Motivating Your Sales People to be More Productive
Motivating Your Sales People to be More Productive
Many of the companies I visit with have the same problem. They don’t know jack about their customers. All they know is that they somehow fit into their targeted profile, which they have only a very high-level definition of what that is, and that their sales people somehow knew how to close them. Another problem they have is even scarier – they don’t do any follow up after the sale to try to retain them. In fact, very few companies actually pay their sales people as much for selling to existing customers as they do for acquiring new ones. When it costs many times more (sometimes up to seven to 10 times more) to find and sell to a new customer, you would think a business would reward their sales people even more for selling to existing clients since it is costing them much less. I do understand that businesses also need to acquire new clients, so there has to be a balance. But please don’t be one of those companies that don’t pay their sales people ANYTHING for selling to existing customers. At least have a separate sales team that sells to them, perhaps even junior sales reps who earn less because they are farmers instead of hunters. Not only will this motivate your sales people, but it will help retain your customers.
Anyway, back to the topic of finding out more about your customers. In order to do the best job of servicing your customers so you can maintain a relationship, build loyalty, and continue selling to them for a long time, you need to know about their business, their industry, their interests, buying styles and habits, what they buy, when they buy, how much they buy, and more. From this you will learn their purchasing behavior and can better target your services toward their specific needs, not to mention more accurately find up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.
You also need to know about the sales cycle and other sales-related issues regarding how your clients came to be clients. For instance, you should know some of the following:
• Where your successful leads came from. In other words, what’s your best source of leads?
• Your close ratio. How many sales do you close as a percentage of total leads acquired?
• Profiles of your best, ideal customer, and your worst customer.
• How many sales calls it takes to close an average sale.
• The average size of a sale, in revenue.
• Your average profit from sales, by product or product line.
• Your goals for the year; in revenue, number of new accounts, number of sales calls per rep, customer retention goals, customer satisfaction ratings, etc.
Using a good CRM system that will help you collect, track and measure this information will be a huge help (Call me at 702-655-5652 if you’d like to discuss some options). From this information you will start to see some patterns and trends forming such as, you close most large deals after three appointments. Beyond that, they get harder and smaller. Or, you may find that your most profitable leads come from seminars you run and when you follow up with the attendees with mailings, emails, and a visit, all within a two month period. This information and the resulting analysis will allow you to begin to focus on more profitable and higher probability accounts. Once you do that, you’ll be able to leverage more sales to those existing accounts, which will result in more motivated sales people. Since you will point them in the right direction with the right messages, your sales people will be more productive, sell more, and be more motivated with their newly derived success.
In order to leverage more sales to these profitable accounts, you should also do the following:
• Cross-Sell and Up-Sell more products, more services, maintenance agreements, training, support options, and anything that will benefit the customer while keeping them coming back for more.
• Train everyone in your organization to cross-sell and up-sell, even the receptionist but especially customer support and customer service. They don’t need to actually “sell”, just recognize an opportunity, plant the seed, generate some interest, and pass it on to the sales person for that account.
• Make sure you have a good on-going relationship with the client (or create one if you don’t). Nothing is worth than pretending you have a good relationship after you’ve been persona non grata for the past year.
• Keep in touch on an on-going basis with newsletters, training information, and valuable knowledge (i.e., news about their industry) that your customers will appreciate and from which they’ll benefit.
• Align your sales compensation plans with a strategy that encourages customer retention. Pay them for additional sales made to existing customers. Give, or hold back, bonuses based on customer satisfaction ratings.
• Align your marketing strategies with your sales plans. No sense marketing just to new prospects when your sales people are paid to also retain existing customers who don’t receive any of your marketing campaigns.
Once you learn about your customers and their purchasing behavior, figure out what the sales metrics were to acquire them in the first place. Then you can start leveraging additional sales to your existing customers because you’ll be able to target the right messages to the right audiences. This is how you can motivate your sales people to be more productive.
Good luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
(702) 655-5652
Motivating Your Sales People to be More Productive - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo's Website.
