Is your sales team actually performing? Are they making their numbers? Or do you keep hearing excuses like, “They’ll buy… soon” but it 
never happens. Or your people circle round the same prospects while living in hope.
I can’t tell you how many times we see this with small to medium sized businesses.
As a business owner you hire salespeople. Pay them a fat base salary, then expect them to go out and bring in business.
But more often than not, they don’t bring home the bacon.
Frustrated, you fire them and hire new ones. And to your horror, the cycle repeats.
If you relate, I have news for you. The buck stops with you.
Two reasons.
- You’re hiring the wrong people or the right people but for the wrong roles.
- You don’t train, coach and most importantly, keep them accountable for results.
Let’s start with hiring the right people, starting with their mindset.
A true salesperson’s job is to ferret out opportunities, not just be order takers. They need to comfortable making cold contacts, developing and furthering relationships.
You’re looking for someone who is comfortable dealing with the types of clients you target. For example, targeting the factory floor or C-Suite are very different propositions and take completely different personalities and skill sets. So they may be the right person in terms of attitude, but not for the specific role.
They must believe they’re a doorway to helping clients get outcomes. Bring insights and solve problems that prospects might not know they have until highlighted.
Contrast that with order takers who sit waiting for a prospect to call and then only sell exactly what they say they want rather than what they need to solve the issues presented.
Moving onto training, coaching and accountability.
Your job as their manager is to help them understand your products and services at a deep level. How they really impact on a client’s business.
You need to guide them as to what makes an ideal prospect. And provide the resources that help them research and target them.
Back them up with effective marketing that builds awareness of your organisation and solutions. Arm them with case studies, testimonials and collateral which explains how your solutions work and the outcomes they achieve.
Continuously coach them in sales techniques. If you sell complex B2B products, how to navigate organisations to find the decision makers and other influencers including technical specialists and end users.
Coach them determining the prospect’s buying process and criteria for selection. How they’ll know they’re dealing with decision makers, not people claiming to be so, but aren’t (a very common occurrence).
Have clear accountabilities. Numbers speak. They either make their sales targets or not. A word of caution though. Many a time we’ve seen organisation create completely unrealistic sales targets. When working with organisations, we use our experience and judgement, combined with market size and salesperson ability to set realistic targets which can be fulfilled.
Finally, keep on top of what’s going on with your sales team. You can either have excuses or results. You’re looking for sales people who want to be accountable for their success. Your job is to provide structure enabling them to perform at their best.
Wrapping up, If you feel you’re not getting the best out of your sales team, reach out and speak with us.
We’ll diagnose the issue. It could be you have the right people in the wrong roles (personality fit). Or a lack of skills which can be fixed. Or simply the wrong people and you need to let them go.
Whichever way, we have a track record in helping organisations significantly improve their sales results. Call Rashid on 0414 913 334 and discuss your sales issues.
Rashid & Barbara.
And… Ready to grow your business? Here are ways we can help…
1) Access a mini MBA of free material on business building topics of Mindset, Strategy, Marketing and Sales – Click Here
2) Work with us One-on-One.
If you’d like to work with us personally, we’ll design a bespoke growth program designed around the 4 main components – mindset/leadership, strategy/business models, marketing and sales. Hit reply to this message and tell me a bit about your business and your goals, and I’ll get you all the details.
