Any experienced sales manager will have a mountain of challenges in driving sales to discus at length. Some factors you can influence but there is so much you have no control over. Think of market dynamics, competition, brand awareness, product specifications, channel conditions, etc.
The usual response to external factors is along the lines of why worry about the unknown and yet many of the factors in your blind spot will influence standard musts do’s. So, even without certainty of singled out risks, sales teams can be trained and prepared to face and understand external impact.
HR
Recruiting and hiring the right people is time-consuming, clients need to move fast. However, skipping steps in the process only results in turnover and client dissatisfaction.
So creating precise candidate profiles and adopting the right selection practices is critical. We’ve been in a position to discuss the start of a project with a US client in Europe who wanted to hire a field sales team to sell their product. Once we had a good understanding of how they wanted to sell the product, we strongly advised them to try with an inside sales team first, because this type of selling in Europe was not typically done as they requested. If we had gone ahead and simply followed the client, we’d have failed and they’d have lost market share.
In sales, it is critical to be clear on the conditions under which a product is sold and the skills required to sell it. Hiring needs to reflect the experience and knowledge required in each project to give a solid start of the sales process.
Continuous Training
The common mistake businesses make is believing that hiring employees with the right profile and giving them a quick training will allow them to hit the ground running. Would you say this will secure sales success?
Without investing in training, development and the right set of tools, even brilliant sales professionals may not score 10 out of 10. In a continuously shifting sales environment, employees need continuous education. A real risk for companies is losing sales folks quickly due to failure to prepare them properly for their function.
The Sales Rep Performance
Performance problems are not always easily to demystify.
When results are low overall, you bet you need to evaluate the external factors and align your teams with the strategy and the training.
ROI is a result of careful preparation and execution. Being able to predict performance gaps is incremental for success. Top talent performance is always a good indicator in diagnosing and remedying performance problems.
Sales Tech
The digital wave has swept across sales teams and execs need to spend a considerable amount of time separating the needed tools from the toys. The selling tool-stack is one way to recognise the professionals amongst the amateurs. It’s easy to drown in digital neons, so one ought to stay focused on the buyer’s journey. Before composing the tech stack, one need to outline the core needs that will determine sales success and competitive advantage.
What we consider at Onboard:
What is the best CRM for the project?
Do we need a Social Selling strategy?
Are we going to use a simulation tools for training?
How do we collect, analyse and use data?
How do we go about content creation, sharing and management?
What are your biggest challenges?
We’d like to hear from you in this 2-question survey. The results will be published in a future post, where we will discuss dealing with the concrete points you share.
