Tweet

Sales Management for C-Level Selling - 6 Steps to Make Your Sales People Better

Written by: Sam Manfer

Article Overview: Are your sales people as good as you think they should be? If not, here is an easy, no-costs process to make them better.

Sales Management for C-Level Selling - 6 Steps to Make Your Sales People Better

How would you rate the skill level of each of your sales people? What are you doing to improve each person’s skill level? In other words are your sales people as good as you think they should be and if not, what are you doing about it. Sales goals are made or missed because of management. Good managers keep their fingers on the pulse of business. They know what to expect and if those standards are not being met, they takes actions to make their salespeople better. Better means selling more, but selling more requires improving sales people’s selling skills. Here's the process I used to coach sales managers: 1. Rate each of your sales people on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 - lowest level). 2. Write down the strengths and weaknesses of each of those people. I. E. for the weaknesses what knowledge, ability, attributes, skill, etc. does this person have to attain to become a better sales person? What’s keeping him or her back? What strengths is this person lacking? 3. On a totally separate piece of paper list all the skills, knowledge, attributes, abilities that you would expect for a level 1, level 2, level 3, etc. Some skills will progress with each level, and others may stand alone in at a particular level. An example of a progression is: Level 1 -- No knowledge of industry; level 2 -- learning the industry; level 3 -- knows jargon, needs, and some of the players; level 4 -- well versed in the industry, knows most of the players, know basic and complex issues and opportunities; level 5 -- respected in the industry by associates, clients and those outside his or her company. An example of a standalone is: level 3 -- ability to consistently ask for commitment. 4. Now, look at the strengths and weaknesses of each sales person. Compare those to the characteristics for the level you chose for that person. You'll notice you missed some characteristics that define the level and didn't include some for the person. For example, Joe is a level II and has trouble learning the issues and concerns of the prospects he interviews. However, when you are preparing the level characteristics, you left out "probing prospect to learn issues and concerns". Similarly, level III requires the ability to introduce new ideas to the prospect, so as to entice him. Yet when you listed Joe's weaknesses, you forgot "ability to expose and entice". 5. Redo the levels and redo the salespeople's weaknesses, incorporating the characteristics that you missed in each. This will give you a more complete description of the levels, as well as a better listing of the individual's weaknesses. Now that you have both your standard and a list of the missing attributes, abilities, skills, etc. that are required to get a particular sales person to the next level, you basically have that sales person's development plan. 6. Build an action plan for each person to progress to the next level. In other words, what will you (or someone else) do to show the sales person how to attain the skills or overcome the weaknesses; what does the sales person have to do; when will it be accomplished by and; how will you know (the metric) that the sales person has attain the skill or overcome the weakness. Although this six step plan sounds like a lot, it’s really very simple. By selecting a level for each person and defining his or her weaknesses, and then separately determining skills for each level, you'll easily be able to build the perfect level description and see the development issues for each individual. Then you'll know exactly what you'll have to do to help that person improve. You'll also realize very quickly what’s holding the sales person back from selling more. More importantly it provides you and your sales person, a great communication tool. Your expectations and development requirements for this individual will be defined, direct and systematic. There will be no misunderstandings and these development plans will help your sales people improve quickly. So try it, and I guarantee you'll be pleased with the outcome. Remember, if you want better (more sales), sales people, you've got to improve their sales skills levels. If you, the manager, don't build and enforce the plan for an individual’s improvement, it will not get done. Few salespeople try to improve themselves. They have to be motivated (pushed and directed) by their management. Sales goals are made and missed because of sales managers. And now I invite you to learn more.

Related Articles
  What Makes a Great Sales Manager?
  Sales Training, without supporting Sales Management Training,
  The Sales Pipeline
  Time To Sell
  Is Your Sales Training Missing These Ingredients?

Article Tags: fingers, good managers, improving sales, jargon, knowledge ability, piece of paper, sales goals, sales managers, sales person, salespeople, selling skills, skill level, strengths and weaknesses



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Top sales skills - Qualifying Fast to Avoid Wasting Sales Time Do you chase after your prospects until they tell you yes or no? Do you ever tell your prospects "No", as in "No, I am not going to sell to you"? There are many things in selling that you do not and will not be able to control. The one thing that you do have control over is your time and how you choose to use it. Motivating Prospects Qualifying goes beyond budget, authority, and need. You want to sell to prospects who *want* to buy from you. Finding prospects that need our products usually is not difficult. Finding those who really want our products though can be very hard if we wait for them to come to us. Selling to People Outside Your Comfort Zone Most salespeople who are "people persons", already think that they are good at this. Let me ask you a question. When you last lost a sale, how was your rapport with the key person who decided against you?
Different Hats - CEO Sales & Marketing & Leadership Development Company Strategic Vision 10 Alliances & Growth Strategies 10 Hiring & Managing People 8 Mentoring 8-9 Strategic Planning for Clients 10 Execution of Marketing Campaigns 9-10 (i have great people who do the nitty gritty) Financial Management 9 Bookkeeping 3 (outsourced as I really hate the fine details like GST0 Administrative Follow Up 6-7 (again have great staff) Writing & Publishing 9 (getting better all the time!) Speaking 10 (so I have been told) Self Promotion 9-10 Web development & Promotion 6-7 (learning more and have brought on players who are 10+) Babysitting Employees (1 - wont do it, that's why I work so hard to hire and motivate the people I have) Great topic Kevin!! Jude
Seek Venture Capital & Funding - Hello, Greetings from India. I am Seeking Venture Capital for Offshore Software Company Start-up. Need advise along with Business Model Sample. I have a basic outline for an offshore company. 1. Technology - like Microsoft Dot Net, Java, LAMP 2. Talent Team - Found Good Technology Developers. 3. Where I can get the leads/potential customers - Leads have been identified who are willing to move forward offshore projects. 4. I do not have resources like funding. It is a very critical factor to me Industries: Manufacturing, Real Estate, Retail, Insurance, Distribution & Logistics, Healthcare, Industry Associations and Software Product Development, Agricultural Industries and Etc. Services: Offshore Software Development Company. Offices to be located: Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and USA. Products/Services/Applications in areas like POS & Billing, Sales & Distribution, Production Planning, Material Management, Inventory Control, Plant Maintenance, Purchasing, Accounting and Logistics. Dynamic Web Programming with Database Driven Content Management Systems, Online Stores for E-Commerce, B2B Solutions, Community Portals, Website Redesign and Development, Custom ERP with Enterprise Wide Functional Modules such as Marketing, CRM, Accounting, Inventory Control, Sales & Distribution, Production Planning, Purchase & Stores, Logistics and Supply Chain. Seek your further questions and help. Thank you, Best Regards, Jayapratap.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

THE “SECRET RECIPES” OF LEADERSHIP

What is an Adaptive Organization

The Pure FUN of Learning & Using NLP

Suggestions

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.