Building a First Class Sales Team
Building a First Class Sales Team
FIRST: Recognize that you must attract good talent. That means investment in newspaper and/or job board ads to draw good candidates. If you are unsure about the best way to create an ad, let a professional organization (CRI or other) create the ad for you. Quit trying to hire from your competition. They won’t let the really capable people leave, and you don’t want the people they let leave. Family, friends and referrals from the people who work for you rarely possess all the sales traits you need in a salesperson. You must spend the money necessary to attract sales talent.
SECOND: Put in place a logical, consistent screening system that differentiates and qualifies an applicant from a jobseeker. There is no need to have someone review applications and resumes and contact applicants to qualify them. There are automated screening systems that can do this work for you. CRI’s Screenfast (www.Screenfast.Biz) is one economical example of such a solution.
THIRD: Once you have a pool of qualified applicants, interview the best to verify they have a good personality, appearance and really want to work in the type of job you have to offer. Test the finalists to make sure they have at least average or above average Mental Ability. Remember, you need salespeople who have the brains to learn your product line, make decisions and handle your customer. Pure personality tests, i.e., the Caliper, 16PF, Predictive Index, and Disc just won’t do it. THEY DON’T MEASURE HOW BRIGHT SOMEONE IS, NOR DO THEY MEASURE DECISION MAKING ABILITY. By using a testing tool that measures mental ability, you can make sure you hire salespeople who can learn what you need them to and can ultimately do an estimate correctly and create a correct contract ready for execution.
FOURTH: Make sure you have clear, concise answers from testing to validate, supplement or contradict your opinion from your interview with the candidate. Testing should tell you how the candidate measures in:
Drive
Integrity
Ability to meet and deal with people
Ego and Self Concept
Ability to close
Stamina to persevere and win
Questioning and probing skills
Commission motivation
It’s easy to hire people who appear to have great people and sales skills, but who lack the mental capacity to make quick decisions, create an accurate estimate or draft a valid contract. Or, they lack the dominance to close a sale or the drive to stay in a job on a commission basis and succeed. Testing can help you avoid these traps.
The Achiever assessment can provide you the mental acuity measurement you need to select good salespeople, as well as measurements for such critical personality traits as Drive, Competitiveness, Commission Motivation, Stamina to withstand rejection, and Competitiveness. To test a sales candidate with The Achiever requires an investment of $250.00. If you think that’s expensive, consider the costs associated with a salesperson that only closes one out of eight or nine leads you have spent money to provide, or what a fouled up estimate can cost you. The draw against commissions, training and missed sales can easily cost you thousands of dollars before you realize your new salesperson can’t produce. Or, they may recognize it and quit before you can show them the door or cut off the draw. Either way, a nominal $ 250.00 investment in The Achiever would have given you additional insight into the candidate’s ability to succeed as a salesperson for you, and possibly saved you from an expensive mistake.
FIFTH: Thorough background verification of a candidate makes sense. Prior address verification, reference checks, criminal history checks and motor vehicle license checks can help you be certain you aren’t hiring a convicted felon or someone with a “nasty habit” that you really don’t want around your customers or business.
Step 2: TRAIN THEM WELL
FIRST: Train them thoroughly in your product line.
SECOND: Just as important as product training, if not more important, is training in how to sell that product. Make sure you have the right talent to begin with, then inspire confidence in the salesperson by training them well.
Step 3: MOTIVATING AND MANAGING YOUR SALESPEOPLE
FIRST: Realize that you need to set reasonable and obtainable sales objectives, and if appropriate, gross profit objectives by salesperson. Work with each salesperson initially in a private meeting to set these objectives. Then, privately meet with each salesperson again on an monthly basis, or more often as you deem appropriate, to review performance and agree on goals for the coming month. After meeting with each salesperson individually, conduct a meeting of all salespeople as a group. At the group meeting, have each salesperson stand up in front of the group and state his or her sales goals and how they are to be reached. Write the goals on a board that can be readily viewed by the sales staff on a daily basis. Add up the numbers that represent the total sales objective for your business for the coming month.
Develop a creative way to offer additional incentives to your sales staff. For example, offer each salesperson that achieves their objective a dinner certificate for $60.00 or $80.00. Offer a higher value award if the salesperson exceeds his goal by 10%.
