Earlier in my career, I managed a sales team in a small division of a very large company. We had a broad product portfolio, and I struggled with something I think happens in a lot of businesses.
We were introducing new products, but the sales team naturally spent most of its time selling what it knew best. I believed we needed to separate some of the sales responsibilities based on product competencies. My thinking was pretty simple. If we were going to invest in developing new products, we needed the right sales focus behind them or we were never going to get the return.
I presented the idea to leadership several times. It was rejected.
Their concerns were fair. We had corporate KPIs to meet. Adding resources meant adding cost. Our division already operated somewhat differently from the rest of the organization, so changing the sales structure created other issues.
I still believed we had a problem, but instead of pushing the same solution, I decided to try something smaller.
I brought in one of my better salespeople and started working directly with him on a few newer products. We treated it almost like a pilot program. We worked through the sales approach together, figured out what worked, and started generating some business.
Then something happened that I hadn’t really planned.
During our weekly sales meetings and stand-ups, the rest of the team started seeing the results. They asked questions. They wanted to understand what we were doing. Over time, they naturally started putting more effort behind those products themselves.
I never had to reorganize the sales team.
Looking back, I was right about the problem, but I wasn’t necessarily right about the solution.
I thought I needed to change the organizational structure to change the sales results. What I really needed to do was change the behavior. And the most effective way for me to do that wasn’t by telling the team what to do. It was by getting involved and showing them what could work.
Something else happened along the way that was probably just as important.
Working beside the sales team changed our relationship. I wasn’t just the sales manager reviewing numbers and asking about the pipeline. They saw me doing the work with them, dealing with the same challenges and helping figure things out. I believe that earned me a different level of respect, and it made me a better leader.
That experience changed how I think about leading change.
Sometimes you can spend too much time trying to sell the perfect plan. Start small. Get involved. Prove the idea.
Sometimes the results will create the change for you.