10 Strategies That Will Double The Results of Your Sales Team

Who Is This Article For?

This is for small business entrepreneurs and sales managers who want to improve their team's sales performances, grow their sales team, increase their sales revenues, and make more money.

This article is longer than most that you'll find on LinkedIn, but that's because it's full of actionable content and value. It's well worth the few minutes it takes to read.

What You Will Learn In This Article…

?? How to reverse the results of your poor performing sales team?

?? How to be seen as an authority in your space so that you can attract the best quality recruits?

?? How to assess and really understand your sales team?

?? Why you should seriously consider using a professional hiring process?

?? What are the most effective types of sales coaching?

?? The importance of having a structured sales process?

?? The key questions that salespeople rarely, if ever ask their prospects?

?? Be aware of the essential math for growing sales.

?? How to inspire your team with leverage?

?? Identify and deal with the 3 key barriers to success for your sales team.

?? What is the most critical KPI for your sales team and why?

?? Why run structured sales meetings?

?? Most importantly, how to live in your purpose, have immense joy in what you do, and impact others at a level you never thought possible.

If any of these questions grabbed at your deep-seated thoughts about your business then this one heck of a list will be of great benefit to you.

As a business owner or a sales manager, is your sales team underperforming?

Are they lacking the motivation to improve their performance?

If the answer to these questions is “yes,” then know your team is not alone.

Recent surveys done by leading American Sales Strategist, Marc Wayshak, indicate that only 53% of salespeople are reaching their quotas.

Did you grab this key stat? Put your pride aside, and accept that just maybe, your sales team is not bursting at the seams with great salespeople. Right?

Let's be honest - most sales teams have a few if any truly top-performing salespeople, a lot of mediocre to good salespeople and some barely scraping by salespeople.

And, sadly, the same can be said about leadership. Relatively few truly great leaders and a lot of, well, less than great leaders.

Frustration and Friction Factors in Sales Teams

The key reasons why frustration and friction occur in sales teams are in direct proportion to the level of success of that team.

According to an HBR study, 69% of salespeople who exceed their annual quota, rated their sales manager as being excellent or above average.

In addition, the quality of the sales organization is directly associated to the quality of sales leadership. 56% of salespeople who rated their sales organization as excellent also rated their sales manager as excellent, compared to only 3% who rated their organization as average.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Do any of these ring any bells with you and your sales team?

?? They don’t have the tools they need to do their job

?? The technology doesn’t work

?? They hate their role and should not be in sales

?? They feel isolated and alone, with a perception that they don’t have a mentor or coach to guide them

?? They perceive they have not been properly trained

?? They lack prospecting skills

?? They are lacking in enthusiasm and confidence

The list goes on and on and most of these could be avoided with the correct implementation of these 10 Strategies to Double The Results of Your Sales Team.

So yes, on the surface there are a seemingly infinite number of reasons why your sales team could be struggling to reach the success that both you and they want.

Of course, this is not only frustrating to you as a business owner or a manager but it can result in high employee turnover. Further, this has the potential to cost your business a great deal of money.

And of course, one of the biggest challenges faced by business owners is the replacement of a sales manager. You should not automatically assume your top performer can take up the reins of management.

Top sales performers don’t always make great sales leaders because the roles require distinct skill sets. There is more to leading your team to success than you may think.

While you need to meet your quotas and always adhere to company policies, there is a great deal more that happens behind the scenes.

This includes inspiring your team, motivating them, leading them to better sales performance and guiding them to success in their careers.

My Promise to You…

If you follow the steps in this article I will create a step-by-step strategy game plan for doubling your sales team’s results. Your business and bottom line will expand when you use the strategic action-based game plan that I'm about to share with you.

Before we get into the good stuff, let me just check in with you and see where you’re at.

Does This Sound Like You?

 ?? Are you frustrated because you’re spending time and money using traditional sales & marketing tactics and you’re not getting the results you want?

 ?? Are you concerned that you don’t know how to recruit top level salespeople?

 ?? Do you secretly wish you could fire some of your salespeople because they just aren’t doing their job, but you work with them anyway because you think you need them more than they need you?

