Why Salespeople Fail, and what CEO's SHOULD do about it

The picture above is a triathlon bike that costs $11,000... My son just turned four years old this past Wednesday. Should I hand him this bike, and say, get up, learn, and go have fun? No, of course not! However, that is what happens with salespeople every day. They are handed the "reins" of a multi-million dollar company, and told, "go ride, beat the competition, and bring me back some trophies!"

Below is a link to some colleges that claim to have "sales-specific education!"

https://salesfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SEF1501_Magazine_Issue7_Listing.pdf

Guess what, they require a minimum of THREE (3) credits of sales courses. Wow...Should we let an engineer with nine hours of engineering build a building, or a bridge? Should we let an attorney with nine hours of law school argue a case in front of the US Supreme Court? How about we let a doctor with nine hours of med school operate on your dad for open heart surgery? Of course not! So why is "sales" given such a low emphasis?

Many successful business people will tell you that sales is the engine that drives success. If you can produce great gross revenue, you can do a lot of really good things. I believe it's because the vast majority of business people don't want to "understand" what sales is really all about.

Sales is about one of two things: 1. uncovering the pain of an organization and providing solutions to alleviate it, or 2. helping people to buy into the "dream" that with some additional tools, they will dramatically improve their life. Most organizations are bleeding all over the place, so #1 provides plenty of opportunity for a salesperson. The classic example of #2 is "why did so many people buy an IPHONE?

So, how do you, as a business owner, help your sales staff? You hire correctly, for one. You only hire those people that show you the attitude that they can win in the face of the fiercest adversity. You fire quickly those bottom 20% of your sales staff that always have an excuse for why they failed to meet their number. You dedicate 8 hours per month to continued training and development of your sales team. Arguably, the more time that you dedicate to training, the more successful your team will be, so I would experiment with this number some, one year, do 8 hours/month, and then the next year do 16 hours per month, and see if there is a measurable result in sales effectiveness.

You develop compensation plans so that your top 20% earn well more than your mediocre sales people. You celebrate publicly their wins, and you send your mediocre salespeople on ride-alongs for a week at a time to learn from the top performers. You publish activity and sales results so that salespeople can understand the correlation between calling on the "most productive prospects" vs. calling on the "most # of prospects available."

So how do you as a business owner help your sales staff? You spend a lot of time training and coaching. You OUTSOURCE your sales training, but you participate, to show that you are bought into the process as well. It helps them learn the sales process as well as product knowledge about your business. There are only a few sales methodologies out there, SPIN Selling, Challenger Sale, Sandler Submarine, or Hyper Sales Growth. The rest are "versions of a similar theme." Feel free to try a few out, and see which one produces better results. The funny thing is, most owners don't even know that there are various "ways" to sell.

Back to the bike example, so do I simply turn them loose? Of course not. They demonstrate competence, and I give them more latitude. They demonstrate more competence, and I give them more latitude. Being a San Antonio Spurs Fan, I'll use Greg Popovich as an example. Is there ever a day where he says, you guys practice, and I'll see you tomorrow? No! He is there courtside, the entire practice, providing encouragement, feedback, and corrections as needed. GREAT SALESPEOPLE and GREAT ORGANIZATIONS PRACTICE A LOT!! Dedicate 2-5 hours per month to "role-play" and I'll guarantee you an increase in sales over last year. If not, drinks for your sales team are on me.