is set up the conditions under which employees can find their own motiva- tion as well as the hope of seeing that motivation results in achievement. To correct this mistake: Eliminate demotivating elements of your sell- ing environment. For example, if you have a CRM system that demands reps spend an hour a day entering data, hire a data entry clerk to offload that work. Create a compensation plan that can be customized to meet individual needs. For example, one employee may be more motivated by having flex time to spend time with the family, while another may be more motivated by year-end bonuses.
SALES MISTAKE #4 Promoting the best sales rep to the position of sales manager. Just because an individual is suc- cessful as a sales rep does not mean he or she will be successful as a sales manager – the skill set is very different. Sales reps are focused on building relationships with custom- ers and closing business, while man- agers must focus on developing the potential of each employee working for them. Even in areas where the two disciplines seem to meet, like coaching, the natural aptitude is quite different. Coaching involves understanding the limitations of the sales rep and figuring out the sales rep’s next step. That’s galling and frustrating to sales “stars” who often prefer to intervene and simply “close the deal” on their own. To correct this mistake: Keep top salespeople in sales positions and hire people with sales management talent for sales management jobs. Make sure you adjust compensation to ensure that top reps aren’t penal- ized for being in management, and offer special high-status job titles to star sales reps.
SALES MISTAKE #5 Failing to establish an appropriate division of labor.
Many companies (especially those
that are small to medium-size) treat sales and marketing as a single, undif- ferentiated function. They expect sales reps to create a brand image in the mind of prospects, locate and qualify likely candidates for the prod- uct, develop the initial account, make the original sale, and then handle the ongoing relationship to generate more business. Each of these tasks, however, requires different talents and a different focus, making it impossible for any one individual to perform all of them equally well. To correct this mistake: Separate sales and marketing personnel by natural talent and work into four func- tions: 1) branding, 2) marketing, 3) sales, and 4) account management.
SALES MISTAKE #6 Failing to have a repeatable process for sales.
Many companies rely heavily upon the natural talent of their sales reps to develop and close business. The problem with this approach is that every sales rep ends up “reinventing the wheel” because there’s no way to share what’s worked in the past and what hasn’t. To correct this mistake: Obviously, sales management must make the ef- fort to create and document a realistic and workable sales process. While the right overall sales process will vary somewhat during each sales situation, companies need a complete “sales manual” that describes the various stages of the customer relationship process – from prospecting to qualifi- cation to pursuit to closing.
SALES MISTAKE #7 Talking and presenting rather than listening and solving. All too often, sales reps don’t take the time to ask questions and listen to find out the customers’ issues. Often they start out fine, but then immediately pounce on the first customer statement that appears
‘‘
There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.
–ROGER STAUBACH
to be a handle that might result in a sale. This “spray and pray” behavior is common because it gives sales reps the illusion of being in control of the conversation and because the familiarity of the presentation lulls the sales rep’s fear of rejection. To correct this mistake: The abil- ity to ask meaningful questions and listen carefully to responses is a skill that can be taught. Sales reps should experience role play and coaching to develop and hone these skills. It’s also helpful to remind sales reps that the person asking questions and listening is actually in control of a conversa- tion – and that nobody ever lost a sale through listening to the customer too much or too long.
SALES MISTAKE #8
Giving up too soon on qualified op- portunities. Research has shown that, with a qualified B2B sales lead, it takes an average of 12 contacts (calls, visits, emails, etc.) to reach a point where the sale can close. However, most sales reps will give up after three or four contacts and move to the next opportunity. As a result, they end up working on a large number of op- portunities that have a low probabil- ity of closing rather than a smaller number of opportunities that have a high probability of closing. To correct this mistake: Create a sales process that tracks the number of contacts and implement a reporting feature that allows reps to see the posi- tive effect of persistence when devel- oping prospects into customers.
CHECK OUT THE SALES TRAINING BOOK 2
SELLING POWER FEBRUARY 2016 | 17 © 2016 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
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