leaders struggle with long ramp-ups to profitability. To shorten the time it takes from hire to profitability, lay out the specific activities, knowledge, and behaviors that lead to success in your organization. On the behavioral side, give new reps an attainable set of goals that cover everything they should be doing from a behavioral stand- point (e.g., making 10 calls a day, seeking three new LinkedIn connections a day, etc.) to become productive quickly; then, measure them on whether they meet these goals. Alongside behavioral goals, identify all the things a seller should know or do to be a successful rep for your company, such as giving a good elevator pitch, knowing the com- pany’s history, making a great cold call, and so on. There will likely be about 55 items on this list, says Mattson. Once you’ve identified them, determine at what point after their hire date reps should know or be able to do them. Matt- son has a 12-month calendar showing when each Sandler new hire should be able to execute each of the company’s success elements. Give each new rep a copy of the ex- pectations along with examples (both script and audio files, where appropriate) so reps can imitate success and tweak as necessary to fit their style. Let them know they’ll be tested at each knowledge milestone – and then follow through and test them. Over the past 26 years, Mattson has seen companies improve their hire-to-profitability time 35 percent by implementing this approach to onboarding.
Defining the steps to success and ensuring reps follow them may seem dull or overly prescriptive to some, but results will follow.
As Mattson makes clear, most sales challenges can be traced back to lack of a defined process that – through trial and honing over time – leads reliably to success. Though many sales leaders accept the old view of sales as an art that is best executed by gut feel, that approach doesn’t work when it comes to leading a team to perform with consistent excellence – in a way that can be replicated throughout an organization and scaled as that organiza- tion grows. Defining the steps to success and ensuring reps follow them may seem dull or overly prescriptive to some, but – when you find what works and ensure every- one sticks with it – results will follow. And there’s nothing dull about great sales results.
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www.sandler.com. “Winging It” Is for the Birds
After a certain number of years in sales, it can be tempting to “wing it” when it comes to making a sales call. But having the self-discipline to create a plan before a call and a process for reviewing after a call – every time – greatly improves the rate of success. Mattson offers the following advice on pre-call planning and post-call evaluation. Pre-call planning. Mattson’s rule is that prep time should be 50 percent of call time. That means that, for a one- hour call, presenters – all of them – must prepare for at least 30 minutes. Don’t simply sit in the parking lot and talk vaguely about what’s going to happen in the meeting. Pre-call planning should be done well ahead of time and in- clude research on the prospect and their needs, setting a goal for the call, going over probable questions and your responses to those questions, and so on. To ensure this level of preparation is happening, sales managers should spot-check regularly. Post-call review. On the second day of Mattson’s employment with Sandler, CEO David Sandler handed him a list of 10 questions he thought every salesperson should know about their prospects. Sandler told Mattson, “I’m going to ask you these 10 questions every time we talk about a sales call.” Scanning the list, Mattson’s thoughts ran along the lines of: “I always ask about number two but I only ask about number three half the time. I have never asked number seven.” From that day forward, Mattson made sure he asked those 10 questions every time he was with a prospect.
By using a consistent set of debrief queries instead of a vague “How’d it go?” David Sandler ensured his sales- people and managers were always on top of key information. When a sales rep knows what the sales leader is go- ing to ask when he debriefs a call, the sales rep is likely to be more diligent in obtaining that information. “It’s about consistency versus winging it,” says Mattson. “I don’t want my surgeon or my pilot to wing it. They have checklists. Sales managers should have checklists as well.”
SELLING POWER NOVEMBER 2015 | 29 © 2015 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
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