Salespeople often raise problems with their sales
managers that require fixing. There is more than one way to
“fix”problems and one way is more effective than the other.
Here are two approaches for this problem-fix type discussion:
Approach 1 – Some salespeople
raise problems with their sales
managers with the conversation culminating in the salesperson
simply “tossing the ball” to the sales manager.
This approach can be
viewed in a couple of ways. Some may see the salesperson as seeking
help. On the other hand, some may view this as the salesperson simply
raising a complaint or as the old poker expression goes “passing the buck.”
Regardless of the point of view, the salesperson is looking to the sales
manager to solve the problem but providing no insight into possible solutions.
Approach 2
With this approach, when a salesperson raises a problem with a
sales manager, it is accompanied by three ideas for solving it – the 3-idea
rule. By using the 3-idea rule, the salesperson is not ceding
responsibility for solving the problem and the sales manager is not accepting
the total responsibility for solving it.
What are the benefits of
following 3-idea rule? Offhand, there are three:
§ The salesperson maintains “ownership” of the
problem and therefore is ultimately responsible for solving it. The sales
manager provides assistance in thinking through the problem, generating
options, and providing parameters for deciding what works best. This
appears to us to be putting the responsibility where it belongs and it helps
the salesperson to learn how to handle future problems.
§ This method avoids simply complaining – “if
all you bring me is a problem, then it’s just you complaining to me.”
Sales managers usually have 10 or so sales reps reporting to them.
Imagine the difference in the sales manager’s day if all 10 sales reps used Approach 2 vs. Approach 1 – talk about
having a better day.
§ By bringing 3 ideas to the table, the
likelihood increases that the solution the salesperson and sales manager
identify is better than if the salesperson simply relied on a sales manager for
the solution. Plus, by advocating the 3-idea rule, the sales manager
helps the salesperson to “think through options.”
Building a productive relationship between sales managers and
their teams is a big deal. One step in that journey is creating a set of
expectations that can provide a roadmap for the trip. This 3-idea rule is
just one small step in the right direction.
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Mel -
Whether
you are a Sales Manager or the Sales Person, I suggest that the three idea rule
be put in place in your sales activity.
It will work as recommended.
However in the software field the three idea concept goes much deeper
and it may do the same in your industry.
A client wants our software to have a new
feature. If I simply bring the idea and leave it on a
developer’s desk it will set right there until the next millennium. By spending some time beforehand I will have
3 or more alternative ways that this new feature could be done simply. I never give up when the first “can’t be
done”, is dropped onto the idea.
Instead
of being blown off with the self serving “That is not how it’s done!” I will continue to broach the topic from
different view-points emphasizing that this could be done simply. It takes some
getting chutzpa to be a speck in management’s soup, but sometimes new ideas
have to be sold. Remember that management
is schooled and trained in the ways of making something simple Very Complex. If
we made that change, in the way that we do this one thing, the world would stop
spinning and we would fly off into space.
So whether you are using the three ideas to
solve a customer problem or selling a new idea to your management team, Give it try, because it works!
Sales Pro Edumacation
