Yesterday, I wrote an article about running sessions at work on content creation, which is part of a much larger continuous wave I am delivering, with the goal of improving sales processes and results. What has been interesting is that through various discussions, it is apparent that whilst some people see the benefit, others do not, with the general division being length of tenure. The longer a person has been in their position, the more likely they are to want to improve their prospecting processes and ability to engage their potential prospects.
They are lapping it up.
However, those that I would suspect aren't necessarily going to stick around for long, aren't as keen to spend their time investing into building themselves up as thought leaders, because pipeline doesn't matter to them. They seem more unwilling to do the legwork and instead will play a numbers game, trying to land as many case as they can to get the short payout, not realizing that that the real money comes in the expand phase of a sale.
It is about investment.
I get it though, as for those who like to change jobs often for a higher salary, aren't going to want to invest their time and energy into building the pipeline they won't keep. But, if they did build that pipeline well, they would likely have a far better result overall, because they will be compounding their work and therefore their commissions for years to come, earning more than they would from a salary increase alone. Plus, if they were to stick around longer, they would also be far better at converting and winning deals, as well as seeing the expansion opportunities, so it will compound further.
You can lead a horse to water, but can't force them to invest.
My counterpart in the US who has the same goals as me, is taking a different tack, because he "knows" that the people he is supporting won't do this work at all. There definitely seems to be a difference in the willingness to invest into the future between Europe and the US. When I explained to him how the commitment compounds as accounts of leaving salespeople will be transferred to a new or one who stays, he said, "the rich get richer".
Yes.
But in this case, it is because some choose to invest and in so doing, not only build up their individual book of business, but also their trust within the company and social capital - further compounding their opportunity.
What is interesting is that those on this side of the water tend to recognize the opportunity to build their footprint through their career into the company, often taking the chance to invest into it when they can too. The value seems to be more about a slow burn into a higher level of security, rather than looking for a big payout constantly. This mean that even though they have short goals and incentives to chase, they focus their attention on the longer view, missing some short returns, in favor of long gains.
I actually find the difference quite fascinating and wonder how impactful this is on things like the wealth gap, where it seems in the US, people are looking to get a big score to move up the ranks, chopping and changing regularly in pursuit of the opportunity. However, while the big score might be possible, it is more of a "aim small, miss small" position, where they are unlikely to actually accomplish what they are after. In the Nordics at least, it is more that people will play the odds of success most of the time, throwing Hail Mary's less often. When they score big, they are happy, but they are continuously building their portfolio, so if they fail, they don't miss completely.
From an investment perspective, I think a lot of us dream about that large win that solves all our financial problems and provides us with everything we need, but that is highly unlikely, even in crypto. However, if we are consistently developing our holdings, adding little bits here and there, working through the lows and difficult times, it all starts to compound and when times are good, it makes an enormous difference.
Remaining active and investing into the lows, is very much like building pipeline and the future value of the work put in is far higher than doing a similar amount of work at the highs. When those good times roll in, there is more opportunity to take advantage.
For example for a seller, it can be difficult right now because companies are far warier than they were, due to the economic conditions. For those who have built pipeline and a foundation in the past, they can still make some money as projects are long and there could be expansion of existing implementations. However, when the good times start again and the companies open their budgets to expand, the seller is already positioned to begin, having built and maintained the relationships, now trusted to move forward with new projects and, often benefiting from getting recommended to new customers through the network too.
A lot of the "rules of engagement" apply across domains, as do those of investing and this generally means investing time and effort to develop the conditions of success. In the early days, the work required is high and the gains are small, but as compounding effects take hold and then, the factors of improving conditions are applied, significant gains can be realized and, the work required for maintenance and even growth is much lower. Not only this, when the lows inevitably return again, they are easier to negotiate and, able to be taken advantage of instead of suffered.
Experience plays a huge role in our outcomes, but we aren't necessarily hardcoded to build the experience necessary, especially when it comes to investing ourselves into an uncertain future. We are definitely "bird in the hand" by nature, but so much of our financial wellbeing requires considering the two in the bush instead. It means that economic success is not intuitive and what we need to do, often runs counter to what we want to do.
A lot is possible to accomplish over time, if only we perform the right actions consistently along the way. If we are aren't committing to building our foundation and constantly chasing the big score instead, odds are, we will miss it all.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
