Hey, this is Steli Efti with Close.io.
Early this morning, I had a founder send me an email.
And the question that he had was his company startup is going through a big change and
they have to completely change the strategy in which they’re trying to sell their product.
Now, he has five salespeople that he needs to convince and sell on the idea of completely
changing their approach to sales, completely changing their strategy in sales and completely
rethinking the way they think about the business.
And he was asking me, “Steli, how do you lead a sales team in times of change?
How can I make sure that my team is going to be committed?
How can I make sure that my team is not going to waste time holding on to the old ways?
How can I make sure that my team is going to execute on this completely and radically
new approach of doing things?”
I thought you guys might benefit from the answer as well.
So I thought why not record my response rather than just emailing him.
So here’s what I think about this.
Change is tough.
And one of the reasons why startups are really hard is that a lot of times, you’ll have
to change multiple times along the way until you figure it out.
And even once you “figured it out” you’ll have to change again at some point as the
world and your environment and your market changes.
So the thing that makes this very tough is that a lot of times, we as people when we
believe in a strategy, believe in a certain approach, believe in a particular way of doing
things, we buy into that thing emotionally.
We completely buy into it and we want it to be true.
We are attaching ourselves to it and we get attached to it.
And then when you asked us to change that, people hold on to it because they are afraid
of letting that go because that meant that they were wrong all along and that makes people
feel disappointed, that makes people feel a little insecure about what to expect next.
And if you have to do that multiple times and a that lot of times it happens in startups,
eventually, people start going the exact opposite route because they don’t want to be disappointed
again and again and again.
They start becoming detached.
They start becoming cynical.
And no matter what idea you bring up, no matter what new strategy you bring up, they go, “Yeah,
let’s see if that’s going to work out this time.”
I remember a month ago, six months ago, we’re excited about this complete new strategy that
would make this work or this pivot or whatever it was.
And it didn’t work out.
So I’m not going to get emotionally invested in this thing.
I’m not going to get excited.
I’m not going to get really – I’m going to keep my distance to this and kind of do
as little as possible to support this because I don’t want to be heartbroken again.
That’s what’s fucking up startup teams and sales teams and startups is that if you
have to do a strategy change a couple of times, eventually, people are going to get cynical.
So here’s what you need to do when you have to lead your sales team in times of change.
Number one is you better be transparent so that people can follow the trail of thought
and understand why are we changing the strategy, why are we stopping doing what we’re doing,
why is what we’re doing not working, and what was the thought process behind trying
this new thing.
If there is a disconnect between what’s going on and how you’re making decisions
and what you want your team to execute on, that disconnect is going to disconnect people
from executing well on it.
So you want to make sure to get what my man, Hiten Shah calls problem alignment.
You want to make sure that everybody understands what the problem is.
Everybody understands and agrees and is aligned on why what we’re currently doing isn’t
working or working enough.
And then you can think about the approach or the change that you want to come up with
either with a team organically or that you want to prescribe to the team.
That’s number one.
Be transparent.
Along the way as you’re experimenting, as you’re seeing the data so that when you
have to change, it’s less of a shock to the system.
People are more prepared and people have context to understand that decision so they’re not
questioning the decision.
They’re not surprised by the decision or shocked by it.
But they could see it along the way and they were part of influencing the change hopefully.
Now, that’s number one.
Number two and step number two which is the most important thing whenever you want your
team to change what they are doing, is to lead that change from the front.
You can’t just come in and have a team meeting, a crisis meeting and tell your sales team,
“This is a complete new way I want you to do things.”
Tell them exactly how you want them to change everything they are doing and that you go
back to your office, you lock the door, and you’re answering emails leaving them alone
with the insurmountable task and the challenging task of figuring out this new thing that you
probably haven’t thought through well enough and that inevitably will have challenges you
haven’t foreseen once they start tackling it.
No!
The way you do it is you leave your office and you lead the team from the front.
That’s also how you’re going to get buy-in because people are going to be like, “Do
I really – do we really want to change everything we are doing and then a week from now maybe
he’s going to come back and change his mind again.”
So they’re always going to just half ass it until they're truly sold on that you are
sold on this.
So when you want your sales team to completely change the direction of how they’re doing
things, show them.
Don’t tell them.
Show them what you want them to do.
Sit there in front of them.
You make the first cold call.
You send that first email.
You make that first new pitch.
You go and negotiate the new way of getting contracts.
Whatever it is you want them to change.
You go and do it first.
You go and lead by example, not by words.
And then slowly but surely when they’re going to see you being serious about this
and doing it yourself, they’re going to follow a line and they’re going to follow
you and they’re going to pick up the phone or send that email or do whatever you’re
doing.
And now, we are all in this together.
So also, now you’re not leaving them alone with a challenge of figuring things out because
you have to go through some radical change in your sales team, chances are that that
new approach, new strategy will have its new set of challenges.
You can’t just leave the team alone with that.
You need to be there with them figuring that new thing out.
Until it’s figured out, you need to immerse yourself into the sales team and lead from
the front.
And once you figured things out, even if it’s not perfectly but once you have kind of a
good grasp on this new strategy, it’s kind of working.
Now, you can go back to running other parts of the business and empower your sales team
to take it from there.
But in the beginning, if you want them to follow you, if you want them to fully commit
to this new strategy, you have to commit fully to it first.
Not just by words and lip service but by example and by action.
That’s the simplest way to get your sales team to do any and every radical change in
their approach is to show them that you are willing to do it as well.
And if they see you, they’ll go, “Oh shit!
I guess we’re serious about this.”
And they’ll follow along and they’ll align with you and they’ll try their best to live
up to that example or to make that new strategy a success.
And if it fails, it doesn’t fail – at least you’re in the midst of it so you know
why it failed and you are a part of it.
So now, you don’t have to wonder once your leave your closed sales office.
If you weren’t part of it, why has this strategy fail?
Can I believe my sales team when they say this isn’t working or do I get the sense
that they had never really tried hard enough?
All this kind of doubt, all these questions, this kind of dynamic where it’s you versus
them and you tell them what to do and then if they don’t do it the way you wanted it,
you were like upset about them and you try to make them do it and they are upset about
you for changing your mind.
And all that bullshit dynamic is gone because instead of there being two parties, you’re
now one team and you’re part of them – they are part of your new strategy.
You work together to figure it out.
It’s as simple as that.
You want to lead your team, your sales team in times of changes.
Lead from the front.
Lead by example.
Do it yourself.
Show them and display how it’s done and that you are fully committed.
I guarantee you.
They will follow you no matter what the strategy is.
All right.
So I want to hear from you.
What kind of – what were some examples of you leading a sales team in times of changes?
What were some of the tactics that you use, the good, the bad?
Just share your stories in the comments.
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And then make sure to reach out to me either if you want to share your story in email,
Steli@Close.io or if you want to just publicly have a conversation, just tweet at me @Steli
and say hi and tell me what your thoughts on how to lead a sales team in times of change.