Your sales team...

If you employ sales people, then improving their performance, even modestly, can have a dramatic and positive effect on your business.

For example, if you employ 10 sales people and the 5 worst performers increased their conversion rate from 2 in 10, to 3 in 10 then you have a 50% increase in sales from half your sales team.

And the good news is that you wouldn't have had to pay for any additional advertising or marketing.

In this article, Chris Newton gives you 6 great tips on getting more from your sales team...

Haydn Rowe
Managing Director

6 Steps Towards Building the Perfect Sales Team...

By Chris Newton

Very often the "star" sales people on your team perform at 50% to 120% better than your average sales people.

With the correct training, even an "average" performer can enjoy spectacular sales achievements.  By applying the skills, they could literally double their face-to-face sales figures …

1. Open a relationship, don't close the sale.

This is a profound point!  Just changing the thinking of your sales people to this "philosophy" will revolutionise their selling performance.

Most textbooks focus on closing a sale.  The "old school" of face-to-face selling even uses the mnemonic,  "Always Be Closing".  If your people subscribe to this philosophy, they're wasting an incredibly powerful marketing opportunity.

The "old school" is wrong.

You see, a sale is just the beginning of a relationship between you and a new customer.  And as you'll see in these pages, this opens up wonderful new opportunities for "nurturing" programmes that bond the client to you and result in long term business.

Making a sale may be an "end" in itself, but you should never think of it is as the end!

2. "Our Team Commitment to You".

Does your business have a "Team Commitment?"

If not, we strongly urge you (and your team) put one together.

It is a tangible statement of your company's goals and it highlights … to both your people and your clients … your expectation and standards.  And it acts as a "yardstick" for your business.

It can have a profound effect on the overall performance of your sales team.

3. The 7 most powerful words in selling.

The key to successful selling is qualifying your clients … and the only way to do this is to ask questions.

Get your sales team to always use 7 key words to begin their questions … then sit back and watch the improvement in their results.  It works like magic!  Here they are:

Who … What … Which … Where … When … Why … and … How.

4. You must be "Customer Focused".

Selling is professionally helping other people satisfy their needs.  So it's absolutely vital for you and every member of your team to be "Customer Focused" … not "product focused".

Too many businesses become preoccupied with "getting sales".  If they spent more time focusing on what their clients want and helping them achieve that … not on making sales … the profits will take care of themselves!

5. The 80/20 rule.

Understanding the implications of this rule can both save you vast amounts of time and energy, and increase your profitability in quantum leaps.  In essence, here's what the rule says:

80% of your business comes from just 20% of your clients.  (Now in your case, it may be 70/30 or 65/35 … but the theory holds).

The key is to identify which of your existing clients are your best 20%.  Once you know that, you can redirect resources accordingly.  You can treat the 20% differently.  Keep in more frequent contact with them. Make them feel like a very special part of your company.  They'll appreciate your commitment and care … and they'll be more inclined to do repeat business with you.  As for the 80%, you can then devise a "second tier" of service level for those smaller accounts.

6. Playing "dumb" is smart.

Perhaps the most effective technique a sales person can use to qualify a prospect is simply "playing dumb".

By asking simple questions, you'll quickly get to the roots of their buying objections and the prospect will get a better clarity.

The opportunities for "face-to-face" selling in your business are very exciting.  Especially when you realise that achieving dramatic improvements in your sales has nothing to do with "hard sell" tactics.

In fact, the most professional and effective form of selling is based not on  "closing a sale" … but on "opening relationships".

If you would like to find out how Results Corporation can help you get more from your sales team, you can contact us on 01933 373000.

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