Have you been tempted to manage and train your sales, sales management, teams to perform like clones? Are you doing this now? Be honest… If so, you’re most likely making a huge mistake!

In my last meeting… all were bobbing their heads and smiling in agreement with what I had presented. So I proceeded forward feeling warm and fuzzy that I had performed my duties flawlessly. I was pretty sure we would have an uptick in sales quickly. I knew if they would just follow what I said, and I mean exactly what and how I said it, everyone would be wildly successful!

Unfortunately, shortly after, problems started. Some in the field were not presenting their new found information correctly. Some went back to what they knew (comfort zone) and were not presenting the new information at all. Some made their own new presentation that was morphed somehow from what was presented. More importantly… others did exactly what and how I said it and failed miserably. Frustrating!

I didn’t let their sales light shine.

Early in my career I was taught a valuable lesson by a mentor in life insurance sales. He told me that great managers would let their sales professionals sell by being themselves. These managers were not looking for monotone clones regurgitating flip charts, phone dialogues, etc.. They wanted them to use their personalities to make the presentation and offering genuine. Powerful information! Easier said than done, however.

“More importantly… others did exactly what and how I said it and failed miserably. Frustrating!”

Here’s the rub… Remember when in school the teacher asked us to whisper a message she gave to the first person and they to the person next to them and so on? By the end the message was a mess, correct? What happened?

What happened is that we “heard” what was interesting, comfortable, and motivating to us. We then passed on our own interpretation of that message.

Is this completely a bad thing? At the very least it was a genuine message. Unfortunately the message became polluted from the original. So how do you keep the message pure but delivered personally?

Manage similar information differently.

Bottom line is you can’t get the sales team to be you. That’s actually OK.

“The most impressive and successful sales professionals are the evangelists of the company.”

As a manager it’s simply not enough to present the information to your team. You have to help them personalize it but make sure the message is correct. “Tell me about this product in your own terms.”, “How does this offering excite you?” are a couple of questions to ask always making sure the facts and message are current with the companies.

Let their sales light shine!

The reason that I failed earlier is that they were trying to be me. All were uncomfortable with that and acted out differently. The most impressive and successful sales professionals are the evangelists of the company. These are the professionals that have mastered the message and are genuinely excited about the offering. You will never see them reading from a cheat sheet, flip chart or phone dialogue.

Let your sales team grow and become the company’s evangelists today! At first there’s some one on one work to be done… but the end result will be amazing!

Chris Lott

Chris has over 15 year’s Sales Management experience including Business Ownership, Product Management and Web Design/Marketing. He’s a national sales team strategist and trainer. Chris is the designer of the popular totallysales™ sales playbook with thousands of copies downloaded. He’s a nationally syndicated author with his articles on SalesBlog! rated as a “top must-read” on consultative selling.