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Ian, welcome to the same side selling podcast. I am

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your host. Ian Altman, why is it that organizations often

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struggle to change behavior of their salespeople? I have the

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great fortune of working with many top performing

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organizations on how to do just that, how to modify the behavior

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of their sales people, not because they're not good. In

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fact, I make it a point not to work with dysfunctional groups,

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but rather, how do we take people from doing a good job and

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getting great results? How do we help organizations go from,

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let's say $100 million to 600 million, from 5 million to 100

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million. How do we achieve that type of remarkable growth? And

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the trap that many organizations fall into is this, they try to

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do too much, too quickly. And what I mean by that is it's

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almost the trap of trying to boil the ocean. So what they

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think of is, okay, I need to change every behavior. Focus on

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every nuance, every single element. We need to change our

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entire process from beginning to end. And the reality is that the

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best performing organizations, what they tend to do is focus

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very narrowly on specific things that will move the needle the

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most. It's why, when I work with organizations, what we do is we

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say, okay, where are the three biggest areas where your team is

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getting stuck today? Let's focus on fixing those three areas. So

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it might be well, our biggest area is in opening up new

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opportunities. And it usually prompts me to say, so which

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specific types of opportunities will drive the most growth. And

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oftentimes I get this pause because they haven't thought of

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it that way. See, they look at all opportunities as being

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equal. And what instead, I encourage them to look at is, if

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you were successful with just a subset, which subset would move

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the needle the most? And then they say, Oh well, the types of

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accounts that would help us the most, that would generate the

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highest margin, best business for us, they happen to fall into

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this category. And I say, Okay, so now, how do we want to

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approach opening opportunities and earning the attention for

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those niche opportunities? It might be 5% of the total

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opportunities, but if those the ones that are most impactful,

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how can we address a different approach for those individual

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circumstances? And so what happens is, then I say to them,

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okay, so that's what you want to do overall, if you want to get

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top results for your team, take a look at these same side

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selling Academy. Just visit same sideselling.com to learn more.

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Here's the way we're going to engage your team. Let's ask each

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person to identify two opportunities they're going to

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pursue each week that fit into that category with this

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approach, and we're going to practice and role play those

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scenarios for those scenarios before we ever contact those

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clients. So now we know exactly how we want to approach it. It's

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hyper specific, and it's geared towards those opportunities that

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have the greatest potential for growth in our organization. See,

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when we take a generalist approach, we target, we end up

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casting this wide net, and we capture a lot of junk along the

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way. We don't really get a sense of what's going to move the

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needle. Instead, if you're hyper specific and you say, these are

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the types of accounts that I want to go after, let's say, in

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each territory, and now, within each territory, okay, let's talk

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to each rep about which two opportunities you're going to

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take this new approach with this week. And let's role play and

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practice those and then you're going to go, after just those

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two using this approach, what happens is we start to build and

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refine a better approach. Now, if you ask those reps, look, is

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this overwhelming? Their response is, well, it's not

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overwhelming. This is actually pretty simple. I only have to do

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this for a couple of opportunities. It's hyper

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specific. But what happens is they learn through that

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approach, how to apply this to other scenarios. So the next

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time we do this, maybe a month later. So we've done two

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opportunities each week for a month now, we say, okay, so what

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other opportunities might this apply to? Oh, well, you know

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what this client, we're up selling or cross selling

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additional services. I think this would approach, this

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approach would work well. And we say, Okay, how would you adapt

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that for this scenario? And now we're doing is we're building

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skills that are more broadly applicable across the

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organization. See, we start by being very specific. And then

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what happens is the team starts to realize, oh, I can use this

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same formula for this scenario and that scenario, I can use the

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same scenario for this vertical or that vertical. What often

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happens is we realize that the best way to reach out is by

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focusing on the problems that we solve for. Those people. So the

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more specific we get, the more likely we are to capture their

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attention. So you might say, Oh, we help organizations become

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more efficient, which is very generic. And anyone could say,

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or if you were reaching out to people who were in process

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manufacturing, you could say, when I deal with people in

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process manufacturing, who are trying to solve this specific

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problem. Here's what they often tell us, we can help them the

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most to address and now we're being very specific. So taking

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that approach, it means that now when those reps are going after

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a new market, a new opportunity, they now say, Oh, I have a

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formula for how to deal with this. I now know based on the

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experience of going after two accounts per week with this very

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specific approach, I'm seeing what works and what doesn't

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work. I'm seeing how I adapted my message, what worked and what

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didn't work. Now I can apply it elsewhere. If instead, if I

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said, Oh, I want you to apply this in every scenario, in every

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situation, what would happen is it would be overwhelming for the

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reps, and when we are overwhelmed, what do we do? We

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tend to fall back on the way we used to do things. It's like, if

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I take a golf lesson, I learn a new way to chip. That's fine. I

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go out during the lesson, I'm like, Oh, that's pretty good.

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But if I don't practice it at all, if I don't come up with

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scenarios where I'm using on a regular basis in a pressure

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situation. Let's go back to the way I used to do things, but if

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I practice, I'm going to get better. So what happens is, when

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I learn something new, like, here's a new way that I'm going

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to I'm going to chip on the golf course. I say, okay, when I get

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in this scenario, I'm going to use that new technique, because

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I built enough muscle memory that I'm good at that now I

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start hitting that shot, I get more comfortable with it. And

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then what happens is, I say, you know, I could probably use it in

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this other scenario too. And then I become just generally

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more confident to play that shot. It's the same thing in

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business. It's the same thing in sales. So rather than trying to

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boil the ocean, get more specific. So next time you've

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got an initiative and you're looking to grow, you're looking

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to change people's behavior. Instead of thinking big, think

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small. Think what are the two or three areas that, if I improve,

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will move the needle the most, and then have each rep pick a

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couple of opportunities that they're pursuing to apply this

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new approach, and I think you'll drive better results for your

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business. If there are topics you'd like me to cover on the

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next episode of the same side selling podcast, just drop me a

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note to Ian at Ian altman.com and I'll see you next time on

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the same side selling podcast, so long you