 ?? Deep down do you envy other small business owners in your industry who are building high-performing sales teams, and you just wish you could be at that same level?

 ?? Are you struggling to make payroll some months?

 ?? Are you completely overwhelmed having to find new hires to replace underperforming salespeople?

 ?? Are you frustrated because you know your salespeople need to talk with more prospects but you (and they) hesitate and procrastinate to take the required actions?

 ?? Are you nervously concerned that your top performers don’t follow your structured sales process and this undermines you new staff training?

 ?? Do you fear you are not successfully overcoming some self-limiting beliefs when it comes to sales?

 ?? Do you feel that right now, there is just this invisible ceiling on your potential and you don’t know how to bust through it?

If any of that sounds like you, then I have good news, none of those things is the real problem, they are just the symptoms.

The Real Problem…

The real problem is that you haven’t made, what I call, the shifts.

?? Once you make the shifts using the following 10 strategies I'm about to give you then your sales team will generate more consistent and predictable results.

?? You’ll have complete control over which salespeople you work with and how you work with them.

?? You’ll see that the invisible ceiling that you thought was there blocking you from your potential has been destroyed, and you’ll use your new approach to catapult your income while helping your salespeople on a scale you never thought possible.

?? Most importantly, you’ll sleep well at night knowing that the work you do is completely in alignment with your true purpose and that you get so much joy out of it.

Who I Am…?

Before we go too much further, let me take a moment and introduce myself so you know who I am and why you should listen to me.

I’ve had 16 wonderful years as a teacher followed by 36 exciting years in sales & marketing both in the corporate world and running my own business.

I am a 15 years entrepreneur. In the last decade, I’ve sold over $1.5 million in revenue selling custom-created sales solutions to my clients.

I specialize in helping fellow entrepreneurs to take a different approach to sales, stand out from the competition, and run their business on their terms.

> Schedule Your Sales Strategies Makeover Call Now <

So here are 10 Strategies That Will Double the Results of Your Sales Team:

1. Assess and Understand Your Sales Team

 Thoroughly assess your existing team. The reality is you probably have people on your sales team who shouldn't be there.

Critical to assess your existing sales organization.

You need to understand are the people on your sales team the right people are not.

And if they’re not the right people then move them to another area of your business such as customer service or let them go.

It’s essential you have a team of people who are coachable and who are both willing and able to implement ideas.

To optimize your business’s sales’ potential, you should focus on those higher performers.

If your salespeople are not willing and able to implement sales systems and ideas then your business is doomed right here and now!

In understanding your sales team, be aware that your salespeople will have different personalities, learning styles and coaching preferences. So, be sure you do not treat and coach everyone the same way.

Instead, take each individual’s unique personalities into account and adjust your management strategy accordingly. This will increase the chances of each of your salespeople performing to their full potential.

How can you expect to be successful in your sales management strategies if you do not know your team?

You need to take the time to really know sales-specific things about them, including their:

?? Selling style

?? Learning style

?? Motivators

?? Strengths

?? Weaknesses

All of these things will allow you to truly connect with your salespeople, which brings with it some great benefits.

2. Have a Professional Hiring Process

You may not be actively involved in the sales hiring process in your business but if you're a manager or the business owner, you need to make sure that the process for hiring talent is going to yield superior performers.

That means having a systematic process for hiring with multiple steps that force a potential sales hire to demonstrate their selling ability throughout the hiring process.

You can never be 100% certain about potential salespeople.

However, you can lessen the uncertainty by having an intentional systematic process for identifying superior talent.

This process would include using tools like online assessments to make sure you’re getting people who are a fit behaviorally.

Plus, be also using items like using role plays and pre-screen calls that test someone’s ability on the phone throughout the interview process to give yourself every possible chance that they are the right fit for your particular business.

Knowing the critical importance of getting the right people and keeping in mind the old adage of “garbage in garbage out” it would be smart to hire specialists to do this task for you.

In fact, the investment you make using recruitment specialists can result in the highest ROI you will ever have on the investments you make in your business.

