Building high performance sales teams

Hire a team. Give them a pep talk. Assign territories and targets. Announce an incentive scheme. Schedule weekly sales reviews. Sit back and let the money roll in. Not working? Hire a scary sales manager and give him the power of life and death. Still not working?

Maybe in an universe with weaker Murphy's laws, sales could have been a simple numbers game. In our universe, however, sales is a people game.

Your sales team is going to get you those numbers that will get you your promotion. Not trackers, meetings, incentives or threats! Remember they expect fairness, love competition, face reality and are always smarter than you think they are. They need sales leadership, not just sales management. Here is some sales food for thought.

Do they believe in your product/message?

If you can't sell your product to your sales team, they are not going to be confident to sell your product to a customer. Get them to use the product and engage with them on the sales pitch. They are the voice of the customer, however uncomfortable their questions and doubts. Handling those questions in the training room is better than the team facing the same questions from the customer. There is nothing sales teams hate more than losing face in front of the customers. Hence also the need to align support teams goals and track quality of sale to ensure your sales team is proud to sell your wares.

Are your goals real?

You need more revenue. Join the club everyone needs more revenue. How are you going to get that lift in numbers?

Better leads? Smarter usage of sales time? Price increases? Better sales tools?

Don't have a plan? Make one and share it with them. Account for the factors changing each month, communicate the realistic increase in performance required and the ways to achieve it Breaking down wishful targets and playing the drill sergeant will only get you so far.

Do they have the right sales tools?

Not a junk pile of weapons, sales warriors need kits specifically designed for them, built with their inputs. A play book to qualify leads, segment customers, make custom pitches and answer FAQs. Good questions to ask -

For Conversion - Is your sales pitch aligned to the customers goal? Is your sales pitch aligned to the decision maker's goals? <make more money>

For Engagement - Are you creating new conversations they can take to the customers? Are you giving the customer new reasons to try you? Are you gunning for escalation of usage to win customers?

Are you using their time right?

Are they chasing the right customer?Improve lead quality/teach them to qualify.

What should they be doing more? Appreciate whats working and help it grow. Get them to learn from each other. Help them learn more about your products. Help them to learn to sell better.

What should they be doing less? Streamline the sale process to optimise sales time. Assign tasks not critical to sales to support teams.

Improving conversion is a science. Learn from the data, learn from the field. Talk to your customers yourself. Identify behaviours that improve conversion and chase them. Eliminate whats not required/holding them back.

Is your sales contest aligned?

Don't have a sales contest? Have one. Above incentives. Sales folks are competitive people who will love playing the reality show you design for them. You can use these contests to drive new products/behaviour/campaigns while tweaking with the incentive scheme is cumbersome/not an option. Remember they are all not the same. Design contests to ensure everyone has a goal they can realistically stretch for an achieve. Your star performers and your newbies will want to play at different levels. Ensure these contests/scores/results/prizes are simple, visible, transparent and punctual.

Now sit back and wait for the fireworks! WAIT! There is one more thing.

Be there for them

Sales folks are the most aligned bunch to your revenue goals. Be ever ready to answer their questions, help them convert, solve their problems, mentor them, keep up their spirits and protect them from an unfair world. Invest in them and they will pay back you many times fold.

Invest in sales recruiting, sales on boarding, sales training, sales enablement tools (CRM, dashboards, collateral, etc), quality of sale and better people management.

<Repeat Alert> Remember they expect fairness, love competition, face reality and are always smarter than you think they are. They need sales leadership, not just sales management. </Repeat Alert>

Would love to know what you think. Do comment with your suggestions, anecdotes, thoughts, laughs and insights. Share the article with folks who may benefit/enjoy the read.