Five things you can do to support your sales team's efforts

Are you responsible for the outcomes of your sales team?

1. Have (and require your sales team to use) a Well-Defined, Effective Selling Process

If you haven’t already done so, install a step-by-step selling process that identifies exactly what salespeople are expected to do.  Then, hold them accountable to doing it. 

Ideally, the process should emphasize qualifying—thoroughly qualifying—so salespeople are investing their time and the company’s resources in opportunities that have a high probability of “taking them to the bank.”  Stringently qualified opportunities progress more quickly.  And, they produce better-fit solutions, more focused presentations, and higher closing rates. 

2. Focus on Salespeople’s Activities

Time is the most precious resource your salespeople have.  The activities in which they invest it will make the difference between achieving success—how much and how frequently—or failing. 

Salespeople are experts in the art of constructive avoidance—engaging in contrived activities to avoid doing the real work of selling. Some, for example, will waste an inordinate amount of time updating, categorizing, and alphabetizing a prospect list to avoid actually picking up the phone and calling one of the prospects on the list.

Hold your salespeople accountable to the activities defined by your selling process—activities that keep the process moving forward. Those activities should be focused on moving opportunities into or out of the sales funnel—identifying and qualifying prospects; developing and closing opportunities. If an (alleged) opportunity isn’t moving through

3. Ensure that Salespeople Have the Necessary Critical Skills

Having an effective and efficient selling process is of little consequence if your salespeople don’t have the essential skills to implement it.  Working hard is not an appropriate substitute for working skillfully.  It leads to frustration, lackluster performance, and below-average sales results.

Monitor the actual results of sales-process-directed activities against the intended outcomes.  Where there are shortfalls, identify the deficient skills responsible for the result, and make sure your salespeople receive the appropriate training. 

When you arrange for training, it’s important for you to be involved in it.  After all, you are responsible for seeing that the content of the training is applied, and for helping your salespeople refine their newly-acquired skills.  Finally, training and coaching are interconnected.  Support the training with regular pre-call briefings, post-call debriefings, and ongoing coaching.

4. Help Your Salespeople Enhance their Self-Esteem

Learning new strategies and tactics and developing new skills will have little positive impact if your salespeople don’t have the confidence to implement those skills.  Lack of confidence (fear of failure) is perhaps the biggest roadblock that prevents salespeople from achieving greater levels of success.  Therefore, providing encouragement, support, and positive feedback to your salespeople is as important a function as any supervisory role you play.

Your salespeople will never learn to skillfully implement a strategy or tactic by reviewing their training class notes.  The only way they will learn—and ultimately develop skill and confidence—is by doing the activity.  To facilitate the doing, you can not only encourage your salespeople to step outside their comfort zones and try something new, but, as the manager, you can give them “permission” to do so.  That is, you can minimize the fear of failure by letting them know that even though obtaining successful outcomes is always desirable, when implementing newly-acquired skills, making the attempt is what really counts.    

Along with giving your salespeople permission, you must also provide them “protection” when results are less than optimal. Specifically, commend salespeople for their attempts.  And rather than focus on the outcomes, focus on the lessons learned from the experiences.

5. Empower Your Sales Team

Most sales managers recognize the importance of developing their sales teams.  Yet, many say they simply don’t have sufficient time or resources to train and develop their people.  They tend to be so focused on sales results (perceived to be a function of the quantity of activity rather than the quality of activity) that they overlook the potential performance improvements that come from investing time to develop their people. 

Don’t make the same mistake.

Investing in your salespeople—helping them develop and improve their skills and abilities—is an investment that pays an ongoing dividend of increased performance.

Want to learn more contact Eric- ethompson@sandler.com