Grant Van Ulbrich: Transforming Sales management

Change and sales management

I have learnt that change is constant and it’s personal. How you manage it makes it bearable and achievable.

In the United States alone, nearly 70 Billion USD is spent each year on sales training and education programs.

Sales enablement is academically referred to as deliberate sales learning through three pillars, identified as knowledge codification, knowledge certification, and knowledge articulation. This is facilitated in sales organizations through deliberate sales practice and results in measured sales performance.

According to Tan, change management is defined as “a way to transform organizations in order to maintain or improve their effectiveness”.

The sales individual has an inherent right to accept or reject change.

Image using sales coaching and incorporating personal change all together. Now that is transformational.

Four popular change models

A salesperson is consistently experiencing change at a very rapid pace. Some changes are forecasted, and others are ad hoc and can come without warning.

A salesperson is a broker of sorts. A communicator, a negotiator, a therapist, and a social phenomenon.

The changes that a salesperson endures each and every day are the very challenges brought on from two main factors:

The organization itself.
The B2B or B2C customer.

Kurt Lewin’s Change Theory

He was a German American psychologists. He named his model the “Change Theory”. The model is three-step process, whereby you identify a change, that is needed, freeze it, and make the change and then re-freeze to embed the change process.

The stages:

Unfreeze. You review the current behavior or process that is the subject of being changed.
Change. You implement the new process or methodology. This is known as facilitating the change.
Re-Freeze. You solidify the new way of thinking, working, process, or practice and move forward.

The Lewin’s equation to determine if a change is warranted is B= f(P,E). B is equal to Behavior, and F is equal to Function. P represents the Person involved and E is the Environment in which all of the change would occur. Behavior is a function of the person representative of their environment.

Kotter’s 8-Stage Change model

The model was introduced in Kotter’s book Leading Change.

Step one is where you create a sense of urgency. You need at least ¾ of the management onboard with a change.
Step two is forming a core group of people (coalition) that will lead and execute the change process.
In the third step, the leadership will want to develop a clear vision and strategy for success of the change process they are implementing.
Next step is about sharing the vision and communication at every opportunity.
The fifth step is about empowering employees to facilitate and execute the change strategy.
In the sixth step you need to generate some quick wins.
The seventh step is to consolidate gains and produce the changes desired.
The eight and final step is to initiate the change itself.

Kotter later revised the 8-step version in a book called Accelerate.

Hiatt’s ADKAR® Change model

It a one of the very few models that author recognize was designed and intended to include the personal side of change. It was created by Jeffrey M. Hiatt and first explained in his book ADKAR: A model for change in business, government, and our community.

Awareness of the need for a change.
Desire to participate and support the change.
Knowledge on how to change.
Ability to implement required skills and behaviors.
Reinforcement to sustain the change.

McKinsey’s 7-S change model

It is a model that was created and designed by Tom Peters, Richard Pascale, and Robert H. Waterman Jr. while they were working as McKinsey employees in the late 1970s.

The seven Ss are:

Strategy: What is the strategy necessary to fulfill the desired objectives?
Structure: What structure or people do you need to facilitate the project?
Systems: What systems will be included for design, monitoring, and control. Systems represents the actual processes and procedures, tools, and functions that are in place today.
Skills: What distinct capabilities of the staff to fulfil the strategy are needed?
Staff: Who will be included for motivation and support?
Style: What will be the leadership style for the project and team?
Shared values: What common beliefs and values will guide the project?

Four more change models

The 5 Stages of Grief®, or the 5 Stages of Loss® change model

It comes from Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. A founder of the hospice movement. Her book On Death and Dying. The model is:

Stage 1 – Denial: In the denial stage one might experience or express thoughts of disbelief.
Stage 2 – Anger: During the anger stage, there is a sense of understanding and possible acceptance or rejection of the situation.
Stage 3 – Bargaining: This stage represents causation, where the person involved is trying to seek alternative solutions.
Stage 4 – Depression: In this stage the overwhelming weight of the situation at hand comes to reality.
Stage 5 – Acceptance: In this final stage a form of acceptance occurs.

It wasn’t meant to be a model at all. Moreover, it was a framework to facilitate a discussion. Dr. Kubler-Ross’ work uncovered 13 stages, but that was too much for people to digest.

The SARA Curve

The model is used for reaction to feedback. The model phases are shock, anger, resistance and acceptance.

While it is not listed on this version of the SARA Curve, there is an additional letter representing “hope” that comes at the end of this model. Hope represents the ability for a person to embrace the new change situation and trust the process will lead to a favorable outcome.

There is a popular phrase among sales professionals that says, “You are only as relevant as your last sales”, and that sale needs to be often and fresh daily.

The positive and negative response curve

Daryl Conner is the leader in the art of managing change. In 1993 he published Managing at the Speed of Change: How resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail.

Conner positive response curve is describing emotional response to positively perceived change. It is a graph of pessimism level over time. Phases are:

Uniformed optimism.
Informed pessimism.
Checking out (private and public).
Hopeful realism.
Informed optimism.
Completion.

Negative response had this phases:

Stability.
Immobilization.
Denial.
Anger.
Bargaining.
Depression.
Testing.
Acceptance.

In the early nuances of a change process, we must articulate and inform people what the true costs of the change process are going to be.

Changes to buying and selling

Sales was changing even before Covid-19, but even more after it. What changed is how people want to be sold.

Dr. Squire linked behaviors and values of sellers into positive and negative sales mindset.

