and understanding. Your rep should also highlight the responsibility each party has to respect one another’s time. At the end of the day, if sales reps don’t respect time in front of cus- tomers, then how can they ever expect customers to respect their time? A great way to allocate a rep’s time is to help them become domain experts who truly understand custom- ers and their respective businesses. Whether this is through deeper discovery calls, further conversations, or leveraging tools to analyze the business, a team that’s positioned as experts will close more sales and build more business.


3. PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS Passivity in a salesperson’s efforts will always generate mediocre results. In an ideal world, you would be able to identify these characteristics during the interview process so you don’t hire such reps. In many cases, however, that’s easier said than done – especially since reps may start out going like gangbusters only to slack off over time. Sales managers must find ways to inspire everyone on the team so they don’t fall into passive go-


SELLING TIP Model Success at Sales Meetings


There are many ways to use a sales meeting to train a rep to up-sell and cross-sell, says one sales expert. To help reps identify those opportunities, he suggests using brainstorming sessions, contests, games, role play, and participation. Here are some of his suggestions: 1. Look at sales as a service. It’s about helping clients grow or save money and succeed. 2. Ask seasoned reps to share their success stories at meetings. Then dissect the stories to discover what made them successes.


3. Role play customer/rep scenarios. Break meeting attendees into groups of two and ask them to re-create that success story.


4. Review product and service lines and show how they interrelate. List all your products and services and look at migration paths for each. Different migration patterns will emerge.


5. Think of up-selling and cross-selling on cancellations, reorders, technical-support requests, or requests for general information.


6. Practice bridge statements with games and activities. Play a game called “The Progressive Story.” Start a story and define its scope – perhaps a story of a sales call during which you are refilling an order. Take the conversa- tion so far, and then point (or toss a ball or beanbag) to someone in the “hot seat.” This person has to come up with a logical bridge to another service or product. This rep then points to another person, and so on.


– RENEE HOUSTON ZEMANSKI SELLING POWER MAY/JUNE 2020 | 17 © 2020 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.


along-to-get-along underperformers. So what to do? First, keep an eye


on results. When reps don’t meet weekly goals, that’s a sure sign they’re falling into passivity.


Second, get them to think critically by becoming active problem solv- ers. Encourage them to demonstrate initiative. As a manager, you cannot afford to have your head in the weeds all the time. You must rely on your reps to apply critical thinking and problem solving on their own. They might not get everything right all the time but, when they make mistakes, that’s an opportunity for them to learn and grow. So push them to perform or show them the door.


4. GET CREATIVE Companies that are consistently successful are the ones that remain creative. At any given time, someone else is out there brainstorming ideas that can take down your business. To maintain success, create an


environment where reps are thinking creatively and staying focused on the customer. Focusing on customers creates room for creative contribu- tions from the sales team. They are


‘‘


Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid. MARK TWAIN


on the front line – getting the most face-to-face interaction with custom- ers. The knowledge they gain from discovery calls and their numerous interactions with various companies is incredibly valuable. They are able to offer insights that others in your busi- ness might not have, so push reps to leverage the information they have in a creative way. Reps are the conduit between cus- tomers and executive offices. Make sure the two are working in tandem and sharing information. It’s the best for both worlds. 


Austin Rolling is CEO of Outfield, which offers Web and mobile CRM and field sales apps for iPhone, Android, and the Web.


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