How to Help Your Sales Team Sell Better Than Ever Before

How to Help Your Sales Team Sell Better Than Ever Before

The Sales Leadership Challenge

As the owner of your own business, it’s likely that you are your own best salesperson.?

There’s two good reasons for that:

• You probably have the deepest connection to the value you offer and can probably explain it with more conviction than anyone else.? Especially if you created it.
• You have the licence to do whatever deal you like, to make the sale.? Your sales people don’t have that luxury.

That said, you can’t do everything by yourself. You need to become a brilliant sales leader rather than the best sales person.? Beyond that, you have to be able to cultivate equally brilliant sales leaders below you.

If you can’t scale your selling, you can’t scale your business and scaling your selling is really down to how well you scale your sales leadership.

Two Deep Dimensions of Performance

There are really two deep driving dimensions behind all performance and every sales leader should understand them intimately.

These two dimensions determine how someone shows up everyday, and how they show up determines how they perform.

I explain this in a model I call The Commitment Matrix.

These two deep driving dimensions of performance are logic and emotion.

The logical dimension on the vertical, represents the person’s abilities.

On the higher end of the scale, you have people who are really good at making sales and performing their tasks. They can do their job well.

Then, on the low end of the continuum are those people who aren’t good at what they do. They are the ones who struggle to perform the tasks you ask of them.

On the horizontal sits the emotional dimension.??

Towards the left side of this continuum, you have those people who perform out of fear. They constantly struggle to get the desired results.

They think to themselves: “If I don’t get my numbers, I won’t get the bonus,” or “If I don’t hit my numbers, I might get fired.”

Then, on the right side of the same continuum are the people who perform out of desire. They’re doing something that they genuinely believe in. So, they want to put their best foot forward.

The interaction of logical and emotional dimensions create four performance quadrants.

The Prisoner

In the bottom left quadrant, are the employees who possess the unfortunate combination of not being good at what they do and acting out of fear.

You can think of them as Prisoners. They’re trapped and they act like it.? Often, when someone is released from prison, they reoffend and land right back in there. This state of underperformance or significant compromise becomes a habit.

The Conscript

In the top left quadrant, are those people who are good at what they do, but are acting out of fear. Their main motivation for performing is the fear that if they don’t get some results, they may miss out on a bonus or maybe even lose their job.

This group of people are Conscripts. They put on the uniform and fight the battle, but they don’t do it because they believe in the cause. Instead, they do it just because they’re afraid to get shot.

The Rookie

When you move to the bottom right corner of the quadrant, you’ll see team members who are full of desire at an emotional level. The only problem is that they aren’t too good at what they do.

These people are Rookies. They forget to ask questions and sometimes make unnecessary mistakes. However, it’s essential not to dampen their enthusiasm.

The Volunteers

Finally, the people in the top right quadrant are those who are really good at what they do and are full of desire to do it right.

They’re Volunteers.

They want to get results and serve the company to the best of their ability. They also want to make things better and positively add to the tone and fabric of the company.

The problem is that the Volunteers are often given all the extra work and receive less attention than the other quadrants.? The risk is that this can cause them to slide to the left or down.

How Can You Use The Commitment Matrix?

Think about the percentage of people in your team who belong In each of the quadrants.

When I do this activity with sales leaders and sales teams, it’s not unusual to see numbers like 15% Prisoners, 45% Conscripts, 20% Rookies and 20% Volunteers.

Once you have a clear picture of where everyone sits on the Matrix, it’s time to make their efforts more efficient.

The use of the Matrix must be done with integrity.? The first question should always be about why a person might be sitting in the quadrant they’re in.? The second test of integrity is to commit to try and give everyone the chance to improve - as long as they are demonstrating potential and willingness.

With the integrity caveat in place, you need to do something about the Conscripts. This is where your nearest results potentially lie. You have to see what you can do to get rid of their fear so they can make it to the Volunteers’ camp.? Skilling them up won’t help - engagement is the key.

Prisoners may not make it in the long run, and there may be an inevitable decision to be made.? In the meantime, they will often try to pull the Rookies over to them. If they can gather more people around them it makes them safer.??

Your goal should be to ensure the Rookies are attached to the Volunteers, so they can move up the logical scale by increasing their capability based on worthy examples to follow.

Finally, make sure the Volunteers know that they are valued and deeply appreciated.? To demonstrate this, make sure they are fully supported in their efforts to deliver great results.? Constantly remove barriers for them so they can continue to perform at ever higher levels.

Great sales leaders always have a strategy for how they are moving as many people as possible through the Matrix to the Volunteer Quadrant.

Create an Effective Sales Team

The sales team plays a crucial role in how well a business operates.?

As a business owner, you want to create a sales team that is effective, communicates well, and, most importantly, does the job because they like it - not because they fear the repercussions of not doing well.

I know that understanding your sales team can be challenging. However, with the right approach, it doesn’t have to be a complex task.

When you use the Commitment Matrix, you’ll have a deeper and better understanding of your team, including their fears, motivations, and abilities. You’ll also know which members need more of your attention and who may be slowing down the entire team.

Identifying the Prisoners, Conscripts, Rookies, and Volunteers and acting accordingly will help you make your sales team more efficient and achieve the results you’re after.

*******************

Thanks for reading.??

Every month we present a 20-Minute Teaching on a specific, relevant topic that will help you to elevate your influence and drive more sales.

This is a highly popular event and we don’t advertise it widely.? We publish a diary link the week before and from there, it’s on a first in best dressed basis until the Zoom room is full.??

There is no registration required.??

If you’d like to go on our early notification list just go here:

https://themodelsmethod.com/20-minute-teaching/notification