Moving from a sales rookie to sales vet - what happens when they change process?

For those of us who have been fortunate to have successful careers in sales and sales leadership, one of the more interesting coaching opportunities comes after a rookie becomes a vet. We have all witnessed the progression from that nervous rookie on their first sales call to becoming a solid vet and then the next step which can oftentimes make or break a salesperson's career. This step is called many things such as, making it their own, straying off the path, finding a better way, etc.

The following are the steps that many rookies take along the way (this is the basic version and not the same in every company, however there should be similarities), and what happens once they become a top salesperson who “finds a better way”.

Step one: Learning the basics

• Getting comfortable with the sales deck, the the sales process and the daily sales cadence.

Step two: Sales skills

• Learning and understanding basic sales skills.

Step three: Learning advanced sales skills

• They start adding in their personality and using advanced sales skills.
• At this point they often say “If I would have known this 2 months ago…”

Step four: Confidence

• They start to believe that they are selling a product that really makes a difference
• This often happens as some of their early accounts start to mature and see success.
• They now understand that a big part of successful sales is the transfer of confidence.

Step five: Becoming a solid vet

• They now believe in the sales process, the sales deck, the daily sales cadence and they continue to improve.
• They see more success daily.
• They are overarching their goals and have started making a name for themselves.

Step six: My way is better

• They stop following some of the process
• This may be an intentional move or they might just stray due to lack of solid coaching.
• They get the attitude that “my way” is better
• This is where it gets interesting….
• They start to fail more often. They are no longer seeing the success that they had (this is why it is critical as a sales leader to always work with and develop your people. You will often see the signs before this happens).
• They work with their sales leader to figure out what has happened and try to fix it.
• If they are unable to fix it, this usually ends up being the end of their sales career, at least in their current role.
• Or...
• They start to see more success than ever.
• They continue to be creative and even share best “new” practices with others around them

Step seven: It’s decision time for the sales leader.

• The sales leader decides that although this new process works for this sales person, it isn’t scalable. The salesperson is now shut down and forced to going back to the standardized process that they were taught and that the rest of the sales team are using. In many cases, this is the beginning of the end for the salesperson, at least in their current role.
• The salesperson is left alone by their sales leader so they can continue to do what is working for them. The salesperson is asked not to share these practices since there are already processes in place that most salespeople need to follow in to be successful.
• The sales leader spends time with the salesperson. They ask questions, observe and learn. The sales leader works with the salesperson to build out new and better scalable processes.
• These new processes are tested on a small scale.
• If they see success, these changes are then rolled out to the entire sales organization.
• If these changes start to show improvements and success, the salesperson is often promoted.

It’s hard to say which of the outcomes of step seven are best without having more information on the sales organization, the sales leaders and the salesperson.

I have witnessed this many times in my career and have given a lot coaching to others on this topic.

Based on my experience in this area, I have my opinions and data on what causes a salesperson go from step five to step six and how to manage step seven based on the situation. I will dig into this in another article, for now, I would like to get thoughts and opinions from other sales leaders and successful salespeople.