Three Sales Myths Killing Mid-Market Growth
NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD
Myth #1: “Just hire a closer”
Most CEOs think their sales problem is closing.
It isn’t.
I promise you this isn’t the problem. For most people, they need leads, and they need to build a case for your company, and they need to find money, and qualify the deal, and differentiate you.
If you have done all that, get a closer. But the work is done prior to closing, and the money is made elsewhere in the sales process.
Here’s what really happens when you hire “just a closer”:
You spend six months looking for this magical person who can turn your mediocre pipeline into cash. You pay them 20% more than your budget because closers are “expensive.” Then you watch them struggle with the same deals your current team can’t close.
Why? Because the deals were never closeable in the first place.
Your conversion problem isn’t happening in the last 10 minutes of the sales process. It’s happening in the first 30 minutes when your team fails to understand why this prospect is talking to you right now, quantify what’s actually at stake for them, determine if they’re committed to solving the problem, and find out how they make decisions.
Before you hire that closer, record five sales calls from your current team. Listen for these gaps. I guarantee you’ll find that the “closing problem” is actually a discovery problem.
Fix that first. Then hire the closer if you still need one.
Most of you won’t.
Myth #2: “I can abdicate sales responsibility”
There’s nothing so frightening as a CEO who can’t steer sales.
I worked with a $500M company recently. The president would listen to $10,000 sales calls despite their average deal being over $500k
Why?
Because no one is going to care as much as you do about revenue growth. They’re not going to have your drive, tenacity, curiosity. Not your VP of Sales. Not your sales manager. Not the consultant you hired.
You.
Here’s what I see CEOs do when they try to abdicate: They hire a VP of Sales and disappear from anything sales related. Six months later, they’re frustrated because the pipeline looks great but nothing closes. The team gives them forecasts that sound like fairy tales. And they have no idea what’s actually happening with prospects.
What this costs you:
You lose touch with what customers actually want. Your team tells you what they think you want to hear instead of reality. You can’t tell the difference between activity and progress. Your best opportunities die because no one has your conviction about why prospects should buy from you.
The fix:
Stay connected. Not micromanaging. Connected.
Join pipeline meetings and ask the hard questions. Listen to sales calls regularly… yes, even small ones. Meet with key prospects yourself when it matters.
Two years ago a CEO hired me to help coach her to manage her sales team doing $200M in sales. We recorded and listened to their pipeline meetings. Her mid six figure people believed discounts were their answer to everything. Six months later her SVP Sales believed she was going to hit her number without any key deals being in legal. It was mid December.
I had to tell the CEO: She doesn’t have a chance.
Be grateful for your team. Be supportive. But be wary of what you hear.
Myth #3: “Just get the comp plan right and you’ll be fine”
A president of a manufacturing company wrote to us asking about his comp plan for lack of performance with his rep. Usually people in ops and finance think to focus there. I get it… get the incentives right and things work out.
But more than 50% of salespeople won’t prospect, even when their job is on the line.
Yes, fix comp, but look at if you have the people who want to do the job.
Compensation doesn’t solve everything. It doesn’t cause people to prospect. There are people who simply won’t do the work, regardless of how much you pay them.
You can have the perfect comp plan, but if your people can’t have the right conversation with prospects, if they can’t qualify opportunities properly, if they think $8,500 is “a lot of money” and agree with prospects when they say it… your comp plan won’t save you.
The real issue: You’re trying to solve a people problem with a money solution.
The fix: Hire for DNA, will, and compatibility first. Then train the skills. About 26% of people in professional sales belong there. The rest are lost.
The hard truth about all three myths.
They stem from the same place. You want sales to be someone else’s problem.
You want to hire a closer so you don’t have to think about discovery and qualification. You want to delegate sales leadership so you don’t have to manage it. You want to fix comp plans so you don’t have to coach people or hold them accountable.
But sales is messy. It’s built of people who get told no and lied to and face rejection and failure and fear of not making their number or keeping their job.
It takes guts to own this function.
Wrapping up.
Stop looking for the magic hire who will solve your sales problems. Stop trying to delegate away the function that determines whether your company lives or dies.
Start building a sales process you understand. Start developing people who can execute it. Start staying close enough to the action that you can steer the ship when it matters.
Your competitors are still looking for magic. That’s your advantage.
Northwood Group helps CEOs build sales organizations that don’t require hope as a strategy. Want to stop guessing about your pipeline? Let’s talk.
