How To Build A TurboCharged Sales Force

A turbo-charged sales force—just what is that? Well, it is a sales force which consistently achieves or exceeds its objectives for sales, margin, product mix, customer service, win back, and any other established sales related metric.



Building a turbo-charged sales force is a job for the CEO or COO. If it is not undertaken at the top, it just won't happen. A CEO or COO starts building a turbo-charged sales force by understanding and embracing the business philosophy of George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees. It goes like this: "I'm obsessed with winning, with discipline, with achieving." And what goes along with this obsession with winning is the commitment to expend the time and money to put together a sales force head and shoulders above that of any competitor. Steinbrenner is a model in this area also. His New York Yankees have the highest payroll in baseball. Steinbrenner equates having great players with winning and winning with filling his stadium every day, which gives him an optimum return on investment.



That is it! The basic philosophical foundation for building a turbo-charged sales team then consists of an obsession with winning, a commitment to expend the time and money to secure and train the most effective sales professionals available, and taking the time to interact with and motivate them to the highest level of performance. All the rest deals with technical matters of recruitment, assessment, and transfer of knowledge and proven sales techniques from sales management to senior sales reps, senior sales reps to middle experienced sales reps, and middle experienced sales reps to beginner sales reps and trainees.



The starting point in the technical aspect of building a turbo-charged sales force then is assessment. The use of a test instrument like the Caliper Sales Aptitude Test will get that done. Very likely the results of such a test will be eye opening and explain why the 80/20 rule consistently explains sales force performance at the typical company.



At one of my clients in the building products industry, the assessment of the sales force indicated, as usually is the case, that there was a very close correlation between sales performance and sales aptitude. In that firm, two of the "bottom" performing sales reps showed no sign of having any sales aptitude at all. Their ego drive, or desire to persuade and close, was low; their empathy, or ability to connect with prospects and customers, was low; and their ego strength, ability to bounce back after rejection, was low. I asked the Sales Manager why he hired them and kept them, in light of their lack of sales aptitude and poor sales performance. His response: The father of one of these sales reps was one of the company's bigger distributors, and he wanted to get his son into sales. What the Sales Manager was saying was that he was concerned that he might lose this distributor's business if he let this distributor's son go. In the case of the other poor performing sales rep, the Sales Manager said that he really liked the guy and that he worked 60 or 70 hours a week. I reminded the Sales Manager that this rep really wasn't selling much. He agreed and eventually let this sales rep go.

However, he kept the other non-performing sales rep because of his fear of losing his father's business. Needless to say, this company never built a turbo- charged sales force. It did satisfactorily in its industry, but never became a leader.



After sales aptitude assessment, the next step is sales training for the sales reps who show strong sales aptitude but perhaps do not have a sufficient grasp of the sales techniques and discipline required to excel. The sales training step provides the opportunity to increase the sales force's selling skills and announce a "two or three strikes and your out" policy, that is, missing sales quotas for two or three quarters in a row will result in employment termination.



While all this is going on, a continuing recruitment program is put into motion which is aimed at doing two things: bringing high level sales performers into the sales team from competitors and near competitors and bringing in young, green talent and trainees with high potential into the "beginner" level of the sales team.



Now, how this is done is critical to getting the right people! The use of an outside recruiter in this effort is all important. The first thing to do because it is more cost effective is contract with an hourly fee recruiter, as opposed to an employment agency or executive search firm, to work with your Sales Manager or Human Resources Manager to conduct this continuing sales rep recruiting program.

Where do you find one of these hourly fee recruiters? Look in the Executive Search Research Directory published by Kenneth Cole. Once you contract with an hourly fee recruiter—and make sure you get a six month or one year replacement guarantee—the first thing to tell him/her to do is keep an eye out for a sales champion. Granted, these super sales manger/performers become available rarely. However, keeping a line out for them is always strategically important. Next, have this recruiter get with your Sales Manager and senior sales reps to identify the top sales reps at competitors and near competitors. These sales professionals sell against these individuals every day and know who they are. Then, have your hourly fee recruiter contact these targets to learn if they have an interest in talking about opportunities at your firm. Of course, the hourly fee recruiter does not identify your firm and maintains strict confidentiality in all aspects of the recruiting contact. Now, you probably are wondering why a top sales rep at a competitor or near competitor would leave an established job and join your firm. Well, the answers are money, benefits, options and perks, opportunity to work with more high powered sales professionals at a more prestigious firm, chance to sell a better product with better customer service and sales support, and an avenue to get away from an unacceptable boss. Top sales professionals at competitors can be recruited. I have seen this done regularly over the years.



