Do you find it easy to start new projects but then lose focus, get distracted and drift off course?
You’re not alone in feeling that way. Over the last ten years of working with top sales leaders and their teams, I’ve noted it’s their commitment to completion that has been one of the outstanding hallmarks of success.
So, before you embark on any new sales development project here are three tips to ensure you achieve success:
- Commit to implement and support the team. There’s really no point doing traditional ‘training and development’ work unless you drive it through with a full implementation program. One that fully supports people as they take on-board new ideas and ‘test drive’ them. At this initial stage, these new behaviours will feel awkward and as a manager you need to expect this and assist the team to transition successfully. This must continue until they reach the point when they are comfortable, confident and achieving positive results from any new approach.
- Make Adoption easy. Many great improvement plans fall down due to a lack of commitment from senior leaders to address the daily practical implications. They fail to recognise the need to facilitate the changes and make the process easy for people in their daily tasks. Avoiding these issues will likely lead to resistance and low adoption. One key area to focus on improving is your I.T and CRM sales management systems, ensuring they are fully mobile and quick to use. With this in place adoption by the salesforce is likely to be highly successful.
- Celebrate incremental gains. It’s great to celebrate the big wins, but creating excellence in any area comes from a commitment to continually make small gains day by day. So, take the time to recognise and acknowledge the people in your team that put in the effort to implement the new ideas correctly. Set goals that are small enough to achieve in a short period of time, perhaps two weeks or a month. Regularly reflect with your team on how far you have come and the progress made compared to where you were before you started the development project a few months earlier. This boosts enthusiasm and commitment to the task.
So, review the areas you’d most like to develop in Q4 & 2019 and commit to making them happen by carefully planning your implementation and support phases to ensure success each step of the way.
