EVERYTHING NEW IS OLD AGAIN

As a sales trainer my job is to make sure that the sales force is producing to the companies expectations. This means that I need to make sure every rep has the basic skills to sell and is kept up to date on all the newest techniques and tools available.

If you have ever had to do any training you know that sales reps, like just about every other person in the world, hate change. I can tell a sales rep that they are doing everything wrong in their sales presentation and they will be glad (well maybe not glad) to be retrained on each step until they get it right. Tell the same rep that I am changing a form or changing how they enter information and it will be the end of the world as they know it.

My job is to figure out why they feel this way and then find ways to work around the resistance. Over my career I have seen changes that seem insignificant derail an entire sales force. I have watched top producers fall to the back of the pack over some of the most trivial things and I have seen companies collapse because they couldn’t find a way to stop the madness.

No two situations are ever the exact same, however, you can usually group reactions to the type of changes that are being attempted. Let me give you some examples;

1)      If a company changes a label, in most cases even if the product didn’t change at all the sales force will view it as a negative saying the customer will not accept the change. The truth, in most cases the customer won’t even realize a change was made.

2)      If a company replaces a product, in most cases the reps will always perceive the replacement as inferior to the original, even if the new product out performs the old product AND costs less.

Of the hundreds of other changes that can be made, I want to discuss one in particular. This is one that I am will to bet every person reading this post has gone through, CHANGING A COMPUTER PROGRAM!

It may have been a presentation program, a pricing program, a customer management program or one of a dozen others, it is always the same. NO ONE LIKES THE CHANGE! If you ask why they don’t like it you will get the usual list of reasons, too slow, not enough information, too much information, too difficult, and my favorite, it doesn’t do anything the old program didn’t do.

All of these reactions are usually driven by one thing, fear! Reps are afraid that they won’t ever get to know how to use the program as well as they know the old program.

Now let me make a bold statement here, I usually try not to paint with too broad a brush, but in this case I am going to commit myself. THE YOUNGER THE SALES REP THE LESS YOU WILL HEAR ANY OF THESE OBJECTIONS! There I said it. Many reps who were not brought up using computers hate to think about having to learn a new program. Even if they have been using the old program for years you will hear them say things like, I have just gotten used to this one, or just as I am feeling at ease with this one, and this one isn’t THAT old!

All these reactions are based in fear, the fear that they may not be able to learn the new program. Well I am here to set the records straight. Anyone can learn a new program and anyone can become proficient on a new program. All it takes is practice.

If most reps would spend half as much time working with a new program as they do complaining about it they would excel on it. If they would spend as much time working with the new program as they do finding ways to avoid using it they would excel on it. If they would spend half as much time working with the new program as they do making excuses why they haven’t learned it yet they wouldn’t need the excuses.

Like most things we learn, the more we use them the more we do them the easier they become and the better we get at doing them. The more time put into learning a program the less work it is to use the program. It is only a matter of time before we are using the new program as well and sometimes even better than we did the old one. It is as if everything new is old again!

Lorin