Next, have your hourly fee recruiter conduct research on the availability of top sales professionals. Have him/her screen the Internet employment sites and contact the top sales reps at firms with leading sales forces that are downsizing.

State WARN reports provide information on firms downsizing and going out of business. These reports provide contact persons, addresses, and phone numbers. Often these downsizing firms are very interesting in seeing that their top performers find attractive new positions.



Next, have your Sales Manager and/or hourly fee recruiter contact local business school marketing professors to identify and refer their top students interested in getting into sales. These academics know who the winners are in their classes.

Contact these students and pass them through your sales trainee evaluation process. Establishing relationships with these professors is not difficult. make your company available to them for tours; set up internships for their top students; and offer them the opportunity to use your firm for research and special studies.



One of the most over looked locations of individuals who have the potential to become top performing sales reps are non-sales departments in house. The Caliper sales aptitude assessment organization has found that 20% of the population in general have superior sales aptitude than 50% of the individuals who are working as sales reps. That means that in any given company there are likely to be a number of employees in non-sales jobs who have the ability to become high performance sales reps. How do you find out who these employees are? Use the performance appraisal process. Just ask managers which employees they think have strong, but unidentified sales aptitude and then ask these employees if they would like to apply for a sales rep job and enter the sales rep assessment process.



These efforts should provide a steady flow of very high quality sales rep applicants and begin the process of building a turbo-charged sales force.



The next order of business in building a turbo-charged sales force is setting up a program whereby the CEO or COO interacts with and motivates all sales reps in the company on a regular basis. The top company executive who shoulders this responsibility should be prepared to spend an increasing amount of time on sales and sales related matters. He/she should block out time each month to interact with members of the sales force to build pride in employment and esprit'd corps among them. At these meetings, which might be breakfasts, lunches, or dinners, he/she along with the Sales Manager should pass on sales "tricks of the trade,"

new effective selling approaches, information on industry and competitor peculiarities, company culture, and product or service features, benefits, and unique characteristics, and any other information that would be helpful to the sales team. These meetings can build a personal relationship between the top executive and his/her sales team that results in the sales force going above and beyond the call of duty to "make the numbers." At these meetings, the top company executive and the Sales Manager should elicit from the sales team intelligence on what is going on in the market, what competitors are up to, and who the top sales reps at competitors and near competitors are. Also, they should identify the high potential sales reps and flag them for development and promotion. During the glory days of GE in the 1990's, Jack Welsh, GE's CEO, spent 60% of his time interacting with his people. Also, Joe Gibbs, the SuperBowl winning coach of the Washington Redskins and CEO of the NASCAR team that captured the Winston Cup in 2000 and 2002, uses and recommends this people focused management philosophy. He says "I tell any company that I talk to, make sure you spend the most time and money picking employees...and trying to build the best team." This approach does work.



Also, the top company executive in charge of the turbo-charged sales force effort should make it a point to showcase sales reps in company advertising, have sales reps become active in company affairs and community relations activities, and insure that the sales department budget is sufficient to attract, train, and motivate the high quality and high potential sales reps that will take the company to a leadership position.



In building a turbo-charged sales force, the sales rep assessment process should include multiple interviews, extensive reference and background checks, sales aptitude testing, intelligence testing, and role plays. The objective of this process is to build a sales team that has better sales aptitude and sales track record, higher intelligence, better appearance, higher energy, more notable personal interests, and greater initiative and ingenuity than the sales team at any competitor.



Another trick of building a turbo-charged sales force involves counter-cyclical hiring. When are the best sales professionals more likely to be available? The answer: in the down phase of a business or industry cycle when everyone else is letting go sales professionals of all achievement levels. Selective hiring during down times can result in securing sales professionals with exceptional track records and ability. Also, this is the time to cast a net for a sales champion. One of these extremely rare individuals sometimes become available when his/her industry hits a period of serious readjustment. I saw this happen a few years ago when the software industry retrenched drastically.



