A few years ago, I was asked to give a talk at a global sales conference for a multinational technology company. In response to plateauing sales, the leadership team defined a change strategy to reignite their growth. Unfortunately, they had announced the change nearly nine months before and it hadn't taken hold. With the conference only two weeks away, they were hoping I could help.
In cases like this where I'm hearing about a session just days before the event, my job more closely resembles triage than it does consulting or speaking. Since that happens fairly often, I've had to develop some shortcuts to get my arms around a situation quickly. One of these shortcuts involves writing the word NEW at the top of a blank notebook page. Then about halfway down the page I scribble the word OLD. As the clients explain their vision of the future to me, I begin taking notes under NEW. If my notes fill up the space between NEW and OLD before they finish explaining their plan, it's often a good sign that we need to clarify the strategy. I adhere to Einstein's dictum that āif you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it yourself.ā As my wife will attest, I play the part of a six-year-old disturbingly well so this method lets me leverage my gift of perennial immaturity. I've found that if I can understand the vision after just a few minutes, then it is usually crystal clear to the client's team members.
So when this call began, I opened my notebook and jotted down NEW then OLD on a blank page. After a few minutes of small talk I asked them to tell me about the new strategy.
āWhat is it all about?ā I said.
The group's vice president, whom we'll call āSandy,ā jumped in to explain how the new plan focused on something called āco-selling.ā Essentially, their internal salespeople would start working closely with the company's external distributors with whom they'd traditionally had more of what you might call a frenemy relationship. In theory, they are on the same team, but in practice there was an unspoken assumption that the external distributors might cannibalize your sales, and therefore your paycheck.
With co-selling the idea is that external distributors better understand the individual customer's challenges, while the internal salespeople at the company that actually makes the products better understand the range of possible solutions to offer said customers. By working together, they are able to recommend a more fitting solution to address each customer's unique challenges. Makes sense, right?
When Sandy finished explaining, I had plenty of room to spare between NEW and OLD.
So far so good.
A decade ago, I would have stopped right there and moved on to discuss the demographics of the group, the logistics of the conference, and other housekeeping matters. After all, the new vision was vivid and concise. It was crystal clear why the change needed to happen. Everyone understood what āco-sellingā was and how to do it. And we had no reason to believe that they somehow lacked the skills or abilities to do it. This was textbook change management.
There was just one problem. They had launched the new initiative seven months before and nothing had changed.
āThat sounds great,ā I continued. āSo let's move on now to what needs to change.ā
Silence.
After a few awkward moments, Sandy spoke up and very patiently explained it to me again. āYou see, Nick, with the new model our people will be partnering with the distributors to really figure out what the customers' true challenges are so that we can provide them with a comprehensive solution that better suits them.ā
āAh, okay, I think I get it. So provide comprehensive solutions as opposed toā¦what?ā I asked.
More silence.
I broke the verbal stalemate this time. āSorry, I am not being very clear here,ā I said. āLet me try again. What have your people been doing that you want them to quit doing so that they can do all the new things that co-selling requires of them?ā
At that point, it finally sunk in. They were adding new priorities on top of old priorities, rather than replacing the old objectives. They were touting new behaviors, but not explicitly killing or even reducing any old behaviors. They were trying to be in the old place and the new place both at the same time. As a result, the whole department was either oblivious or confused or frustrated or all of the above.
Meanwhile the clock was still ticking on all the department's goals for the year.
The top leaders couldn't understand why their people weren't jumping onboard.
Tickā¦tickā¦tickā¦.
The middle managers couldn't imagine how they were expected to take on the extra work required of co-selling without a bigger team and a bigger budget. As far as they knew, they still had to perform all the old duties, but now had a whole bunch of new responsibilities on top of them.
Tickā¦tickā¦tickā¦.
