 As a manager, being able to motivate your team to greater heights is essential, especially in tough economic times. Jules Newton offers some pointers on getting the best from your sales team.
It’s a simple formula: If you can increase sales, you can get your business through the tough times. But current conditions call for even greater support and motivation for your sales team.
Marshall Goldsmith’s prophetic words ‘What got you here won’t get you there’ couldn’t be truer of the current challenges facing local business. But while Goldsmith spoke about how to make a successful business even more successful, what companies are currently focusing on is simply how to survive; how to make sales and make it through each tough month. Whatever you did in the past needs to change. You need to do more, more effectively.
Act strategically
In the panic it’s easy to respond by lashing out with random cost-cutting measures wherever you can identify them, without thinking strategically or taking into account the long-term effects this may have on the system. There is also only so much cost-cutting you can do without paring the company to the bone and compromising the quality of service you are able to offer clients.
Gear up for the big push
The only alternative solution is to increase new business sales. So your sales team looks at you askance, with no small amount of resentment. They’re thinking: it’s tough enough to survive out there at the moment, and now you want us to grow? The answer is yes, indeed.
Step 1: Change the sales management process
In the past, sales were measured by output. But because the environment is tougher, sales cycles are longer. So the number of deals closed is not a reflection of the current work being done, but rather a reflection of work that was done six to nine months ago. In order to be sure that your sales team is working smarter, shift your focus to measure activity.
Step 2: Set a clear goal
Using the new indicator of sales activity set new goals – such as each salesperson doubling their number of customer meetings each month. Put your salespeople in front of more prospects every month and even if they return the same closing ratio, you’ll still increase the number of new deals.
Step 3: Define the period
It’s fine to put your foot on the sales accelerator, but you can’t expect your sales team to keep at it indefinitely. They will be more successful if they know they have to gear themselves up for a targeted period of time.
Provide more support
This process takes people out of their comfort zone, particularly more seasoned and senior salespeople. They’ve come to rely on long-established relationships with good clients, and are unused to having to forge new ones. They might see cold-calling as something of a rookie activity that’s beneath them. More meetings also mean more work, at the front and back-end of the sales process.
The point is that your sales team will need even more support. As their manager, you need to give them the motivation and administrative support so that they can see more people and manage the increased workload. You also need to tune out extraneous activities so that they are freed up to focus on selling. Keep the focus on activity.
About the author: Jules Newton is a South African entrepreneur with expertise in many different fields - mainly relating to upskilling, educating and empowering women. Jules founded soft skills training company Avocado Vision over 13 years ago. She is also co-founder and director of Ngikwazi Field Marketing (PTY) Ltd. Jules was named Emerging Leader of the Year 2006 by the Unisa School of Business Management. She is also a member of the National Speakers Association of South Africa. Contact her on (011) 614 0206 or visit www.avovision.co.za
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