Pioneers, Founding Fathers, Moonshiners -- and a Certain Kind of Salesperson

What characteristics did the pioneers who settled and tamed the West, the American Founding Fathers, and Moonshiners have in common?  They were tenacious, hardheaded, independent, and fiercely self-confident.  They certainly didn’t go along with the crowd. 

Turning tail or cowering before huge, apparently overwhelming obstacles wasn’t in their DNA.  They forged their own way and were willing to take great risks.

They also broke the rules -- lots of rules.  Many a pioneer left the “comfort” of the settled east and headed off -- often a’gin the rules set out by the authorities -- for new lands in the west.  Needless to say, the American Founding Fathers broke a few of King George’s rules and risked hanging for doing so. 

And moonshiners?  There are still some in them thar hills evading the authorities today--and paying the price when caught.

These people all had another characteristic in common—they faded away eventually.  The pioneers decided that the law and order and community they had in the East was necessary, and they traded in their fierce independence for a Town Council. 

The dream of the Founding Fathers died a slow death after their death—to the point that they couldn’t even begin to recognize the U.S. government today as having the slightest resemblance to what they established. 

Moonshiners are slowly fading away, also.  I heard one being interviewed on the radio a few years ago who said that store-bought liquor tasted better and was better quality than what most moonshiners made. But he kept making it because his father, his father’s father, and his father’s father’s father were moonshiners -- and his moonshining had more to do with tradition than a great desire to be a moonshiner.

What does this have to do with salespeople?  Well, there’s a certain class of salespeople who walk in this same tradition of independence and a determination to do it their way—and who, in many cases, pay the price for rebellion.  Call them what you may: Loners, Lone Wolves, Prima Donnas or Arrogant SOBs, they do things their own way. 

And a great many sales leaders regard them with pure hatred.

Company mandated processes?  Not for them.

CRM system?  “ Update it yourself, Ms. Manager,” they say. “I’ll be out selling.”

Call reports in by Friday closing time?  “Yeah, right.  I’ll see you Monday—and bring you a contract I got signed over the weekend while you were wasting your time playing golf.”

This is our sales process, use it.  “Sure,” you hear, “when you get a sales process that can sell more than I can, come talk to me.  Until then, see ya later.”

We’re a team, you say, we work as a team.  “Not me,” they say, “When you start paying me part of these other folks' commissions, I’ll play the game.  As long as I have to depend on my commissions alone, there’s nothing team about it.”

Oh, how management despises this group (that is, until the end of month numbers come in).  How they’d love to can these men and women—if only they could find a way to make up all the lost sales they’d have if they got rid of them.

Managers fret about how they can reign these folks in—how to get them to obey the rules, how their intransigence will negatively impact the other sellers on the team, how to either get them to conform or get rid of them.

They threaten, they bribe, they lie, they plead, they beg, they try to micromanage, they punish, they yell, they cry, they beat their head against a wall.

Nothing works.

So what’s a manager supposed to do?

Do you just let one or two or three snot-nosed salespeople flaunt the rules and do whatever they dang well want to do?

What about discipline?

What about being a team player?

What about the company sets the rules, not the inmates?

What about to hell with all that?  What’s wrong with a top salesperson selling their way as long as they're ethical and honest?  What’s wrong with allowing the best to be themselves?

Is it really going to be a negative influence on the rest of the sales force?  It could be.  But it could also be an incentive—get your butt in gear, and you can have the same freedom.

Will it encourage non-stars to try to emulate the behavior?  It could—but I also said that those fiercely independent souls I described above took a big risk.  So does the Loner—if you try to act the part but you don’t produce, you’re gone in no time.  No manager is going to put up with that behavior unless there is a corresponding payoff in numbers.  No numbers, no job.

So what’s a manager to do? 

Turn the tables on the Loner.  When you see you’ve got a Loner on the team -- one who will pay off with numbers and thus stick around -- approach them and let them know that you’re giving them permission to stretch the rules.  Make it your decision—your rules, not theirs.  Give permission, not consent. 

If you recognize what is about to happen and are proactive in giving permission, you still retain control of the situation.  If you wait until all you can do is concede, you’ve relinquished present and future control over the individual.

Working with a Loner doesn’t have to be a struggle of wills—you just have to turn their will into your will.  Semantics?  Partly—but you're also letting your Loner know that you understand them and are willing to work with them within reasonable bounds.  If the two of you have agreed on those bounds, both you and your Loner will be much happier together.