Are Sales Still in a Slump?
Posted by admin on April 16, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments
My entire career has been spent in either direct sales or sales management. Even as I climbed the ladder to executive positions, sales has always fallen under my purview. Therefore, I tend to be a tad bit partial to the old adage “that nothing happens until someone sells something,” which I know is not entirely true but it sure helps when dollars are coming in the door.
So how do we get a beleaguered sales team performing again after 18 months of a difficult economy at best. Here are some suggestions:
Have you rolled up you sleeves and got back in the car and traveled with the sales professionals and managers? Do you truly understand the difficulties that they have faced during the past year? If not get out there. You bring a different perspective to the call. Don’t take the call away from the sales person and ruin their credibility, listen and learn.
When’s the last time you compared your literature with that of your competitors? Can you swap company names on the literature or PowerPoint presentation and still tell the same story? In most cases you can and that’s not good. Revamp your message – What is it that you do and what makes you different? Start with your elevator pitch and go all the way through to your literature and presentations. It is more important than ever to clearly differentiate your offerings and the value they bring if your are going to build a company that lasts.
Are you measuring the activities of the sales force? Have you outlined the buy cycle of your customers? Note I didn’t say sales cycle. What activities accentuate and improve your chances of shortening and winning the buy cycle? Don’t get caught just measuring results. It’s activities that lead to results. Do you know what activities in your sales team tend to lead to the best results?
If you haven’t already done so it is time to separate the wheat from the chaff. Rank your team. Depending on the size of your team, how much money would you save and how much chaos would you potentially interject into the mix if the bottom 10% – 30% were not on the payroll? If you would save a lot and not negatively impact the level of customer service that you are providing, then it’s time to make some difficult decisions. Think of the training that you could afford for the rest of your team if you freed up that money, not to mention that I know quite a few ex-senior executives that are willing to go back into selling on the front lines at reasonable wadges.
Finally, make it fun again. It doesn’t take a lot. You don’t have to give away grand vacations or President Clubs. Run a monthly or quarterly contest, the prize could be as little as a round of golf or you can splurge and go with a new iPad. Get the team thinking about the possibilities vs. what we have all been through the past year. Attitude is everything within the sales ranks.
By: Terry L. Massey