The salespeople out on the front lines could sense the tension between their direct managers and the executive leadership. This just confirmed the belief that their bosses were nice enough people, but were largely ineffectual cogs in the corporate wheel incapable of talking sense to the out-of-touch executives who didn't really understand what it was like āin the field.ā So the salesforce simply shook their heads, shrugged their shoulders, and assured each other that this newest fad too shall pass. Back to business as usual.
Tickā¦tickā¦tickā¦.
Fortunately, this was a talented team with a legitimately strong plan in place. Once we correctly identified the problem, the solution was simple.
Attention + Direction = Change
āI think that's it,ā Sandy said. āI've sent out multiple emails and voicemails announcing the new emphasis on co-selling. We've even brought in outside trainers to conduct co-selling courses to our sales teams. They āget it.ā But the message hasn't hit home yet, it hasn't translated to action yet. Now I think I know why.ā1
āReally? Why do you think that is?ā I asked her.
āIt's the old versus new thing. I don't know that we've made that clear. I think weāthose of us on the leadership team, I meanājust assumed that the change wasā¦obvious.ā
āHow so?ā I said
āI agree with you, Sandy,ā said Michael, one of Sandy's directors and the organizer of the upcoming conference. āI think everyone gets what co-selling is. They just aren't sure exactly what they need to put on hold or quit doing altogether. A lot of the people on our team probably think they are co-selling. And from time to time, I think they are actually involving the distributors in the process. But it's hard to tell, because just as often, they are calling on their customers by themselves and leaving the distributor out of the loop.ā
āAnd why do you think that is?ā I asked.
āThey just don't think it's necessary in a lot of instances,ā Michael said. āI can say from personal experience, it feels that way a lot. Typically, a big chunk of our sales come from license renewals on our softwareāand often that just means getting customer organizations to pay for the unlicensed software that their people have been using illegally all along. It's pretty basic. Those kinds of sales just don't require much outside help to make.ā
āSo if that is where most of your sales come from, and they don't require co-selling, then why are you transitioning to co-selling?ā I asked.
āCorrection. That's where our sales used to come from,ā Michael explained. āThings are changing, though. We can't rely on those license renewals to maintain our position anymore, let alone to grow. The perception in the marketplace is that we've become āpiracy policeā instead of trusted partners or solution-providers.ā
āThat's it then, isn't it, Michael?ā Sandy asked rhetorically. āIt's the licensing deals that need to get cut.ā
āWellā¦I supposeā¦maybeā¦,ā Michael stammered.
āI don't mean cut them out altogether,ā Sandy clarified. āWe'd go out of business if we did that. I just mean we need to make an example out of the licensing dealsāto show the team just how serious we are about co-selling as our future, and how the things we did before aren't going to work anymore.ā
āWhat do you think your people would say if you did thatātold them to āstop selling licensing deals,ā I mean?ā I asked her.
Sandy laughed. āThey would think we lost our bloody minds!ā
āWell, that's a good thing,ā I said, only half-joking. āThat's what we want. Crazy people get other people's attention.ā
āOh, it would definitely get their attention!ā Michael said.
āBut okay. I get it,ā I said. āSo you can't ax all efforts toward selling licensing deals, butāā
āNo, we couldn't,ā Sandy interrupted. āThat would bankrupt us. But what we could do is change the proportions. Michael, about what percent of your team's sales have come from license renewals this year?ā
āI don't know. I'd guess probably 60 to 70 percent.ā
āSo assuming that is representative of everyone else, how about we introduce something like a ā51 percent ruleā? At least 51 percent of your sales must come from something other than licensing deals. You'll receive higher bonuses for reaching that ratio, and be penalized for missing it.ā
Michael let out an audible sigh into the phone. āI'll be honest,ā he said. āThat gives me a mini panic attack.ā He paused for a moment, then continued, ābut on the other hand, it would definitely cause me to rethink my team's approach.ā
āWell, that's the point, isn't it,ā Sandy said. āWe have to send a signal that we are serious about changing immediately.ā
āYes, I guess. I mean, yes, you're right. That is the point,ā Michael concurred.
I don't want...
