Salespeople 'should not confuse efficiency with shortcuts'

Executives may wish to bring in the expertise of a sales consultancy to help sales staff understand that there is a big difference between being efficient and taking shortcuts.

David Brock, writing on the Partners in Excellence blog, said that while it is human nature to cut corners in trying to achieve a certain goal, it can be very risky for a business.

He cites the examples of BP, saying that its determination to get a well into production in a shorter time came back to haunt it and athletes taking performance-enhancing substances to run faster as evidence of what can go wrong by failing to follow due process.

Mr Brock said that many salespeople succumb to the temptation to cut corners by not doing thorough research on a client or stretching the truth with regards to what their product can actually do.

"We confuse shortcuts with efficiency and effectiveness. They are very different - taking shortcuts is about not doing what you know to be the right steps or actions to achieve success. Shortcuts are about skipping these, jumping forward, consciously or unconsciously increasing risk," he added.

One reason for taking shortcuts could be an unhealthy level of internal competition among sales staff which can be bad for business performance, Sue Barrett, founder and managing director of Barrett, said in a column for Smart Company recently.