The focal point of our discourse today centers on the pivotal subject of effectively introducing new items, procedures, and changes to sales teams, a matter of considerable significance for sales leaders and managers. It is imperative to recognize that the manner in which we communicate these changes can either foster a collaborative environment or engender discontent and frustration among team members. We shall explore the consequences of inadequate communication, as evidenced by a recent scenario where a sales team was left bewildered and irate due to a lack of prior discussion and proper training regarding new procedures. To mitigate such adverse outcomes, we advocate for a transparent and inclusive approach to communication, wherein team members are engaged in dialogues that facilitate understanding and acceptance of new initiatives. This episode aims to provide actionable insights and strategies that will empower listeners to create a harmonious transition when implementing changes within their organizations.

You may have this groundbreaking idea that will change your sales team’s systems, procedures or processes, but that doesn’t mean your team will share the same level of enthusiasm as you, at least initially. Humans tend to be resistant to change, and if you take introducing changes to your team lightly, it might lead to things going all over the place and tempers heating up like Austin on a summer afternoon. What is the most effective way to start changes in the way your team does things without pissing people off? Well, first of all, it doesn’t help to blindside your team. It has everything to do with effective communication, as Sam Wakefield explains further.

In this compelling episode of Close It Now, we embark on an exploration of the critical strategies for effectively introducing new items, changes, and procedures to a sales team. The conversation is anchored in the understanding that the manner in which changes are communicated can significantly influence team morale and operational efficacy. We highlight the pitfalls associated with abrupt implementations devoid of preparatory discussions, wherein team members may feel blindsided and resist the new directives. Our discourse advocates for an anticipatory communication strategy that involves engaging the team in dialogue prior to implementing changes, thereby allowing for a collective examination of the forthcoming modifications. This approach not only aids in clarifying the rationale behind the changes but also empowers team members to express their concerns and suggestions, fostering a collaborative environment. We discuss the importance of acknowledging the potential challenges that may arise during the transition, and the necessity of scheduling follow-up discussions to address these issues promptly. Through this dialogue, we aim to underscore that successful change management is predicated on the quality of communication. By adopting a transparent and inclusive approach, sales leaders can not only mitigate resistance but also cultivate a culture of adaptability and resilience within their teams. This episode thus serves as a pivotal resource for those seeking to enhance their leadership competencies in the realm of sales management.

Welcome to Close it now, an H Vac sales training podcast with Sam Wakefield.

Here we'll build your reputation in residential H Vac sales to be the expert influencer in your market.

You'll get insight into the top minds in the industry as they share their skills and hacks to help you on your journey.

This podcast isn't just about selling more.

It's about understanding your customers needs and building efficiencies behind the scenes so you can sell more but work less while being top of mind when people think H Vac.

Now let's get started with your host of the Close it now podcast.

This is Sam Wakefield.

Welcome back to Close It Now.

This is Sam Wakefield.

Hey.

Today we are talking about a really important topic.

How to properly and improperly introduce new items, changes, system procedures, changes or anything like that to your sales team.

This is a podcast specifically designed for sales leaders, sales trainers, managers, owners.

How do you introduce new stuff to your salespeople and what is going to be the most effective way and what is the way that's going to basically piss them off?

You know, because you don't want to do that.

You want to leave everybody feeling good about changes, not being angry or upset when changes come along.

So that's our topic today.

Stick around.

It's gonna be a really serious one, but we're gonna have some fun too.

So yeah, this is the time of year, if you're listening to this in real time.

I know I've had some gaps in between the podcast episodes lately because just like you drive Time University, I record these in my drive time between projects as well.

So yeah, that's what's going on.

Today has been an awesome day here in Austin, Texas.

It is 100 degrees still.

Let's see, the date today is August 19th.

So if you're listening to this, you'll hear it about a week later from the recording from editing time.

So it's still 100 degrees, we are still rocking and rolling, setting records here in Austin.

But what's it doing where you're at?

What time of the year are you listening to?

I would love to hear your comments, questions, something that you think would be a great topic for a podcast.

Email me and let me know.

Email me at sam, that's s a mloseitnow.net so shoot me an email, let me know if you have an idea for the podcast or just a overall question.

If you have a question, that means someone else has a question about the same thing.

So that's definitely a way to get answered.

And of Course, I'll answer you directly.

But also who knows, your question might just turn into a podcast episode because this is all about helping everyone achieve next level sales.

I've been doing a ton of private coaching lately.

We're taking people from zero to hero in a short amount of time and it's awesome if your close rate is less than you would like it to be.

If you are sell not selling the volume of sales that you're wanting to be, let me know, we can talk about and find out if private coaching is a good fit for you or not.

It's a ton of fun.

Everyone sees base.

