If you want to increase top line revenues and bottom line profits, the time to take action is now.
Uh oh…
Based on your responses, it appears as though your team is in need of some change. But I’m guessing you already knew that.
Perhaps you’ve noticed your team is not looking forward to coming to work, as evidenced by the stampede out the door at five o’clock sharp. Perhaps anonymous employee surveys have revealed that your sales staff feels ill-equipped to successfully sell due to a lack of training. Or perhaps the sales staff doesn’t know how well they’re performing at all due to a lack of performance standards, goal setting, or system of accountability.
Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that it’s time to take another look at your systems and processes. The good news is, it’s not too late and there are several easy-to-implement first steps you can pursue to get on the right track. Consider the three tips below from my book Hyper Sales Growth as a starter kit for your inevitable success story.
NEXT STEPS
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MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT SPOTS
In particular, the sales manager spot. You need to carefully consider who is in charge of growing your sales force. That person plays a crucial role in your success. And yet, I have often witnessed three sins of sales management that weaken businesses.
The first is when the CEO or business owner wears the hat of the sales manager. If you are doing that, you are essentially relegating both the CEO job and the sales manager job to part-time status. The second is when CEOs take the best salesperson and make him or her the sales manager. It can work, but seldom. Usually you just lose your best salesperson and get a mediocre sales manager. The role and the responsibilities are entirely different. The third sin of sales management is probably the most grievous of all: the best salesperson is made a sales manager, but he or she is also required to continue booking business. It’s absolutely ruinous. Their focus remains fixed on the customer, as that is how their compensation is driven. Accordingly, the sales team is underserved, missing the opportunity for leveraged growth.
Take the time to reevaluate the people you have in key roles and make sure they are the right people focusing on the right high-value activities.
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BUILD A CULTURE BY DESIGN
Most companies are so focused on dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on their products and services that they forget about winning over the hearts of their people. They overlook the soft side of the house, the cultural side of the house. They are so tied up with the functional aspects that they miss what matters most in motivating a change in behavior.
It need not be that way if they would just pay attention to this critical contributor to corporate success. A business can actually design a plan with activities, systems, and processes, and monitor them for consistency so that the culture becomes a winning one. That way, they would be creating a culture by design, rather than accepting whatever happens by default.
For starters, consider adding something small to your company’s routine, such as quarterly themes, or a new fun employee recognition system.
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START COMPILING A SUCCESS GUIDE
The largest sales force I ever led had 2,600 people. “There aren’t 2,600 best ways to sell this stuff,” I would tell them. “We’re going to figure out the best way and have a system and processes to manage the business accordingly.”
The truth is, there’s hardly anything that goes on in a sales call that cannot be anticipated. The top-performing salespeople are “canned.” The say the same thing in the same way each time they encounter a particular situation, and it works. In building a success guide, you are accumulating these most effective techniques into a resource that others can use.
Most sales people wing it. They throw stuff at the wall to see if it sticks. The success guide prevents that. When companies take the success guide seriously, sales can increase 20 percent or higher. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of companies don’t invest the effort. It’s not considered urgent. To them, I say: “When you fly by the seat of your pants, expect turbulence!”
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WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Explore Jack’s website for more information about his programs, resources, and decades of experience training sales managers and executives.
Pick up your copy of the best-selling book Hyper Sales Growth, published by ForbesBooks, now available on our store as well as major retailers.
Read Jack’s latest article on Forbes.com.
