How to Change Behavior in Salespeople

getting great results? How do we help organizations go from, let's say $100 million to 600 million, from 5 million to 100 million. How do we achieve that type of remarkable growth? And the trap that many organizations fall into is this, they try to do too much, too quickly. And what I mean by that is it's almost the trap of trying to boil the ocean. So what they think of is, okay, I need to change every behavior. Focus on every nuance, every single element. We need to change our

entire process from beginning to end. And the reality is that the best performing organizations, what they tend to do is focus very narrowly on specific things that will move the needle the most. It's why, when I work with organizations, what we do is we say, okay, where are the three biggest areas where your team is getting stuck today? Let's focus on fixing those three areas. So it might be well, our biggest area is in opening up new opportunities. And it usually prompts me to say, so which

specific types of opportunities will drive the most growth. And oftentimes I get this pause because they haven't thought of it that way. See, they look at all opportunities as being equal. And what instead, I encourage them to look at is, if you were successful with just a subset, which subset would move the needle the most? And then they say, Oh well, the types of accounts that would help us the most, that would generate the highest margin, best business for us, they happen to fall into

this category. And I say, Okay, so now, how do we want to approach opening opportunities and earning the attention for those niche opportunities? It might be 5% of the total opportunities, but if those the ones that are most impactful, how can we address a different approach for those individual circumstances? And so what happens is, then I say to them, okay, so that's what you want to do overall, if you want to get top results for your team, take a look at these same side

selling Academy. Just visit same sideselling.com to learn more. Here's the way we're going to engage your team. Let's ask each person to identify two opportunities they're going to pursue each week that fit into that category with this approach, and we're going to practice and role play those scenarios for those scenarios before we ever contact those clients. So now we know exactly how we want to approach it. It's hyper specific, and it's geared towards those opportunities that

have the greatest potential for growth in our organization. See, when we take a generalist approach, we target, we end up casting this wide net, and we capture a lot of junk along the way. We don't really get a sense of what's going to move the needle. Instead, if you're hyper specific and you say, these are the types of accounts that I want to go after, let's say, in each territory, and now, within each territory, okay, let's talk to each rep about which two opportunities you're going to

take this new approach with this week. And let's role play and practice those and then you're going to go, after just those two using this approach, what happens is we start to build and refine a better approach. Now, if you ask those reps, look, is this overwhelming? Their response is, well, it's not overwhelming. This is actually pretty simple. I only have to do this for a couple of opportunities. It's hyper specific. But what happens is they learn through that

approach, how to apply this to other scenarios. So the next time we do this, maybe a month later. So we've done two opportunities each week for a month now, we say, okay, so what other opportunities might this apply to? Oh, well, you know what this client, we're up selling or cross selling additional services. I think this would approach, this approach would work well. And we say, Okay, how would you adapt

that for this scenario? And now we're doing is we're building skills that are more broadly applicable across the organization. See, we start by being very specific. And then what happens is the team starts to realize, oh, I can use this same formula for this scenario and that scenario, I can use the same scenario for this vertical or that vertical. What often happens is we realize that the best way to reach out is by

focusing on the problems that we solve for. Those people. So the more specific we get, the more likely we are to capture their attention. So you might say, Oh, we help organizations become more efficient, which is very generic. And anyone could say, or if you were reaching out to people who were in process manufacturing, you could say, when I deal with people in process manufacturing, who are trying to solve this specific problem. Here's what they often tell us, we can help them the

most to address and now we're being very specific. So taking that approach, it means that now when those reps are going after a new market, a new opportunity, they now say, Oh, I have a formula for how to deal with this. I now know based on the experience of going after two accounts per week with this very specific approach, I'm seeing what works and what doesn't work. I'm seeing how I adapted my message, what worked and what

didn't work. Now I can apply it elsewhere. If instead, if I said, Oh, I want you to apply this in every scenario, in every situation, what would happen is it would be overwhelming for the reps, and when we are overwhelmed, what do we do? We tend to fall back on the way we used to do things. It's like, if I take a golf lesson, I learn a new way to chip. That's fine. I go out during the lesson, I'm like, Oh, that's pretty good.

But if I don't practice it at all, if I don't come up with scenarios where I'm using on a regular basis in a pressure situation. Let's go back to the way I used to do things, but if I practice, I'm going to get better. So what happens is, when I learn something new, like, here's a new way that I'm going to I'm going to chip on the golf course. I say, okay, when I get in this scenario, I'm going to use that new technique, because I built enough muscle memory that I'm good at that now I

start hitting that shot, I get more comfortable with it. And then what happens is, I say, you know, I could probably use it in this other scenario too. And then I become just generally more confident to play that shot. It's the same thing in business. It's the same thing in sales. So rather than trying to boil the ocean, get more specific. So next time you've got an initiative and you're looking to grow, you're looking to change people's behavior. Instead of thinking big, think

small. Think what are the two or three areas that, if I improve, will move the needle the most, and then have each rep pick a couple of opportunities that they're pursuing to apply this new approach, and I think you'll drive better results for your business. If there are topics you'd like me to cover on the next episode of the same side selling podcast, just drop me a note to Ian at Ian altman.com and I'll see you next time on the same side selling podcast, so long you