The paradox of many sales transformation initiatives that originate with executive leadership is that they are thorough, justified by a strong business case, and well thought out, but completely unexecutable. Although major sweeping changes may make executives feel like something productive is happening, many training and development professionals know that the bigger the change, the smaller the impact is likely to be on sales force performance. Despite the fact that the goals of the sales initiative might be right on target and the plan might align perfectly with your company’s strategic plan, you may still find yourself stuck between what executive leadership wants and the reality of what a sales training or talent development initiative is capable of, in terms of improving sales performance results. Change is more likely to stick if sales managers aren’t overwhelmed with a strategy that they see as unexecutable.

As a training and development leader, you are the only participating party that can bridge the gap between executive expectations and the reality of sales force performance improvement. When it comes to sales force performance improvement, you may find that small adjustments often have a bigger impact than sweeping changes. Below are three signs that big changes coming from the top might not have the impact executives expect when it comes to sales force performance. Explore how you can work with both executives and sales leaders to make a few small adjustments that will have a bigger impact over time on sales force performance. 

1)    The big changes aren’t in sync with the daily realities of sales management. 

There is business justification for making an investment into a new sales methodology, implementing the latest sales technology, or rolling out an extensive sales training program for the entire sales team. Yet, there is something missing. In all of the preparation, does the plan also include a road map for how the new changes will be operationalized within the sales manager’s daily environment? As a training and development leader, you can help your company avoid the common point of failure that comes from implementing an initiative that doesn’t integrate into a sales manager’s daily environment. If sales managers can’t figure out how to incorporate the changes into their schedule, existing tools or daily responsibilities, adoption levels will be low or possibly non-existent.

It is not that sales managers intentionally ignore requests for change from executive leadership, but even the best sales strategies fall to the wayside as the day-to-day realities of sales management take over. A recent study by Adam Rapp of the University of Alabama found that on average, sales managers have discretion over only 32 percent of how they allocate their time, yet this time is usually dedicated to field and coaching time, joint sales calls, and strategizing opportunities. The other 68 percent of their time is comprised by various compulsory activities, such as reporting, forecasting, administration, putting out fires, etc. If you want a sales initiative to move forward, training and development leaders need to partner with executives and sales managers prior to the implementation of change to determine exactly how the changes will integrate into the sales manager’s environment. This means that changes have to take place with the support of executive leadership to help sales managers shift how they allocate and prioritize their time.

2)    The big changes are designed to operate under optimal conditions.

Executives may provide tools, set clear expectations and communicate a mandate they expect to improve sales force performance, only to discover that change fails to happen as planned. The failure might be because the strategy was based on the assumption that the new sales force performance initiative would launch under ideal conditions. Most sales initiatives take place in the midst of sales methodology fatigue and technology overload.

To overcome hurdles and improve sales force performance, identify changes that will have the biggest impact and keep sales managers focused on the activities that achieve desired outcomes. In other words, determine the minimum level of change required to create a tangible win and start there. If you have a sales methodology in place that works for your organization, there may be no reason to replace it. In most cases, sales managers don’t need (or want) a new sales methodology; they just need training on how to integrate all of their existing tools, methodologies and resources into a cohesive sales management approach. A thoughtful sales management program can be deployed on top of any sales methodology. If you ensure the activities are executable, attainable and relate back to the business objectives the sales force is responsible for achieving, both executive leadership and sales managers will be happy.

3) The big changes mobilize the biggest lever, but not the most effective.

Sales training remains one of the most powerful means of developing a sales force, but it is worth noting that there is often a blind spot that many executives are not aware of—training sales managers. Many companies tend to overinvest in equipping salespeople, yet rarely get the lift or change they want when targeting the sellers alone.

To borrow a term from the military, the sales manager is a “force multiplier” that can single-handedly and disproportionately improve the performance of a sales force. In times when sales performance is struggling, there’s often no greater place to make a high-impact training investment than in your sales managers. This small change can have a huge impact on the entire sales team’s performance.

Michelle Vazzana is a founding partner at Vantage Point Performance.