A lot of sales departments seem to be run on the assumption that salespeople are clueless and lazy. It's not enough to motivate them with commission or bonuses; they need to be told exactly how to do the job. The even more depressing thing is that this approach does seem to be right. But is it?
The point came out in a conversation with one of my clients, who produce interactive presentation software. One of the big selling points of the software is that it forces salespeople to go through every step of the industry-standard sales process. When implemented, the software reliably produces a boost to the performance of the lower performers. But there is something odd; these folk, held to demanding targets and remunerated largely or entirely on commission, resist this improvement. My clients' biggest issue through implementation is "advocacy" which basically means the sales managers using heavy threats to persuade the reps to use the software.
Why would someone resist an aid which promises to boost their performance and their earnings? Is it ego, the feeling that "nobody can tell me how to do my job better"? That seems unlikely, given that these folk are towards the bottom of the rankings, and know it.
It can't be ego. It must be something else. It is mindset, specifically as described by Carol Dweck in her excellent book of the same title. The idea is that there are two basic mindsets, two different beliefs about the world. One is the "fixed" mindset, the belief that we are born with a certain level of ability in different things, and that it cannot be increased. The other is the "growth" mindset, the belief that we can always learn and get better. For sales people, the fixed mindset translates into the idea of the "born salesman" - sound familiar? For someone with this mindset, suggestions that their performance could be better are threatening, because they raise the bar on something that cannot be improved. And they simply won't believe that anything could help them. That is bad enough, but what is worse is the energy they will put into defending this position. In some cases they would rather get fired for poor performance than engage with the idea that they could learn and improve. Those with the growth mindset, on the other hand, are always receptive to the idea that they could do better, and will give a fair try to anything that offers a credible promise of improvement.
I'd strongly recommend a little self-examination to see which mindset you operate, but there is also a lesson here for managers. If you find yourself in the absurd position of having to bully people into acting in their own best interest (as many of my clients' customers do) then a talk about mindset with your staff could have dramatic results.