An effective approach to hiring outstanding low and mid-level experienced sales reps in the building of a turbo-charged sales force is the use of direct response employment ads. These are ads which are placed on Internet job sites and in the Sunday newspapers employment section with a standout heading, potential yearly compensation figures, details of the job content, and a phone number to call on Sunday evening or Monday morning to get further details and apply for the position. The contract recruiter or Human Resources Director should take the responses, screen the applicants, and establish a slate for further evaluation later in the week. These ads allow for the creation of a slate of applicants quickly, draw out good prospects who are action oriented and who would otherwise not respond to regular recruitment advertising, and are highly cost effective. They interest low and mid-level experienced sales reps who are trolling employment ads to see what is happening in the sales rep labor market and which firms are offering superior compensation packages. The opportunity to respond to these ads immediately, get details on the job and a feel for the company, and set up a quick interview appeals to sales reps with strong cold calling skills who are highly self-assured, action oriented, and close focused.



A word about compensation is in order at this point. In sales as in baseball, you get what you pay for. A company that wishes to build a turbo-charged sales team must be prepared to pay its sales reps more that its competitors. That is the only way over the long run that high performance sales reps can be drawn into a turbo-charged sales force and motivated to keep up the extraordinary level of sales output needed to win consistently in the marketplace.



Once the turbo-charged sales force begins to take shape, it is important to start a mentoring program within it. Experienced sales reps should mentor the mid- level experienced sales reps, and they should mentor the beginner sales reps and trainees. This is a great way to shorten the learning curves of the sales reps and help out those who fall into temporary sales slumps. At one of my clients in the metal fastener business which successfully built a turbo-charged sales force, the Executive Vice President, a remarkable sales champion, supplemented the mentoring program with a monthly "pearls of wisdom" communication from him to all sales personnel. These "pearls of wisdom" covered all elements of the sales cycle, buyer psychology subjects, self-motivation tips, fresh sales presentation humor, new closes, personal development suggestions, and a whole raft of other valuable sales related information. These monthly communications became eagerly awaited and the subject of discussions among the sales reps and between them and their managers. Their educational and motivational impact was significant. Also, regular, formal sales training sessions should be a part of maintaining and improving sales rep skills. The sales reps in every turbo-charged sales force that I have helped to build had an excellent relationship with employees who designed, built, and delivered theproduct or service that these sales reps sold.

These sales reps regularly interacted with these employees at their work stations, occasionally got their hands dirty helping them do something, and often took them out for a meal to show their gratitude for the support they gave to sales.



Finally, building a turbo-charged sales force is not a one time project. It requires constant recruiting and culling. It is a continuing effort.



Over the years, I have seen only a few companies undertake the task of building a turbo-charged sales force, for it involves a great deal of effort, money, focus, risk, and sticktoitiveness. But those firms which tried and succeeded became highly profitable companies where employees, managers, and executives, although working intensely hard, truly enjoyed their work. The winning attitude of everyone in these firms spread into their marketplace and from there to their communities. They became well known and well respected. The original source of this winning attitude was their turbo-charged sales force where winning was what it was all about.



* * * * *







How To Build A TurboCharged Sales Force - To learn more about this author, visit Leonard Scott's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

E-Mail | Print | More

Related Articles
"Everyone knows Sales Force Incentives Dramatically Increase Sales"
	Sales force incentives are a vital part of business and one of the best reasons is that they work. This is one of the few motivators that can rev up a sales force for pennies on the dollar. However it has to be well...
Maximize Your Sales Force
	10 Ways to Get More From Your Sales Force:
Part 5: Marketing and Sales Strategies
	Marketing is the process of creating customers, and customers are the lifeblood of your business. In this section, the first thing you want to do is define your marketing strategy. There is no single way to approach...
Developing an Outside Sales Force
	By developing and managing your sales process you can more accurately forecast sales, pinpoint problems in the sales process and fix them, gain a better understanding of how your customers use your products, what ch...
Create Your Own Referral Sales Force
	Joining referral networks like BNI or local chamber groups can be a great way to help you network and generate referrals. The most powerful way to use this strategy, however, is to grow your own.

---

Related Forum Posts
	Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
	Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
	Practical Sales Advice
	Re: Great start, but no finish
	Sales & Marketing Resources
	How do you know if you have a good idea?
	Take Some ACTION already!
	Starting A Business