Hello,
Every business wants more sales. Everyone is trying to make more sales. So how can you achieve this?
This newsletter examinees a different way of thinking about the how, and has some action steps you can take. I hope you like it.
Salespeople love having their performance measured; Yeah Right! Sales people love submitting sales reports. Right on!
Is your sales process measurement a reward system or a punishment system?
The number one motivator for salespeople is making a sale. Just look at their faces when they walk into your office waving an order or a cheque. They are on a real high at that moment. Then they go on to the next prospect and get a knock-back, then another. The spark dies and the target starts to look unachievable. Turning up to next sales meeting to discuss results starts to look like volunteering for a flagellation session.
So the question is “Does your sales measurement system help your people make more sales?”
The answer depends on whether you are measuring results, the number or value of the orders won, or whether you are measuring achievement of milestones on the path to the sale.
The critical issue here is the realization that as a sales manager you cannot manage the result. What you can manage is the activity that produces the result. If your people are doing enough of the right things, and doing them well, they will achieve the result. The only way you can manage the result then is to make all the sales yourself.
If you measure progress along the path to the sale, best done at the critical milestones, then you are in a good place when it comes to guiding a salesperson.
An example may help.
One of your salespeople has had a busy week making calls on qualified prospects, and has generated a backlog of requests for quotation. There is not a single sale in his sales report. He is way behind on the quotes, and you know from experience that if they don’t go out in two or three days the prospects will cool off. He needs guidance from you.
You have a choice of actions.
1. Tell him to stop everything and get the all the quotes out.
2. Tell him he has had a great week. Well done and stick at it.
3. Ask him why he has not made a sale.
4. Show him how to balance up his sales activity so he moves every prospect along the path to the sale at the desired pace. Help him to prioritise his prospects to get the quotes out progressively.
Set out like this, the answer is obvious, but it is time to be honest. What did you do the last time this happened?
Answer 1 This ensures that he runs out of steam in a week or two, and wonders what has gone wrong.
Answer 2 He cannot make a sale until he quotes.
Answer 3 This focus on the end result is a certain demotivator.
Answer 4 This is the way to guide him to steady progress and a steady flow of orders.
What you need, to be able to do this, is a system that gives you a sales report on the activity of your sales people and the status of every prospect in the pipeline. Then you can guide them to the activity that will lead to a steady flow of orders. Your sales meeting will become motivational working sessions, rather than demotivational exhortations to work harder to reach sales targets. Your people will become internally motivated by the certainty of success and their confidence will grow.
Your sales will be easier to forecast because you have removed the peaks and troughs. Life will be so much more satisfying.
Where can you find specific answers to this problem. If you are lucky to live in Auckland, New Zealand you could register for a 2 day intensive workshop with me to get everything you need. Download the workshop brochure and application form here at Dinanmite.
If you are too far afield but would register if you could, email me and I will help you get started with stuff that is already available on bizlearn.biz.
I hope these tips help you move your sales management style in the right direction, and show you how to find the tools to do it.
