Writer / Matt Nettleton
With two daughters, it seems that I spent most of their childhood summers listening to shrieks when bugs were spotted near them. My girls particularly disliked and reacted loudly to bees. In order to quell the panic and get some peace, I decided to teach my girls about these gross, disgusting and seemingly horrifying bugs.
I was stunned to learn that bees can build hives as well on the first day they emerge from their eggs as they can on the day they die, 40 or so days later. Bees do not learn. They do not practice. And they do not improve. The nests they build are perfectly functional and do exactly what they have always done — no more and no less. We call them worker bees, and they always look busy.
Prairie dogs are a different story, in fact, unlike bees, prairie dogs are more famous for standing around and chattering in groups. But prairie dogs can learn. Adult prairie dogs have been shown to teach pups essential skills for eating. Prairie dogs often eat dangerous prey (such as venomous scorpions) that prairie dog pups are unable to safely catch and eat without help from others. And adult prairie dogs are happy to teach the youngsters how to hunt and survive. But adult prairie dogs are smart, they only display teaching behavior in response to pup begging calls, and adults modify their specific teaching behaviors based upon the age of the pup begging (providing more assistance to younger, less experienced pups).
Pups are initially unable to find and consume any of their own prey and more rapidly gain predatory abilities through learning experiences from a “teacher”, for prairie dogs, adult teaching accelerates both the speed and efficiency of skill acquisition.
As a sales trainer, I can easily sort salespeople into groups, bees or prairie dogs. Bees are perfectly functional and do exactly what they have always done — no more and no less — and they look busy. They are content with their results and resigned to their current level of performance. The prairie dogs are different. They do well and typically have done well for quite a long time. But they practice. They learn and they improve, and they keep trying to do more.
I can’t help the first group. If your sales team is too busy to practice and improve and is as good today as it can possibly be, I can offer you no solutions. However, if you believe your sales team is good but could be better, we need to talk.
At Sandler DTB, we help business owners create systems and processes that allow their best performers to become stronger and continue to grow.
Is your sales team getting busy or getting better? Ready to figure out if this is as good as it gets? Contact Matt Nettleton, Sandler DTB at matt.nettleton@sandler.com or 317-6678-8800.
