The Costly Mistake of Ignoring the Real Problem in Sales Teams

Dennis: 00:00:00

This is very common where problems are identified and problems don't get solved.

Leah: 00:00:05

but you're used to what you had someone in there to solve problems you saw a problem that he obviously hadn't seen or he's just like tail between his legs i'll fix it i'll fix it

Dennis: 00:00:13

Yeah.

Leah: 00:00:14

and

Dennis: 00:00:14

He still

Leah: 00:00:14

was ready to

Dennis: 00:00:15

didn't

Leah: 00:00:15

wait for the next

Dennis: 00:00:15

know.

Leah: 00:00:15

week so you got to have clear any any kind of target you need a clear i'm talking about this next week or in two weeks

Dennis: 00:00:23

So I should have fired him, right?

Leah: 00:00:25

No!

Leah: 00:00:34

Why?

Leah: 00:00:35

This isn't a real person in us.

Leah: 00:00:37

What's Yeah, with the... I

Dennis: 00:00:38

but you said, well, you got this clock ticking,

Dennis: 00:00:41

a six-week clock.

Dennis: 00:00:42

I mean, if he doesn't do it in six weeks, so what? What happens at the end?

Leah: 00:00:47

don't understand why you waited six weeks.

Leah: 00:00:49

Did he think he had six weeks?

Leah: 00:00:51

Was he on holidays?

Leah: 00:00:52

Was like...

Dennis: 00:00:54

Well, again,

Dennis: 00:00:55

all right, Leah,

Dennis: 00:00:56

you've

Leah: 00:00:56

You don't

Dennis: 00:00:56

been around

Leah: 00:00:57

fire someone.

Dennis: 00:00:58

the salesman.

Leah: 00:01:00

You make them quick.

Leah: 00:01:01

You make them quick.

Leah: 00:01:03

We all know that they are higher than higher.

Dennis: 00:01:05

I understand that, but the point here is, what do I do? I'm bleeding revenue.

Dennis: 00:01:12

This guy is being paid to fix the problem.

Dennis: 00:01:17

He agreed there was a problem.

Dennis: 00:01:18

He agreed to fix it, and he didn't do it. What if it's six weeks or six months?

Dennis: 00:01:22

It doesn't make any difference.

Dennis: 00:01:23

What?

Dennis: 00:01:24

He didn't do it.

Leah: 00:01:26

Is there progress being made? Was there anything happening or was he

Dennis: 00:01:30

No.

Leah: 00:01:30

nothing?

Dennis: 00:01:32

All right.

Leah: 00:01:33

Well,

Paul: 00:01:34

So do you, at any point in time,

Paul: 00:01:37

Dennis, ask the person,

Paul: 00:01:39

why is this taking so long? I expected this to take three weeks.

Paul: 00:01:43

Explain to me why the delay.

Dennis: 00:01:46

Okay.

Dennis: 00:01:47

Good question,

Dennis: 00:01:48

Boomer.

Dennis: 00:01:50

Well, boss,

Dennis: 00:01:51

this is complicated. You know, we're talking about changing, modifying a sales process and that doesn't happen overnight.

Dennis: 00:01:59

You know, the salespeople have been doing it this way for so long and now we're going to ask them to do it another way.

Dennis: 00:02:07

I mean, what do you, you know, we can't just snap a finger and change sales process.

Leah: 00:02:12

And

Dennis: 00:02:12

Give me.

Leah: 00:02:12

right away, what he's saying is he's gonna ask?

Leah: 00:02:15

Hasn't he asked already?

Dennis: 00:02:17

Well, he is apparently in the process of refining where the flaw is and training the salespeople how to do that.

Dennis: 00:02:28

Now, you guys have all been trying to train people.

Dennis: 00:02:31

How long does it take to train somebody to do something? A week?

Dennis: 00:02:35

24 hours?

Dennis: 00:02:37

Two weeks?

Leah: 00:02:37

And

Dennis: 00:02:38

How long?

Leah: 00:02:39

And again,

Leah: 00:02:40

you're forgetting the person. It depends on the person. It depends on what they've been doing already and what the change is.

Leah: 00:02:45

If you hire someone off the street that's never done anything before,

Leah: 00:02:48

it's going to take a longer process.

Leah: 00:02:50

If they're fully committed,

Leah: 00:02:51

might take a little bit less.

Leah: 00:02:53

But this guy sounds kind of, was he really committed to what it is that you're doing?

Dennis: 00:02:58

That's a great question,

Dennis: 00:03:00

Leah.

Dennis: 00:03:00

What do you think?

Dennis: 00:03:01

I think you're advocating for if you waited six weeks for a change to occur,

Dennis: 00:03:06

he's not committed.

