From Training to Transformation: The Key to Sustaining Change
If you’re like most staffing leaders, you’re probably planning a skills improvement initiative for later this year, currently running a sales or...
3 min read
Dan Fisher
:
Jun 28, 2016 8:00:00 AM
You’re fully convinced a sales methodology can help your IT staffing firm scale . You know that getting all your reps to follow the same sales methodology will drive consistent, repeatable performance. You understand it will allow your firm to bring new reps on board faster and more effectively and accelerate time to quota attainment.
You’ve gone through the steps to build a sales methodology that will support your firm’s sales process. Now you're saying to yourself, My IT Staffing Firm Has a New Sales Methodology. Now What?
As you probably know from experience, salespeople tend to be set in their ways. They sell the way they’re comfortable selling and avoid straying from their comfort zones. They do whatever they feel has worked for them in the past, regardless of what their sales managers and company policies tell them.
Your firm adopted a sales methodology for a good reason . How can you get your “lone wolf” sales reps to follow it?
When most companies introduce something new, they tend to overemphasize the design and launch of the program and under-emphasize what comes after. In other words, they are not prepared for the amount of effort it takes to sustain and reinforce the change so it permeates the entire organization. This is the first mistake IT staffing firms make when they implement a new sales methodology.
So, along with designing and planning the launch of your new sales methodology, ask yourself three questions:
I encourage the firms I work with to think of change as a process, not an event. Sweeping edicts unleashed from the corner office usually don’t lead to sweeping change.
At best, people make a half-hearted stab at the new way of doing things and quickly revert to their old ways. At worse, the new sales methodology is ignored.
Instead of making demands and expecting them to be followed, map out a user adoption plan. This is the process through which you’ll help everyone in your firm learn, use, and benefit from the new sales methodology. Include in your user adoption plan:
What I’m talking about here is change management. Change management is the practice of driving business results by changing behaviors. To do this you will need a plan to sustain the change.
For any new initiative to take hold throughout your company, you must plan for change in three ways:
At Menemsha Group, when we help firms implement a new sales methodology, we also introduce a user adoption plan to help them commit to it. In that plan, we recommend:
If you’ve made it this far in the article and aren’t sure what a sales methodology is or how it can help your IT staffing firm break through your revenue barriers, congratulations. And sorry for the confusion. My new ebook should clear everything up.
Click the banner below for your free copy of “Sales Methodology 101 for IT Staffing Firms: Your 6 Big Questions Answered.” Then come back here and ask any question you want — about a sales methodology or change management — in the comments section below.
If you’re like most staffing leaders, you’re probably planning a skills improvement initiative for later this year, currently running a sales or...
1 min read
When our prospects receive our unsolicited phone call, internal sirens go off in their head. “Warning! Warning! Salesperson Calling!” As a result,...
1 min read
Sales teams need content to close deals. More specifically, content that enables them to ask relevant questions, share relevant insights, address...