Sales Attribution Errors
There are two major, fundamental attribution errors that I see made with sales wins these days. Recognition, promotions and monetary rewards are often handed out after major account gains, but in my opinion are often distributed unevenly. As a sales rep, you cannot win alone, but on the other hand, you are often the one leading the charge. Once upon a time I had a significant win for my organization and experienced both sides of these attribution errors. I’ve also been on the other side of the table in supporting roles like marketing and deferred much credit to my sales partners.
As a sales rep, you can’t do it alone. There are many people and functions who lend their support to help you reach your goals and win the account. I could not have won this particular account without the support of my marketing team, who spent endless hours helping me to revise the promotion programs, to generate mock-ups and to find the budget necessary to support this client. I couldn’t have won the account without my supply team, testing the bounds of our network, working through the forecast adjustments and establishing new products. I couldn’t have won the account without our Distributors who supported implementation by making stock and service-level accommodations. I also could not have done it without my supervisor and our department manager, who escalated issues when needed, reviewed and made suggestions to strengthen the proposal and formed a relationship with the customer’s management team, giving them confidence in their importance to us.
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Giving credit where it’s due is good, it’s necessary, especially when you need sustained help from these teams and individuals after the business is won. However, this leads me to the other fundamental attribution error, because at some point, when you’ve given so much credit away to others, there’s little left for the sales rep themselves, inadvertently diminishing their contribution to the win.
After this particular win, someone in my organization asked me if I thought that we would have won the business if someone else had been in my role at the time. While well-meaning, I interpreted this question as asking ‘could anyone have done this?’ and so I reflected upon my personal contribution to this account. I had spent hours/days/weeks/months revising the proposal and presentations (version 37 folks…) to the point where the customer thought we’d hired a professional writer. I traded on my reputation within the company to motivate people to help me create an inimitable offer. I lost sleep and weekends refining the implementation plan and dealing with unexpected issues. I got the contract signed in the knick of time and was the person the customer called when they had urgent, time-sensitive problems. I delivered the pitch, ran the meetings and most importantly had the tenacity and persistence to see the business through to close.
What can we as organizations do to balance the credit; to ensure that our sales reps but also our supporting partners feel valued and recognize their efforts adequately? I think it starts with a conversation about expectations. We have to be careful that those of us in sales temper our egos and manage our own feelings of entitlement. Voicing our expectations in terms of reward and recognition versus assuming our management team knows what we desire would be helpful. Consistency in reward structure is also key. Once management sets a precedent in terms of a reward or incentive for a win, expect others to want the same treatment. Also, I would recommend engaging sales to be part of the discussion about those supporting partners who deserve recognition.
The answer to that question, ‘could anyone have won this particular account’ is honestly… maybe… The truth is double-sided; as sales reps, we are the ones who bring the account home but we can’t do that without the significant help and support or our organizations.
Originally published on AuthenticSales.com
