Developing a Sales Evolution Plan

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.

~ Peter Drucker

In a previous post on Account Development Practices, I mentioned that I planned to write a post about how sales reps and sales managers can develop a “sales methodology evolution plan” to evolve and adapt (without missing quotas along the way), as the world around us continues to change.

When my very next post was about a basic sales coaching method, I was surprised yet pleased to receive multiple emails inquiring about the evolution plan post, encouraging me to publish thoughts on the topic. Here they are.

The Role of Learning in Sales Success

I spoke on the topic of 22nd Century Selling Skills at the ATD International Conference and Exhibition in 2014. The presentation was really about my research over time on what the top 4% of sales performers do differently. I took a lot of good-natured teasing about the odd title. Even a good friend, who is incredibly supportive but occasionally elevates sarcasm to an art form, quipped, "Uh, Mike... you DO know what century this is, right?"

My point for this title, was this: even though these differentiating practices of top producers were gleaned over 15 years of various studies I had conducted, they still weren't commonplace among all sales professionals. I predicted, however, that given the evolution in the marketplace, that these skills would some day (and perhaps sooner than the 22nd Century), become the ticket for entry for a successful sales career.

Interestingly, few of these skills that I shared have anything to do with what people commonly think of as "selling skills." One of the seven skills, is Learning.

There were 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days, and the pace is increasing. ~ Eric Schmidt

Change is Overwhelming

How do you keep up with everything? It isn't easy, right?

• Buyer behavior is changing.
• The Internet continues to change how we buy and sell.
• Social media has blow up in the last few years and social selling is evolving.
• Along with the social explosion came content marketing and marketing automation.
• Sales enablement software and apps are multiplying like bunnies.
• Big data is evolving for sales and marketing and brought us predictive lead scoring.
• We heard Solution Selling was dead (personally, I don't even think it's tired, but it is evolving).
• The Challenger Sale burst into the picture to disrupt the market and various insight selling methodologies were born, in reaction to buyers starting and completing much of their buying journey without us.
• We heard that agility was important through various sources, such as Sales Chaos, Agile Selling, and Accenture's work.

I'm not sure whether this is good news or bad news, but how much these things apply to you, your industry, and your company/product set/customers, varies, and can only be determined "locally," by you and your manager.

For example:

• If your customers aren't on social, you still need to have a social presence, an optimized LinkedIn profile, and some level of social participation to prepare for the future, but you don't have to play big, right now. You need to track trends, learn what those who are successful are doing, and prepare yourself - because your customers will be there, eventually. But in your case, you don't have to change everything, right now. (If your customers are on social, of course, you need a different plan.)
• If you've got a mature CRM implementation and have a data analytics or sales operations team that uses Spotfire or other analytics tools to present your data in dashboards to identify areas where things are running smoothly or need intervention, you'll want to be maximizing the potential of big data to improve sales performance.

As always, smart prioritization creates focus. You'll want to be aware of what changes are brewing, assess which are short-term priorities for you, make a longer-term preparation plan for the others, and make "learning" and what Stephen Covey called "sharpening the saw" an ongoing part of your routine.

Foster Smart Learning Habits

Here's a simple system you can us use to do this.

• Stay Alert
• Assess & Prioritize
• Learn, Use & Grow
• Balance with Goal Attainment
• Lather, Rinse, Repeat

By the way, I'm usually more interested in creating organizational systems than offering advice for individuals, but the nice thing about this system is that you can use it personally, or you can implement a similar knowledge management approach company-wide. For the rest of this post, I'll be talking to sales reps, primarily, but managers and others should be paying attention to how you can replicate this across your company and support reps in doing this.

Stay Alert

By Stay Alert, I simply mean to monitor the sales landscape for new ideas, methodologies and approaches.

• With alert services like Google Alerts, Mention and Talkwalker, it's easy to set up alerts for specific things you want to track.
• With all of the the sales blogs, analyst firms, sales training companies, and consulting organizations out there, it's not that difficult to follow trends in the industry. This is far from an inclusive list, but for sales thought leadership, I immediately think of SiriusDecisions, Forrester, IDC, CEB, Accenture, McKinsey, Deloitte, ZS Associates, and Sales Benchmark Index.
• There are more books on selling than you can possibly read, and many say the same things (and a few are pure... well, not worth your time). You can find reviews online and we all know Amazon's system and can research things there. Not everything you read will be applicable, and you want to stay out of the tips and tricks trap, but in addition to the other sources, yes, you should read sales books. I have a lot of friends with books on the market and you can see many of those here. If you're looking for some good, modern stuff to kick start you, I highly recommend this, this, this and this. I also highly recommend book summaries, and personally have an annual, unlimited subscription to getAbstract. Worth every penny.
• So is learning to "speed read," which is often really more about what to focus on and how to retain it while moving quickly through text. I tend to speed through some stuff and really slow down for the things I'm interested in or the new and different stuff I need to learn.
• Note: I'm serious about the tips and tricks advice above, please read that article by Dave Stein and this one by me. Establishing a sensible,ongoing learning plan does not equate to chasing every tip and trick that is published, rather than having a sound process and sales methodology that is part of an aligned sales strategy.

