Into Action
Sales teams must get into action now.
Yesterday in fact.
Waiting for the mythical “return to normal” has well and truly been debunked with further lockdowns, physical restrictions and extended travel restrictions across Australia.
But it’s different now. It will be different for a very long time to come.
One thing remains constant if sales teams are going to have success in an increasingly challenging customer market: the need to be consistent AND effective.
Because it’s not enough to be consistently average, consistently lazy or unprepared; nor is it acceptable to be effectively once a year and then cruise. The combination of both has three key benefits:
- It builds a culture of high performance and a standard of sales operation
- It builds rigour and discipline with sales teams that impact what they do, how they do it and how often they do it with whom
- It underpins an ongoing positive impact to the sales pipeline
Because salespeople never truly pass go, it matters how well they engage with prospects, targets and customers as well as how often they engage with them.
How to be effective
Connect well
Develop skills to uncover what matters to your customer
Develop skills to connect your offer/product to the delivery of what matters to your customer by establishing relevance and value (this takes time, curiosity, genuine interest and a deeper customer relationship)
Plan your approach
Seek feedback and coaching about the execution of your planned approach
Commit to continuous improvement
How to be consistent
Map your opportunities in terms of progress to conversion in a simple spreadsheet
Seek input into the best way to progress an opportunity
Focus on the opportunities that are ready to close first, then progress those that are being developed and then on those opportunities where “need” must be ascertained
Build a contact program that matches high growth potential criteria so that you’re contacting those with the greatest growth potential most often, rather than those who complain the most, you like the most, are the neediest
Be on time every time
Call back when you say you will
Follow up and follow through
It’s a deadly combination, and gives sales people clarity of purpose and direction. Leaders must provide the right coaching to drive this approach too. Get support.
I’ve said this before, but it’s true – it’s never mattered more.