Pourquoi évaluer le désir ... en ventes

U2 has a famous song about desire...

She's the dollars / She's my protection / Yeah, she's a promise / In the year of election / Oh sister, I can't let you go / Like a preacher stealin' hearts at a travellin' show / For love or money, money, money / Money, money, money, money, money / Money, money, money

Bono expresses well the raw power of desire... Let's examine the importance of evaluating desire, even if it's not the same as what Bono has in mind. And in evaluations of sales force and candidates.

Why should salespeople care about their prospects' desires?

Selling involves putting a lot of things in place. But one of the consequences of a successful sale is, above all, the implementation of change. And humans don't like change. There is even a biological term for it: homeostasis. It refers to "the physiological tendency to maintain a stable environment that is internally controlled and coordinated to dampen external changes." If the human body and mind dislike change, the same is true for a business, which is essentially a group of human bodies and minds...

This resistance to change is one of the reasons why selling is complicated. And it is this natural resistance that sales professionals too often forget. And it costs them, and their employers, time, effort and money.

Here are two things salespeople can do to address this resistance.

First, focus the conversation on what might encourage prospects to change. The vast majority of salespeople sell features and the advantages or benefits they offer. However, there is a famous English expression that says, "Benefits do not sell." Another way of saying this would be:

"The benefits do not encourage change."

Why? Because it has been scientifically proven that we humans are biologically programmed to be more motivated to move away from a problem than towards a benefit. That's how we work. It's simply a matter of evolution. It is therefore essential for sales to understand the difficulties, frustrations or concerns that our prospects may have.

So, dear reader, I hear you saying that if I identify the pain, that's it, bingo, I've won, right? Well... It is necessary for salespeople to position themselves as "doctors to their prospects," but this is obviously not enough.

This brings me to the second point that salespeople don't understand or forget too often: they are talking to human beings. Obvious? Believe me, the number of times this basic concept is forgotten is staggering. Yes, prospects are flesh and blood beings with feelings. No, they are not just potential ways to meet a quota...

And having a conversation focused on a prospect's frustrations and other concerns helps to assess one thing: whether they really want to resolve the situation they are facing. Whether they truly have that desire or need.

Assessing this desire during a conversation is useful in many ways. It allows for a more "personal" conversation between two human beings, rather than just a "business" conversation. It ensures that the prospect is truly ready to help the salesperson drive change within their organisation. Without the active help of the prospect, who must position themselves as a champion, the salesperson's chances of closing the deal are reduced. And finally, it ensures that the real driver of the sales process is not to deploy any solution, technical or otherwise. Instead, it is to help a human being (preferably several human beings...) move from a mediocre situation to a much better one.

The importance of desire in evaluating sales force or sales candidates

While it is important to understand a prospect's desire to change, the same applies to salespeople: it is important to understand their desire to succeed in sales during recruitment or in order to coach them properly.

If you're wondering why, let me remind you of a few facts about the sales profession. It's probably the most difficult job in any organisation. Why? Because salespeople face dynamics that no other function faces. They face hostility, rejection, prospects who don't tell them the truth, competition, and they don't have ultimate control over the outcome of the process.

No other role has to deal with this type of dynamic on a daily basis. So, to succeed in sales, what matters most is attitude and mindset. That's why it's important to understand salespeople's desire to succeed in sales. It's an essential factor in determining whether an individual has potential for growth or not.

It is extremely difficult to motivate salespeople who do not have or no longer have the passion necessary to succeed in sales. That is why you should not hire a candidate who lacks desire.

That is why, in order to strengthen sales recruitment processes, for example if certain sales recruitments have not yielded the expected results, or if a sales transformation initiative is necessary when revenue growth is not in line with expectations, assessing the candidate's desire to succeed or the strength of the existing sales force is a necessary first step.

Below is an excerpt from an assessment, or you can download a few examples here.

Because, frankly, is it worth investing time and energy in a salesperson who doesn't have the desire to succeed in sales? Or at the very least, isn't it worth finding out as soon as possible that a salesperson isn't very motivated to succeed in sales so that you can take the necessary steps to develop that desire as soon as possible?

Finally, if a lack of desire has been identified in a candidate or existing team, what are the possible causes?

1- The candidate's background. If a candidate comes from a recruiter, they may actually be satisfied with their current situation and have been encouraged to apply, at least to "check out" the opportunity. This is in contrast to a candidate who applies for a job description and is more aggressively seeking a new position.

2- Nature of the role. There are many types of roles in sales: inside/outside sales, pure hunting such as SDR, account management. Lack of desire is likely to be a more prevalent issue for a role in account management or inside sales. Seniority will also impact candidates' desire, as higher-level roles (VP Sales, for example) have a lower degree of desire (remember, desire is the intensity with which someone wants to succeed in sales, and a VP Sales has, naturally, already come a long way).

3- For an existing sales force. When evaluating an existing sales force (rather than a candidate), a source of lack of desire may be the team leader who does not motivate their salespeople or motivates them poorly.

4- Long-term employees. When a salesperson has been with an organisation for a very long time, they may have built up a good source of recurring income and lost motivation. Or they may have accumulated enough material success that they no longer feel the need to fight.

5- Recent graduates. Many companies hire recent graduates. If a junior employee starts their sales role with little desire to succeed, there is a strong likelihood that this desire will not improve. This is especially true given that they are likely to start with prospecting, one of the most challenging jobs.

What should you remember?

Desire is fundamental to getting things done. Remember the famous quote from George Mallory, who died on his third attempt to climb Mount Everest, and who, in an interview with the New York Times in 1923, explained why he was attempting such a dangerous climb:

"Because it's there. Everest is the highest mountain in the world and no one has reached its summit. Its existence is a challenge. The answer is instinctive, part of man's desire to conquer the universe, I suppose."

Desire is a powerful force that helps us achieve many things, even if they seem unattainable. Understanding the desire of prospects to change or of salespeople to succeed in sales is therefore a fundamental key to the success of your organisation.