Last week I told you the story of the manufacturing company that wanted help improving their sales strategy, except none of the directors wanted to sell.
I gave them two choices – accept defeat or take a proactive stance to change their culture. When we left last week, I was waiting for their response.
Here’s what happened next…
More than 10 minutes past with no sign of anyone. I waited and waited. Thirty minutes past – and then 40. I was just about to go in to assess the situation, when one of the directors hopped into the tea room and sternly announced they were ready to see me.
I walked though the boardroom door and immediately noticed there were three bodies in front of me instead of four. In a curious tone, I asked where John the CFO had gone.
“He’s gone, he’s had enough. You scared him off, we should sue you!” And they all laughed, which lightened the mood-of-the-moment for two seconds.
“Wow!” I responded. “How do you guys feel about that?”
The MD got in first: “It was well overdue I think. He’s hasn’t been happy for years.”
“For the past three years, he’s done little but complain about sales and how poor we are at selling, yet he would never willingly approve of a new salesperson on a salary that was anything more that a shopping trolley pusher. We’ve had some very impressive salespeople walk through our doors wanting to work for us, and we have successfully offended everyone one of them by valuing them at a slice of what they were really worth.”
One of the other directors turned to me. “I brought you in here to help us sell and that’s what we are going to do. I don’t know about fighting, I’m a bit old for that, but what you say about changing this business into having a sales culture makes sense. You can keep your contract; we all agreed we want to move ahead on this with you, right boys?”
The other directors nodded.
“In the early days, we all sold, except for John, and we loved it. Business with booming and each one of us was responsible for hitting our own targets. Somehow along the way we got bigger and bigger and given more responsibility, and we decided selling was beneath us. There’s only one person in this room still selling and he spends more time in production and fixing problems than selling.”
“We need to get clear on our sales process because we don’t really have one and we need to spend some time on our values and unique selling proposition if there is one. What you said about values being the foundation the other day in our meeting hit a chord with me and I speak for us all when I say, when 80% of our time is maxed selling, then we can start hiring some really sharp salespeople to help carry the load and grow ‘the engine’ as you call it.”
The MD chimed in: “And we’ll pay them a solid base with a rewarding bonus system and support the hell out of them so we can all retire in 10 years to a warm tropical island somewhere in the Caribbean. Can you help us here?”
I quickly responded in the affirmative. “Everything you have put forward has highlighted most of the content for our first two day session, so we are on the same page. I’ll even put you in touch with my travel agent to organise those travel plans when you’re ready!”
“Gents… buckle-up and let’s get this engine started!”
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Trent Leyshan is the founder and CEO of BOOM Sales! a leading sales training and sales development specialist. He is also the creator of The NAKED Salesman, BOOMOLOGY! RetroService, and the Empathy Selling Process.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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