Having spent 33 years working with, training and managing salespeople (and being one myself), I think I've earned the right to make a few observations about them. Here's what I believe...
Not everyone is cut out to be a salesperson Not every salesperson will succeed Recruiting salespeople isn't easy Managing them can be very frustrating Despite what they tell you, they hate cold-calling Despite what they tell you, they're replaceable They hate filling out reports They can, and often do, break your heart.
However, when all is said and done, if trained and managed correctly, they can be your greatest asset.
Why does someone become a salesperson? Frankly, it's often because they couldn't find anything else to do. Most careers have an entry path; try just becoming a dentist or a carpenter without doing some training first.
Yes, most salespeople enter the business because someone has told them, "You have the gift of the gab. You should try selling." So, by fronting up for an interview and, because they can fog up a mirror, you get hired.
You're given a pack of brochures, some business cards and a territory map and you're off! Yes, you're now charged with the financial future of someone's business. You are responsible for increasing revenue, bringing new customers into the fold and managing current customers.
You're told you're expected to make 20 calls per week; you get a target, maybe you're offered a bonus for achieving it and every day you go out and hope that something will happen.
Three months later, you're facing the fact that you're failing to produce the results you were expected to produce… lots of activity, many promises but not enough revenue.
What happens now?
Let's take a timeout here and ask some questions...
What are you actually doing all day?
What are you actually saying to your prospects and customers?
How are you tracking your return on time invested?
You don't know?
Is it your fault?
It's interesting, isn't it, that something like 80% of Companies that employ salespeople have no formal inductions or training process for them. What's more, they have no way of testing their competency either before or during the recruitment process.
They just expect that this new recruit knows what to do, knows what to say and will just make sales.
Let me ask you this; what would you do if you bought a fork lift truck that didn't lift, an accountant who left you with an unexpected tax liability, a lawyer who didn't protect your trademark or a receptionist that couldn't take a message?
Here's what I think has happened...
You've a technician hired to sell technical products on the basis that they understand the product and therefore they can sell it. Technical people can make good salespeople provided they're trained. They're used to systems and process, so unless you've given them one, they will spend all day talking technical without involving their prospect in the emotional "reasons why" they should buy.
Maybe you've been hired from a competitor by someone who thought your database will come along, too. What they didn't know was that the competitor fed you leads so you always went in warm, not cold. They have an automated follow up system that meant you were simply the face of a bigger system. In reality, you were expendable with the competitor as their revenue wasn't solely dependant on that person.
Perhaps they've promoted their best salesperson to the role of sales manager and now they are responsible for hiring, training and managing a team. What training did this formerly brilliant soloist have in order to become the conductor, or did they just make the appointment as a reward? And now, because this person has the title "manager" on their card, they start to do what managers do; expect someone else to do the work and so they stop selling. Now the Company has two passengers.
Here's why it happened...
The business was built this thing from scratch by someone that started off doing business with friends or maybe clients from their old company. They developed a network or contacts and generated referrals, building their own reputation along the way. The bottom line is that the business has prospered because of them. Now they're handing the reigns over to an employee. Someone who doesn't have their home, their life savings and their dreams invested in the success of the business… someone who just wants a job.
They also forgot that they probably had no training; as with most small business owners, they just had to make it happen.
Your new employee hasn't been trained and, when you look to them for leadership, for a system, for a proven process, they can't provide it. Is it unreasonable to consider that you are being set up for failure?
The business owner became one of the 80%. They forgot to provide an induction, training, supervision, encouragement, leadership and coaching. They were so busy they forgot to tell them the reason why.
Who is really responsible for you failing to achieve, for not filling out reports, for painting a more than rosy picture?
Ah, ha, now we're getting there.
Every task within your organisation needs a process, a system and some basic accountability. That includes your salespeople. Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth program states in his book, The E-Myth for Contractors; "The manager's job is to invent the systems through which the owner's vision is consistently and faithfully manifested at the operating level of the business."
If you are a sales person in someone else's business, what systems have been either invented or inherited for you to follow in order to deliver the required outcome?
When it's not working, look first to the system to find out what's wrong, and when the fault is in the system, correct it. When there's no system, owners and managers can only point at the people and when they point a finger at someone else, they should always remember that there are three fingers pointing back at them...
The bottom line is this: don't depend on them, get trained, develop systems, monitor and adjust to get the required result. Selling is a science after all.
If You're a Salesperson you MUSTread this - To learn more about this author, visit James Yuille's Website.
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I wonder if the sales call has a lot of life left in it.