Dr. Birkinshaw introduced three areas of selling: industrial, knowledge and post-knowledge areas, each with different sales approach. Source of competitive advantage was in industrial era: return on capital, time and motion and systems and processes. In knowledge era or meritocracy sources of competitive advantage were: knowledge, insights and experience. In post-knowledge we have two ways, emocracy and adhocracy. In ahocracy sources of competitive advantage are action oriented, agile and responsiveness and transformation. In emocracy they are relationship values, emotional attachment to the brand and values and beliefs.

In this digital age, sales is shifting online.

In the emocracy, you are dealing with people’s emotion. They no longer want to be sold to. They no longer want you to simply overcome their objections.

The top five skills that are needed to facilitate today’s negotiation process in an emocracy puts trust demonstrated with empathy and patience as the number one skillset. Followed by the respectful discussions, where you share that you have the knowledge by understanding where the customer is coming from.

Focusing on individuals

Leading transactionally means that you are ticking all of the boxes and ensuring that a team is achieving all of the necessary tasks and opportunities that we come across each day of the year. But leading transformationally means that, as a leader, you must put forward the responsibility and care of those you are entrusted to lead.

There is a clinical term known as methathesiophobia, which is the official term for the fear of change.

The focus for the SCARED SO WHAT model is towards the individual as a self-discovery methodology. The SCARED portion helps us reflect on the change we are experiencing so we can make a favorable decision. “So what does it mean?” or “So what can we do about it?,” which is where the SO WHAT portion of the model comes in play.

The individual journey through change is the most critical element within an organization.

Author believes that a person has the right to choose if they want to accept or reject personal change, and this is where the other models fell short.

SCARED SO WHAT allows for personal choice to happen based on positive, neutral, or negative energy level of change.

The personal change management model: SCARED SO WHAT

The SCARED wheel of change:

Surprise.
Conflict or Champion.
Actions.
Receptive or Rejective.
Explore options.
Decision or Indecision.

With you change inside the wheel.

Actions are a part of critical reflection and can be your best source of seeking out information. Explore other options is a second chance to formulate actions.

Regardless of whether you have made a favorable or unfavorable decision about your change situation, the decision is yours to make. If you find yourself in indecision, try to facilitate some or more actions and explore further options or opportunities.

SO WHAT wheel to Navigate Change

Strategy.
Options.
Way forward.
Hope/How.
Actions.
Take ownership.

With your change inside the wheel.

Strategy is the first step after an informed decision is made.

Identify and clarify what the change itself is.
Identify the steps to include in the change process.
Identify what processes and what people need to be involved.
Identify your own needs.
Identify what your timeline is for this change.

In options or opportunities, you may consider:

Have you identified other options or opportunities to support your strategic plan?
Can you socialize your SO WHAT plan with others?
Can you fact check and gain a sense of reassurance that they are the right people to support you?
Could you conduct a small brainstorming session?
What other support might be needed?

Next step is to stop and reflect and you have two sense checks – Way forward and Hope. In Way forward you check:

Have I identified who will need to be in the review or support process if necessary?
Have I identified all stakeholders that will be involved within my strategy plan?
Do I need to create a small brainstorming session?
Do I have a way forward to begin executing my own personal change strategy?

In Hope you check:

Do I have the right plan in place?
Do I have other’s buy in and support?
Do I have the leadership support?

Then you move to actions.

What actions do you need to take?
Who do you need to help from to take this plan forward?

The last part is to take ownership.

How will I hold myself accountable?
Who will I share my plan with?
Who will be my key stakeholders?
Will I check with others involved in my plan?
How will I see my plan through?
How will I celebrate any successes?

Discovering emotions and actions using SCARED

Daryl Conner said: “Change is easy when people like it.”[1]

The SCARED model is not linear.

The main purpose of the model is to allow the user to stop and critically reflect on a change situation.

First question is whether I am surprised by this change and what level of surprise the change represents to me. Once we understand the initial reaction we can formulate our initial feelings about it. Action represents the generation of information in this process. Then we stop to reflect and decide on receptive or rejective state we are in. We always have a choice to generate more options and explore them. Change is personal. It is all about you. When you decide what a change is to you, you can create your own SO WHAT plan.

The gap between decision and action

Psychologists suggest we make over 35.000 decisions in a day. Willam James said: “The mind is at every stage a theatre of simultaneous possibilities.”[2]

Decision making is a competition between choice and options. Indecision is the lack of information needed to choose a direction. Or perhaps it is the opposite, and you have too much information that is countering the possible outcomes.

A decision to not accept the change imposed on or presented to you is not necessarily a bad decision. You need to decide what you are or are not willing to accept.

The gap between decision and action often leaves too much room for interpretation.

SO WHAT is the output of an informed decision made during the SCARED reflective process.

Creating SO WHAT plan

Henry Muntzberg defines a strategy as a consciously intended course of action, a guideline (or set of guidelines) to deal with a situation.

In strategy it is important that you define what the change will be and you want to be sure that you have included all the items of concern. Think about budget, timeline, support you need and people that needed to be involved.

Option is the word that dates back to the 1600s and means the actions to choose.

In taking ownership ask yourself how will you hold yourself accountable? How will you know that progress is made?

What’s next?

With any strategy plan, an element of flexibility must be included. We learn as we grow, and we enhance our strategic plans, as we gain new experiences and learn new things.

The ability to be highly flexible is considered an advanced skillset within sales profession and more than ever that skillset is being tested.

SCARED SO WHAT is a flexible methodology complete with the SCARED quiz and SO WHAT template to support you in building up your skillsets in managing personal change.

[1] In the book on page 113

[2] In the book on page 133