Why Adding New Salespeople Can Transform Your Growth

On the Thrive Time Show, host Clay Clark introduced Bill Canady as a "man with a plan" and someone who has achieved "a lot of success in the world of business." He certainly fits that description, serving as CEO of Arrowhead Engineered Products, and Chairman of OTC Industrial, both multi-billion dollar companies. His latest book, "From Panic to Profit," alongside "The 80/20 CEO," also underscores his deep business acumen. During the interview, this business leader shared a particularly insightful and perhaps counter-intuitive strategy for boosting sales team performance and achieving growth.

The Common Sales Challenge

Many businesses struggle to expand beyond their existing client base, even when there's clear potential for more. Canady observes that in business, we often "ride the wave," selling to the same customers at their current rate of buying. Salespeople frequently "sell who they like," focusing on familiar accounts, even if these accounts don't offer significant growth. As a result, if their existing customers' business goes up, so does theirs; if it goes down, so does theirs, "nothing we really did" to impact it. This highlights a pervasive issue where businesses become "loyal to things that don't work," aggressively pursuing activities that don't produce results.

Why This Strategy Works

This approach implicitly aligns with his overarching 80/20 Principle, which states that "80% of what each of us does is completely wasted. It has no impact at all. It's just a 20%." By bringing in new salespeople who are incentivized to find new business, you're directly investing in the "20%" of activities that will yield significant impact and drive growth. It's about shifting resources to "where we win" rather than wasting time on unproductive efforts or trying to change deep-seated behaviors. This allows the business to "double down" on what's working.

Instead of attempting to retrain or force existing salespeople to change their ingrained habits, the speaker proposes a distinct approach: introduce new sales personnel to take market share. As he explains, "The easiest way far we found is to put someone else in there. Let that salesman have what they have. Tie their income into growth, which means they're going to start making less money. Add another person to that area. Let them go do it because they're going to have to go find their customer base. They're automatically going to take the right turn." This strategy acknowledges that "people are creatures of habit. They hate to change. Beating them to make them change generally won't do it."

For instance, when discussing how to gain more business-to-business clients, particularly for companies selling to large entities like the US Army or Tesla, the guest stressed the importance of "taking share" from competitors. While increasing bids for government contracts might be a numbers game, for other sales, the solution lies in diversifying your sales force with individuals who are driven to find new opportunities.

Canady's strategy for sales team improvement isn't about incremental tweaks; it's about a fundamental shift in how businesses approach growth when faced with ingrained habits. It recognizes human nature and provides a direct path to acquiring new market share, rather than fighting an uphill battle against resistance to change within existing structures.

Much like a ship's captain who needs to cover new seas, instead of attempting to drastically alter the course of a large, established vessel already sailing comfortably in familiar waters, the business expert suggests launching a new, agile scout boat. This new vessel, unburdened by old routines, is specifically designed and incentivized to venture into uncharted territories, discover new fishing grounds, and bring back a fresh catch, ultimately expanding the fleet's overall reach and success.

Listen to Bill Canady

His appearance on the Thrive Time Show, drawing on his experience as CEO and Chairman of multi-billion dollar companies like Arrowhead Engineered Products and OTC Industrial, offers invaluable, actionable insights for any entrepreneur. This unique perspective, such as the strategy of introducing new sales personnel to "take share" rather than forcing existing team members to change ingrained habits, highlights a practical, results-driven approach. The author of "From Panic to Profit" and "The 80/20 CEO," consistently emphasizes the 80/20 Principle, noting that "80% of what each of us does is completely wasted," urging listeners to focus on the impactful "20%." You can listen to the full episode here.