SECOND: The following month, repeat the individual and group sales meetings. At the group meeting, each salesperson should stand up in front of the group and state whether they reached their goal, and if so, how they reached it. If a goal was missed, the salesperson should offer an explanation of why the goal was missed. Encourage the group to offer friendly critiques and suggestions to each other. Each salesperson should also announce their goals for the next month.
This process is repeated each month. Follow the same process in realistically setting individual goals that are profitable to you, yet realistic and obtainable for the salesperson. Remember, the salesperson must believe in the objective and his or her ability to achieve it.
At the end of a quarter, have a recognition dinner and invite the salespeople and their guests (wife, friend, etc.) At each dinner have a rose for each female present.
Recognize your sales people with another award for those salespeople who met their objectives three months in a row, and a more significant award for those salespeople who exceeded their objective by 10% or more each month for the three-month period. As a bi-annual or annual award, consider offering a trip for two to the salesperson that exceeds goals by 10% over a six month or 12 month period. Recognize achievers at the dinner in front of the entire group and announce the trip as an award that any salesperson that qualifies can win.
Note: Before you meet with each salesperson individually on a monthly basis, review that individual’s Achiever report. The report includes Sales Potential and Personal Development sections that can provide you insight into areas in which you can make constructive comments regarding the salesperson’s selling strengths and weaknesses and what that individual can do to achieve higher levels of success. Share a copy of the report with the salesperson. Use it to your advantage to help the salesperson know what can be done to develop his or her sales skills.
THE KEY TO SUCCESS
Have your salespeople set realistic goals that they believe in and aspire to achieve. Then, provide the training, coaching and motivation to inspire them to achieve their goals. People compete best against themselves and their prior levels of success.
Examples of successful use of this approach include:
Toyota - top sales, profits and quality of product
Car dealerships – read the book, Customers for Life by Carl Sewell and Paul Brown
Cendant Corporation - Real Estate and Hotel Divisions
Building a First Class Sales Team - To learn more about this author, visit Milton S. Cotter's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Step 1: SELECT THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO BEGIN WITH
FIRST: Recognize that you must attract good talent. That means investment in newspaper and/or job board ads to draw good candidates. If you are unsure about the best way to create an ad, let a professional organization (CRI or other) create the ad for you. Quit trying to hire from your competition. They won’t let the really capable people leave, and you don’t want the people they let leave. Family, friends and referrals from the people who work for you rarely possess all the sales traits you need in a salesperson. You must spend the money necessary to attract sales talent.
SECOND: Put in place a logical, consistent screening system that differentiates and qualifies an applicant from a jobseeker. There is no need to have someone review applications and resumes and contact applicants to qualify them. There are automated screening systems that can do this work for you. CRI’s Screenfast (www.Screenfast.Biz) is one economical example of such a solution.
THIRD: Once you have a pool of qualified applicants, interview the best to verify they have a good personality, appearance and really want to work in the type of job you have to offer. Test the finalists to make sure they have at least average or above average Mental Ability. Remember, you need salespeople who have the brains to learn your product line, make decisions and handle your customer. Pure personality tests, i.e., the Caliper, 16PF, Predictive Index, and Disc just won’t do it. THEY DON’T MEASURE HOW BRIGHT SOMEONE IS, NOR DO THEY MEASURE DECISION MAKING ABILITY. By using a testing tool that measures mental ability, you can make sure you hire salespeople who can learn what you need them to and can ultimately do an estimate correctly and create a correct contract ready for execution.
FOURTH: Make sure you have clear, concise answers from testing to validate, supplement or contradict your opinion from your interview with the candidate. Testing should tell you how the candidate measures in:
Drive
Integrity
Ability to meet and deal with people
Ego and Self Concept
Ability to close
Stamina to persevere and win
Questioning and probing skills
Commission motivation
It’s easy to hire people who appear to have great people and sales skills, but who lack the mental capacity to make quick decisions, create an accurate estimate or draft a valid contract. Or, they lack the dominance to close a sale or the drive to stay in a job on a commission basis and succeed. Testing can help you avoid these traps.
