“I tell my sales reps the same things over and over!  This business isn’t rocket science.  Why won’t they listen to me?”

This sentiment seems to be repeated everywhere mangers are developing and training sales people.  The frustration is often palpable, made even worse by the fact that the information they are trying to convey is rarely complex – success seems to be a simple process of routinely engaging in the right activities.

The problem isn’t with the salespeople, though, at least not consciously.  The sales manager is running into interference from one of the basic foundations of human psychology – the mental process of habituation.  Habituation is the manner by which we mentally adapt to handling the same information over and over by learning to ignore it. 

The human brain is wired to notice novelty.  If something is new or different it stands out and we pay attention to it.  This is a handy feature for a brain that is trying to process thousands of different stimuli at the same time.  It’s as if the brain says to itself, “I recognize that from before, no need to bring it up again.”  There are so many things to process, that it is almost with a sigh of relief that the brain can take some off its plate.

You can see this in your drive home from work.  Once you’ve traveled the same route a few times, you barely pay attention to your trip.  Often you get out of your car and you can’t even remember the drive home.  Another example that is familiar to salespeople is the motivational material that they put on the wall (posters, pictures, goals, etc.).  After a few days, they don’t even notice them anymore.

This is what causes frustration for a manager trying to train and motivate someone.  If the message is simply repeated over and over, the brain learns to tune it out.  It’s not even done consciously, it’s simply that the brain registers the message as the “same old story” and chooses to focus on other things.  This is made worse by the fact that most sales jobs are relatively simple and routine.  Even though every situation seems different (different customers, scenarios, etc.), the activities that a salesperson goes through in a week – prospecting, preparing and delivering sales presentations, follow up – stay the same. 

Even worse, the activities that tend to create the most success, e.g. outbound phone calls, are very repetitive and often seen as boring.  Combine that with a sales manager who simply repeats the mantra “make more calls”, and it’s easy to see why a salesperson won’t respond.

How do you get past this?  How do you deliver the same message without the salesperson zoning out?

The answer lies in changing the delivery of the message, even if you don’t change the content of the message.  By varying how the information is delivered you increase the receptiveness of the audience.  For example, many people have a favorite high school teacher or college professor who made the subject fascinating for their students.  Often, they did so was by changing the way they delivered their lectures and by using a wide variety of methods to teach the material.  The laws of chemistry don’t change, but the more variety in the way they are presented, the more likely the students will remember.

Top sales managers, then, know that even if they don’t change the message they are trying to convey, they can use different mediums to convey it.  For example at a sales meeting, instead of delivering the training, they can have an outside speaker present, or even another salesperson from the staff.  The content can be the same, but because it comes from a different source, it suddenly is new and the brain perks up and takes notice.  This is like having a favorite relative that you would listen to, even when you wouldn’t listen to your parents.  The message was the same (clean up your room, study more, etc.), but when someone else spoke to you, you were more likely to respond.

When developing and managing salespeople, look for opportunities to vary and change the way you convey your messages.  The content doesn’t have to change, and indeed, what causes success is often very simple and doesn’t need to be changed.  The more you can change the delivery, though, the more your team will “get it” and the more successful they will be.