A few months ago, I picked up my daughter after a sleepover she had with one of her friends. When I arrived, her friend’s dad was on their Peloton, barely peddling as he was watching TV and reading emails. After a few minutes of chatter, I had to make fun of him for his lack of effort. I asked him: “Is your Peloton working?” He laughed and replied with: “I hate riding this thing, so I just peddle for about 30 minutes or so while catching up on email. It’s better than doing nothing.”
I’m very proud that I kept my mouth shut at that point, but what I wanted to say was: “No, it’s not better than nothing. That’s 30 minutes of your day wasted while you trick yourself into thinking that you’re exercising. Give it up, man. If you’re not going to do it right, then do something else with your time.” But I didn’t! I chuckled and gave him a fist pump.
“It’s better than doing nothing” is up there with “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and “Just throw as much mud against the wall as possible to see what sticks” as competing for the most moronic statement that we consistently say. No, most of the time it’s not better than doing nothing. Sitting down and relaxing to collect your thoughts is better than half-assing something that you don’t enjoy. Which brings us to the title of our post…
Just like I believe that riding the Peloton is a wonderful activity, I also believe that sales meetings, sales plans, and forecasting exercises are fantastic practices for sales teams. However, most – and I mean most, greater than half – sales teams do not do these things well. Don’t sweat it. Just don’t do it.
Actually, there is a better answer…
Learn how to lead sales meetings and how frequently they should be conducted as team meetings, one-on-one, etc. Make them work for your team. Have your salespeople build strategic sales plans for next year, and work with them on the development of the plans. After they present the final plans in December, use it throughout the year to hold them accountable and make adjustments. Don’t give up planning, but don’t force them to create a plan that will never be looked at again. Make forecasting reasonably easy and valuable to salespeople. Teach them about the benefit of understanding their business and why forecasting is important to the company and to them. Don’t just say: “Last quarter was slow. You better bring those numbers up or we’ll be having a tough discussion soon.”
Back to the title … I’m serious. If you don’t make these improvements listed in the paragraph above, then stop wasting everyone’s time and cancel sales meetings, sales planning, and forecasting. Think about it … your salespeople will save about 60 – 100 hours per year if they don’t have to do these things. That’s not better than doing nothing – that’s two plus weeks of work! I hope you decide that you want to do these activities in the right way, but if not, don’t continue to waste time!
