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Ian Altman: Ian, welcome to the
same side selling podcast. I am

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your host. Ian Altman, why is it
that organizations often

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struggle to change behavior of
their salespeople? I have the

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great fortune of working with
many top performing

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organizations on how to do just
that, how to modify the behavior

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of their sales people, not
because they're not good. In

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fact, I make it a point not to
work with dysfunctional groups,

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but rather, how do we take
people from doing a good job and

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getting great results? How do we
help organizations go from,

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let's say $100 million to 600
million, from 5 million to 100

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million. How do we achieve that
type of remarkable growth? And

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the trap that many organizations
fall into is this, they try to

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do too much, too quickly. And
what I mean by that is it's

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almost the trap of trying to
boil the ocean. So what they

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think of is, okay, I need to
change every behavior. Focus on

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every nuance, every single
element. We need to change our

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entire process from beginning to
end. And the reality is that the

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best performing organizations,
what they tend to do is focus

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very narrowly on specific things
that will move the needle the

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most. It's why, when I work with
organizations, what we do is we

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say, okay, where are the three
biggest areas where your team is

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getting stuck today? Let's focus
on fixing those three areas. So

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it might be well, our biggest
area is in opening up new

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opportunities. And it usually
prompts me to say, so which

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specific types of opportunities
will drive the most growth. And

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oftentimes I get this pause
because they haven't thought of

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it that way. See, they look at
all opportunities as being

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equal. And what instead, I
encourage them to look at is, if

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you were successful with just a
subset, which subset would move

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the needle the most? And then
they say, Oh well, the types of

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accounts that would help us the
most, that would generate the

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highest margin, best business
for us, they happen to fall into

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this category. And I say, Okay,
so now, how do we want to

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approach opening opportunities
and earning the attention for

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those niche opportunities? It
might be 5% of the total

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opportunities, but if those the
ones that are most impactful,

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how can we address a different
approach for those individual

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circumstances? And so what
happens is, then I say to them,

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okay, so that's what you want to
do overall, if you want to get

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top results for your team, take
a look at these same side

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selling Academy. Just visit same
sideselling.com to learn more.

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Here's the way we're going to
engage your team. Let's ask each

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person to identify two
opportunities they're going to

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pursue each week that fit into
that category with this

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approach, and we're going to
practice and role play those

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scenarios for those scenarios
before we ever contact those

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clients. So now we know exactly
how we want to approach it. It's

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hyper specific, and it's geared
towards those opportunities that

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have the greatest potential for
growth in our organization. See,

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when we take a generalist
approach, we target, we end up

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casting this wide net, and we
capture a lot of junk along the

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way. We don't really get a sense
of what's going to move the

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needle. Instead, if you're hyper
specific and you say, these are

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the types of accounts that I
want to go after, let's say, in

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each territory, and now, within
each territory, okay, let's talk

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to each rep about which two
opportunities you're going to

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take this new approach with this
week. And let's role play and

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practice those and then you're
going to go, after just those

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two using this approach, what
happens is we start to build and

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refine a better approach. Now,
if you ask those reps, look, is

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this overwhelming? Their
response is, well, it's not

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overwhelming. This is actually
pretty simple. I only have to do

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this for a couple of
opportunities. It's hyper

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specific. But what happens is
they learn through that

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approach, how to apply this to
other scenarios. So the next

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time we do this, maybe a month
later. So we've done two

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opportunities each week for a
month now, we say, okay, so what

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other opportunities might this
apply to? Oh, well, you know

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what this client, we're up
selling or cross selling

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additional services. I think
this would approach, this

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approach would work well. And we
say, Okay, how would you adapt

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that for this scenario? And now
we're doing is we're building

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skills that are more broadly
applicable across the

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organization. See, we start by
being very specific. And then

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what happens is the team starts
to realize, oh, I can use this

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same formula for this scenario
and that scenario, I can use the

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same scenario for this vertical
or that vertical. What often

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happens is we realize that the
best way to reach out is by

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focusing on the problems that we
solve for. Those people. So the

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more specific we get, the more
likely we are to capture their

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attention. So you might say, Oh,
we help organizations become

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more efficient, which is very
generic. And anyone could say,

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or if you were reaching out to
people who were in process

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manufacturing, you could say,
when I deal with people in

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process manufacturing, who are
trying to solve this specific

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problem. Here's what they often
tell us, we can help them the

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most to address and now we're
being very specific. So taking

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that approach, it means that now
when those reps are going after

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a new market, a new opportunity,
they now say, Oh, I have a

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formula for how to deal with
this. I now know based on the

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experience of going after two
accounts per week with this very

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specific approach, I'm seeing
what works and what doesn't

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work. I'm seeing how I adapted
my message, what worked and what

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didn't work. Now I can apply it
elsewhere. If instead, if I

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said, Oh, I want you to apply
this in every scenario, in every

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situation, what would happen is
it would be overwhelming for the

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reps, and when we are
overwhelmed, what do we do? We

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tend to fall back on the way we
used to do things. It's like, if

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I take a golf lesson, I learn a
new way to chip. That's fine. I

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go out during the lesson, I'm
like, Oh, that's pretty good.

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But if I don't practice it at
all, if I don't come up with

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scenarios where I'm using on a
regular basis in a pressure

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situation. Let's go back to the
way I used to do things, but if

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I practice, I'm going to get
better. So what happens is, when

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I learn something new, like,
here's a new way that I'm going

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to I'm going to chip on the golf
course. I say, okay, when I get

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in this scenario, I'm going to
use that new technique, because

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I built enough muscle memory
that I'm good at that now I

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start hitting that shot, I get
more comfortable with it. And

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then what happens is, I say, you
know, I could probably use it in

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this other scenario too. And
then I become just generally

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more confident to play that
shot. It's the same thing in

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business. It's the same thing in
sales. So rather than trying to

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boil the ocean, get more
specific. So next time you've

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got an initiative and you're
looking to grow, you're looking

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to change people's behavior.
Instead of thinking big, think

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small. Think what are the two or
three areas that, if I improve,

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will move the needle the most,
and then have each rep pick a

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couple of opportunities that
they're pursuing to apply this

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new approach, and I think you'll
drive better results for your

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business. If there are topics
you'd like me to cover on the

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next episode of the same side
selling podcast, just drop me a

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note to Ian at Ian altman.com
and I'll see you next time on

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the same side selling podcast,
so long you