by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
It all seems to be straight forward, something “works” so you capture it in a Sales Play Book. Job done. But there it sits gathering dust.
Sales Play books change nothing, I wouldn’t say they are a waste of money but if they don’t provide transformation, what’s the point?
So why Do So Many People Say a Sales Play book is the answer?
Let’s give you an example. One of the sales people in one of our clients got a 150% pipeline uplift in one of their accounts using Sales Navigator.
(I digress, but we worked out that if they extrapolated that across all their accounts it was worth $8 Billion. That’s right, Billion to them. So maybe a useful process to replicate).
We were told that the answer to this was a Play Book.
Even before the play book was written the excuses started rolling in:-
- Of course that play book wouldn’t work for me as the salesperson only had one account, I have 5 accounts.
- Of course that play book is no good to me, that was an automotive account, and I sell in Life Sciences.
- The Sales Play is useless to me as that sales person sells into Enterprise and I sell into the mid market.
- That sales play wouldn’t work as I don’t have sales navigator.
- The sales play book is useless to me as I sell into public sector.
- The sales book won’t work for me as it sounds too much like hard work. Etc, etc.
And that’s the problem with sales play books which is that everybody has a reason, an excuse, why it won’t work for them. Many industries have the same issue and it’s not just in sales, but motivating people to take different actions and then continuing doing those actions is not easy. Of course you can motivate people with “carrots” and you can motivate people with “sticks”. Being as I assume you your work for a forward looking supporting business, sticks are not the order of the day.
I remember my last company, somebody said “let’s tell the sales people they will make more money by doing this. Hit the sales people in the pocket”. This still does not work as “knowing and doing” are two different things.
Just because you tell me this will make me more money does not mean I will do anything about it.
And there lies the issue with sales play books and why they just don’t work!
Here at Digital Leadership Associates social-experts.net we believe that understanding and action are two very different things. Which is why we use change management techniques through coaching and supporting the salespeople so that companies get the mindset change and the habit change.
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https://dlaignite.com/why-its-time-for-a-sales-process-spring-clean/
https://dlaignite.com/is-your-team-doing-what-they-should-be-doing/
