The mission of salespeople is to achieve results for their organization and their clients to improve outcomes.
Consistent top sales performers get the desired results and outcomes by demonstrating the right behaviors (or motions).
Sales leaders are similar to basketball coaches in many respects. They typically have a few stars on the team, a few B players, and about half bench players. Great basketball coaches can get the best from their team by focusing on the right behaviors in practice and during the game. It’s said that the path to winning basketball games (results) starts with the time and effort exerted in practice (behaviors/motions).
Sales and basketball are similar. If sales leaders help their sales teams consistently apply the proper sales motions, better results will come. The first step is to identify the sales motions that will achieve the desired results.
Behaviors vs. Results
It’s understandable for sales teams to focus on results instead of the sales behaviors that drive results. Case in point, most of our client CRM systems have lots of dashboards that provide real-time results measurement and reporting.
Results are in the “rear-view mirror” and have already occurred instead of the underlying behaviors (leading and leaning indicators) that drive results.
Here’s an analogy: What if a basketball coach decides to focus on the scoreboard for the entire game instead of investing in practice time and calling plays during the game? Sure, there’s a chance the team could win the game, but the chances of winning increase significantly with practice time and good coaching during the game.
The same applies to sales management.
Below is an example of sales motions required to achieve desired new customer acquisition results:
Example Desired Result:
Sign 25 new customers this year with an average deal size of $250K
Key Sales Motions (behaviors):
• Create a prioritized list of 1,000 ideal customer targets
• Develop territory or account plans to access and engage decision-makers and influencers
• Engage in meaningful conversations with decision-makers and influencers of at least 400 target prospects
• Add 100 opportunities of $250K+ (assumed a 25% win rate)
An essential aspect of the above example is to monitor the key sales motions (behaviors) in the CRM so that the salesperson and sales manager have visibility to motion progress. Also, the number of motions to be managed and monitored should be limited; 3 to 5 behaviors is ideal.
Once the desired behaviors are identified, measured, and monitored in the CRM, sales leaders can coach and guide the sales team to consistently apply the proper sales motions. The results will come.