I had an epiphony the other day and I’ve since coined it “the belief lag”.

Last week I went out for dinner to the Meat Co in Melrose Arch with the Demographica Head of Media Sales Marloe Wise and the Head of our Cape Town office Kath McChesney to discuss product sales strategy and the integration of culture between the Jozi and CT offices.

I went to the bathroom and came back to an intense debate between Marloe and Kath on the unique selling points of our latest Drive Time advertising product. I sat back, didn’t get involved and listened to the debate. Then it struck me – they totally believed. They both had a 100% belief in the product.

Drive Time was conceived of in September 2012, a full 11 months prior to this debate at the Meat Co. The product was then developed and launched in February 2012. In the build up to the launch and obviously post the launch, I was Drive Time’s biggest advocator. Why? because I believe in the product 100%.

When I pitch Drive Time to potential clients their responses are truly remarkable and some big things are happening. But the same wasn’t happening with my sales team – they were struggling to pitch it even though I knew that through training they completely understood the product.

For months I couldn’t figure out why I was having success pitching the Drive Time product, whilst my top business developers (who are better than me to be honest) were struggling to get client buy in.

My epiphony happened at the Meat Co. It took Marloe and Kath a full 6 months to believe in Drive Time – and trust me, they really wanted to believe. It will take the rest of the sales team a little longer. The product owner (me in this case) will always be the first to believe. Then naturally you start to train and educate the company and the market about the product. You then set sales targets and create client wish lists and ultimately get to work.

I think CEO’s sometimes mistake poor sales with poor sales ability – it is not necessarily true. Maybe the sales team still need to believe, maybe they are still in “the belief lag”.

It took Demographica over 6 months to believe, I don’t know if that’s long or short, or good or bad, but I do know that it’s reality. People need to authentically believe to perform, give them time.