The Stone Age salesforce
pharmafile | October 15, 2003 | Feature | Sales and Marketing |Â Â sales forceÂ
Here are a few thoughts on why your sales and marketing team will only respond so far to the training you give them, before reverting to their basic instincts. So, if you think you've got a few Neanderthals in your team, or before you rush to theme your next conference on Planet of the Apes, read on…
Controversial hypotheses emerge from time to time and evolutionary psychology is one of these. In a nutshell, the theory is simple – modern man, recognisable to you, I and your customers, appeared 300,000 years ago to not only survive, but to thrive. The Darwinian process of genetic natural selection refined the makeup and by 50,000 years ago humans were successfully scattered across the globe. Since then, argues the theory, nothing much has changed because:
- humans were scattered too far apart to allow developmental change
- fewer environmental challenges have disrupted food supply
- 10,000 to 20,000 years is not long enough to establish gene modification.
We are, therefore, very much as our cave dwelling forbears but the difference is that our world, in social and technological terms, has moved far faster than we have. If the theory holds true we are designed and programmed for effective survival in the grasslands of Africa and Europe, to hunt and compete in the Ice Ages, not necessarily ideal for the world we have created. A case of too much, too soon?
So what?
Sometimes it pays to take a sideways look to try to understand how and why people behave in their work organisation. Maybe identifying some inborn traits will explain some familiar behaviour – indeed, for those in management or training to understand they may be attempting to manage against the grain of human nature.
Look around your office – everyone you see is descended from the two-legged hominids who emerged more than four million years ago. They've spent 98.5% of their ancestry as tribal hunter-gatherers. It is only in the last 10,000 years, with the invention of agriculture that we've lived in a recognisable civilisation. Is it any wonder we behave as we have been 'programmed'?
Basic instinct
In the uncertain world of Stone Age Man, instinct was trusted above all else – 'emotional radar' was used to screen all situations. Today, much training is geared to replace 'gut feeling' with objective reasoning, but it could be impossible to suppress the basic instinct. Have you ever wondered why even your most sensible team members appear unable to receive constructive feedback, and always dwell on bad news or the negative points? It is because emotions come first.
Our ancestors survived by avoiding loss; they never had very much any way, so hung onto everything. Living a marginal existence means not being able to afford risks. Caution led to survival, which over the generations led to an inherited trait of risk aversion. Part of avoiding loss also means fighting for what is held. Against this heritage, inspiring change is a challenge, whether it is working practices or embracing changes within the NHS. Challenging the 'we've always do it that way' mentality is one of the many headaches across the industry after mergers or management changes. Safety is the key: leaders need to demonstrate that danger has been eliminated from any new path.
Contest or co-operation? Displays of aggressive competition clearly fall into 'basic instincts' – the most successful hunter, the one who repeatedly brought back the biggest kills was held in the highest esteem by the tribe. His immediate family ate meat more regularly, he had meat to trade for favours, including the pick of the potential mates. In evolutionary terms, he was seen as a good bet in the gene survival stakes. This behaviour pattern is easily translated to sales competitions league tables, incentives and competitions that drive performance by appealing to the competitive survival urge. Is this how you want to be seen by your customers. How often are a field manager and rep accused of 'hunting in pairs'?
Regardless of e-mail opportunities, the corporate mobile phone bill will always increase – we are a verbal species and within that, gossip is the norm. Tens of thousands of years of trading snippets of information will never change. Managers who stamp their feet and complain about the grapevine are wasting their breath the heady mix of truth, rumour and speculation will never go away. The savvy manager uses the network to communicate informally.
All modern tribes, clans or extended families are based on 80 to 150 people – it is reasonable to suppose that this has always been the norm. In structuring operational units and teams, it is worth recognising this. When some of the true industry behemoths gather for conferences they will occasionally bring together more than a 1,000 sales and marketing people, but people will fall back into smaller groups and cliques for comfort its a natural behaviour, beyond team identities.
Making sense of a complex world was an early challenge. Finding out which berries are good to eat, which leaves are poisonous, who is an ally or who is the enemy, has built a huge ability to label and classify the environment. This leads to rapid labelling – the gut instinct about people or situations is valuable sometimes, damaging in others. Even a manager with extensive interview and selection training will still maintain that they can pick a winning candidate in the first 10 seconds of an interview when all of the research has shown this to be totally invalid. Marketers reinforce sales reps labelling abilities with customers by insisting on innovator and 'advocate' labels.
Fully evolved?
We are who we are. Genetic modification will never catch up with social change, technological development and market changes. Understanding core behaviours, the genetic hard-wiring that allowed us all to survive on the African plains or through the Ice Ages, can at least allow us to accommodate our day-to-day management efforts.
Equipping the salesforce with the latest hand-held PDA is more useful than a bow and arrow, but be aware: if that performance review goes badly it can still used as a weapon!
Related Content
Doctors shunning pharma rep visits
More and more doctors in the US are refusing to see pharma companies’ sales representatives, …
Making the matrix work
The idea of the ‘Matrix Organisation’ has caught on in recent years, but what is …
Get out of the ‘arms race’
As healthcare consumers take more responsibility for their health, analysts predict the dynamic between the …
