The privilege of idiot staff

Are you working in a sales-organization, or are you close to one? I myself have been in sales for the better part of my life, and today I always keep my door open to get a little of that lifeful vibe that the competitive environment in a sales-department brings. Anyhow, now, when I’m not longer totally dedicated to sales I easily see identify former colleagues from sales as a breed of their own. They’re idiots!

What?

In a good way! Idiots are predictable. Look at it like this, most people in sales are highly motivated by commissions and the possibility to work a little harder to earn a little more. In other words, the incentive to motivate them is often very clear. Money, fame, recognition, no matter what you give them it’s tightly connected, one thing leads to the other etc. Idiots in the sense of the old saying “monkey see, monkey do”. “Salesperson sees money, salesperson does whatever it takes to get money”… And now you probably look for differences in your sales-organization … My guys are a honest group that don’t act on such primitive instincts … You’re wrong, a white wolf is still a wolf when it comes to instincts.

This is a good thing, identifying salespeople as idiots, or monkeys (behind their backs of-course). With this insight they’re easily coached, don’t bother to put blue, red, yellow or green labels on them, rather, give them recognition or money and expect results, and you will get it.

Looking back on colleagues, or myself for that matter, the coaching thing in sales is seldom focused on solving problems, it’s rather on how to tune up what is already working. If a sales-organization has real problems, their probably a part of a larger structural problem which includes the whole company. So, if you’re the manager in sales, embrace and acknowledge the simplicity of the behavioral mechanisms. Money gives results, more money gives more results. In this report you get some special features on managing sales-staff, if you’re not in sales, there’s a whole lot for you as well.