3 Tips to Build a High Performance Sales Team
Tips to Build a High Performance Sales Team to Create Profitable Growth
Selling complex or high ticket solutions is not easy. To succeed requires a clear sales strategy, and aligned and sales-driven culture, and a high performance sales team that is firing on all cylinders. What are the pieces you need to set your sales team up for success?
3 Tips to Build a High Performance Sales Team
Here are 3 tips from decades of solution selling training on how to do it right. First, know that you probably cannot afford to do it “wrong.” Unless you have invented the next iPhone, the success of your business depends greatly on the effectiveness of your sales force. And more often than not, their ability to sell compelling solutions, not commoditized features and benefits, to executive-level buyers makes all the difference.
A killer sales team can be the competitive edge of your business. It does not matter how great your offerings are if your sales force cannot persuade your target customers of their value.
- Select the right sales team members
Know specifically what it takes to succeed as a salesperson in your unique business. All sales strategies, cultures, value propositions, teams and approaches are different. Use proven simulation assessments to know what it takes to shine in yours.Create a job profile that matches your company’s unique needs and then, unless you are looking for a unicorn, stick to it. Use a proven behavioral interviewing process that probes beneath the surface to get at real sales attitudes and abilities that equate to success. Salespeople are generally good at selling themselves. What you need, however, are hires who fit your sales strategy, culture, and target clients.For sources? Look internally, ask employees for referrals, network broadly (social contacts, colleagues, customers and suppliers) and, if the budget allows, work with experienced headhunters who understand exactly what you are looking for.
- Create the right high performance sales culture
The success of any sales team depends largely upon the circumstances in which they are placed. Our organizational alignment research found that culture accounts for 40% of the difference between high and low performing sale steams. The foundational circumstances that matter most for the majority of sales teams are: how clearly you define both success and failure, how timely and accurately you monitor and expose performance and how well you reward high performance combined with the consistency and fairness of the consequences for substandard performance.Be clear about your expectations so success is well defined. Sales team members need to know how they are doing and sales results should be transparent to all. Provide whatever development and tools are needed to give your team the performance boost they need for success. And disproportionately reward those who excel.
- Put an effective sales manager in place.
Effective sales managers usually understand what their team members are up against and how to best help them succeed with the company’s unique sales strategy and culture. When it comes to sales leadership, the ability to lead, manage, and coach others well makes all the difference.Sales leaders need to know how to set clear expectations, establish realistic targets, measure and monitor performance, and coach team members for continuous improvement. They should have excellent communication skills and be ready to handle the often difficult personnel decisions that affect a team’s overall results. They need to set up sales territories in a way that is fair and manage the pipeline in a way that provides sufficient future opportunities.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to building a high performing sales team, there are no short cuts. You need the right employees in the right jobs with the right commitment and staying power to get the job done. Hire well, create a setting that motivates and put a sales leader in charge who knows how to sustain high performance.
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