Whether you inherited the team, or you built it yourself, there will come a point where the established, experienced, long-term salespeople on the team get comfortable. They feel like they have arrived, know how to do what they do, have a routine with the amount of effort and outreach it takes to close enough deals to accomplish their goals. They get results for the company.

The Challenge of Stagnation

The challenge comes for leadership when a) the results aren’t good enough anymore and/or b) some part of the sales process or operation needs to change. That’s the point where most sales leaders realize that certain members of their team are resistant to change, whether it’s because of ego or fear, or both. At this moment, managerial frustration starts to build.  A directive from higher up requires a change – to get more sales or to adjust a process or roll out a new technology to the team. The battle of wills begins. Who will win?

Consequences of Resistance to Change

In many companies I examine, leadership relents and the salespeople win. Things don’t change.  Salespeople aren’t held to a higher standard of performance, activity, or results. New and improved processes and rolled back to like they never happened. The company tries to keep the peace. Some sales are better than none, right? Current salespeople are better than finding and training new ones, right? Wrong.

The moment you internally or externally express either of those two thoughts you have given up control of your organization to the salespeople. When you don’t uphold the standards set by the company, you will lose as a business. When you don’t make necessary changes that will facilitate evolution and growth in your market, you will lose as a business. It’s only a matter of time.

Business and sales leaders think they can just keep on keeping on. That something (sales) is better than upsetting everyone.

Problem with that logic is that there are two main external groups that will take advantage of that logic and leadership mindset. Your competition (current ones or those that are just about to come into the market) are evolving, adapting, and growing. If you aren’t even keeping pace with their sales operational dynamics, they will leave you behind in the market place.

The other group is your potential customers. If you aren’t evolving to meet their requirements, needs, demands – for who they want to work with and what type of sales experience they require – then you will lose. They don’t care about your or team. They only care about themselves. They only want something that will help them in some way.  I promise they view you as a commodity that is easily replaceable by your competition.

The Necessity of Change and Evolution

Changing and evolving so that you can grow as a business is ideal.  Sometimes you must change and evolve just to maintain the level of business you have currently. Especially if there is a bunch of competition or your marketplace (i.e. industry economy) and customers are struggling.

So, what can you do about it? How do you get your change resistant team to change, especially the established reps who think they have earned the right to not have to change or adjust anything? There are four steps in the process.



Step 1: Defining the Destination

First – you must have a destination. A vision. A mission. Yes…I know…people say that life is about the journey and not the destination – but business is about a destination. A goal. An end point. Without it you are asking everyone to jump into a car with you to go on a road trip with no plan, direction, or destination. That seems fun at first, but what will keep you from driving in circles or aimlessly driving around?

Step 2: Establishing Core Values

Second – with a vision and mission, you must establish core values. “People who work here believe in ______. We act like ______ when things happen. We treat each other and our customers like ______.” This would also include the things you don’t do or believe as a group. This is your company culture. It’s the identity of everyone involved.

Step 3: Setting New Expectations

Third – Set new expectations of what each person is responsible for doing. Their activities, actions, and the results that should come from it. The rules of the game for compliance to changes, technology (like the CRM that no one wants to use fully), attendance, etc.

Step 4: Identifying and Addressing Non-Believers

Fourth – you determine who believes in the company culture and wants to be a part of it, and who doesn’t. Those who don’t want to focus on the destination and agree to operate by the core values and expectations should be given a chance to adjust and commit to those things or be asked to get off the bus (Jim Collins, Good To Great mode).

Now you can get to work with your team. Helping them achieve more results. Get them to a different level of results for them, the company, and their clients. Now you can step into leadership, and not just management, mode.

Oh…fifth, and very vital step…because it’s something you should never stop doing – recruiting. Never stop hiring.

Conclusion

Hiring is like sales (well…honestly, everything in life is sales) – all about pipeline. A healthy full pipeline solves most problems. Build your recruiting process so that you always have the ability to bring on good, new salespeople so that you always have options. What “options” do you need to have? The option of knowing that you don’t need those change resistant, mediocre performing salespeople as much as they think you need them.