Not long ago, sales leaders could roll out a new strategy and have one or two years for their teams to master and implement. Today—not so much.
By the time your team gets comfortable, the strategy has changed, the market has shifted, and there’s a new AI tool promising to “revolutionize” everything—again.
It’s not your imagination.
The pace of change has accelerated to the point where many organizations are reinventing how they sell every 12–18 months.
The shelf life of skills has been reduced, which means that what your team knows today will quickly be outdated.
Technology is moving at lightning speed. The human brain is not.
It’s why most transformation efforts fail, 70 percent according to McKinsey & Company.
The most effective sales managers of the future will not be the leaders who can leverage and incorporate technology. It will be leaders who can teach their sales teams how to manage the pace of change. These sales managers move beyond just teaching selling skills. They also teach their teams the physiology and psychology behind change resistance.
The first step to help your team understand the resistance to change is teaching them the physiology behind the pushback accompanying change. The brain is wired for survival, not sales growth. When the brain senses anything that is new or unfamiliar, the brain’s threat detection system, the amygdala, goes on high alert asking the question:
“Is this safe?”
The quick answer is, “of course not.” This is where understanding the psychology of change comes in. Human beings know that when we take a risk, try something new, we could fail. And if we fail, the conscious or subconscious thinking is we will be judged or embarrassed. We can all agree that none of these outcomes are on the goal board.
To manage these fears, effective sales leaders teach their teams the EQ skill of self-awareness.
- With increased awareness, salespeople are AWARE of when those self-limiting beliefs make an appearance and try to crash the progress party.
- They are AWARE of the temptation to default to old habits and behaviors—even those that are no longer serving them.
Let’s go back to the physiology of change management.
When a salesperson is trying a new AI tool, a new selling skill or managing changes in buyer expectations, the brain is being asked to leave the part of the brain where habits reside, the basil ganglia. It’s a comfortable and familiar place.
For example, if you’ve driven a car for years, you don’t have to consciously think about putting your foot on the brake or gas. You automatically use your blinker. You do it because you’ve repeated that pattern multiple times and that familiar pattern has settled down in the basil ganglia.
New information and skills force the brain out of comfort zones. It requires effort and needs the help of the prefrontal cortex. It’s work and guess what—your brain is kind of lazy. It just wants to hang out and keep doing what takes the least amount of effort.
When you teach your team these principles, stress decreases, and the ability to take the necessary steps to manage change increases. There is a sigh of relief because they finally understand the root cause for their fears and hesitation.
In a world where technology is accelerating, the real bottleneck isn’t the tool—it’s the human brain trying to protect itself.
Good Selling and Leading!