The Value of a "Devil's Advocate"

Greetings!

The concept of a "Devil's Advocate" was created in 1587 by the Catholic Church. This role was filled by a canon lawyer, whose job was to take a skeptical view of any candidate for sainthood. They would scrutinize the person's character, look for holes in the evidence, and investigate any possibility of fraud in the performance of miracles.

As we move into planning for the upcoming year, all sales organizations would be wise to adopt this approach in setting budgets and expectations. Here's why.

House of Cards

Most sales plans are built like a house of cards. Each component of the plan sounds reasonable enough. In fact, challenging any one of the components is a bad look. It sounds like you lack confidence or expertise. The problem is each card has a chance of failure, and when one falls, they all fall.

You can identify a house of cards easily when you hear the magic phrase "these X (people) should be able to do Y (performance). Being able to so something and actually doing it consistently are two different things. There's your problem. "They say nothing is impossible. But I do nothing every day" A.A. Milne.

"You Should be able

to Shoot Par"

As a 14 handicap golfer, I should be able to shoot par on any given hole. And I can. I'll generally get 5-7 pars per round, with an occasional birdie thrown in here and there.

THAT DOES NOT MAKE ME A SCRATCH GOLFER!

The fact I can do it once does not mean I will do it every time consistently.

Here are a few common sales plan expectations. I've heard every one of these from a business owner IN THE LAST MONTH!

The left side is the company line: "promotor fidei" (promoter of the faith)

The right side is the "advocatus diaboli", the Devil's Advocate response

Opening New Accounts

Salespeople should be able to open one new logo every month. They can't sit on their account base and take orders all day.

The problem is, the salespeople expect us to do their job for them by giving them leads. They need to be making calls, going to networking events, and working for referrals.

Since 70% of customers make buying decisions before talking to a salesperson, the investment in opportunity generation needs to be led by marketing.

No B2B salesperson is opening up a significant account every month without strong marketing support.

Growing Sales by Adding Salespeople

We can add two new salespeople who will each sell (pick one)

$X,000,000 per year
$XX,000 MRR / year
$X,000,000 ARR / year

The other people are already selling this much, so the new hires should be able to at least do this.

Why is this thinking flawed?

Let me count the ways:

70% of new hires in IT sales do not last 12 months
55% of first year salespeople do not meet expectations (even low ramp-up numbers)
Overall sales turnover exceeds 33% per year

Growing Revenue X%

If we add X new customers who are worth $Y each, we will grow revenue by Z%. Add in existing customer growth and price increases, we'll grow at least X%.

You are going to lose some of your existing customers unexpectedly, due to acquisitions, personnel changes, competitive outreach.

The Solution? "Yes, and...

Am I trying to throw cold water on every growth plan? Not at all. All sales organizations should be expected to grow, salespeople need to win new accounts, and new hires need to ramp up and become successful contributors.

The value of the Devil's Advocate is twofold:

Provide a reality check on unrealistic plans (houses of cards)
Point us toward a path that can and will succeed.

Improv artists know this concept well. When confronted with something new and unexpected (the heart of improv comedy), they never say "No". That's a vibe killer that ruins the comedic energy. Instead, they say "Yes, and...."

Should we expect salespeople to open one new logo each per month?

Yes, and we'll help them do it by increasing the marketing efforts

Should we expect new hires to meet their ramp up expectations?

Yes, and we'll do it by providing thorough training, coaching and support

Should we expect revenue growth of x%?

Yes, and we'll do it by overcoming the expected attrition of some accounts

Upcoming Events

VTG

Sunshine Summit

San Antonio, TX

November 4-

TEDx Warrenton

Warrenton, VA

October 25

Ancient History

Meet the "Hit Mann"

Mike Schmidtmann coaches business owners and sales leaders across the USA. He works to drive results in sales recruiting, new business development, and profitability.

Mike led sales for Inacom Communications for ten years. then founded and built a $30 Million business unit for SPS.

Mike produces the award-winning Trans4mers webinar series on IT sales and management subjects. He is a frequent public speaker on business topics.

He lives on a farm in Northern Virginia with his family and assorted horses, alpacas, goats and dogs.

Play "Stump the Chump"

E-Mail Mike with a vexing and perplexing question and you'll get a telling and compelling reply.

Mike Schmidtmann

 (703) 408 - 9103

Mike@Trans4mers.net

www.MikeSchmidtmann.com

"You Should be able

﻿to Shoot Par"

Opening New Accounts

Growing Sales by Adding Salespeople

Growing Revenue X%

to Shoot Par"