Q.  Do you have any suggestions that will help our local sales reps provide increased value across all markets?  Stretch out of their market comfort zones?

A.  Ah, comfort zones.  The bane of the B2B sales person.  I believe that the loss of productivity and sales effectiveness caused by the limitations of comfort zones is so widespread that it could be the number one problem for sales people.

What’s a comfort zone?  Since we are talking about sales people here, it’s some aspect of the sales person’s job with which he/she is more comfortable than others.  So, it could be that, as in this question, the sales person is only comfortable with some market segments, and is uncomfortable with others.  For example, you may be comfortable calling on schools, but uncomfortable calling on businesses. 

Sales people create comfort zones composed of customers, or types of customers, as well.  For example, you may be comfortable calling on production managers, and very uncomfortable calling on CFOs.

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And then there are products and services which inhabit their own comfort zones.  Sales people may be comfortable with one product or product line to the point where they ignore opportunities for others.

And, finally, sales people form comfort zones associated with the processes and tools they use.  For example, you may be very comfortable using a paper calendar, and not at all comfortable using a laptop and the company’s new CRM system.

Do your sales people have too much to do and not enough time in which to do it?

Help them sort it out and prioritize their time.  They will be less stressed and more fulfilled, and you’ll see an immediate improvement in their performance.

Subscribe to our Sales Time Management Course.   

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There is nothing wrong with comfort zones, per se.  They are just the job-related expression of human nature.  Naturally we tend to be more comfortable with certain people, places, and things than others.  That comfort comes from a combination of our unique skills intertwined with our experiences.  The combination of those two things leads us to a position:  This person, or market, or product, or process feels more comfortable to us than another one.

The problem is the converse of comfort zones – ‘uncomfort’ zones.  The problem isn’t that you are comfortable with some element of your job; it is that you are uncomfortable with others.  There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable calling on schools, for example.  The problem comes when you are uncomfortable calling on businesses.  There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable calling on production managers.  The problem comes when you are uncomfortable calling on CFOs.

And, it’s not so much the lack of comfort that is the problem.  It is the fact that the uncomfortable feeling leads to a conscious avoidance of the uncomfortable and that, then, leads to a lack of action.  And the lack of action is the problem...[Click Here To Read The Entire Article Online]