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Are You Playing to Win?
Or Playing Not to Lose?
How to Achieve Your Company Sales Goals
Play to Win
August 4, 2023
2:14 pm
Imagine…

by year-end you have to meet your company sales goals, plus there is a group incentive bonus that everyone will receive when the goal is met. That’s the good news. The bad news is more than half the year is gone and you are only at 30% of the goal.

As the leader, you assess your situation and see that some of your people are knocking it out of the park, some are right on target and the rest of them are underperforming.

So, what would a leader do?
  • Hold weekly check-in meetings and try to pump the team up?
  • Go to those producing and try to get more out of them?
  • Give the underperformers extra coaching?
  • Tell them what they need to do to catch up?
  • Put them on a Performance Improvement Plan?
  • Fire them and hire new people?
All of the above? (In my experience, most companies choose All of the Above).
As you can see, something must change, right?
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Allow me to introduce you to: The Emotional Cycle of Change is the 5 Predictable Psychological Stages of Change we all cycle through.
Stage 1 - Uninformed optimism (We can do this)

Stage 2 - Informed pessimism, (Wow this isn’t looking good)

Stage 3 - The Valley of Despair, (We are never going to make!!!!)

Stage 4 - Informed Optimism (I feel like we’ve turned the corner and are on our way)

Stage 5 - Success & Fulfillment (Yeah, we did it!)

Here is the sad truth: 99% of us, when we hit the Valley of Despair, will veer off and try something new, and then repeat Stages 1,2 & 3 again and again and again vs. pushing through to Stage 4, and this is Predictable!!!
So what if, at your sales meeting, instead of trying to “figure it out” or micro-manage the situation, you asked everyone to come up with 3 things they can do this week that will move the needle and then got their commitment to try those things, come back the following week, and tell the team what worked and what didn’t. With me so far?
Then at the following sales meeting, as every team member was sharing their results, you opened it up for feedback from the group. What do you think this could provide? Perhaps someone sees something that could alter the situation, (even an underperformer can have transformational ideas) like, “Try saying it this way,” or, “Let me make a call for you….” And what if you did this week, after week, after week, what do you think could happen?
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I can tell you what can happen: One of my clients was experiencing what I described earlier - sales were down, some people were exceeding goals, but most were struggling.

I took 3 of his people - 1 high performer and 2 underperformers and put them in a Playing to Win Together Team. (And by the way, the high performer was a little ticked off that he wasn’t getting the bonus based on the performance of the low performers.)

When we met each week, they identified actions they would take to move the needle and meet their goals, shared the outcomes of those actions in our huddle, and then opened it up for feedback from the other 2.

Here is what happened - one of the underperformers, Eric, was good at making cold calls and came across a regional office that said, “We don’t work with your company.” “Really,” Eric said, “my records say we do.” The regional guy insisted they didn’t and hung up on him.

Eric mentioned it in our weekly huddle when we discussed ‘What Didn’t Work.’ When we opened it up to feedback, Steven, the high performer, said, “Let me make a call.” And before we knew it, not only were they working with them, but they got a HUGE countrywide opportunity that could make all 3 of their goals for the year.!!!

Now, had Eric not been in this group he would have accepted the no and moved on to the next call. Good things happen you row together vs. paddling against the current on your own. Playing to Win Together as you see, can be game-changing.

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Category : Play to Win Together