Top Sales Leaders Attract and Retain a Winning Sales Team

What does it take to attract and retain a winning sales team? A high performing sales team can make all the difference between business success and failure.  While high revenue growth resonates with CEOs, few companies invest in selling as a competitive advantage. Smart sales leaders know that the better you are at building a sales team that is motivated, valued, and customer-focused, the more likely you can build a business with a bright and healthy future.

How Top Sales Leaders Attract and Retain a Winning Sales Team

Here are some best practices gleaned from our 20+ years of solution selling training and of observing clients whose sales force is thriving to help you attract and retain a winning sales team:

• Know which critical few sales skills drive success
  

  Take a close look at your current high performers and evaluate what it is they do that makes them currently successful. Then, based upon input from leadership, add any future sales skills required for success based upon where the business is headed in the next few years. These then are the key business sales skills that you should look for in new hires and that you should build in your existing sales force.

• Reward success and hold poor performers accountable
  

  There is nothing more discouraging to a high performer than to find that low performers are rewarded equally as well. When you have clarified what sales reps need to do to be successful, then you can set clear and fair expectations and goals.  Those who reach or exceed goals should be adequately compensated. And there should be consequences for those who underperform. If there is no improvement despite training and coaching, low performers should be moved on quickly.

• Leverage your inside sales force to optimize results from your field sales force
  

  Know the ideal balance between the two. With so many purchases being researched and completed online, you may not need to have as large a face-to-face selling machine as before. A top-notch inside sales force can effectively turn leads into sales or at least move the sales process along toward the finish line where your solution selling experts can take over.

• Establish meaningful sales goals
  

  Sales targets should spur greater effort. Sales targets that are unrealistically high undermine motivation and commitment.  Sales targets that are too low create complacency and lack the urgency required to create higher performance.

  Find the “just possible” happy medium that keeps your top sales talent striving for the prize.

• Never stop recruiting
  

  In any economy, top talent that fits your unique sales strategy and sales culture is hard to find. Always be on the lookout for sales winners. You want reps who are naturally competitive and who have established a record of success. When you run across a good prospect wherever you may find them, make contact and establish a relationship so, when you are both ready, they are in your pipeline.

To learn more about how to build a successful sales team, download How to Optimize Your Sales Force in the Face of Increased Performance Pressure