To optimize your ROI on your sales team, I have no hesitation in recommending James Michael and his team for all your recruiting needs.

They help small business owners to recruit their first, true, sales professionals. They use behavioural science and the latest predictive-hiring software to help them get that grin that comes with knowing that sales is in a truly safe pair of hands... even when they take a Friday off.

Science vs gut feel... science wins

Yes, James and his team use the very latest predictive-hiring technology & behavioural science to help you find performers who are a strong cultural fit... and deliver.

3. Coach With Intent

Make sure you are pro-active, not reactive in coaching. In other words, coach with intention.

Coaching is one of those things that most managers know they need to be doing more of it. Yet, they don't do much of it at all. It tends to be very reactive.                            

As managers, when you coach with intention, it means that you have a systematic process for coaching people.

One of the things I teach my clients is how to coach in a way that is leading to the answer, but not leading with the answer.

Using a systematic approach of asking salespeople questions in your coaching will, more often than not, to get your salespeople to lead themselves to the answer.

To be a more effective sales manager adopt the ideal sales process as you coach your salespeople.

In other words, you are NOT teaching an you must refrain from initially sharing your experience and expertise. Don’t go straight to the solution with your salespeople as in that way they will learn and retain very little.

Your salespeople should be using a sales process that helps their prospects clarify exactly what their issues are so they can see the value of the solution they are presenting.

As a manager, adopt the very same approach and get your salespeople to articulate the specific challenges they are having and come up with solutions/specific needs.

This is the art of intentional pro-active coaching

Make sure you provide pro-active coaching an integral part of your team support strategies and in so doing, your team will become more productive, more confident and more skilled at sales.

If your sales team is properly coached through a variety of customer interactions, they will be better prepared to handle difficult situations. And this means they will be able to close more deals.

In addition, one-on-one coaching allows your salespeople to feel more confident in their approach to sales since they will have input from an expert (you).

Your best salespeople will appreciate any help you can offer, as long as you are still allowing them certain freedoms and flexibility. However, this flexibility should not extend to them using their own sales process (see Strategy # 4)

4. Have a Structured Sales Process

Many small (and large) businesses don’t have any structure about the sales process they want their salespeople to follow. Instead, they just end up letting their salespeople do whatever they want.

This means your salespeople are doing different things and going off in different directions.

By introducing a structured sales process your business will have a roadmap to improved sales performances

A sales process is a set of repeatable steps that a salesperson takes to take a prospective buyer from the early stage of awareness to becoming a customer.

Simply put, it is a potential customer’s journey from realizing they have a need for a product to make an actual purchase.

And since the sales process is a journey for a prospect, it is a roadmap for a salesperson.

Typically, a sales process consists of 5-7 steps: 

  ???? Prospecting – Also known as lead generation, prospecting involves identifying potential buyers to add to the top of your sales funnel. Includes research that qualifies/disqualifies prospects

 ???? Positioning - earning to right to connect – educate and give value

 ???? Discovery Call – includes preparation with an initial call to find out where the prospects are right now, where they want to be, their “gap”, what’s stopping them?

 ???? Strategy Session –be empathetic in your questions and conversation

 ???? Solution/Presentation – a presentation of your offer if appropriate.

 ???? Decision Time – empower them to make a buying decision as part of your sale conversation.

 ???? Follow-up – deliver what you promised the customer and lay the foundations to encourage repeat buying

Having a consistent sales process enables you to tweak, make unique and then be able to assess why you are successful

A clearly defined sales process can help your salespeople do the right things right and have a process they can follow, and you can manage to that EXACT process.

The long-term advantages of adopting a well-tuned sales process are plenty. You or your sales team can:

 ?? Create and maintain long-lasting customer relationships,

 ?? Ensure higher customer lifetime value,

 ?? Reduce customer retention costs,

 ?? Get more referrals,

 ?? Increase in sales revenue.

A good sales process is never set in stone! It needs to be revised and adapted regularly, making sure it reflects the current state of the market, your customers’ changing needs, your skills or your sales team’s skills, and your business specifics. It should always remain a work in progress.

