“Acceptance” may be the second step of communicating the new sales process but don’t make it the weaker one. In fact, gaining the acceptance of a new sales process by reps or sales people is so critical that a perfectly good system can fail utterly when this step is neglected.
What is meant by “acceptance”? For our purposes perhaps the best definition is given by the American Heritage Dictionary which defines it as “Belief in something; agreement”.
Seems simple, but why would a step that appears so obvious and self-evident be so often overlooked? Perhaps a bit exaggerated but much of the oversight can stem from the mistaken concept of sales personnel being just so many “cogs in a machine”.
Anyone who has run a sales team knows what a bunch of individual personalities they are. Yet it is a constant source of amazement to see sales books and process consultants viewing the sales areas as if it were made up of machines or automatons. Just arrange them in the proper sequence, punch in some responses and bingo!
The truth is far, far from that.
Sales processes, pipelines and pitches are all guidelines and simply provide channels to follow or actions to emulate. But consultants and sales managers continue to knock themselves silly while suffering under the delusion that with enough “channeling” and tightly rehearsed form-fed scripting a sales area will somehow effortlessly perform.
One could only wish that it would be so.
Even when training is done and apparent compliance is all neatly wrapped up the team will go on “forgetting” and doing things the old way. As any sales manager will attest, sales people have their own ideas about things and an old dog will definitely learn a new trick long before one can successfully force feed a new system down a sales pipeline.
The world may be imperfect but it is the one we live and work in. And in this world there is one element that isn’t likely to change – people like to be “right” and resent being told to do things. So why fight that and suffer through “mistakes” and silent rebellions?
Create understanding, build acceptance and then, if it is a good system or process, it will be a pleasure to run and a profit machine to boot.
But a very key warning applies – not only allow for open communication, make sure it happens and be willing to have it happen. After all these are the guys on the front lines and can possess extremely valuable input on why something would or wouldn’t work. Block that and you could shut yourself off from some very fruitful observations – even the possibility that the process one had in mind might actually NOT work or need major revision.
Far better to discover that early on and prevent lost sales, employee resentment and future resistance to new programs.
There are many ways to get this done but without doubt it helps to have a system that can push a message out, initiate surveys and track implementation. The confusion of getting in a new system can be tremendous and does not end with a one-time initial implementation. And so having the right system to get it done, provide backup and be able to handle future new hires, as well as re-trains, is a big advantage in getting the job done right.
Give Real Ability a call; we know how to raise the Corporate IQ – one able employee at a time.
Real Ability Software and Management Systems
www.realability.com
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