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How can you motivate your sales people to be more productive? Isn’t that what every sales manager and every business owner would like to know? Well, if you fall into this category, then listen up. In order to motivate your sales people to do anything, you have to help them. And to help them be more productive, you have to show them how they can leverage more sales to your existing customers. And, to show them how to do this, you must first find out a few things about your customers.
Many of the companies I visit with have the same problem. They don’t know jack about their customers. All they know is that they somehow fit into their targeted profile, which they have only a very high-level definition of what that is, and that their sales people somehow knew how to close them. Another problem they have is even scarier – they don’t do any follow up after the sale to try to retain them. In fact, very few companies actually pay their sales people as much for selling to existing customers as they do for acquiring new ones. When it costs many times more (sometimes up to seven to 10 times more) to find and sell to a new customer, you would think a business would reward their sales people even more for selling to existing clients since it is costing them much less. I do understand that businesses also need to acquire new clients, so there has to be a balance. But please don’t be one of those companies that don’t pay their sales people ANYTHING for selling to existing customers. At least have a separate sales team that sells to them, perhaps even junior sales reps who earn less because they are farmers instead of hunters. Not only will this motivate your sales people, but it will help retain your customers.
Anyway, back to the topic of finding out more about your customers. In order to do the best job of servicing your customers so you can maintain a relationship, build loyalty, and continue selling to them for a long time, you need to know about their business, their industry, their interests, buying styles and habits, what they buy, when they buy, how much they buy, and more. From this you will learn their purchasing behavior and can better target your services toward their specific needs, not to mention more accurately find up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.
You also need to know about the sales cycle and other sales-related issues regarding how your clients came to be clients. For instance, you should know some of the following:
• Where your successful leads came from. In other words, what’s your best source of leads?
• Your close ratio. How many sales do you close as a percentage of total leads acquired?
• Profiles of your best, ideal customer, and your worst customer.
• How many sales calls it takes to close an average sale.
• The average size of a sale, in revenue.
• Your average profit from sales, by product or product line.
• Your goals for the year; in revenue, number of new accounts, number of sales calls per rep, customer retention goals, customer satisfaction ratings, etc.
Using a good CRM system that will help you collect, track and measure this information will be a huge help (Call me at 702-655-5652 if you’d like to discuss some options). From this information you will start to see some patterns and trends forming such as, you close most large deals after three appointments. Beyond that, they get harder and smaller. Or, you may find that your most profitable leads come from seminars you run and when you follow up with the attendees with mailings, emails, and a visit, all within a two month period. This information and the resulting analysis will allow you to begin to focus on more profitable and higher probability accounts. Once you do that, you’ll be able to leverage more sales to those existing accounts, which will result in more motivated sales people. Since you will point them in the right direction with the right messages, your sales people will be more productive, sell more, and be more motivated with their newly derived success.
In order to leverage more sales to these profitable accounts, you should also do the following:
• Cross-Sell and Up-Sell more products, more services, maintenance agreements, training, support options, and anything that will benefit the customer while keeping them coming back for more.
• Train everyone in your organization to cross-sell and up-sell, even the receptionist but especially customer support and customer service. They don’t need to actually “sell”, just recognize an opportunity, plant the seed, generate some interest, and pass it on to the sales person for that account.
• Make sure you have a good on-going relationship with the client (or create one if you don’t). Nothing is worth than pretending you have a good relationship after you’ve been persona non grata for the past year.
• Keep in touch on an on-going basis with newsletters, training information, and valuable knowledge (i.e., news about their industry) that your customers will appreciate and from which they’ll benefit.
• Align your sales compensation plans with a strategy that encourages customer retention. Pay them for additional sales made to existing customers. Give, or hold back, bonuses based on customer satisfaction ratings.
• Align your marketing strategies with your sales plans. No sense marketing just to new prospects when your sales people are paid to also retain existing customers who don’t receive any of your marketing campaigns.
Once you learn about your customers and their purchasing behavior, figure out what the sales metrics were to acquire them in the first place. Then you can start leveraging additional sales to your existing customers because you’ll be able to target the right messages to the right audiences. This is how you can motivate your sales people to be more productive.
Good luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
(702) 655-5652
Motivating Your Sales People to be More Productive - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo'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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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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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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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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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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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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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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