Leah: 00:03:08

No, I mean, think about we were all parents when my now big six foot four guys were just were just tiny. They knew you do this and if you don't do it, then this is going to happen.

Leah: 00:03:19

This is how humans work.

Leah: 00:03:22

This is how our brains work.

Leah: 00:03:24

WizardAcademy.org that sponsors us.

Leah: 00:03:26

That's when you teach where we've all learned so much about human behavior, but it's pretty basic.

Leah: 00:03:33

Carrot or stick?

Dennis: 00:03:35

Carrots are sick.

Paul: 00:03:36

I keep going back to Dennis.

Paul: 00:03:39

I keep going back to, okay.

Paul: 00:03:40

It was taking six weeks.

Paul: 00:03:43

He said it was complicated.

Paul: 00:03:44

You can't just snap your fingers and it's be done.

Paul: 00:03:46

No,

Paul: 00:03:47

you can't. But it's still on your own. It's on your shoulders as the leader to ask,

Paul: 00:03:52

okay, again,

Paul: 00:03:53

why is it taking so long?

Paul: 00:03:54

What's preventing you from making a little bit more progress?

Paul: 00:03:57

And oh, by the way, what support do you need from me to make it go a little bit faster?

Dennis: 00:04:04

Interesting.

Leah: 00:04:04

How can you be doing, Paul?

Leah: 00:04:06

All of a sudden, Dennis is the one with the big heart here.

Leah: 00:04:09

I think this is a friend of yours.

Leah: 00:04:12

I've seen this happen. I've worked for people who had buddies that were the ones working for him.

Leah: 00:04:17

And it's like, oh, poor little guy.

Leah: 00:04:20

I hired him. I gotta help him.

Leah: 00:04:22

Your heart was too big in this situation.

Leah: 00:04:26

And I didn't say that to you very often.

Dennis: 00:04:28

Don't expose me like that, please.

Dennis: 00:04:32

You're damaging my reputation.

Leah: 00:04:34

You got those, you put those big boy panties on.

Leah: 00:04:37

This is serious stuff.

Dennis: 00:04:40

Well,

Dennis: 00:04:41

it is. And luckily,

Dennis: 00:04:44

as I said,

Dennis: 00:04:46

I made a mistake.

Dennis: 00:04:49

This guy,

Dennis: 00:04:50

it wasn't his fault.

Dennis: 00:04:55

You know whose fault it was?

Dennis: 00:04:56

It's my fault.

Dennis: 00:04:58

And I'll tell you why.

Dennis: 00:05:00

Because I did not properly diagnose the situation.

Dennis: 00:05:07

Okay.

Dennis: 00:05:08

So I learned to do three things before I made a judgment,

Dennis: 00:05:15

whether it's the system,

Dennis: 00:05:17

the process or the person.

Dennis: 00:05:19

uh ask teach and own what does that mean ask you guys said numerous times find out what's what's the whole impact of the problem talk to the people who are in the problem who are who are the people that are experiencing the problem find out what's wrong get as much feedback as you can get learn everything you can learn about the problem first okay

Dennis: 00:05:45

Second, ask yourself a question.

Dennis: 00:05:48

What skills does this man need?

Dennis: 00:05:52

What help does this man need?

Dennis: 00:05:55

What does he need that he doesn't currently have to fix what we already identified as this problem?

Dennis: 00:06:03

I would say to you that I'd learned a hard lesson.

Dennis: 00:06:07

It's usually not the person.

Dennis: 00:06:11

It's their skills.

Dennis: 00:06:12

Their skill level is not you assume that it's here and it's only here,

Dennis: 00:06:17

okay?

Dennis: 00:06:18

I

Leah: 00:06:18

So

Dennis: 00:06:18

thought

Leah: 00:06:18

the question

Dennis: 00:06:19

he has

Leah: 00:06:19

for

Dennis: 00:06:19

this.

Leah: 00:06:19

me is why a person assumes that,

Leah: 00:06:21

right?

Leah: 00:06:22

And it's because it's

Dennis: 00:06:22

Well,

Leah: 00:06:23

friendship

Dennis: 00:06:23

because we're human and we

Leah: 00:06:24

clouds,

Dennis: 00:06:24

assume it, yeah,

Leah: 00:06:25

Dennis: 00:06:25

yeah.

Leah: 00:06:26

length of time they've been in there, maybe the people working under him you're not so sure of because you weren't the one that hired them.

Dennis: 00:06:34

That's right.

Dennis: 00:06:35

The first cloud,

Dennis: 00:06:37

though,

Dennis: 00:06:37

in most small businesses is it's the people, stupid.

Dennis: 00:06:42

You got the wrong people.

Dennis: 00:06:44

I push back on that.

Dennis: 00:06:46

I would have said that 30 years ago, probably.

