Get Rid of Half Your Sales Force - Now!©
Get Rid of Half Your Sales Force - Now!©
I know this from spending a lot of time with sales professionals in the field.
Here is what companies want to have happen. They want their customer base to grow so they can spread their future over as many customers as possible. That makes a lot of sense and I know that most of us want the same thing. The more customers we have the better and safer we are.
The catch here is that sales professionals and most companies don't actually do that. The average sales professional spends the vast majority of their week in providing some form of customer service. They are following up on orders, making visits, talking with end users, taking folks to lunch. All nice and important activities, but this is not growing the customer base.
If you are in management, look at what your field sales team is doing. If I am wrong about your folks, great! Your company is growing and will be a lot more secure than your competitors. However, I know that most sales people are out there doing customer service far too often.
There are two reasons this happens. The first is the reward system. If sales people are rewarded for new customers, you would get more new customers. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that sales people go where they are rewarded and the discomfort is the least.
Which brings us to reason number two, no Prospecting skills. When sales people have no Prospecting skill, they feel very uncomfortable making Prospecting calls. We all know that when sales people feel uncomfortable about anything, they will NOT do it. This, of course, means that they are not bringing in new customers, since Prospecting is the necessary first step in getting new customers.
So let's go back to our premise. The average sales person is not making Prospecting calls - they are providing customer service. As a result, the customer base of most companies is staying pretty much the same as it has been. Except for the usual losses.
If your customers are having a really good year, then they will order more products and your sales will go up. If not, sales will go down. As I have said in this forum many times before, putting all your hopes on the performance of your customers' sales teams and industries is not something you will see taught at The Harvard Business School.
And in this economy, that is a very risky position in which to find yourself.
The simple solution to this is two fold. First, train your sales people to Prospect and then reward their successes. Instead of their regular sales presentation training this year, teach them to Prospect so they will have a place to use that presentation training.
Second, if you actually need all that customer service, make some people just customer service and have others as an actual field sales team. This may require re-allocating people and probably reducing your field sales force.
When you think about it, if your field sales team is not providing customer service but actually out Prospecting and selling, you can probably reduce it by half!
There, I just saved you a lot of money so you can train your folks to Prospect this year.
It's just that simple.
Sell Well and Often,
Bill Truax
Bill@blitzcall.com
© Copyright 2008 WJ Truax
Get Rid of Half Your Sales Force Now - To learn more about this author, visit Bill Truax's Website.
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Why? Because the average sales professional these days is a high paid service person. Yep, I said a high paid service person.
I know this from spending a lot of time with sales professionals in the field.
Here is what companies want to have happen. They want their customer base to grow so they can spread their future over as many customers as possible. That makes a lot of sense and I know that most of us want the same thing. The more customers we have the better and safer we are.
The catch here is that sales professionals and most companies don't actually do that. The average sales professional spends the vast majority of their week in providing some form of customer service. They are following up on orders, making visits, talking with end users, taking folks to lunch. All nice and important activities, but this is not growing the customer base.
If you are in management, look at what your field sales team is doing. If I am wrong about your folks, great! Your company is growing and will be a lot more secure than your competitors. However, I know that most sales people are out there doing customer service far too often.
There are two reasons this happens. The first is the reward system. If sales people are rewarded for new customers, you would get more new customers. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that sales people go where they are rewarded and the discomfort is the least.
Which brings us to reason number two, no Prospecting skills. When sales people have no Prospecting skill, they feel very uncomfortable making Prospecting calls. We all know that when sales people feel uncomfortable about anything, they will NOT do it. This, of course, means that they are not bringing in new customers, since Prospecting is the necessary first step in getting new customers.
So let's go back to our premise. The average sales person is not making Prospecting calls - they are providing customer service. As a result, the customer base of most companies is staying pretty much the same as it has been. Except for the usual losses.
If your customers are having a really good year, then they will order more products and your sales will go up. If not, sales will go down. As I have said in this forum many times before, putting all your hopes on the performance of your customers' sales teams and industries is not something you will see taught at The Harvard Business School.
And in this economy, that is a very risky position in which to find yourself.
The simple solution to this is two fold. First, train your sales people to Prospect and then reward their successes. Instead of their regular sales presentation training this year, teach them to Prospect so they will have a place to use that presentation training.
Second, if you actually need all that customer service, make some people just customer service and have others as an actual field sales team. This may require re-allocating people and probably reducing your field sales force.
When you think about it, if your field sales team is not providing customer service but actually out Prospecting and selling, you can probably reduce it by half!
There, I just saved you a lot of money so you can train your folks to Prospect this year.
It's just that simple.
Sell Well and Often,
Bill Truax
Bill@blitzcall.com
© Copyright 2008 WJ Truax
Get Rid of Half Your Sales Force Now - To learn more about this author, visit Bill Truax's Website.
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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