Sales & Sales Management Newsletter
For Better Results, Goals & Success

Sales Tip: Ownership Accountability Responsibly keep your oars in the water

Situation: John Boy, VP Sales for AAA Company, was explaining to the top dog (CEO) why they were 47% below the goal for this quarter. John Boy said” our prospects tell my salespeople our pricing is 25% higher than our closest competitor, business is great were happy why risk change, and they (the future prospective clients) do not understand our competitive advantages”. John Boy went on to say, “I can relate. We are new to the market. Perhaps we set the goals a bit too high for the times.” The CEO suffering from a negative buy cycle replies. “Those are pretty good reasons, but it is your job to consistently meet or exceed the goal, so deal with these issues and move on.” The environment did not change the books and tapes on closing and prospecting John Boy gave to the team did not seem to be working. AAA Company ended the year over 50% behind their sales target for the year. John Boy was fired and the CEO was put on notice by the board and the bank to right the ship.

Problem: It is the sales culture at AAA Company that was out of control. The evidence was not accepting ownership accountability and responsibility (OAR’S) for all the external factors which was leading to their miserable results. Plain and simple making excuses had become a corporate way of life. The old saying goes, it is hard to tell the forest from the trees and AAA Company was so close to the problem this phrase applied. Each time the sales leaders and sales people at AAA Company accepted external-factor excuses as valid reasons for lack of performance; this problem manifested itself by becoming a ritual that became a habit rooted in the language and acceptance by all. Like propaganda you repeat a lie long enough and some believe it to be true. The CEO, the sales leaders and the salespeople blamed the product, the pricing, the marketplace, new concept you name it they had a reason… Now AAA Company did not consider that excuse making is totally unacceptable. In addition no one was coaching the salespeople how to recognize and deal with their own excuse making.

Solution: The Company must begin with the premise any reason, even if it is valid is an excuse. From there they can begin the process of never ever, under any circumstance accept an excuse. Next they have to prepare their sales leaders for the recognition tip above and what to do about excuses once they are confronted by them. The sales leaders must be aware, search out for, and put on the table any and all excuses. For instance if May Sue the sales leader for AAA Company hears in a sales debrief the following, “My prospect is not moving to the next step as agreed upon.” Mary Sue should respond, “if there was another reason why the prospect is not going forward, what would that be?”  Or, Aside from that reason, what are some of the other reasons you think the prospect does not accept or like our solution?” Then Mary Sue could follow up with, “if you had surfaced this up during the sales call, how would you have dealt with it?’ Then, “what do you think would have happened?’ Would that have changed anything?” This type of coaching empowers the salesperson into ownership accountability and responsibility for their actions.

This problem has become so pervasive in sales cultures and organizations The Gulas Group added a new service in 2004 called the Question Behind the Question. It is a development opportunity and book tiles such as QBQ and Flipping the Switch that sales leaders like Mary Sue and Owners nationwide are using to blast beyond excuse making. Just remember change and learning are linked. Your sales culture will never change their excuse making ways until they learn proven strategies and tactics to deal with excuses. Start today read over the Selling Strength tiled Outlook look for the Sales Competency; Takes Responsibility  and determine how many of the behaviors you can check as mastered. You can also participate in the QBQ Quick Quiz. The QBQ Quick Quiz is an honest no charge way to determine how well you OAR”S are in the water. If all the behaviors below Takes Responsibility are not all mastered contact the Gulas Group about coaching and the QBQ program.