Doom and Gloom seems to be everywhere in the media related to the economy, production, and projected sales. Sales professionals can find it hard to remain positive and continue to exceed customer expectations while the only measurement is their bottom line. When that mindset creeps into a sales group its hard return to a defined process that works.
In a study by Performance Practitioners Limited, the team writes about “The Five Most Dangerous Issues Facing Sales Leaders Today”. In that document they discuss the possible issues related to such a defined system:
Lack of direction - Competent salespeople are often counted upon to channel activities into the areas that will produce the biggest and quickest wins. But professional salespeople generally don’t develop and pursue a formal plan for moving forward or have a clearly defined set of goals to measure their sales progress.
Missed opportunities - This lack of a plan is often disastrous. Recent research from The Results Corporation PLC shows, 60% of clients buy after 5 “No’s” yet 44% of salespeople give up after the first “No,” 22% after the second “No” and 14% after a third “No.”
A discouraged sales force diminishes sales efficiency - When efforts don’t pay off quickly enough, even fully capable sales people can get discouraged. They may spend longer hours struggling to meet their sales quotas, working less efficiently and feeling powerless to influence prospects.The details of what goes wrong differ for each individual, but the net result is always the same: A discouraged sales force, diminished sales efficiency and, consequently, increased cost of sales.
Developing a consultative sales process - Developing a consultative sales process means a comprehensive, formal, realistic, and step-by-step outline of sales process expectations. This should include the activity and relationships with prospects, sales call materials, issues to discuss and resolve, and the tangible goals they are to achieve. Only when this is in place and vetted by the top performers can sales management :
- Monitor the sales force’s activity, and results
- Assess problems as they arise, and, when necessary
- Redirect individual sales representatives’ efforts efficiently.
Overcoming implementation inertia - Even when a consultative process has been developed and understood, written down and circulated, it’s often not enough. No matter how brilliant, a sales process will only be effective to the extent it is followed and used by frontline sales staff. This is where most organizations fail: overcoming inertia among managers and salespeople, and implementing the process.
Involving customers - One of the most effective sales strategies is to get customers involved by asking them how they want to be sold to. Customer feedback can be obtained via focus groups, surveys, or discussions conducted by the sales force. It demonstrates to the customers that the organization really is ‘walking the talk’ to becoming customer-focused.
Identifying best practices - Another strategy is to identify best practices with a sampling of top-performing salespeople. Record what they do, how they do it, and their mindset and beliefs. When the salespeople feel included, they will be committed to following the process because they contributed to creating it.
The very best Sales Leaders use each step in the sales process to serve as part
of the foundation for developing specific performance standards and expectations or “competencies” that enable the salespeople to accomplish each step. These specific competencies enable the organization to assess and measure the development needs of each salesperson.
You can do this!
By K.B. Elliott
K. B. Elliott is a freelance writer for Salesheads.com. Working both sides of sales desks in the Detroit area for over 30 years gives him a unique perspective on the process. To read more of his blogs, please go to Salesheadsblog.com, and be sure to check out the postings for jobs in nearly any industry at Nexxt
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