In last month’s issue, we began a two part series on using the 12 Universal Sales Management Truths to develop your sales team adapted from The New Science of Selling and Persuasion.
Truth 1: A sales organization will never be any stronger than the salespeople who are recruited, selected and hired to be a part of it.
Truth 2: Invest your time where it counts: with the best performing salespeople and with those who hold the greatest potential for superior performance.
Truth 3: A sales organization cannot be led from behind a desk.
Truth 4: The best sales executives and sales managers are the most skilled at judging talent and placing the right people in the right place.
Truth 5: You can’t lead where you won’t go any more than you’re able to teach the things you don’t know.
Truth 6: Salespeople must be hired with caution, launched with clarity and the underperforming ones replaced with dispatch.
Truth 7: Pay plans are essential to sales performance and should, ultimately, determine how much of what gets sold.
One of the best ways to get everyone working toward a new goal or shake off complacency is to tinker with the pay plan. The first step is to think about what you want to influence – is it the profitability of each sale? Is it new business? Is it a certain type of sale or product? Can you tie commissions directly to the profitability of each sale? Can you pay a premium for new accounts or certain types of sales?
But tread carefully; make sure you don’t set up a scenario where your salespeople are trying to push a certain product or service instead of focusing on their customers’ individual needs and wants. If it’s new business you’re after, make sure you don’t inadvertently encourage salespeople to neglect their existing accounts.
You may also want to think about the proportion of base pay to commission pay that your team is receiving. If base pay is too high the likely result is complacency. If it’s too low the likely result is salespeople acting out of fear and panic rather than in the best interest of their prospects and customers.
Truth 8: Turnover in a sales force is normal and to be expected. Zero turnover is bad, but high turnover is even worse.
This issue is a two-sided coin. Ideally, you want to create the kind of environment where people who have the potential to excel at your organization will be challenged and rewarded enough to stay. But, your culture should also be rigorous and disciplined enough to quickly filter out those who can’t or won’t succeed on your sales team.
Most managers are aware of the problems and difficulties associated with high turnover but many are slow to realize the benefits a little turnover can bring. As a result, many sales managers hang on to non-performers too long or worry needlessly when they lose a salesperson.
Bringing in some new blood every now and then keeps your team dynamic and invigorated. Your remaining salespeople will likely step up in response to losing someone. A newly-hired salesperson will often bring enthusiasm and fresh eyes – you may be surprised at how a new salesperson can inject everyone with an upbeat outlook and pioneer new ways to tackle challenges.
Truth 9: Sales executives must never allow digital solutions to dominate a sales force’s life, stifle creativity or curtail proactivity.
Never forget that salespeople are only bringing in revenue when they’re selling or servicing accounts – period. Technology is great for managing information and having the right information at the right time can make the difference between winning and losing the sale. But collecting and entering data is time consuming. It’s important to realize the high price you pay for every second your salespeople are not actively engaged in selling and make sure technology enhances sales productivity rather than impeding it.
Flexibility is also important – what makes one salesperson more productive may be a complete hassle for another. For those who are “digitally impaired” it may make more sense to have an administrative person manage data. Remember too, that sales is like no other job in your organization. Computers are cumbersome for salespeople who are often driving or dashing through airports, but voice responsive and hands free technologies can really help. Consider allowing salespeople to call in or record information and having someone in the office transcribe and manage the data.
Truth 10: You cannot motivate salespeople; you can only create an environment that rewards the things they are most motivated by in the first place.
Don’t think for a minute that you can manage everyone the same way and get the same results – different people are motivated by different things.
The secret is to:
- Hire people who are enthusiastic about being a part of your team.
- Ensure that what truly does motivate them to perform is present at your organization and in their specific role.
- Apply what you know about each person to create an environment that empowers and enables them to perform to their full potential.
Truth 11: No salesperson will ever reach any meaningful level of performance if expectations are not clearly established, communicated and verified for their acceptance and total understanding.
Many salespeople have no idea what’s expected of them. They may have an arbitrary number in terms of a sales quota for each month or quarter but no meaningful information about how to get there. If you establish expectations for activity (number of calls made, number of appointments, number of prospects contacted) you’ll have the opportunity to course correct before the end of the month or quarter.
It’s also important for your salespeople to take ownership of expectations. Rather than handing down arbitrary quotas, consider making each salesperson take an active role in deciding upon and committing to their own sales goals. And then let them take the lead in formulating a plan to get there. Of course you’ll need to offer guidance, but you’ll get far better results if you put each salesperson in charge of their own success.
Truth 12: Performance counts in sales…but it is accountability that really pays.
Accountability simply means being held answerable for your own actions and results. If you wait until the sales reports are in it’s simply too late – you’ll need to track performance along the way.
There are 2 keys to implementing accountability:
- You must create a culture where your sales team freely and willingly accepts the premise that each person is responsible for their own success and their own failures.
- You must have a system in place for measuring and monitoring factors other than pure sales results.
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