The Achiever assessment can provide you the mental acuity measurement you need to select good salespeople, as well as measurements for such critical personality traits as Drive, Competitiveness, Commission Motivation, Stamina to withstand rejection, and Competitiveness. To test a sales candidate with The Achiever requires an investment of $250.00. If you think that’s expensive, consider the costs associated with a salesperson that only closes one out of eight or nine leads you have spent money to provide, or what a fouled up estimate can cost you. The draw against commissions, training and missed sales can easily cost you thousands of dollars before you realize your new salesperson can’t produce. Or, they may recognize it and quit before you can show them the door or cut off the draw. Either way, a nominal $ 250.00 investment in The Achiever would have given you additional insight into the candidate’s ability to succeed as a salesperson for you, and possibly saved you from an expensive mistake.
FIFTH: Thorough background verification of a candidate makes sense. Prior address verification, reference checks, criminal history checks and motor vehicle license checks can help you be certain you aren’t hiring a convicted felon or someone with a “nasty habit” that you really don’t want around your customers or business.
Step 2: TRAIN THEM WELL
FIRST: Train them thoroughly in your product line.
SECOND: Just as important as product training, if not more important, is training in how to sell that product. Make sure you have the right talent to begin with, then inspire confidence in the salesperson by training them well.
Step 3: MOTIVATING AND MANAGING YOUR SALESPEOPLE
FIRST: Realize that you need to set reasonable and obtainable sales objectives, and if appropriate, gross profit objectives by salesperson. Work with each salesperson initially in a private meeting to set these objectives. Then, privately meet with each salesperson again on an monthly basis, or more often as you deem appropriate, to review performance and agree on goals for the coming month. After meeting with each salesperson individually, conduct a meeting of all salespeople as a group. At the group meeting, have each salesperson stand up in front of the group and state his or her sales goals and how they are to be reached. Write the goals on a board that can be readily viewed by the sales staff on a daily basis. Add up the numbers that represent the total sales objective for your business for the coming month.
Develop a creative way to offer additional incentives to your sales staff. For example, offer each salesperson that achieves their objective a dinner certificate for $60.00 or $80.00. Offer a higher value award if the salesperson exceeds his goal by 10%.
SECOND: The following month, repeat the individual and group sales meetings. At the group meeting, each salesperson should stand up in front of the group and state whether they reached their goal, and if so, how they reached it. If a goal was missed, the salesperson should offer an explanation of why the goal was missed. Encourage the group to offer friendly critiques and suggestions to each other. Each salesperson should also announce their goals for the next month.
This process is repeated each month. Follow the same process in realistically setting individual goals that are profitable to you, yet realistic and obtainable for the salesperson. Remember, the salesperson must believe in the objective and his or her ability to achieve it.
At the end of a quarter, have a recognition dinner and invite the salespeople and their guests (wife, friend, etc.) At each dinner have a rose for each female present.
Recognize your sales people with another award for those salespeople who met their objectives three months in a row, and a more significant award for those salespeople who exceeded their objective by 10% or more each month for the three-month period. As a bi-annual or annual award, consider offering a trip for two to the salesperson that exceeds goals by 10% over a six month or 12 month period. Recognize achievers at the dinner in front of the entire group and announce the trip as an award that any salesperson that qualifies can win.
Note: Before you meet with each salesperson individually on a monthly basis, review that individual’s Achiever report. The report includes Sales Potential and Personal Development sections that can provide you insight into areas in which you can make constructive comments regarding the salesperson’s selling strengths and weaknesses and what that individual can do to achieve higher levels of success. Share a copy of the report with the salesperson. Use it to your advantage to help the salesperson know what can be done to develop his or her sales skills.
THE KEY TO SUCCESS
Have your salespeople set realistic goals that they believe in and aspire to achieve. Then, provide the training, coaching and motivation to inspire them to achieve their goals. People compete best against themselves and their prior levels of success.
Examples of successful use of this approach include:
Toyota - top sales, profits and quality of product
Car dealerships – read the book, Customers for Life by Carl Sewell and Paul Brown
Cendant Corporation - Real Estate and Hotel Divisions
Building a First Class Sales Team - To learn more about this author, visit Milton S. Cotter's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Milton's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Choice of Forum Balanced Leadership Press Advertising Double Digit Growth eguide Closed Door Sales |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009 | |
 |
Top 50 Geek Business Blogs
Top 50 Geek Business Blogs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
