The Hidden Hypocrisy of Sales Leadership: You Want the Numbers, But You Won’t Touch ‘Em
You know what’s kind of hilarious (and not in a haha good way – but in a am I living in the Twilight Zone way)? Sales leaders that are dropping big demands on their teams such as “we need to improve win rates”, or “we need more pipeline!” It’s that TOF (top of funnel solves everything scenario). But when it’s time to actually fix things and bring in a sales training program, what do they do? They send sales enablement to handle it, or worse, human resources. I know what you are thinking….
So what?
Often, these teams do not have access to metrics and no nothing about the metrics that sales leadership wants to improve. Sounds silly, but it’s happening (I field these calls). Enablement and HR get frustrated with me when I talk them out of product buying. It’s wild, the looks I get. Everyone is so used to surface level buying and shallow discovery where people will freely take your money! (yo – Keenan has a super duper video on this that he recorded off the cuff on Loom).
Can’t you just sell me the thing and give me pricing?
Me – no – that is committing sales malpractice and I have vowed to not just sell you the thing until I have a full understanding of your business. I’m often hit with. “our CSO or CRO or VP of Sales is really busy and I just need to fill out this matrix”
The Big Disconnect
Here’s the deal: you bring in training to solve real business problems—win rates, pipeline, conversion rates, long sales cycles. But how many top sales leaders get their hands dirty and actually say, “Hey, here are the exact metrics we need to move, let’s focus on this!” Almost none. Why? My theory is that it truly exposes a company to where they are falling short. It’s like trying to hire an online fitness coach and then not wanting to give them your current weight because you are embarrassed about what they will think. Newsflash – we do not judge. We are truly there to help, or to tell you we can’t help (or at least a good company SHOULD do that).
The part that really baffles me are the companies and yes, senior leaders who do not know what those numbers are, or worse, admit to how much they have invested in a training partner and can’t report on any metrics that moved. How does one even know training worked if you aren’t measuring starting metrics and taking snapshots each quarter? You product bought most likely.
Why Does This Happen?
Far Removed From the Trenches: A lot of sales leaders are just too far removed from what it’s like to be an active seller’s seat and have been out of the trenches for far too long. They tend to be bombarded with info day to day so just want to hear ROI and how the team will fix things ASPA. Plus let’s face it – their team probably product pitches so why not product buy? It’s the extreme disconnect of how training will fix their business problems and an expect that “enablement will wave a magic wand and build reinforcement around everything”
Many in enablement are true unicorns and gems – making that known here!
The Metrics Matter
Metrics should be the whole reason you bring in training! Even if you have nothing in place now – it is not enough to say you have to bring in a methodology – you have to know what specific metrics you are trying to move and what behavior you have to change in order to reach or exceed goals.
If you do not know these – do not buy. I hear horror stories from other sales training/enablement orgs that make you pay for discovery, or flash their fancy title and client list around – and have these great dashboards – but they have no insights into your org.
Advise your team to run from those discovery meetings. Push back on enablement when they add them to the “matrix” – if who you send says no discovery took place and they had to sit through a 65 page slide deck.
I’ve yet to meet an org who isn’t trying to move the needle somewhere. Increase average sales price, shorten sales cycles, go up market…..You’re trying to move the needle on specific things like win rates – push back on sellers who aren’t asking to dive into what those all look like in your org. If they do not ask – how in the heck will they train your team to move them and find the metrics during discovery?
The Bottom Line Top Dawg
If you’re a sales leader and you’re not getting involved in training decisions or defining metrics, you’re just hoping for improvement, not leading it. And hope, my peeps, is not a strategy that gets any of us very far – except for my five year old who hopes for the tooth fairly – a mythical creature. If you want to drive real change, start owning the very numbers you’re asking your team to move. Empower them to know the metrics and stop passing the buck, and start being the leader your team needs.
Tl;DR
It’s not enough to just say, “We need to get better.” Better at what? How much better? In what timeframe? Those are the questions sales leadership needs to answer and be transparent with the team on what the numbers are —before they send anyone off to talk to a training provider.
