Keeping up momentum in sales
Sales is an area of business that has been drowned in consultants, seminars, books, lectures, programs, and essays, and I can see why. I find it is the most difficult of all departments to build and manage. Many times, leaders become so tangled up in our underwear trying to build sales processes, infrastructure, and KPIs that we forget that the sales team is supposed to be selling.
Sometimes, the first steps are the hardest, whether for a new salesperson or simply during a down business cycle, getting the momentum going is the number one priority. To get the ball rolling, I deploy a strategy I call “three yards and a cloud of dust.” For football fans, you know this means grinding it out over four downs to gain ten yards and starting again. It might take a while to reach the end zone, but you reach it in the end and have smaller celebrations along the way.
Many organizations are structured more for the Hail Mary pass, which is by design high risk. How you get it done doesn’t have to be pretty.