|
EMERGENCY TREATMENT FOR AILING SALES TEAMS
Owners, presidents, senior vice presidents and sales managers of many manufacturers, distributors and even service oriented companies have been telling us one consistent thing:
"Industry sales were way off last year, but no matter what happens this year we must improve sales performance. How do I figure out what's wrong with our selling efforts, what can be done to fix it, and what action steps will get the best return for any investment I make?"
The boom economy of the '90's covered up sales performance and many companies slipped into the "ostrich mindset" by not paying much attention to the strengths and weaknesses of the sales team. The year 2001 was a very challenging time for the manufacturing industry, with some of our clients reporting sales down 50% from earlier performance.
For many companies, 2002 represents the opportunity to stop the bleeding and the time to invest time, effort, and resources to improve sales performance. Many companies acknowledge that their sales team is in the "Emergency Room," but they don't have a methodology for starting treatment.
Does the acceptance of mediocre performance by the sales team have an adverse impact on other parts of your business such as production or inventory costs? Are you a sales leader committed to improving sales performance, or is the sales team managing you?
The most important step for effective sales leadership is to stop accepting excuses and commit to proactively and continuously improving sales performance as a key ingredient to the overall company growth strategy. Anything less is unacceptable!
FOUR "RIGHT" ELEMENTS OF
TOP-PERFORMING SALES TEAMS
- Focused on the "right prospects" -- Whether or not the sales team has identified their most qualified prospects and don't waste time calling on those that are not likely to make profitable deals.
- Salespeople have the "right stuff" -- Before the sales leader can improve sales performance they must know the strengths and weaknesses and "skills gaps" of the salespeople.
- Sales team is doing the "right activities" -- Salespeople are doing enough of the "right selling activities" that will result in profitable deals. Sales leaders must have leading-indicator tools to keep the sales team fully productive and be able to provide "just-in-time" coaching techniques.
- Sales team has the "right tools" -- Salespeople have a common sales language to more quickly qualify a prospect and advanced questioning and listening skills that permit the sales leader to effectively debrief sales interviews in order to close more deals.
DETERMINE IF THE SALES TEAM
HAS THE "RIGHT STUFF"
Besides your personal observations of performance during sales interviews (telephone and face-to-face), and actual sales results (along with any other metrics such as "closing rate"), Lucas Consulting Group recommends using assessments as a consistent and objective tool.
The biggest challenge in getting people to change is getting them to admit there is an issue. Profiles that benchmark their skills with validated results for similar sales positions along with their "hidden" strengths and weaknesses, significantly increase the likelihood that the salesperson will admit a problem that could keep him or her from improving sales performance.
Sales performance will not improve unless the salesperson admits a problem!
ANY ASSESSMENT SHOULD INCLUDE:
- What are their Motivations? Motivations are what drive people to behave the way they do. Chally's assessments not only provide motivational characteristics of a candidate, but sales leader's tips for dealing with that particular behavior. The motivational characteristics evaluate what kinds of activities would be satisfying and even motivating. They say little about a person's ability to learn to perform the skills required in order to do those activities. In other words, because someone enjoys working with people, is results oriented, has a high energy level, and likes to have authority and control decisions means only that this person may enjoy certain sales positions. It does not mean that enough time has been spent understanding a customer's business, establishing an effective account management plan, learning products and applications, or improving selling skills. Such assessment does suggest, however, that learning the skills needed to improve sales performance could be a productive and satisfying process.
- What are their skill strengths and "gaps" and what, if anything, can be done to improve any weaker skills? This is where many sales leaders mistake their own observations because they observe outcomes but not the "root causes." Sales leaders seeking to improve sales performance shouldn't be misled into believing that the selling results can be fixed solely by doing skills training. Without fixing the real "hidden weakness", skills-oriented training could be a waste of time and resources.
"ROOT CAUSES" OF BEHAVIOR
MUST CHANGE FIRST
"Hidden weaknesses" can be identified using The HR Chally Group assessments that, if not changed, will prevent the sales person from improving sales performance. Any efforts devoted to Sales Leadership and Selling Skills professional development and training without fixing the "root causes" first is a waste of time and effort. This is the single most common reason why training fails!
Descriptive Skills or "Hidden Weaknesses" or "Root Causes" that should be identified up front prior to undertaking any skills improvement training are:
- Not Comfortable Dealing with Money -- How well does the person deal with issues around money? Are they motivated by what money can do for them? What is the financial goals that are motivated by their personal desires, needs and wants? Salespeople with this "root cause" fail to get the prospect to "justify the investment" during the selling process. More often than not most of their deals come down to price related issues because they didn't uncover the prospect's financial issues. These salespeople are not focused on profitable deals and will usually have reached a "plateau" in their earnings growth.
- Inability to Stay in the Moment -- The ability to handle "curveball" statements and questions that prospects throw at salespeople. Salespeople with this "root cause" are easily thrown off track when the prospect says something to them they had not anticipated. After they leave the sales interview or during the debriefing with the sales leader, these salespeople can't explain why they didn't respond in ways they've been trained and practiced before. Usually these salespeople experience the same problems over and over again; frustrating both themselves and the sales leader.
- Lack of Self-Approval -- Weak self-worth or how much confidence they have in themselves. Salespeople with this "root cause" are unable to ask the tough questions when needed or figure out when the prospect is not being truthful. Such salespeople need the prospect to like them and are highly susceptible to price cutting attempts by prospects. Because the source of this "root cause" dates from their childhood experiences, salespeople with very low self-approval are almost impossible to change without also getting professional counseling and lots of support from personal friends outside the work environment. This is the toughest "root cause" to fix in the work environment.
- Poor Decision Making Efficiency -- How efficient is a sales person making decisions when they buy? Sales people project their own buying decision making process on the prospect. If the salesperson is always shopping around for the lowest possible price and is slow to make decisions, then they expect prospects to be like them. Salespeople with this "root cause" leave the sales interview or get off the phone without having any "mutual understanding" about a next step and are always accepting some form of a "think it over." This "root cause" is the most easily fixed and will yield substantive improvement in sales performance very quickly.
SELLING SKILLS THAT PREDICT PERFORMANCE
The HR Chally Group has developed the most effective measurement series of Skills Profiles for Leadership and Selling skills. With over 300,000 salespeople and managers in its validated database, it is the leading provider of selling skills profiles for Fortune 500 companies. For Sales Leaders seeking top performance benchmarks, there is no other choice.
LESSONS FOR SALES LEADERS SEEKING TO IMPROVE SALES PERFORMANCE
The Lucas Consulting Group believes the best way to improve sales performance is to start by performing an analysis of a sale team's needs using the Four "Right" Elements triage methodology.
Just as in a real Emergency Room, it is very important to listen to all the symptoms and take a complete history before diagnosing the problems and prescribing treatment.
Beginning the process to improve sales performance by training is almost always the approach that has the least return on a sale leader's time, effort and investment.
Eventually, training may be needed -- just don't start with that!
|
