Yesterday, children’s entertainment icons The Wiggles announced that the original line up was breaking up after 20 something years together, with only one member carrying on with a new line up.

I joked on Twitter that they had become the Guns N Roses of children’s entertainment (for those unfamiliar, Axl Rose remains the only original member with countless line up changes since the mid 90′s).

The challenge for fans is that they are now wondering, can the band ever be the same? With Guns, certainly while they have their fans, the hard core traditionalists have decried them as nothing more than a tribute band.

At this point, you’re asking “OK, so what does this have to do with sales?”.

It’s a similar situation to how your sales team works. You work hard to build a team of crack sales stars, all of who bring their own bit of brilliance to your team and can sell anything.

For whatever reason though, people leave. Opportunity, unhappiness – whatever.

So when you lose a number of star sales performers, how do you keep that passion, fire and performance of the team going, in the eyes of your clients, and indeed the wider business?

Set Expectations

Everyone expects the classics, regardless of who is performing them. The reality of it is though, that you need to manage the expectations of everyone involved about what a new sales person means – a brief period of bringing getting up to speed and getting to know clients and accounts.

Make sure that the change is clearly communicated. Articulate the strengths of your new starter and what they will bring to the team, and work with them to get some quick runs on the board.

Reshuffle The Pack

If you’ve lost reps who have managed accounts for years, then see a change as an opportunity to shake up account patch. Move clients around amongst the team, or reallocate some account from other reps. It brings fresh thinking and possibly a whole raft of new opportunities for clients that you may not have realised.

Don’t Dwell on the Past

You have a new team. Embrace that. Don’t hark back to when you were making sales left right and centre. Encourage them to move forward. Do what you can to make your new stuff as good as your old stuff.

Thanks for indulging my rock metaphor as it relates to your sales team.

Now let’s hope for the kids sake that we don’t have to wait 15 years for the Wiggles Democracy.

PHOTO – rior4

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