One of our sales guys has a habit of not following through with customers. He does a great job opening doors, but he”™s terrible at going back to ask for repeat business or referrals. What should we do?
Thoughts of the Day: Make sure you understand the new normal for your customers and appeal to that. Use a team approach to meet the total needs of the company. Lower the company”™s risk by involving multiple players. Set goals for each participant that helps individuals play to their strengths.
The pace of business is constantly speeding up. 24/7/365 connectivity is the norm. Information is everywhere and so are interruptions. Busy people are trying to get their jobs done. If you have someone on your team who can break through the clutter, make the most of them!
Expand the volume of what this salesperson is good at, ask them to focus on making connections and have others follow up. Opening doors to lots of prospects should be highly valuable to your company as long as there”™s a way to ensure that someone else follows up to move the sales process forward.
Recognize that different sales stages require different attitudes and behaviors as well as skills. Sometime sales calls for a person with tough skin and fearlessness; other times it requires empathetic listening and relationship development. On the back end, sales requires writing skills, as well as negotiation and closing skills. Learn what each member of your sales team does well; figure out who does best at each stage in the sales process. Build a complementary sales team.
Set up a team approach to sales. Have different people to research target accounts, approach the targets, gather information about prospect needs, documenting the company”™s offer in a proposal, and completing the closing. Make sure there is someone to take over to negotiate the contract, to ensure implementation goes smoothly. Don”™t forget to circle back to ensure customer satisfaction.
One person owning an account ”” beginning to end ”” is risky for a company. If that person leaves, the client may leave, too. It”™s better to have a network of relationships between your company and your clients. Involve several people in the sales process. Streamline your processes to ensure that prospects and clients are well managed at every stage.
People in the office can do research, answer questions, get out proposals and provide customer and prospect support. People out on the road can meet face to face to gather insights on what the client environment is like, to explain complex concepts to customers and prospects and to go eyeball to eyeball when it”™s time to make a final decision. Consider inviting your customer to visit your office in order to show that your company has the ability to service long-term needs.
Build a top team of performers by helping individuals play to their strengths in a complementary way. Set goals to meet the company”™s overall needs for growth, retention and profit. Figure out what that means in terms of new signings, renewals, referrals to folks who don”™t yet know about your company, etc.
Make sure that your sales team is up for meeting the goals you set. Ask the team to work up the details of how they think they can best meet the overall goals. Ask the sales team to be forthright it they have concerns regarding hitting the goals you”™ve set. Brainstorm solutions with the group, in order to build confidence that the goals are doable. Be clear what the overall team has to accomplish and what that means in terms of each team member”™s responsibility.
Regularly evaluate each person”™s contribution to hitting the total company goals. For example, opening a ton of doors is good, but only if those are the right kind of leads for your company. Missing the mark by spending time nurturing prospects that won”™t value what your company offers can be a waste of time for everyone.
If you”™re going to build a team approach to selling, make sure your compensation plan rewards team goals. Have a bonus that rewards everyone for achieving the master goal. Or, distribute profits based on total company performance. Make it clear that superstars are only valuable if they can contribute to a winning team performance.
Looking for a good book? Try “Smart Sales Manager: The Ultimate Playbook for Building and Running a High-Performance Inside Sales Team” by Josiane Chriqui Feigon.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at 877-238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi? Please send it to her via email at AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com or by mail to Andi Gray, Strategy Leaders Inc., 5 Crossways, Chappaqua, NY 10514. Visit www.AskAndi.com for an entire library of Ask Andi articles.