I love when I get new private coaching clients because everyone sees instant results because we just deep dive right away.

The cool part with coaching different.

So I just want to like camp out here for a minute because in this process it's different than going to maybe a sales course.

So you go to a week long sales training somewhere, you sit in the classroom, you might role play a little bit, but you're gonna basically hear somebody lecture every single day.

You know they're walking through the steps of the cell and all of that and you get this workbook.

Then what happens home and you're trying to implement the things you learned.

Well, if you're like me and most people, there's a fair amount of you that just you go to these and then you go back and you go back right back into your ways or your numbers might stay up for a little while but then it kind of falls off.

Because it's all about implementation.

Success happens at the speed of implementation.

The difference between that, which is a one time thing and not only that, when you leave to go to a course or a seminar, sales training, you have to leave work.

You can't keep continuing to bring in revenue.

When you do a coaching program, or my coaching program specifically, it's stretched out across a period of time.

So what happens is we work on each step of the sale very specifically, very in depth.

And then your homework for the next week is to implement it.

And then you get access to me to reach back out.

We can work through any rough places.

So by the time we get to the next week's appointment, you have implemented.

The only thing that your homework is that week is to implement that one thing, make it become you part of your process.

So it's so natural that it stays.

It's like we have the lecture, not really a lecture, but it's very interactive because we do video conference.

But then you have an entire week to implement, implement, implement until it becomes so second nature that that's the way you do it.

And so week after week we're building on the foundation of that previous step to the next step, to the next step.

And all at the same time we get to have that constant interaction.

When you come across objections or you come across obstacles, you know you're hitting those running up against the same wall in your daily process.

We can talk about it throughout the week, but the number one thing is you're implementing and it' becoming part of your process and it's changing you in a way that's going to be lasting results.

Because most people attend conferences or trainings or something like that, you know, they see increased results for a little while, but then they drop back off.

The clients that go through the coaching program, their results go up, up, up, up, up and stay up.

And that is the important part.

I love to see people basically go, like I said, go from zero to hero and start crushing it in their market and they don't come back down.

It's not a flash in the pan.

It's a matter of.

Because it doesn't matter how high you jump at these events, it's how straight you walk when you land.

We've got to implement what you learn and that's doing a coaching program.

So different than of course, because you instantly are implementing as part of the process and we ingrain it to the level that you're instantly next level sells with each of those.

So you become a rock star.

So yeah, that's the coaching program.

It's so different than anything else.

And the cool part is it's priced to where you know, one good sale and you've paid for it.

I mean, and most people who go through the program have at least one good sell a week increase in their revenue.

So they're making more money.

It's way more than worth it.

And it's got a money back guarantee.

So if this is something you're interested in, reach out to me.

Samoseitnow.net this is not a shameless plug.

This is a way that, you know, I want to help you become better.

I want to see you on my hall of fame.

I've got a wall of champions that I've started with people on there that are one guy, this is August 19th and one of my clients, his very first rookie year, he's crossed it should this week should be crossing the one million dollar mark and it's only in the mid August.

I freaking love it.

Nathan, you are, you're a rock star, brother.

Keep.

So that is what's going on with the coaching program.

Now let's get into today's topic.

We are talking about how to effectively introduce new things to your sales team and how pitfalls to avoid.

You know, I see a lot of times, here's a scenario, here's what I actually have seen happen recently with a sales team.

You have new procedure, really completely change the way the sales team operates through.

It's going to be different with dispatching.

It's going to be different with their interaction with the service technicians.

At first glance, you know, you don't really know what's going on.

When it's something new, it's changes.

Anytime we see change, we're a bit resistant to it.

So what happened here?

The scenario is the GM says, well, you know, we decided to just start the process for a whole day, see what happened and let's find out what pain points we're gonna have and then talk about it the next day at the meeting.

Well, I can guarantee you that is the fastest way to have a sales team coming in angry, aggravated, frustrated, had no idea what was gonna be happening.

No idea how to even follow these new procedures because there was no training on it.

There was no conversation about it beforehand.

It was just a, we're starting this, let's figure, let's see if you can figure it out.

And then the next day at the sales meeting, what happened?

Well, there was a big blow up.

Lots of tempers were, you know, tempers were raised.

It was a conversation that eventually calmed down, but it could have all been avoided.

And to avoid something like that.

So don't do that.

Raise your hand if you've done that in the past.

But let me give you permission to change the way that you communicate.

Crystal clear.

Communication is wildly important, especially when you're dealing with your comfort advisors, your project managers, sales teams, selling techs, anybody.

And this goes for anything.

It could be if you introduce a new process and procedures for your service technicians, for your selling techs, for your installation crews, the office, it doesn't matter.

