I was rushing around this week trying to get a few more deals closed. It’s the last week of the month and we all know what that means. I have a fair amount of leases throughout the year, which keeps me at quota. My Sales Manager pushes us every week and although he’s a friend, he is all business when it comes to prospecting. The crazy thing is we’re all pounding the phones like mad; I have to make 30 calls a day! Trying to set C-Level appointments is really a waste of my time. I already have my own deals and I make my own way. Making appointments with net new prospects is amazingly hard so I just stick to customers and drive more profitable deals in my portfolio.
Our sales comp plan has just changed. I haven’t figured it all out yet but our owner told us that it is going to reward us more for new business, which typically means they’re lowering what they’re going to pay me on renewals. If that’s true I’m not going to be happy. The thing is, we have to find a way to separate our company from the pack and that’s not my job. They want us to practice these presentations and do role-playing to memorize this weird stuff about a value proposition that quite frankly I’m not sure I even understand.
There’s no reason to penalize me if the company isn’t growing! I’m hitting my numbers. Fancy words and presentations won’t do anything! Most of our competitors can do everything we do and some do more. All things equal, they’ve got to find ways to differentiate our company because if they don’t, it’s just going to be a price war!
When it comes to closing business I can hold my own. My customers love me and I take excellent care of them. I seldom lose a renewal! Well, there were a few deals last quarter that I didn’t win. Only because one of the competitors bought the business! I heard that the sales rep discounted those deals 20% below his sales cost just to beat me! But those customers still told me they loved having me as their rep and will miss me, so that’s what really counts. Right? The main problem is our company has to be different, so different that our customers would never leave! That’s what we need to do.
I don’t say this out loud, but I don’t think we’re really better than our competitors. Our owner says we are! My Manager says it too, but there are deals where the competitor proposes capabilities that we simply can’t compete. The only reason I do well is because I’m really that good. I know they want me to learn all of this new stuff. But I’m doing ok without it. I don’t really sell managed services because the sales cycle is way too long.
Bobby and Laura have both been here as long as I have and between the three of us, we run this place. Without us, this company would be in deep trouble, they’d have no one to close our deals and the customers would probably follow us if we were to leave anyway. I truly believe they shouldn’t be messing with our comp. Things were just fine the way it was. Give ‘em an inch and they take a mile.
The three of us often meet up at a coffee shop away from the office and talk about the things our owner should do to make us more competitive. Things like increasing our commission percentage to give us more incentive to try harder. Lowering our sales cost to be fairer and help us survive. Laura says they should hire someone to make appointments for us, but that’s never going to happen. I say they should just listen to us; after all we bring in all the business.
Dealer principals or sales reps alike take heed! You both share a responsibility in this matter. If the above story sounds familiar at your dealership YOU are responsible to change it. All too often the dealer is held as the only one who created this mess. They get blamed for everything but everyone has a play in it. It’s true that the dealer is sometimes the greatest adversary to change.
Whether it be onboarding new services or actually building products or services that are superior, it’s hard to turn around a death culture, especially if the dealer really doesn’t want change. They may say they want to, but the lack of action proves it’s just talk.
I believe the dealer IS responsible to provide leadership, vision and culture and to energize his or her team. This means they have to do whatever it takes to find and communicate a successful path to the future. It’s missing in a lot of businesses today! No, they won’t always be right, but they do have to lead their organization to the future. If your flame is gone, hire a flamethrower and get out of the way. If you don’t apply the proper power (incentive & motivation) with your hand on the rudder (leadership), you may just find yourself in troubled waters.
But my real message is to sales reps. Not too long ago, people used to stay at a company their entire career. Once hired, they were part of a team and their personal responsibility was to help the business succeed. They took pride in personally leading the company to the win. I mean it was the sales rep’s personal habit to study, practice and be the best possible talent out there. Where did self-pride go?
My advice is, if you’re not 100% in; then get 100% out! You’re killing the business. I can’t tell you how many tails are wagging the dog out there, it’s ridiculous. Sure I blame some of this on the Dealer, allowing mediocrity and even a mutinous culture to infiltrate their business just baffles me. By settling for people who have no idea what hard work and appreciation is, they’re just seeding failure.
By allowing a stale culture to exist and letting your company get kicked around every month just puts your company in a very risky situation. In the same light, trying to appease anyone who always has one foot out the door just delays the inevitable. As soon as a change comes down they don’t like, they’re gone. The longer you allow that to exist the more dangerous it becomes and most of those reps that are like this, are the ones that wouldn’t sign a non-compete agreement when you hired them. Enough said.
But the great news is, the sooner you start to drive a highly competitive, highly motivated, energized company the sooner you create that differentiation that’s missing in our industry. It’s that day that you can rebirth your competitive edge, because I’m telling you, it seldom exists out there.
A highly motivated and energized sales team is the most competitive and different thing you can create. It’s not price or the newest gee-wiz that drives a winning culture; it’s a sales team that can’t be stopped. It’s a team that wants to win at the rep level. So start today, get rid of those fifty per-centers! Sure it may slow down for a while, you may even be forced to get deeper involved in your business than you have been in years. But you will reignite that flame you had when your business was new and for the first time in a long time you’ll feel that excitement and pride you’ve been missing. Do you feel that? When you get your mojo back, you’ll be amazed at how easy it will be to recruit and motivate the right team members.
Failing to deal with this issue kills opportunity, but most importantly it kills your ability to stay pertinent and competitive. Dragging an anchor always slows the ship and sometimes causes it to sink. Trying to make everyone happy, every second of the day is a short-term play and you shouldn’t have to replace everyone’s batteries each week.
Lead your team; show them your unstoppable desire to win. Get them involved in your vision for the company. Keep those who see it! Help them realize their part! Show them honesty, integrity and fairness and hold yourself accountable to them and them to you. Every day deliver all that can be delivered and teach them how to win again.
