|
"Put Good Salespeople into a Poor Sales Program and
They Will Always Fail!"
by Paul DiModica
Like professional athletes, good salespeople are hard
to find.
Yet, their ability to perform on demand is dependant
on other attributes beyond their own sales skills,
business experiences, and control.
Like a professional athlete, a salesperson may have
previous training, previous experience, or a business
resume that indicates he should be a successful heavy
hitter, yet he can still fail.
Is your firm making good salespeople fail?
This specific issue affects every sales manager, VP
of Sales or CEO who is trying to build a replicable,
scalable sales model to increase corporate product or
service sales.
When seeking successful salespeople, they are
interviewed, references are checked, psychological tests
are given, and then the best salesperson available at
the time is hired.
But 180 days later, managers start thinking about
cutting their losses and letting the salesperson go
because he (or she) has not been successful.
Subscribe to our
e-Newsletter
But is it the
salesperson's fault?
Possibly, but the question that should be
considered is -- could it be the management team's
fault?
- Is the CEO's ego influencing how you
sell?
- Is your compensation plan designed to
prevent new business capture?
- Is your web site scaring away prospects?
- Are your corporate strategy, marketing
and sales approaches operated as silos?
Selling successfully requires more than the
individual business and emotional characteristics that
the salesperson can produce. It also requires the
company to be a participant in the salesperson's
success.
It is a misperception by management to believe that
an increase in corporate sales is the result of hiring
top performing, high paid experienced salespeople --
like magic, POOF, you have instant sales success.
It just doesn't work that way!
For experienced salespeople to sell successfully (hit
quota or higher), management must participate in their
success.
Follow
us on
Twitter...
@CEOStrategies
7 Reasons Good Salespeople
Fail
- The company has no documented sales
process. Yes, you need to focus on specific
sales techniques, but sales training is not sales
performance. Having a written sales process will
help you and your team build a replicable, scalable
sales program that can be duplicated over multiple
prospects' buying cycles.
- Management does not provide sales
learning. Not sales training -- sales
learning. 65% of companies say they actively train
their sales team, but only 24% actually do it. Sales
is a business profession which you must continually
invest in to drive performance. Sales training is a
one-time event; sales learning is an ongoing
process. Invest in your team and you will increase
their success.
- Incorrect sales quota calculation
prevents great salespeople from achieving success.
Stop pressuring salespeople to hit their
sales quota if your sales quota or target is based
on assumptions rather than researched market demand
combined with documented sales metrics. Making a
sales quota in the back room to meet investor
backing or personal objectives sets a salesperson
(and company) up for failure.
- The company does not provide inbound
qualified marketing leads. Of course
salespeople should cold call and network, but what
about generating inbound leads for the sales team.
Companies spend huge amounts of money on marketing
that normally creates only a trickle of inbound
qualified leads. Why spend money on marketing if it
does not have ROI.
- The company has an incorrect market gap
analysis. Market potential must be
documented, not made up in the back room.
Great salespeople cannot sell red shoes to
a prospect who wants blue shoes. Sell prospects what
they want, not what you have in inventory or
anticipate coming out of R&D.
- The management team is negative.
Great salespeople want to sell in an
environment that motivates them to greater heights
of success. If your firm does not provide a
motivational work environment, it is wasting good
employees.
- The management team cannot succinctly
define their business value to their sales team.
When sales teams do not hit their targeted
sales goals, often is because the management team
cannot define their business value succinctly to
their targeted prospects. In today's hyper-
competitive marketplace, value is three dimensional
and must be demonstrated. Telling your prospect
that you are good or that you are dedicated to their
success is a commodity-based sales process. If
management cannot define the value of their product
or service, how can the sales team?
Revenue capture is a company
responsibility . . . not just the sales team's
responsibility!
Rick Erling
President
The CxO Group
(972) 727-6880
www.thecxogroup.com
Let me know how I can
help!
Follow
us on
Twitter...
@CEOStrategies
Subscribe to our
e-Newsletter
|
