"My guys just need a bit more confidence."

The number of times I've heard that when speaking with managing directors about their sales teams.

I'll then ask something along these lines...

"Do you mind if I'm direct?"

"Not at all..."

"Why did you hire salespeople lacking confidence?"

"Well...erm...they didn't seem to lack confidence when I interviewed them."

"So...then, what makes you think they lack confidence in their job?"

"Well it's just when I hear them on the phone, getting the brush off or shoved from pillar to post. They don't seem to deal with it very well. So I put it down to that."

"So the person you interviewed is not the person on the phone day to day?"

"Well, when you put it like that..."

It's usually not a confidence problem.

It's a skills problem.

You don't know what you don't know.

Yet most companies spend the first 1-2 weeks filling their new recruits heads solely with the product, features, all the bells & whistles.

And nothing else.

They just seem to assume that salespeople have all the other skills & communication abilities required to become strong performers.

Things like...

- Emotional intelligence

- Self-awareness

- How to be assertive

- The ability to read the room

- How to respond appropriately

- The right mindset

- Breaking through self-imposed limited beliefs

- Fixing any negative money beliefs

- Human psychology

- How to ask the right questions

- Being fully accountable

- Business acumen

- Problem solving

- Industry insights & nous

- How to disqualify effectively

So is it really any wonder fresh faced graduates often get the run around, blocked by gatekeepers, meetings with the wrong people, where they are unable to engage senior level decision makers in order to get them to open up and build trust?

All those meetings with people who will 'come back to you.'

Time spent writing proposals for hours...for them to go precisely nowhere.

We all detest being 'pitched' product...yet the majority of companies train their armies of sales reps in exactly that. And only that.

That CEO who complains of receiving unsolicited emails & messages...but at the same time oversees an organisation doing exactly that.

An organisation's most important department is sales.

It's also the most problematic.

And until the root cause of most company's sales departments issues is addressed, the same thing will keep on happening time & time again.

Revolving door.

Lots of hope.

And even more disappointment.

Building a successful sales team means upskilling them in every department.

Not just the product.