Why Do Salespeople Resist Following Directions? Executives from every company bemoan how their salespeople (and all other kinds of employees) don’t follow processes, programs or directions. If all the programs, tools, and rules that you’ve created actually helped salespeople sell more, and had been communicated effectively, wouldn’t salespeople be adopting more of them? So why don’t they? I’m going to use sales as the specific function and example for how to help employees get things done in a way that you see is beneficial to the company, such as following a sales process, but you can apply the principles anywhere in your organization. The conventional sales management model is about telling people what to do and having them obey. Every sales executive and manager gets frustrated with salespeople not doing as they’re told: “They don’t use the sales force automation system... They don’t make enough calls... They don’t sell to value... They don’t understand their compensation plan… Our training session attendance is poor... They don’t forecast...”. One option is to bang your head against the wall as much as you can, trying to force or coerce salespeople into doing things. However, it’s a very painful and frustrating way to try to drive behavior, for both sides. And it doesn’t even work very well anymore “with these uppity, demanding employees we have now who don’t want to be ordered what to do and how to do it!” Why: 1. People hate to be told what to do; thus coercion naturally creates resistance. How do you feel when someone tells you to do something? (Rather than explaining why something’s important and then asking for your teamwork or help.) Do you want to comply, or do you purposely want to not do it just to show them they can’t tell you what to do? 2. It’s a quick fix, not a solution.