TIP: Include in your sales process training, questions that salespeople rarely, if ever, as such as:

Mr. prospect...

What assumptions might you be making about our company?

What assumptions might you be making about our industry?

What assumptions might you be making about our the delivery of our product or service?

If your salespeople don’t ask these questions, they will never know the real mindset of their prospects and the unspoken assumptions they hold.

These can be the very roadblock to making a sale and they’ll never find it out

5. Know the Key Maths For Growing Sales

Every manager and business owner must understand and appreciate the exact numerical options that can lead to increased sales.

There are only three ways to actually increase sales:

1.  Increase the conversion rate of every sales opportunity that’s available

2.  Increase the average sales size

3.  Increasing the pipeline of potential raw prospects

Most small businesses focus on 1 and 3 but quite often the easiest option could be “How can you increase your average sales size?”

It’s important to also realize that if you combine all 3 together is produces a cumulative effect in that your business could double your sales results by tweaking and increasing each of those 3 areas by about 26%

Understanding the maths is so important to understand how you are going to double your sales potential

6. Inspire Your Team with Leverage

Successful business owners and sales managers understand the importance of inspiring their team. In fact, they use inspiration as one of their top sales team management strategies.

They do so by helping each salesperson see how successful they can become, and motivating them to maximize their potential

One of the key ways to inspire your team is to implement leveraged prospecting.

Question for you – are your salespeople focusing on cold calls? And is cold calling the most effective use of your salespeople’s time?

I suggest this is rarely the case but many small businesses rely solely on this approach and wonder why their business (and their sales staff) consistently struggle to achieve sales growth

This is NOT saying that your salespeople making a call to someone they have never spoken to before, cannot be effective.

Instead, rather than rely on cold calls where the prospect has absolutely no idea who you are, introduce a leveraged prospecting strategy.

A leveraged prospecting strategy makes sure that every action of your salespeople is going to have the best possible chance of either getting a meeting appointment or making a sale

What this leveraged prospecting approach implies is that as a business owner or manager you use every tool possible to make sure that you optimize the effectiveness of your salespeople.

This involves having a prospecting campaign that your salespeople are following. This can include a combination of social media live broadcasts, emails, phone calls, social media messages (especially on Linkedin), voice mail messages, and even packages that are sent to the prospect.

In other words, as a business owner or a manager, you show your salespeople how to give lots of relevant content and value throughout this process or lots of ideas that the prospect can implement.

Then by the time your salespeople get the person on the phone, it’s much more likely to lead to a next step, be it another meeting or a presentation, etc.

In this way, you are making sure the calls made by your salespeople are most effective and they are not wasting a lot of time (and destroying their credibility, confidence, and self-belief).

7. Identify Any Barriers to Sales Success

Your team may be struggling with some barriers that are keeping them from reaching their goals. And, it is your job to identify those barriers and help your team overcome them.

Here are the top three sales barriers holding many sales teams back, and how you can break through them:

I. Fear of Rejection

Yes , the age old "fear" is still prevalent, basically because salespeople are trying the SELL and not SERVE

Work with your salespeople to change their mindset and perspective on rejection. Do not let them assume that a cold call will result in a rejection.

Refer to Strategy #6 on Leverage that will greatly help with this fear.

Another way to help salespeople overcome their fear of rejection is by ensuring your salesperson thoroughly understands how your company’s product or service can HELP the customer and is able to communicate that.

Further, providing your salespeople with scripts addressing common customer concerns will help them better anticipate objections and prepare solid responses.

 II. Poor Communication Skills

The key to your salespeople having successful sales calls is based on them making the prospect the center of attention, actively listening and above all NOT be doing all the talking.

Listening connects salespeople with customers and makes the phone calls more of a conversation rather than a pitch, which helps build a longer-lasting relationship.

III. Lack of Content and/or Social Media Marketing

With 90% of businesses big and small stating that social media has increased exposure for their business, there is no denying its importance.

And why is that exposure so important to your sales team?

