Sales Enablers: Have you OD’d yet? You Should!

The War on… Sales Productivity? 

Based on the sales research results I see (much of which is based on survey results from folks like you), I know it must seem that our efforts to increase sales productivity (which I define as “revenue per salesperson” over a given time period) or sales velocity, are as challenging as our nation’s War on Drugs or about as effective as Prohibition. We still have industry-wide/profession-wide productivity issues with win-rates, revenue plan attainment, and quota attainment.

So, with apologies for the play on words, if you want better odds, Sales and Sales Enablement Leaders, perhaps it’s time that you OD.

What is “OD” and How Can It Improve Sales Productivity?

As you’ve surmised by now, in this context, “OD” does not mean overdose. OD is an acronym for Organization Development.

According the Organization Development Network:

“OD is an effort that is:

  • Planned
  • Organization-wide
  • Managed from the top
  • Increases organization effectiveness and health
  • Through planned interventions in the organization’s processes, using behavioral-science knowledge.

 It is not a surprise that the unit of analysis for OD practitioners is organization, which means that in OD we focus on developing organization capability through alignment of strategy, structure, management processes, people, and rewards and metrics.”

More Alphabet Soup

Another similar approach to improving workplace performance is Human Performance Technology (HPT), espoused primarily by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). It’s also known as Human Performance Improvement (HPI), as explained in this 90-second video.  The Association for Talent Development (ATD) also supports a Performance Consulting approach and has it’s own, similar HPI model.

High Performance Technology
If you step out of the daily whirlwind of business life long enough and suspend judgment about how different these ideas are than what normally happens in sales management, you might be surprised to find valuable approaches that can help you significantly improve organizational sales performance. When you consider the tenants of OD, HPT, and Performance Consulting, there is a gold mine of opportunity here. Words and phrases I’d use to describe these disciplines include:

  • Organization-wide
  • Top-down
  • Systemic
  • Gap analysis
  • Root-cause analysis
  • Data-driven
  • Evidence-based
  • Problem-solving
  • Business case
  • Intervention (solution) development
  • Change management
  • Evaluation

I’d also use the word “effective.” This is the stuff that top consulting firms do (and performance consultants). This is the stuff that performance improvement is made of. And, this is what we need more of, in Sales.

It’s unfortunate that many sales and sales enablement leaders seem to be unaware of the rich history of organizational performance improvement. The body of work includes the above-mentioned OD, HPT/HPI and Performance Consulting, but also disciplines such as Organization Effectiveness, Organization Behavior, Business Process Management, Total Quality Management, Lean and Six Sigma, Change Management, and others. We need to fix this. (The links provided here are a good first step and many provide links to other resources.)

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

So, why are OD, HPT, Performance Consulting and these other disciplines not recognized by more sales leaders and used by more sales performance improvement professionals (sales training, enablement, operations, effectiveness, etc.)?

“We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us.”

~ Walt Kelly, cartoonist, via “Pogo”

Speaking in generalities (with a wide margin for error but also a grain of truth):

  • People that gravitate toward performance consulting roles tend to be highly analytical, measured, exacting, and detailed.
  • People that gravitate toward top sales leadership roles tend to be Type-A drivers with a bias for action and bullet-point level communication.
  • Putting the two groups together is often more like mixing oil and water than peanut butter and chocolate.

For anyone who has been around for a while in the sales profession, I’m sure you can see similarities between this and the common misalignments between Sales and Marketing. While that problem still exists in many organizations, the need for alignment gets airplay, at least, and we see progress being made. Improvements in technology, the published content of experts in sales and marketing alignment, demand generation practices with better handoffs, and Account-Based Marketing and Selling principles have all helped. The advent of a Chief Revenue Officer role, while execution varies greatly, has the right intent with the goal of alignment across sales, marketing, and customer success/service. While I wish the focus were more on the customer (outside-in) than revenue (inside-out), the cross-functional alignment is the right idea.

In contrast, the widespread, well-known ineffectiveness of sales training (or more appropriately, the ineffectiveness of many implementations with a rampant lack of reinforcement, transfer planning, and coaching to mastery) gets airplay now, too, and again, we see progress toward doing training more effectively. Yet, OD, HPT, and Performance Consulting go all but unrecognized in the sales profession (speaking broadly, that is – there certainly are pockets of awareness and excellence).

In the long term, enhanced education in business school curricula and an increase in corporate programs on managing performance improvement could help. In the short term, though, we need to find a way to engage and educate sales leaders and sales performance professionals on these methods, and better educate performance consultants on the rigors and stresses of a sales organization and how to more effectively work with sales leaders.

It’s Worth the Effort

No matter which side of the fence you’re sitting on, I encourage you to start thinking about how we can do this as a profession. The results are worth it. As examples, my book on The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement includes an entire section on systems thinking and I write frequently about Sales Transformation, highlighting the sales systems I work with most frequently:

The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement and Four Sales Systems

The Sales Coaching System

  • The Sales Hiring System
  • The Sales Readiness System (which includes The Sales Training System)
  • The Sales Training System (which is embedded in the readiness system and includes the 5 Stages of Sales Mastery & Behavior Change)
  • The Sales Management System (which includes The Sales Coaching System)
  • The Sales Coaching System (embedded in The Sales Management System

These systems are built using the principles I’m discussing here. And the way in which one can determine which systems to apply or how to establish and prioritize initiatives for impact, follow the precepts of the performance improvement disciplines. Here are just a few examples of the results that companies have achieved by appropriately implementing one or more of the systems:

  • Achieved a $398MM accretive revenue increase in one year from final project completion.
  • Increased sales 600% annually while decreasing operating expenses by 21%.
  • Increased sales results 28.7% over previous year.
  • Increased performance of new hires, so that sales reps with 120 days on the job outperformed a control group of reps with 5 years with the company.
  • Increased sales per rep by 47% in 9 months.
  • Improved average profitability per rep by 11% in only 4 months.

How would achieving results like these make you feel? What could that mean for your sales force? And for you? It is possible. (If you’d like to dig in further, see this brochure or reach out here.)

Next Steps

I’d encourage you to research OD, HPT/HPI, Performance Consulting, and the other performance improvement disciplines mentioned here, if they are new to you.

If we want to elevate the sales profession, and the supporting professions involved in sales performance improvement, it’s time we step out of the dark ages and tap into the rich history of organizational performance improvement practices  and the large body of work that exists to support us, and to help us transform our sales results.

As always, this is what I think. More importantly… What do YOU think?

I’d sincerely enjoy hearing your thoughts, experiences, questions, suggestions, or even disagreements or rants. If you enjoy this post, please feel free to share it with others. I appreciate it.

Thanks for reading, be safe out there, and by all means — let’s continue to elevate our sales profession and evolve, elevate, and professionalize the Sales Enablement function.

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Elevating Sales Performance: 6 Simple Tweaks for Big Impact

Mike Kunkle

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