4 Ways to Raise Sales Team Performance

by Oct 26, 2015Solution Selling0 comments

Do You Need to Raise Sales Team Performance?

Because the pressure to grow and adapt increases each year, every sales manager is on the lookout for effective ways to raise sales team performance. There are innumerable articles they can choose from on ways to boost sales.  Some are easy to implement, and others require huge investments in time and resources.

4 Ways to Raise Sales Team Performance

Here are 4 proven strategies that, when executed properly, can raise sales team performance. Which of these could work in your unique sales culture?

  1. Focus on continuous sales development
    Even the most successful salesperson and sales leader can benefit from targeted sales training – as long as it is relevant to their world and can be shown to produce real business results. Well designed and reinforced solution selling training, for example, helps sales team members focus more on customer needs and less on product features and benefits.  The objective is to truly understand the customer and their business so that you can craft a solution that is more compelling than a competitor’s and become a trusted advisor rather than a commoditized vendor.This is the path to winning the hearts and minds of your clients.
  2. Make sure your salespeople spend the bulk of their time selling
    Too many sales managers require too much administrative and meeting time from their sales reps. You hired them to sell; enable them to do so. Offload activities that are not customer-facing. Are there reports to fill out? Numbers to crunch? Time-wasting meetings to attend? Find someone else to take these tasks on or employ technology to relieve your reps of any non-productive activities.Make the best use of your sales reps’ skills at building customer relationships and sealing deals.
  3. Set the bar high
    Don’t be the “easy grader” that the unambitious college student sought out for an unearned “A.” Expect and reward great sales performance. Make your expectations clear. Then be accountable and hold the team accountable with fair, accurate, relevant, and transparent metrics. Each sales team member should be able to see  how they are doing against the sales targets you have set. And, when you have a consistently low performer, take action and move them on.
  4. Know how your customers make their buying decisions
    Get into the heads of your buyers so you know their thinking process and the steps they must take before an important purchase is made. Sell the way they want to buy. Some want proof that your solution can work – provide relevant case studies, customer testimonials or offer to put on a pilot program so they can experience the impact of your offering. Some customers are encouraged to buy if you guarantee results – this shows confidence in your understanding of their situation and in your solution.

The Bottom Line

These four strategies encourage you to think beyond the sales process and focus on the people end of selling. Give your sales reps every opportunity to grow, enable them to spend their time selling solutions, expect exceptional performance, and focus on how your customers want to buy.

To learn more about how to raise sales team performance, download The Truth About the Biggest Sales Coaching Mistakes

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