Change is inevitable. Growth is intentional.
Change will happen whether you like it or not. If you run a company long enough you'll see changes in your market, your competition, your customers, your customers' expectations, your position in the marketplace, your pricing models, how you deliver your product or service, and on and on.
Growth is different. Growth is a choice. You can choose to create an environment where the expectation is that everyone on the team grows all the time and growth is part of your culture. Or you can choose to just keep doing things the way you've always done them and hope your sales team can adapt to the inevitable changes your company will face.
While growth is a choice, it's not an easy decision. Growth is hard and you'll face resistance. Top sales people will say "look at my numbers, I don't need training and development...." And yet we find even small incremental growth, say a 10% improvement, for a top producing sales person can produce the biggest impact on your top line. Take a $1 million dollar producer and help her improve by 10% -- that's $100k in new revenue. Take a $200k producer and help him grow by 20% -- that's only $40k in new revenue.
Just ask yourself which company will be able to handle change better, the company with a sales team growing on purpose or the company letting each sales person fend for themselves?
What are you doing to help your sales team grow and improve? Can you see specific measurable progress?
If you're growing your sales team on purpose, you should be able to look at your sales team every month, every quarter, every year and say "Clearly we're getting better....we're having better conversations....we're asking better questions....we're getting better margins....we're generating more referrals....we're managing customer expecations better....we're handling the competition more effectively....we're calling higher and wider....we're hearing fewer excuses....we're winning more proposals....and on and on."
Do you know which sales people are capable of growing and by how much? Do you know their strengths and weaknesses and what to do to leverage the former and address the later? Do you know who on your team is coachable and trainable (and who is not)? Why would you keep someone on your sales team who isn't open to coaching and growth?
Growth is a choice and it starts at the top. You can chose to grow your sales team on purpose or you can leave it to chance. It's up to you. To help you get started we've prepared a simple checklist to help you focus on the right areas. You can get it for FREE right here.