Chapter 20.
Coach the Outcome

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes...but no plans.

—Peter F. Drucker

Every non-producer you are managing is in some form of conflict.

They say they want to succeed and hit their numbers, but their activities say otherwise. They themselves can’t even see it, but you, the manager, can, and it drives you nuts.

Finally, you have that talk that you always have, wherein you say to them, “I have a feeling that I want this for you more than you want it for yourself.”

And they get misty-eyed and their tears well up while they insist you are wrong. And you, being such a compassionate person, believe them! So you give them yet another chance to prove it to you. You do all kinds of heroics for them and waste all your time on them when your time could be better spent with your producers.

Always remember that the time you spend helping a producer helps your team’s production more than the time you spend with your non-producer.

Some research we have seen shows that managers spend more than 70 percent of their time trying to get non-producers to produce. And most producers, when they quit for another job, quit because they didn’t get enough attention. They didn’t feel as if the company appreciated them enough nor could they grow fast enough in their position.

If you help a producer who is selling 10 muffins a week learn how to sell 15, you have moved them up to 150 percent of their former level, and, even better, you have added five muffins to your team’s total. If you were to spend that time, instead, with a non-producer, and get them up to 150 percent, you might have just moved them up from two muffins to three. You’ve only added one muffin (instead of five) to the team total. Most managers spend most of their days with the non-producer...adding one muffin to the team’s total.

Managers need to simplify, simplify, simplify. They do not need to do what they normally do: complicate, multitask, and complicate.

Keep it as simple as you can for your non-producers, focusing on outcomes and results only. Spend more and more time with producers who are looking for that extra edge you can give them.

Non-producers have a huge lesson to learn from you. They could be learning every day that their production is a direct result of their own desire (or lack of it) to hit that precise number. People figure out ways to get what they want. Most non-producers want to keep their jobs (because of their spousal disapproval if they lose it, because of their fear of personal shame if they lose it, and so on), so all their activity is directed at keeping the job from one month to the next. If they can do the minimum in sales and still keep their job, they are getting what they want. People get what they want.

The manager’s challenge is to redirect all daily effort toward hitting a precise number. If your people believed that they had to hit that number, they would hit that number, and technique would never be an issue. Skills would never be an issue. They would find them. They would try out every technique in the book until that number appeared.

Somehow, non-producers have convinced themselves that there is no direct cause and effect between increasing certain activities and hitting their numbers.

Do you remember those little toy robots or cars you had when you were a kid that would bump into a wall and then turn 30 degrees and go again? If you put one of those toys in a room with an open door, it will always find the way out the door. Always. It is programmed to do so. It is mechanically programmed to keep trying things until it is out of there.

That’s also what top producers program themselves to do. It’s the same thing. They keep trying stuff until they find a way. If they bump into a wall, they immediately turn 30 degrees and set out again.

The non-producer bumps into the wall and gets depressed and then shuts himself down. Sometimes for 20 minutes, sometimes for a whole day or week. Alternately, he bumps into a wall and doesn’t turn in any other direction, so he keeps bumping into the same wall until his batteries run down. Death of a salesman.

Managers also make the mistake of buying in to their non-producers’ perceived problems. They buy in to the non-producers’ never-ending crusade to convince everyone that there is no cause and effect in their work. It’s all a matter of luck! In fact, non-producers almost delight in bringing back evidence that there is no cause and effect. They tell you long case histories of all the activities they did that led to nothing. All the heartbreak. All the times they were misled by prospective buyers.

A manager’s real opportunity is in teaching his people absolute respect for personal responsibility and results. Everyone selling in the free market is 100-percent accountable for his or her financial situation. Every salesperson is outcome-accountable as well as activity-accountable.

Your non-producers will always want to sell you on what they have done, all the actions they have taken. What they don’t want is to take responsibility for outcomes. Good sales management is outcome management, not activities management. Yet most sales managers go crazy all day managing activities.

Why? Because they know that if you really do these activities without ceasing, you will get results. So they manage the activities. They need to change that and manage results. They need to hold people accountable for the results they are getting, and not how hard they are trying. The minute a manager falls for how hard people are trying, he has broken the cause-and-effect link.

If you, as manager, ask them, “How much X do you do?” they will ask, “How do I learn a better technique for X?” And while better techniques are always good, it’s not the point here. You are now discussing results. They will subconsciously try to steer you away from results into technique. Just like a child does with a parent! “Dad, I tried, but I can’t! I can’t do it!” Discuss technique after the commitment to results is clarified.

Non-producers, at the deepest level, do not yet want to get the result. You have to understand this so you won’t go crazy trying to figure them out. They don’t want the result. They want the job. They want your approval. They want to be seen as “really trying.” But deep down, they don’t want the result. It’s that simple.

The truly great managers spend most of their time helping good producers go from 10 muffins to 15. They have fun. They are creative. They feed off of their producers’ skills and enthusiasm. Their teams constantly outperform other teams. Why? Because other teams’ managers have been hypnotized by their non-producers. Their nonproducers actually become good salespeople selling the wrong thing. Selling you the worst thing: “there is no cause and effect...there is no guarantee.”

Simplify. Focus on results. You will always get what you focus on. If you merely focus on activities, that’s what you’ll get: a whole lot of activities. But if you focus on results, that’s what you’ll get: a whole lot of results.