It’s so tempting isn’t it – employ the sales guy or gal from the opposition company that are setting the world on fire. Then all our problems will be solved. Sales figures will soar, and, as managers, we’ll go from zero to hero just by poaching that star performer.
Or will we?
There are lots of reasons that people become star sales performers. Perhaps they’re good at what they do. Perhaps they’ve succeeded with the support of a great team and an effective sales process. Maybe the products they’ve been selling have been best in class. They could have inherited a well serviced customer base. They could be really hard workers, or, maybe … they just got lucky where they’ve been.
So is it worth taking a risk on that unknown, but (supposedly) successful sales person?
Some recent research in the realm of sports provides evidence that often a start performance in one environment (or team) is difficult to reproduce in another environment (or team).
Before we look at this research – let’s consider what we can learn from the cradle of entertainment success – Hollywood.
Film producers often rely on stars to sell movies. Sometimes it works – but sometimes it doesn’t. Consider these titles in a list of some of the biggest box office bombs of all time (with their losses adjusted to reflect 2008 US$)*:
Cutthroat Island, released 1995, (lost $146M+)
Town & Country, released 2001, (lost $115M+)
Heaven’s Gate, released 1980, (lost $104M+)
Ishtar, released 1987, (lost $76M+)
Hudson Hawk, released 1991, (lost $75M+)
Now here’s a list of some of the “stars” that lent their services to these films:
- Geena Davis & Matthew Modine (Cutthroat Island)
- Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton & Goldie Hawn (Town & Country)
- Jeff Bridges, John Hurt & Joseph Cotton (Heaven’s Gate)
- Warren Beatty & Dustin Hoffman (Ishtar)
- Bruce Willis, Andie MacDowell & Richard E Grant (Hudson Hawk)
These films all lost a lot of money – but were they really all that bad? In some cases, this maybe so. In other cases – according to the critics – the films weren’t all that bad, and not deserving of the fate which awaited them.
And the stars involved weren’t a bunch of nobodies and non-performers either. Consider these facts:
Geena Davis had already received a best supporting actress Oscar, and had starred in the highly acclaimed Thelma and Louise only a couple of years before her involvement in Cutthroat Island.
Warren Beatty had an established career – including numerous nominations and awards for acting, direction, writing and production. Amongst many others, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for Reds in 1981, and great critical acclaim for Bulworth (as writer, producer & director) in 1998. The rest of the team in Town & Country also had a string of successful releases and numerous awards on their resumes before (and after) their involvement in Town & Country.
John Hurt, an accomplished theatrical actor before he moved to film, received huge acclaim – including a BAFTA award and Golden Globe and Oscar nominations – for his role in The Elephant Man, which was released in the same year as Heaven’s Gate.
Dustin Hoffman had huge commercial and critical success before his involvement in Ishtar. Only a couple of years earlier he received the Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Kramer vs Kramer, and would achieve this award again the following year for his performance in Rain Man.
Bruce Willis established himself as a popular actor with the Moonlighting television series in the late 1980s. He made the move to film and had huge commercial success with Die Hard and Die Hard 2, which were released in the years immediately before his involvement in Hudson Hawk.
So, clearly, it wasn’t simply the presence of these stars themselves that caused the films to bomb at the box office – and some had even achieved critical acclaim from reviewers and critics. And – in contrast – there have been many, many movies which have achieved box office success, where the critics have been less than complimentary.
So – here are some lessons from this lesson in Hollywood reality that we can apply in our world of sales:
- Star power alone will not guarantee success
- Past success does not predict future success
- Success in a marketplace is complex – the rules don’t always work
Before we look at our sales teams – let’s look at what we can learn from the world of sport.
In a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article (“When ‘Stars’ Migrate, Do They Still Perform Like Stars?”**) the authors Boris Groysberg, Lex Sant & Robin Abrahams look at recent research on recruiting high performers in the world of professional football.
What the authors look at is a vexing alternative to the portability of people and ask if “positions” are portable. This is extremely important to the sales manager looking to recruit new salespeople. Are there circumstances where some sales positions are simply not as portable as others? If this is the case, the quest for star performers must be viewed in a new light.
Let’s take a closer look at footballers.
Codes of football which involve carrying the ball, have a range of roles and functions within the team.
In American football, a key attacking role is undertaken by wide receivers. Wide receivers are in attacking roles, and need sufficient speed and agility to elude defensive players. But they also need to run particular routes based on timing and calculated distance, and interact with their quarterback, who, like themselves, is under constant pressure from defenders intent upon stopping them cold. It requires a blend of individual skill – and understanding of particular team plays.
In contrast, the role of punter is the simple, but difficult act of kicking a football long distances, with height and accuracy. A valuable role within the game context – but one which relies heavily on the skill and strength of the individual.
The authors undertook a study of what happened when players in these positions changed teams. They studied high performers – and collected data over a 10 year period. The results, although not surprising, have a major impact on our recruitment practices more widely beyond the football field.
When punters changes teams – their performance didn’t change. The researchers found no significant difference in performance between what happened before they moved – and after they started with a new team.
However –the performance of wide receivers were very different when they changed clubs.
Overall, wide receivers who moved teams suffered a significant decline in their performance for the first year after they moved. After this time their performance returned – on average – to the level it was before the move.
A simple – yet powerful – lesson. Roles which require complex interaction with the team – or organisation – take longer to do well, than roles which are simply defined by personal action.
And when it comes to sales roles, many managers underestimate the complexity of the role, or the importance of organisational knowledge to achieve a peak level of performance. Overlay with this the added complexity when performers move from one industry or product line to another and it’s not surprising that our new “star” performers don’t immediately set the world on fire.
So – what can we take from this – in addition to our lessons from Hollywood? Here are three things:
- Make sure you are very clear about the role you are recruiting for. Absolute clarity is essential to know if the sales role is person specific, or role specific
- If it’s a person specific function – ensure you can realistically provide the resources, support and environment that the star has become accustomed to. Even though their skills are transportable – they are still performed in context. If someone has been used to strong support (eg plenty of leads), they will need a similar environment if you expect them to transplant their skills into your organisation and/or industry
- If the role relies heavily on team, or organisational knowledge, give your stars time to learn the ropes. You may want them to have instant success – but take a lesson from our wide receivers, and give your stars time to fit in and absorb the knowledge they need to achieve star performance levels
Also – keep in mind the cost of replacing your current stars, and potential stars. It could mean that it’s a smart move to provide the rewards, development opportunities, resources, environment, and benefits to your existing team to help them reach their performance potential.
Often the star performers are under your nose, and simply need the right coaching, leadership and support for them to become the high performers you are looking for.
**********
* The list of movie flops and hits comes from Wikipedia. You’ll find great reading about these here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biggest_box_office_bombs
And for the opposite story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films
** Access the MIT Sloan Management Review article – “When ‘Stars’ Migrate, Do They Still Perform Like Stars?” (Fall 2008 issue), by Boris Groysberg, Lex Sant & Robin Abrahams here:
Thanks for reading this post – Paul Sparks, Sales Effectiveness Australasia.
“Taking you beyond sales training and keeping you informed about the latest ideas, trends, innovation, research & best practice in professional selling and sales management”
If you would like to connect with Paul Sparks please email paulsparks [at] saleseffectiveness.com.au