Start by reviewing some sources and subscribing to those you like. Using email filters, you can flow things into folder for review when you have time. Or, you can bookmark, or use something like Pocket, and read at periodic intervals. I'm sure that some of your have best practices for keeping up with the volume of information out there and I'd encourage you to share your favorite methods for culling through things, in the comments, to help each other.

This sounds easy, but we both know it won't happen unless you schedule time to do it. Create a system and block the appropriate time on your calendar, or do it on your own time. But either way, start reading, purposefully.

Worth noting: Contrary to the advice of so-called success gurus who tell you to give up sleep to have an extra hour a day, don't. Or, at least not unless you truly function well on less sleep or are lazily sleeping your life away now. Most people don't function well on less than 7 or 8 hours of sleep, and purposeful sleep deprivation is simply stupid, unhealthy, hampers brain function, learning, ability to cope with stress, and job performance. Again - find a balance, and get the rest you need.

Assess & Prioritize

Because of the many nuances of sales, not everything that's published will be right for you. Also, if you're an individual rep, especially a newer, unseasoned rep, you may be better off focusing on maximizing the sales process, methodologies and tools that your company provides and endorses, and talking with your manager about new ideas.

Some of the ideas you come across won't be controversial, contradict your company's approach, or need anyone but you to implement. Many will support or expand on what is recommended by your company, which is great. Focus on those for your own implementation and talk to your manager about the other concepts.

Using your best judgment, or conversations with your peers and manager in sales meetings or coaching sessions, prioritize the best ideas to learn more about, use and grow. While anything is possible, you're not as likely to develop insights on your own or become a Challenger Rep without training and coaching.

You also may not be able to address some things immediately, or may just want to watch trends on others, until they're proven or more mature, or until your organization is ready (it's impossible for you as a rep to implement predictive lead scoring on your own, right?).

Learn, Use & Grow (LUG)

To make the most of a new idea or skill, you need to LUG it around with you.

• Research it further and see what else you can learn about the idea or skill. (this doesn't have to be months... might be a simple Internet search and take 15 minutes).
• Begin to use the idea or skill and see how it works.
• As a rep, this is where it make sense to work with your peers and manager, to share ideas, practice new skills, get guidance and feedback, and help each other grow. The more you can create a learning culture on your team, the better it will be for everyone. Hopefully your manager will incorporate some time in every meeting to discuss things you're all reading, learning and trying out.
• Focus on a few key things that you want to improve, and execute well. Do this while you continue to research new stuff (Stay Alert and Assess & Prioritize). The balance here is not different than the balance you need to continue to prospect, while you work your current opportunities through the pipeline, to avoid see-saw quota results (meaning: hit one month; miss the next; hit the next month; then miss again).

Balance with Goal Attainment

I'm sure I don't need to say this, but I will anyway. Your ongoing learning plan should support your business development and account management goals, not detract from them.

We're probably not wired the same way, but I could easily spend all my time reading and researching, and never get anything done. For me, at least, I've learned I need guidelines and guardrails. I set aside time daily for my learning and personal research, and often take advantage of breaks, lunches, downtime, and personal time to feed my habit (obsession?) for constant learning.

You don't need to be that extreme (maybe), but you should plan to do it, and if you're like me, plan to stop doing it, and get your other work done.

The older I get, the more I learn that balance is key, as mentioned above with the see-saw behavior. It's amazing how much you can read in the course of a week, AND still get all your work done and goals accomplished, if you plan well and take great advantage of the time you have.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

I don't have enough hair anymore to warrant a repeat with shampoo, but it does apply here for our Learning Plan. While you are executing in Learn, Use & Grow, you do need to continue to Stay Alert and Assess & Prioritize. Once you implement an idea, you simply go back the beginning and Assess & Prioritize the next thing you want to act on.

This is a gentle reminder that unless you circle back to keep the process going, it will wind down. And in this day and age, you can't afford that.

In our world of ever-increasing change and info-overload, the ability to learn and unlearn will become increasingly important. Here are some final resources that I hope will be helpful.

Some thought on Unlearing:

• School of Unlearning
• From Dave Brock: What I Finally Got about Unlearning
• From Anthony Iannarino: What Are You Unlearning?

Some thoughts on metacognition and learning to learn:

• Metacognition is the awareness or analysis of one's own learning or thinking processes. Here is some great reading on learning to learn. See this link and then scroll to the bottom for a list of topics.

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Well, that's what I think, on this topic of developing a sales evolution plan.

More importantly, what do YOU think?

I look forward to your thoughts, opinions and experiences.

As always, thanks for reading, be safe out there, and by all means, let's continue to elevate our sales profession.

Mike Kunkle

:: transforming sales results ::

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