were your situation – in the first week of practices, you wouldn’t spend half the time in the classroom reading about basketball and the rules, and the other half getting everyone on the court to run full game scrimmages and plays. That would be terrible. Layering Skills: The Right Way to Train You would start, day one, with having everyone dribble. For hours. Your ultimate goal is to get them to dribble without having to look down at their hands to see what is happening. Then you would move on to passing. While standing, not even walking or running. Then you might try dribbling while walking. Then passing while moving. Then some shooting drills. Eventually, you would practice some plays (I always loved the 3-man-weave). And then, scrimmage a full game. You would add on layers of basic skills and then combine them together into the final product – a game scenario. But in sales, we say: here is the product, now let’s run through this hour-long sales presentation, conversation, demo, etc. over and over again until you have it down. Instead, you should drill portions of it and then add on layers to your foundation. Practice the Key Steps of Your Sales Process Literally practice the discovery portion over and over again (like dribbling). Then your Trust step – talking about the company and product. Then part of your demo/presentation. Then another part. Then the application (if there is one). Then pricing. Then objections. And so on. Conlusion  Break down your sales process into the main parts, then drill on those over and over again. Your goal should be to get that new hire to know the parts of the process so well that it is second nature. Even if they can’t fully explain the product/program – that is the easy part to learn. It doesn’t do much good to teach them about the product/program if they can’t even talk to people and move them forward. By the way – this does require that you have an actual, structured sales process, and not just a team full of salespeople who wing it and do/say whatever is needed to close deals.

The Nature of Business Challenges Challenging situations and scenarios will always come up in business. (And in life!) It’s a part of business. Sometimes it’s the market that has changed, or the customer’s desires and/or expectations from companies like yours, or the economy, or marketing. Sometimes it’s just an evolution that must occur in business to always keep moving forward. When challenging times occur, what is your response as a leader? Well, if you are a salesperson turned manager, you might struggle with managing through challenges. Your primary focus is probably on sales (as it should be, of course) but also on salespeople. How do you ensure that they are always successful and potentially operating in the most comfortable environment with the easiest chance for salespeople to earn the highest amount of commission? That formula and outlook is not always in line with what the company needs and wants as a business. That formula is focused on salespeople’s success, which then leads to your success as a manager. Both financially as well as the ease of your role (it’s much easier to manage a team that is winning and making money). But what happens when a challenge arises, and changes must occur? Whose side are you on? Facing Resistance to Change I have written about that before – about remembering who you work for. And I still see sales managers and leaders struggle with dealing with challenges that they don’t like, or think are fair. Changes that don’t make sense to them and cause them to deal with questions and complaints from their team. Situations where the right people on the team will still do well, but it will cause the middle and bottom to question if this is the right role for them. Important note – if a change occurs, and the bottom percentage of your team is not happy with the change – then there is a good chance the company made the right changes. You don’t want that bottom group of salespeople taking up payroll and quailed leads that others could have closed. The Role of Mindset in Overcoming Challenges Here is the thing with change and challenges: it will show you who wants to be a part of the company and team. If they have the right mindset that matches your organization’s mission, vision, and core values, they will accept the challenges and changes. If they aren’t a good fit for the company and potentially just there to make money (like a mercenary that happens to work for your company…for now…because they needed a job), then they will push back on the changes in negative ways. They will complain, talk about being confused and frustrated. They will want the old thing back – whatever it was. They will push back on the change that must occur to overcome the challenge. Understanding the 'Why' Behind Challenges and Change If you want to succeed at leading through challenges, the first thing you must know is the why behind the challenge. Why did it happen, and why is it important for the organization to make a change to address that challenge? Not all challenges need some significant change. Sometimes it’s a deal-specific challenge, then everyone can put their problem-solving minds together and move the deal forward. But if a change is needed to facilitate successfully navigating that challenge, then you must also understand the why behind that specific change playbook. Why that change to resolve the challenge? Why not other changes that could have been made instead? If you don’t understand either of those whys, then you will struggle with leading yourself and the team through the challenge and changes needed. You won’t be able to explain it to your team, and you won’t understand why everyone needs to stand together at this time. The Importance of Personal Support in Leadership Another note: I talk a lot about leadership, sales teams, sales managers…there is one part that’s almost more important than helping your sales team understand the why – it’s your significant other and/or family. I have seen many sales leaders buckle under change, and fail to move forward through challenges, because they have a significant other at home that is putting doubt in their head about the changes that are happening. The manager goes home, tries to explain to their partner (or family) why the comp plan changed, or the schedule, or the marketing, or the pricing, or the sales process – and if the manager isn’t convinced, they won’t convince (sell) their partner/family on the why. That partner/family gets in the ear of the manager and starts eroding their confidence with the company and direction. This also occurs at the salesperson level – if they have anyone at home who will stress about changes…especially if the salesperson isn’t confident in the changes or themselves. Conclusion To lead through challenges and changes, you must know the two whys. Then you must help everyone else around you understand them. And for your team – the right people who see you as a leader they can trust will follow you through this period. The wrong ones will want to leave. Let them.  And please don’t blame the challenge or the change for why they left.