Issue #24: Things change. Here's how top sales reps handle it.

In each leadership role I’ve taken in the last few years, I’ve worked with incredibly strong and driven professionals, and because I tend to be an impatient person at times, I’ve prioritized three things to help get me ramped up into the role as quickly as possible:?

• [People] Get to know my team: What motivates them? What excites them about the role? What drains their energy? How can I best be part of their career journey? (Thanks for the tips here, Ryan Hawk !)
• [Process] Understand the business: What led us to this point in our growth? How does the next 3-6 months shape this year and beyond? How does our strategy prioritize volume, value, and velocity??
• [Culture] What’s the vibe of the team? What support are they missing? How do they learn with and from each other? What are those moments of connection, and how can I help?

And most recently, I’ve added a fourth priority in my personal onboarding process: “How does the organization communicate and handle change?”

Obviously, in any business, the presence of change can be disruptive, jarring, and even demotivating. Even changes with the best intentions and validation have the ability to negatively impact daily productivity and profitability on the bottom line. And while humans are inherently capable of change (source: March 2020) and also understanding that it is the “resistance to change” that makes change difficult, the fact remains: change is hard.?

So, in a world of constant change, what do the best sales reps actually do to navigate it?

Most recently, I’ve worked with consistent, top performing sales executives to understand what exactly they do every week to drive results and do it the right way, and the throughput was clear:?

They find a way to work through it.

1. Top sales reps lean into change. The top sales reps iterated that this is not a “follow blindly” message of support, but rather, they just find a way to make it work. When faced with a process change or product update, top sales reps take time to understand it, how it impacts their current and future customers, and make a conscious choice to bring it to life.
2. The best control what they can control. Regardless of industry, there is one thing great sales executives have control over in every minute of everyday: attitude. We have the opportunity to choose our mindset each morning, and those at the top of the leaderboard (and who strive to get there) choose an attitude and create habits that put them in the best position to succeed, and they consistently pressure test their approach to ensure that they are, in fact, controlling everything they can control.?
3. The default factory setting of these top performers: optimism: I remember a top rep saying “You can change a week in a day; you can change a month in a week.” (You know who you are, and yes, I wrote this down because I’ve never heard it before.) When I take a look at top performing peers and colleagues in my 17 year career in sales, they possess a level of resiliency that rivals starting a car engine in the middle of a Michigan winter storm.?

Each turn of the calendar brings hope and optimism - the vision that “this is the year” is in almost perfect view, and that these 366 days (p.s. it’s a leap year) will be better than the last.

However, we as humans and rising pros in our respective fields need to consistently remind ourselves that nothing changes if nothing changes.?

Let’s get after 2024!?GO BLUE!

KL