Dennis: 00:06:50

I don't say that today.

Dennis: 00:06:51

I don't say that today because I learned the lesson the hard way. This guy was a good guy that did not have the skill that he needed to make this change.

Dennis: 00:07:01

Not everybody has every skill.

Leah: 00:07:03

Okay, so what's the solution for somebody listening?

Paul: 00:07:06

I'm going to pause that for just a moment.

Paul: 00:07:10

I'm not going to say it's the people stupid.

Paul: 00:07:12

It's the leadership stupid.

Dennis: 00:07:14

Okay,

Dennis: 00:07:15

that's more accurate.

Dennis: 00:07:16

That's accurate,

Dennis: 00:07:17

Paul.

Dennis: 00:07:18

Of course, that's, you're always more accurate.

Dennis: 00:07:20

You always listen to what Lee and I say and you come up with the right answer and you're right.

Paul: 00:07:26

But I want to actually ask,

Paul: 00:07:28

I want to hear the answer to Leah.

Dennis: 00:07:29

As I had lived, what was your question?

Leah: 00:07:31

It irritates me when somebody in a position of authority,

Leah: 00:07:37

right,

Leah: 00:07:38

the person in authority all of a sudden throws themselves on their sword.

Leah: 00:07:43

Oh,

Leah: 00:07:44

look at this. Oh,

Leah: 00:07:45

it was my fault.

Leah: 00:07:46

Mea culpa.

Leah: 00:07:47

I've done this. I've done this. That is.

Leah: 00:07:50

If you really mean it, then just fix it. It really bugs me because it's too easy to do that after the fact.

Leah: 00:07:56

Meanwhile,

Leah: 00:07:57

you've damaged this guy for six weeks who was stressed out of his mind not knowing what to do.

Leah: 00:08:03

How do you avoid that,

Leah: 00:08:05

Dennis?

Dennis: 00:08:06

I guess you have to.

Dennis: 00:08:11

Think about this differently.

Dennis: 00:08:14

You have to reframe it.

Dennis: 00:08:15

Okay.

Dennis: 00:08:16

And that's what I did. I reframed it.

Dennis: 00:08:18

So now I learn,

Dennis: 00:08:19

ask and get the full story first.

Dennis: 00:08:23

Number two, name the skill that's missing. What is missing? And then number three, and the most important part,

Dennis: 00:08:30

give the job to one owner with one date, one finish line,

Dennis: 00:08:37

define what.

Dennis: 00:08:38

good looks like i didn't do that okay i guess what guys i never had a manager in my entire career that ever told me what good looks like what does good look like okay what does success look like no one ever told me that so from that day forward i said you know what

Dennis: 00:08:59

I have to define what Finnish looks like. I've never told them what Finnish looks like.

Paul: 00:09:03

So because because we promise our listeners or watch our viewers,

Paul: 00:09:06

the one thing to take away, what is that one thing? Did you just say the one thing?

Dennis: 00:09:12

I just said it.

Paul: 00:09:13

Which is one again.

Dennis: 00:09:14

A-T-O.

Dennis: 00:09:17

Ask.

Dennis: 00:09:18

Find out the whole situation. Talk to everybody involved.

Dennis: 00:09:22

You get a 360 of the problem.

Dennis: 00:09:25

Teach the skill.

Dennis: 00:09:26

What's missing?

Dennis: 00:09:28

There's obviously something missing as to why this person didn't solve the problem already.

Dennis: 00:09:32

What is that thing that's missing?

Dennis: 00:09:34

If they're a bad person.

Dennis: 00:09:37

You'll find that out too.

Dennis: 00:09:38

I say they're probably a good person that didn't have the right skill training.

Dennis: 00:09:42

And third and most important,

Dennis: 00:09:44

give it to one owner.

Dennis: 00:09:46

Okay.

Dennis: 00:09:47

He owns it.

Dennis: 00:09:48

He owns the outcome.

Dennis: 00:09:50

He has the authority to make the decision.

Dennis: 00:09:53

He has a date and a number.

Dennis: 00:09:55

Okay. And it's very clear.

Dennis: 00:09:57

It's an agreement.

Dennis: 00:09:59

We shake hands.

Dennis: 00:10:00

That makes a difference, doesn't it?

Leah: 00:10:03

But you got to do that over and over and over again.

Leah: 00:10:06

So I'm looking for people calling us and letting us know how it worked for them.

Dennis: 00:10:10

Every day you got to do it, Leah.

Leah: 00:10:12

All right.

Leah: 00:10:14

I'm out of here.

Dennis: 00:10:15

You guys are the best.

Dennis: 00:10:16

Thank you.

Dennis: 00:10:17

See you next time on Connected Convert.