How Top Sales Leaders Make an Impact in 90 Days
Iain Swanston
??Don't buy sales training, buy results! "Sales Trainer & Coach | Specializing in Customized Sales Training Courses | Bespoke Sales Courses | Specialises in Sales Training for Remote Sales Teams Across the World"
If you are new to a Senior Sales role or simply trying to breathe life back into a tired sales team most executives find they only have 90 days to make some form of impact. This confirms to the board and other stakeholders that you are on the right path and they have made the right hiring decision if you are new to the role. That’s not to say they would be released if they hadn’t made an impact, however in our experience 90 days is the time when the board is expecting to see reports, ideas and plans on how their Sales Leader will be moving sales forward. New ideas and plans involve change and the paradox here is that if you try to make too many changes too quickly you could have a full scale rebellion on the sales floor. The reality is that most Board members won’t want, or allow you, to make major changes without their approval, especially if budget is involved, but they will expect some form of report on the current state of play and a plan with your ideas to move them forward.
Sounds easy but like everything else in life it’s only easy if you’ve done it before. With so many moving parts in sales it’s sometimes difficult to know where to start gathering the information for your reports – what exactly is best practice and what should Boards expect from new Sales Leaders? Well we suggest the following approach:
- First 60 Days: The reality is you can’t turn up and do major changes without spending your first 60 days learning and understanding what’s working and what’s not. The report you are going to create is like an evaluation or benchmarking exercise, so that the board and other stakeholders can see for themselves that there’s a gap between where they are now, and where they want/need to be.
- 60 – 90 Days: From your Evaluation reports you can then start to formulate your Sales Improvement Plan. These are the actions that you plan to take over the coming 12 months to improve Sales and should include some simple, low cost and low risk actions (the proverbial low hanging fruit) that will demonstrate to the board that they have made the right choice in hiring you.
How do I create the reports, the sales evaluation and a Sales Plan?
Well rather than try and explain this we’ve now released 3 reports that any B2B Sales Leader can access for free via the Klozers website that demonstrate how to:
- Review and benchmark your Sales Team in under 1 hour
- Evaluate the different areas of sales common to very B2B Sales organisation
- Quickly assess the overall Sales Capability
- Identify quick wins to demonstrate competence
- Start driving predictable sales results
- Kickstart existing sales Teams.
Once again here’s the link: How Top Sales Leaders Make an Impact in 90 Days
Iain Swanston
