Last winter, I led a sales team with the objective of distributing our newest software in a new market. The software was being actively developed, and had not yet reached what I considered to be the true MVP (minimally viable product).
Not only was the technology new and under development, but we were learning and inventing the sales process at the same time.
At times, the team’s morale suffered from rejection or fatigue, and so did mine.
A friend of mine used a similar direct sales strategy, and I asked what her team was able to do to succeed while mine was struggling. For her team, the product had been in market for several months. They had collected actual data on where it was successful, why it was successful, and had a ton of resources to arm her sales team with.
But to get there, her team had to go through the same process and struggle that we were experiencing. I started repeating a when things got difficult.
Look, I know it’s hard. We’re figuring this all out for the first time, and we don’t have all the data or materials that we’d want. But with some time, we’ll have all of those things. This is the hardest it’s ever going to be.
For something that you have not yet succeeded at, that doesn’t have a blueprint, and that you are actively learning for the first time, it’s going to be hard.
But all other things being equal, this is the hardest it’s ever going to be.