Communication is so crucial.

A much better way to avoid that would have been, okay, team, let's get together, let's talk about this.

Here's what the plan is.

Here's where we're going to be moving.

Here's how to do it.

Here's how to handle these changes.

Will there be speed bump?

Will there be obstacles?

Will there be speed bumps?

Will there be hiccups?

Yes, absolutely.

However, this is the direction the company wants to go.

Let's try it for a day or two days and then meet again and we can discuss any friction points you're having.

If we need to modify or adjust some things, we can do that.

I give you permission to come back with complete, open and honest feedback of what you're feeling, what your emotions are, what your concerns are, what your thoughts are, and we can work through it.

That's a much different conversation than the team getting blindsided with some changes and then talk about it after the fact.

So when you are setting up any types of changes and processes and procedures for your organization, keep that in mind.

If you set the right expectation, it fixes so much of so many issues with anger.

I mean, because at the end of the day you don't want your people coming back and being like, man, screw this, I quit because that's not necessary.

Could easily, easily, easily be avoided by communication ahead of time.

So remember that when you want to implement something, have the conversation first.

And it doesn't have to be the conversation of if you don't like it, we can make changes.

It doesn't even have to be that.

I mean, if you made a decision and you're changing something, that's fine, change it, do it.

Take forward momentum and tell the team this is what we're going to be doing.

And if you don't want to give them the option to come back with ways to fix it or make it better and you just know you're implementing something and that's how it's going to be, that's fine.

But set up the right expectations to start with of here's what we're going to be doing.

Let's discuss how we're going to handle it.

Admit that there may be some hiccups and some, you know, learning curve, getting used to the new process and procedure.

Give everyone permission to make mistakes as they're learning the new process and procedure and then schedule a follow up soon.

Don't wait until the next week or the next two weeks or whenever your next meeting is.

Schedule a special session, follow up, you know, soon after that's implemented and give everyone full permission to come back with their feed, full, open, honest feedback and let them know that you're not going to be upset or angry at what their feedback is, but make it a conversation.

And when you give everyone permission to give their open, honest feedback, people won't come back with tempers.

They'll come back with ideas, they'll come back with buy in and conversation instead of being flared up and, you know, almost ready for a fight.

Does this make sense to anybody?

I don't want your teams to get caught up because that's the old way of managing.

I don't want your teams to get caught up in those types of anger moments because it's not healthy.

It's not good for the morale of the company.

It's not good for the morale of the team or the owner.

And over time, that just builds animosity.

And that's why you have high turnover in some companies, because it's being managed that way.

So if you're that type of manager or owner, admit it, raise your hand, suck it up, buttercup, and learn how to communicate in this century.

We've got to.

In order to attract people that you want on your team, the right people, you've got to learn to communicate a bit better.

And so that's a handy way to do it.

I hope this has been helpful for you today because I know that there's a lot of people who experience this.

It's my way or the highway model of managing.

There's way too much stress and tension going on in the world to keep people in the dark and treat them like that.

So let me urge you to do the right thing.

Make communication changes if you need to.

And I hope this was helpful.

Something that, you know, I see happen with teams way too often and don't want to see happen to yours.

If you'd like to know more about the coaching program, reach out to me.

Samoseitnow.net if you haven't joined the Facebook group, go to closeitnow.net, there's a link right on there to join the Facebook group.

Every Friday I do a Q and A Friday, which is a Facebook live where I jump in and real time answer questions.

What do you got going on?

What's your question?

What are you experiencing?

I always put a post in there every week that, that you can jump in and put in your question for the week and I'll answer it live on the video or if you catch me live, you can jump in and ask a question then and then we'll have a real, we can even have a real time interaction that way.

So that's something I do to help everyone go out there and crush it.

We are living in Covid land.

No end in sight right now, but getting back to normal life.

Basically what we're seeing and I hope you're seeing, everyone needs air conditioning this time of year.

If you're in the Southern hemisphere, all of my Aussie friends, all my Kiwis down south, you guys are, it's winter time for you.

I hope you are crushing it with your heater cells, with your furnace cells.

Yeah.

Shoot me a message I'd love to hear from this week.

This episode will specifically shout out to Australia, New Zealand.

Reach out to me.

Shoot me a message I would love to chat with you about your market down there and what you're seeing marketplace in in Australia, New Zealand.

I don't know if everyone knows the number of listeners that's the third largest group of listeners around the world to this podcast is Australia and New Zealand.

So I much, much love for you.

For my Aussies.

You guys keep it up.

I know you are saving the world one heat stroke at a time.

Saving the world one frostbite at a time and all right, everybody out there and Close it now.

Land.

I will talk to you again soon.

Thanks for listening to Close it now with Sam Wakefield.

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