Transforming sales mindsets to transform selling conversations and sales results

Hello Sales Reset Leader

In this week’s companion Weekly Sales Reset email for front-line salespeople, we ask your team members to reflect on their commission plans.

We suggest they should consider the implications of receiving their commission payments only when customers achieve their expected outcomes.

This is a radical suggestion!

And, of course, implementing outcome-based commission structures has many practical challenges.

However, this is a genuine challenge. Because of the way incentive programmes are currently designed, your team members are probably incentivised to prioritise winning the order more than accurately managing their customers’ expectations.

The rest of this email newsletter assumes you have read this week’s Weekly Sales Reset“:

• Title: Pay salespeople's commissions on customer outcomes, not signed orders

• Subtitle: How would selling change if salespeople's priorities changed radically?

We hope this week’s newsletters will prompt you and your team members to reflect on the implications of their commissions being paid on evidence of customers’ outcomes.

We aim to help you transform your team members’ sales mindsets to transform their sales conversations and sales results.

By the way, we firmly believe that Outcome-Based Commission Incentives are inevitable. It’s just a matter of time before the necessary skills and processes are developed.

Having a vision about the inevitability of Outcome-Based Commissions is what comes first. But all this is for a different newsletter after we have developed more evidence! 😀

In the meantime, if you know about Outcome-Based Commission already being used, we’d love to hear from you!

How to improve your team's results this week

• Evidence of outcome-focused proposals

  • Evidence from conversations

  • Evidence from proposals and emails

  • Evidence from sales outcomes

• Recommended coaching session agenda on Outcome-Bas …

• Expected pushback about Outcome-Based Commissions

• Outcome-Based Commission Role-Play Recommendations

• Leadership Reflective Practice

Evidence of outcome-focused proposals

It’s always best to build your coaching with team members on a foundation of solid evidence.

If you have conversations with team members without reference to evidence, they might make all sorts of claims and observations!

Before you meet with your team members for your 1:1 coaching sessions this week, here’s where to find the evidence you need.

Evidence from conversations

• As you listen to conversations your team members have with customers in real-time or in recordings, how much of the conversation is about outcomes?

• Do your team members have conversations with customers about how these outcomes will be measured and reported?

• Or is the time spent talking about what your team member is selling?

Evidence from proposals and emails

• How effectively do your team members position bespoke, specific and measurable outcomes at the centre of their proposals?

• Or are their proposals primarily about what they’re selling?

Evidence from sales outcomes

• When you complete your win/loss reviews with team members, what evidence is there that wins and losses are correlated to the quality or absence of defined outcomes for each customer?

Recommended coaching session agenda on Outcome-Based Commissions

Before leading your coaching sessions on Outcome-Based Commissions, ask your team members to review the current edition of Weekly Sales Reset.

Give yourself time to reflect on WIIFM, “What’s in for me,” and empathise with your team members about how they might be sufficiently motivated to engage with this topic.

Here’s this week’s recommended coaching session agenda:

1. Start with a brief review of their experience and results from their previous coaching session.

2. Ask this team member for their observations about the idea of commissions being based on outcomes achieved by customers instead of commissions being paid simply when the order is confirmed.

3. Together, review the evidence you found in your preparation with each team member.

4. Identify and prioritise a small range of specific practical things that this team member can do differently and better to prioritise customer outcomes in all their conversation and proposals.

5. Spend some time role-playing (working with these guidelines).

6. Finish the coaching session with agreed and specific action conclusions.

Expected pushback about Outcome-Based Commissions

So you know what to expect and can be prepared, here are three areas of possible pushback from your team members on the theme of Outcome-Based Commissions:

1. It’ll never happen: Sales commissions have been paid on signed orders since the dawn of selling. Why should things change now? What evidence supports the idea that Outcome-Based Commissions might be on the horizon?

2. It’s too complicated. How on earth would we know how to pay commission? When would the commission be paid? I have a mortgage, car loan, and credit cards to pay. I can't wait to be paid until my customers achieve the outcomes they hope they’ve bought!

3. Clarifying unique outcomes is too hard. This is the root cause of the challenge. Defining unique outcomes for each customer, taking account of multiple stakeholders’ priorities, and project planning for the reliable delivery of these outcomes with no surprises is HUGELY challenging!

What are your best responses now that you know these potential pushback areas?

Outcome-Based Commission Role-Play Recommendations

1. Current Biggest Opportunity: If your commission was based on this customer achieving their outcomes, how would these outcomes be measured and reported so your commission could be paid? Role-play the conversation with the customer.

2. Recent Biggest Win: Looking back to your most recent big win. If your commission was based on this customer achieving their outcomes, how would these outcomes be measured and reported? Role-play the conversation with the customer.

3. Recent Biggest Loss: Looking back to your most recent biggest loss. If your commission had been based on this customer achieving their outcomes, how might these outcomes have been measured and reported? Role-play the conversation with the customer.

(You may find these recommendations about using role-play helpful.)

Join Our FREE Sales Reset Together Community

If you like our approach to selling and want to learn more, join our free Sales Reset Together community.

We’ve just opened the doors!

It’s mid-September 2024, and we’ve been developing and testing all the major parts of our community with our Founder Members in recent months. We’ve just opened the doors!

Here’s what you’ll get as a member:

• Community: You'll get immediate access to our private online community.

• Online Training: Access to online lessons, including our Customer Success 3CSelling Quick Start course.

• LIVE! Events: Join us in our LIVE! Events online and access recordings.

• Proposal Reviews: You can request confidential proposal reviews with video feedback and recommendations for improvement.

• Learning & Earning Plan: We'll help and support you in developing your learning and earning plan using your Sales Reset Mastery self-assessment results.

• Support: You can ask questions and get support in our discussion forums.

• Sales Team Leaders with at least one team member active in our community can apply to join a Sales Reset Leaders Mastermind Group.

Leadership Reflective Practice

At the end of this week, ask yourself these key questions:

We hope you’ve found this edition of Sales Reset Leaders valuable.

Have a great week!

The Sales Reset Team

Here’s a link to a page explaining how these weekly Sales Reset Leaders newsletters are designed to help you improve your sales team's results every week with structured coaching and practice.

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Community of Practice

Ask Questions, Share Your Experience

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• LinkedIn Group - Join our World-Class Customer Success Selling Group on LinkedIn to ask questions or comment.

• Sales Reset Together Community - Click here to learn more about our private community of members committed to achieving and maintaining their Sales Reset.

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