Long-term success is within your grasp, but there is work to be done.
Hyper sales growth is exactly what it sounds like: it is fast and it is extraordinary.
Based on your responses, this kind of growth is within reach—and maybe you’ve begun to see signs of it already—but there is certainly more your team can do to hasten the journey.
A key concern for companies in your position is complacency. The acceptance of the success you’ve had so far, and the expectation that all short-term progress will continue infinitely into the future. Perhaps you had a quarter recently where you missed your sales goals, but you didn’t see the need to make changes because the quarters prior exceeded expectations. Perhaps poor performing members of the staff have been given a longer leash due to the strong financial standing of the company. Or maybe the culture-building initiatives that were once a staple of the company have taken a backseat to other priorities because, well, “people should be happy to work here.”
The key to long-term peak performance and growth is to always be refining your systems and processes. Let the three tips below from my book Hyper Sales Growth light a fire under you and push you further along your upward trajectory.
NEXT STEPS
-
REVIEW YOUR SALES MANAGER’S JOB DESCRIPTION
A sales manager’s job is not to grow sales. It is to grow salespeople in quantity and quality. This is the key to long-term growth.
On the other hand, if your sales manager is focused on activities outside of this job description—perhaps he or she holds a second role, such as CEO, or perhaps he or she is also expected to continue booking new business—the sales team they are meant to manage is underserved and you are missing the opportunity for leveraged growth.
Seeing sales success with a split-duty sales manager is not unheard of, but unless you allow your sales manager to focus their valuable time and attention to recruiting (quantity) and training (quality), achieving hyper sales growth is a virtual impossibility.
Take the time to reevaluate this key role and make sure this person remains focused on the right high-value activities.
-
BALANCE THE URGENT AND THE IMPORTANT
Remember, one of the three indispensable factors in building a successful business is the need to develop a thriving business culture in which your people look forward to the journey. Unfortunately, as businesses start to see growth and success, fostering a winning culture often slides down the priority list. Successful companies start to underperform because they rush to the urgent at the expense of the important.
There are four key components to building a strong winning culture: recognition systems, communications systems, empowerment processes, and personal and professional development processes. None of these four areas are urgent, but they are all massively important. If we, as leaders, make culture a high priority, the people in our companies will willingly come in early, stay late, and work weekends. They will begin to see their work as far more than a job.
-
NEVER STOP RECRUITING
Let me ask this question: Are you presently active in the marketplace looking to recruit someone who would become your new number-one salesperson? If you are trying to grow your company, your answer should be ‘yes’ 365 days a year. You should always be looking for top-producing people, whether you are hiring or not.
Recruiting is a process, not an event. It must be ongoing and continuous. At any given time, you should have a list with 10 to 15 names on it, even if you only have half that many people on your staff. Make a list and court the top producers, even if it means courting someone who is perfectly happy in another job—or another industry! Define your ideal candidate and go after that person. When that person decides to pursue a new opportunity, he or she will have the choice of going where they want, when they want. And they tend to go to the people who have been courting them all along the way.
GET IN TOUCH
Follow @ironmanjack on Twitter and like @ironmanjackdaly on Facebook to join the conversation about smart selling, sales management, and corporate culture.
Connect with Jack on LinkedIn.
Subscribe to Jack on YouTube.
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.
