B2B 10: the Sinus Milieu, conserving institutions and sales

Note from Bruce:

I was recently asked by an interesting B2B company to write some blog posts and new business direct mail thoughts. They were interesting because <a> they wanted to focus on a smarter, more intelligent, level of thinking in their communication <b> they truly had an ‘edge’ to them in terms of attitude, and <c> they were interested in taking on specific objections they hear day in and day out in a candid fashion. It was fun for me and I generated maybe 20 draft thoughts for them in less than 3 days. The following shares my favorites <in rough draft form and the name of the company removed>.

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“Society, community, family are all conserving institutions.

They try to maintain stability, and to prevent, or at least slow down change.

But organizations are organized with the intent to destabilize. Because its function is to put knowledge to work – on tools, processes and products; on work; on knowledge itself – it must be organized for constant change.”

 

Peter Drucker

Organizations must be organized for constant change.

We agree with Drucker.

And most organizations are organized, either consciously or subconsciously, with the intent to destabilize.

The one department exception? Sales.

Yes, sales departments change but we would argue most of it is window dressing – sales training, organizational roles & responsibilities shifts, new management style, etc. But, for the most part, in an organization where most departments suck it up and make big sweeping disruptive changes with the intent to improve it is the sales department which hesitates to make the ‘game changer’ change.

This is not meant to be an indictment against a business sales group.

It is simply a statement reflecting the truth. The truth that one of the most difficult things a sales engineering service provider faces is ‘the discussion’ when a business starts thinking about disrupting the existing ‘sales institution’ to incorporate a new process and new way of doing things.

After years of experience we suggest the difficulty resides within two topics: ‘conserving institutions’ and the Sinus Milieu.

Conserving institutions

Change is hard. Really hard. Even when it is simply editing the existing version. Particularly in business what you know, if it isn’t bad and just appears like it hasn’t maximized potential, is better than what you don’t know. Therefore, you conserve the exiting institution.

And, particularly in sales, you do this despite the fact the rest of the organization is organized for constant change.

On the surface what we are saying may sound odd. The rest of the organization, everything but sales, organized for change and yet sales, which seems like it should be the one most likely to seek change in its dynamic purpose, seeks to conserve its institution.

We tend to forget that a business organization is simply a sum of its parts and those ‘parts’ are people. As Drucker stated … “society, community, family are all conserving institutions. They try to maintain stability, and to prevent, or at least slow down change.” We people, generally speaking, embrace conserving institution. So while organizations function conceptually to destabilize, practically speaking, people seek to stabilize and conserve.

Therefore, conserving is the initial instinct.

As for that natural instinct.

the Sinus Milieu and the lock-in principle

It was the French sociologist, Emile Durkheim, who developed a psychographic method analyzing groups of people called the Sinus Milieu. Basically it is a model that challenges us to think about behavior, preferences and culture. Within the model resides the key point – ‘the lock-in principle.’

The principle simply states that if we get used to something we do not want to change our habits <or attitudes and beliefs> even if we are presented with something new or different that might be better. Simplistically, it consistently shows <to a point that it is almost an unequivocal behavioral truth> that habit, or the current way of doing things, is stronger than the desire for improvement.

We get ’locked in’ to what we are currently doing and thinking.

Change to improve sales development

For a business this means ‘improving our world’ often translates into swimming against the natural tide of ‘conserving institutions’ and ‘locked in principles.’
This is not an excuse for Sales management change decision making but rather simply an explanation for how difficult it is to change.

But not changing has a bigger repercussion to not only sales but the overall organization.

We tend to believe there is a ripple effect in that for most of the rest of the organization they wake up each day thinking ‘wow … I would love to improve the world somehow today’ <either consciously or subconsciously> and yet sales development plods along not seeking to make the ‘big improvement’ … because they seek to focus on meeting sale goals.

Frankly … this struggle increases a feeling of negativity within an organization which can easily consume it if you are not careful.

And it is all solvable.

If you conserve your culture and unlock sales development you can positively disrupt the status quo and make the ‘big improvement.’

Company X has seamlessly transitioned in-house sales development to their outsourced option “x” times. Each time we have helped our client to meet their inherent desire to improve as well as tangibly show improvement in end sales.

Change is hard – really hard. And most of the barriers to making the change resides within – within the natural instincts of people.

We would like to suggest that the easiest way to make the change you desire is often found ‘without’ – in other words, outside your current way of doing things and outside your current people.

<note: close with Company X factoid on incorporating change – with time frame – and sales success>