In my last blog I talked about Sales Transformation and steps you can take to deliver sales and margin growth.
In this blog I will cover steps you can take to transform sales team within your business that will deliver sales and margin growth. You will quickly identify where major improvements can be made and once applied; you will immediately increase your sales.
1) Develop a detailed strategic plan
This is about establishing your vision, based on your competitive advantage and at the heart of which lies your customer. A plan will provide the team with a clear focus and a clear target to aim for.
2) Develop a clear focused goal (A3 matrix can help) for each member of the team which will be lifted from the strategic plan.
3) Develop a process to develop your Sales Teams Capability. Ask yourself the following questions:
a) Recruit
- Do you have a clear recruiting strategy that supports achievement of your business goals?
b) Train
- Have you got the right training for new recruits?
- How should you think about and pursue continuing education to boost skills?
c) Targets
- What does pipeline management look like?
- How do you fluidly move focus to the best opportunities?
d) Sell
- How well is ‘value selling’ understood in the organisation (breadth and depth)?
- To what extent do you need to ‘up your game’ in how it’s applied customer by customer?
e) Measure
- What does a well-designed KPI metric system look like? Has this been implemented into the team?
- How should you think about bringing greater transparency to sales performance?
f) Rewards
- What are the leading practices in pay (base and incentives) and other incentives?
- How should you define and set a motivation system that works well for your business?
g) Support
- Which activities should be pushed off to other parts of the organisation to maximize sales feet-on-street?
h) Clear Expectations
- Do you clearly understand how well you are doing against your competitors during the year?
- How do you incorporate this understanding into updated goals and countermeasures?
i) Active Daily Management
- What is measured and managed most closely on a day-to-day basis?
- How does the sales leader interact with the organisation to ensure things are staying on track?
4) Identify areas where you need to improve your existing sales team. Ask the following questions of your team and perhaps score against each to identify where the weak areas are:
(1= weak and 5 = strength)
a) Do they have a clear understanding of your vision and direction of the business?
b) How well do they believe in your company and product?
c) How well are they able to prospect, identify, build and progress a qualified sales funnel.
d) How well do they build rapport with customer?
e) How well do they build credibility with customer?
f) How good are they at asking lots of needs analysis questions?
g) From these questions are they able to qualify customers’ requirements?
h) How good are they at explaining solution in a language that the customer understands and has ability to link to customer needs as well as explaining benefits in a monetised way.
i) Handle objections by being prepared for them before visiting the customer.
j) Close – ‘Ability to ask for order’
k) Develop key accounts by understanding the customer’s long-term goal.
5) Develop a Sales Team Upgrade Plan.
Reviewing scores will help you identify how each person in the team can improve and in which capability areas. Focus on developing a fully integrated training plan that focuses on each individual weakness therefore as a team they will improve the overall performance of the business and deliver sales growth. See examples below:
Examples
- Adopting methods that other team members find it best work for them
- Peer-to-peer mentoring or coaching.
- Team building exercises to share learning and best practice.
- Sharing and celebrating success as a team (teams that celebrate together are typically more effective).
Many CEO’s and Managing Directors who have followed these guidelines have seen sales revenue and margin gains, as well as improved morale stemming from a well-crafted and clearly communicated path to growth. Following these guidelines will set you and your team up for a successful and prosperous Sales Growth journey.
About Author
Rakesh Shah RVR Management has over 20 years’ experience of working with the CEOs and executive teams of high-potential B2B organisations. He is MBA and CIM qualified, with a background of delivering Sales Growth within a range of B2B sectors and offers a range of business tools and support services that deliver sales/margin growth
Contact Rakesh Shah 0778 555 8344