First of all, it establishes credibility, especially if you use live video broadcasts or posts that provide solutions or answering questions that are the most common in your target audience.

It is also easier for your salespeople to optimize their sales potential when the prospect has been given value from your organization BEFORE any phone contact is made (see Strategy #6 on Prospecting Leverage)

This provides a level of knowledge and comfort for the prospect.

Secondly, it allows your team to see where they are positioned in comparison to your competition. Social media marketing typically warrants feedback, and that feedback helps your team understand their place in the industry, and what they can do to improve their sales tactics.

Thus, you are missing out on a number of potential leads if you do not have a strong social media strategy in place.

8. Create Personalized Sales Plans

Successful salespeople do not get to where they are simply because of luck. Instead, they used sales plans.

And, because each of your salespeople is different, you need to work with them to create a personalized sales plans that work well for each person on an individual level.

Make sure each member of your sales team includes the following in their sales plans:

?? Their own goals clearly defined and measurable

?? Time management strategies

?? Improve prioritization strategies – especially in relation to:

What actions will close the most leads?

What actions will generate the most prospects?

How and when to nurture their leads?

KEY TIP: Consistently follow-up with your salespeople, especially in relation to the action-based plans as this will build both accountability and confidence.

9. Which KPI Do I Focus On?

There are many KPI’s small business owners have to contend with and when it comes to sales there is no one right answer to that question.

However, if a “push comes to a shove”, and I was asked to nominate the most important KPI to track for your salespeople, it would be the number of discovery meetings that your salespeople are setting. (see Strategy #4)

Discovery meetings are those initial sales meetings that are scheduled in the calendar for that first introduction. This is the most likely indicator of a salesperson’s success.

By using your CRM (can be as simple as a Google Doc format) to track that your salespeople are setting enough discovery call meetings, you can overcome 90% of the issues they have in terms of a prospecting or accountability perspective.

10. Run Structured Sales Meetings

Sounds too obvious yes?

Well, are you really sure your salespeople appreciate your sales meetings or are they just attending our of habit and/or courtesy and they just can't wait for it to finish so they can get back to doing some "real work"?

Or do you have salespeople attending your unstructured meetings as an avoidance tool for not taking the actions they need to take in order to survive?

A structured sales meeting is one that includes an agenda, is regularly scheduled, and includes a consistent follow-up process with EVERY salesperson on your team.

Note: Of course, you can and must use 1 on 1 meetings with your salespeople on a regular basis but your structured sales meeting are a key way of building team camaraderie and accountability

By using these meetings in a planned and consistent way to help your salespeople implement the training and ideas shared, it also ensures a mindset change of your salespeople when it comes to sales meetings.

The strategy is to encourage and support a level of commitment to planned outcomes from each and every salesperson.

Nothing drives performance and accountability more than holding regular constructive sales meetings that consistently assess the commitment of your sales staff.

In this way, your salespeople will also have a greater appreciation of the meetings as they know they are going to be held accountable on a regular basis.

 How I Can Help…

I have set aside some time to speak to you personally about how you can apply these 10 strategies to double the sales of your business.

Whatever your biggest challenges are when it comes to sales, I assure you I’ve seen it and I can help.

We will get on the phone for about 45 - 60 minutes.

On this session, I will work with you to craft a step-by-step strategy game plan that uses these 10 sales strategies.

The cost? Absolutely FREE.

But there’s a catch, this free call is not designed for everybody.

Who Is This Call For…

Small business owners and sales managers who are serious about adopting a new approach to their sales potential.

You MUST be interested in growing your business to a level beyond where you are now.

You MUST hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity and accountability.

If that’s you, book a call with me now!

Why I’m Doing This…

I do this because after 36 years in sales I love giving back by helping people turn their value and knowledge into a sales process that actually works so that they can reach their goals, and also spread their impact exponentially.

Plus, I know that you might want my help to implement your sales management strategy game plan. If so, we can discuss it and see if it’s a good fit for both of us. If not, that’s fine too.

> Schedule Your Sales Strategies Makeover Call Now <

Peter Beckenham,

The Village Marketer