Groundhog Day…  2016 Sales Strategy …and have your Salespeople see their Shadow?

Sales teams have 8.3% of their 2016 sales year behind them now. They launched 2016 with fresh sales goals and a sales strategy and plan to achieve those goals. How is your sales team performing so far this year? Will this be the year your team hits plan, or will 2016 be another groundhog day and your team has seen their shadow and they returned to their den of how we have always done things and sales will be cold in 2016?

According to folklore, if the groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and does not see its shadow, then spring will come early; if it does see its shadow it will go back into its burrow, and the cold winter weather will persist for six more weeks.

After the first month of sales in 2016 have your salespeople seen their shadow and are they already retreating from your strategy this year and not executing the 2016 sales plan?  

Your team did its strategic planning late 2015 and 2016 will be the year your team wins. 2016 is the year we will hit our sales goals. Your team met, discussed current market realities your team’s core competencies and conducted a SWOT analysis. Based on the information shared and gathered you wrote a plan for 2016.

How do you know if your sales team is executing the plan?

As I shared in a short video in 2010; “nothing frustrates CEO’s more than spending the time to develop a strategic plan and then find out six months into the plan sales is not executing the plan.” I refer to it as the “great disconnect”. In my experience, most businesses develop their strategic plans, but they fail to provide sales the proper sales tools to manage the plan, a value proposition that resonates with buyers today and a repeatable sales process based on how buyers shop today.

How do you know if your salespeople have already seen their shadow and are retreating from your 2016 sales strategy?

Behavior and KPI’s!

Are your salespeople executing the behaviors you asked them to do to have a winning sales year? Are they executing their KPI's ?

How did they spend their time, and expense dollars in January?

Did your salespeople’s behaviors align with your 2016 sales plan?

If your sales people did not see their shadow, it means the strategy you developed is resonating with buyers, is working, and your team believes in it and are doing the behaviors to insure you hit plan.( great job!)  

If they have already retreated into their burrow of how I have always done things because these new behaviors make me uncomfortable  it is often one of 4 reasons;

• They do not believe in this year’s plan and do not believe it will help them hit their sales goals

• They tried to implement the value proposition and behaviors and they did not connect with buyer problems

• They have an unrealistic expectation for return on their sales time investment ( ROSTI)

• They donot believe they need any new behaviors to hit plan

As the leader charged with achieving sales objectives this year and positioning your company for future growth you have to understand the “why” the behaviors that align with your company’s overall sales strategies are not occurring and correct them quickly.

What I have learned;

• We manage behaviors and lead people

• Salespeople are like water and they seek the path of least resistance

• Sales people have a high utilitarian trait , they need to see a ROSTI

• Some of the behaviors you ask them to do have a longer time horizon for the ROSTI benefit and we must share those expectations 

It sounds like Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog did not see his shadow yesturday so we are in for an early spring. Did your sales team’s January 2016 results achieve sales plan? If so it sounds like your team is aligned, the behaviors you asked of your team are being executed, and your future sales look bright and sunny.

If your sales started slower than plan the first place I would check is sales team behaviors and were they in alignment with what they needed to do?

Second you must reinforce a reasonable expectation of results for the 2016 sales plan behaviors.  

You still have time to adjust to insure 2016 is the year your sales team achieves and or surpasses their sales goals.

 Market dynamics require us all to have an agile sales methodology. We must have plans, learn, modify and adjust. The hardest adjustment for most salespeople ( all people)  is changing behaviors. This may be difficult depending on your team’s culture but I encourage you to stick with it. You must insure your team is executing the behaviors that drive the desired results based on market conditions, your distinctive competence, and your teams sales goals.   

Picture credits http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/02/465253970/groundhog-day-punxsutawney-phil-did-not-see-his-shadow