Healthy sales culture is not a place for excuses

“So you’re telling me that if I traded YOUR leads with our top producer’s leads, you’d get the same results he’s getting? Because I’ll test that right now.”

I managed someone that had been number 1 for 10 years.

Different economies.
Different managers.
Different lead distribution systems.
Different CRMs.
Different compensation plans.

You name it, and he just adapted.

And delivered every single year.

No matter how many ways the playing field was leveled.

I knew how awesome he was because I sold alongside him.

Before I was promoted, he trained me!

Inevitably, though, new people would come in and make up reasons he produced the way he did.

He HAD to be getting special leads behind the scene.
It couldn't be that he worked like a machine.
Or that he analyzed every word of his script like a science.
Or that he stuck to a methodical process every sales cycle.

And when I'd hear someone imply it was something else...

I'd offer to switch leads.

And it was a genuine offer.

I would have traded in a heartbeat.

(And he would have, too.)

Because I knew what the results would be.

No one took me up on it though.

Sadly.

In a healthy sales culture...

Excuse making and tearing others down doesn't fly.