Sales excellence and the comfort zone freeze

Sales reps and their comfort zones

Sometimes great short-term sales success can be a bad predictive of future sales excellence. Lets look at why that might be and examine the consequences.

There are a number of market and company-specific reasons why this dilemma tends to materialize at various times. In most cases when these factors are the source of the problem, sales reps have very limited ability to manage and correct the problem. However, there is an alternative source of the problem that is directly related to sales repsand is one they can manage and correct. Its all about the comfort zone freeze.

Some sales reps achieve success and avoid failure by sticking to the tried and true. They stay in their comfort zone. They dont, for example, sell the innovative solution because it requires work to get smart about the particulars or because it is risky due to potential hiccups in implementation that cant immediately be solved.

Another permutation of the comfort zone freeze is the sales rep that assumes a cautious attitude simply because its safer from a financial perspective Id rather have less of a commission on a sure thing vs. going for a big hit and losing it all.

Whats wrong with tried and true or a cautious attitude? Isnt there a lot to be said for the old axiom better safe than sorry? But Sales in 2016 is going to be about disruption which has implications for staying within ones comfort zone. Lets look at two specifics:

What are the consequences? Some will say there are none because this characterization of the future as world of constant change is a story heard many times before that has never produced the projected dire results. Possible but the suggested market disruptions look like the real deal. So if they are, what are the likely consequences of staying within comfort zones?

Today, buyers are changing the expectations they have about the people on the other side of the table. They want sales reps who are trusted advisors not product facilitators. The rep or company that adopts the lets just stay the course approach is likely to continuously erode their competitive advantage. Tried and trueand cautious attitude are likely to reemerge as sorry and sad.

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to theSales Training Connection.

2016 Sales Momentum, LLC

View post:
Sales Momentum