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5 Initiatives in Building A World Class Sales Organization-Part 3 of 3

Guest post by: Gerry Layo

Article Overview: In the previous two articles we reviewed some important initiatives involved in building a world-class sales organization. We identified 5 main areas in doing so. These 5 areas of focus are: 1- Finding Good People. 2- Getting Them to Join Our Team. 3- Getting Them Trained and Producing. 4- Growing Them into Top Producers. 5- Keeping Them. The first article addressed appropriate strategies in recognizing, recruiting, and hiring top talent to our teams. The second article addressed getting those individuals up and producing quickly. In this article, we will address the maintenance of those individuals. This maintenance will be designed to continually grow your people to be better, more productive members of your sales team.

5 Initiatives in Building A World Class Sales Organization-Part 3 of 3

In the previous two articles we reviewed some important initiatives involved in building a world-class sales organization. We identified 5 main areas in doing so. These 5 areas of focus are:

1- Finding Good People

2- Getting Them to Join Our Team

3- Getting Them Trained and Producing

4- Growing Them into Top Producers

5- Keeping Them

The first article addressed appropriate strategies in recognizing, recruiting, and hiring top talent to our teams. The second article addressed getting those individuals up and producing quickly.

In this article, we will address the maintenance of those individuals. This maintenance will be designed to continually grow your people to be better, more productive members of your sales team.

Too often, companies get new members of their team into a training schedule early on that covers things like product knowledge, territory, company policies, etc. Once the new recruit has a basic knowledge of how the company works and what to do, they are assigned a prospect list or territory and sent to work. Even if a company has a very stringent, thorough initial training process, they often come up short when it comes to the ongoing process of training and development.

It is the belief of Sales Coach International that training must be ongoing and continuous. As company leaders, we send our salespeople out into battle every day facing constantly changing forces in the marketplace. I tend to use the analogy of sending lumberjacks out into the forest each day to chop down trees. If the axes of our lumberjacks are not CONSTANTLY sharpened, they will eventually have to work much harder to achieve results. Thus, we get turnover and/or salesperson burnout.

In what areas do your people need to continually "sharpen their axes?" Do their prospecting skills of today generate greater or lesser results than last year? Have their questioning skills increased or decreased? Do you think that they could benefit from some new tools added to their professional toolbox? There is literally no end to the list of areas in which salespeople need to be developed regularly.

Even the greatest of professional athletes must attend regular practice to maintain and grow their skills to stay competitive. In fact, there are countless stories of the best in their field being the most relentless at honing their skills through practice and coaching. (Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Jerry Rice-to name a few.) Would you not expect your automobile mechanic to continually work on and upgrade his skills? How about your doctor? Your customers expect the same thing from your salespeople. Unfortunately, it is rare to find salespeople that will take on this growth initiative by themselves. Therefore, it is up to the leaders of the sales teams to create and systemize ongoing and regular training for their salespeople. Training and constant development are part of the culture of some of the world's greatest companies such as GE and IBM. Training needs to be scheduled and held sacred.

There are a few different levels of training and coaching people. First of all, training and coaching is not to be done in the classroom every time. As coaches for our people, we must have a combination of classroom, field training and coaching for our people. The best leaders in business today schedule regular time in the field with their salespeople. When was the last time that you spent time with your people in the field LISTENING? It is only after you know where your people need the help that you can appropriately begin to do the things necessary to help them grow through training.

Many companies hold weekly sales meeting to go over performance, stats, quotas, etc. Salespeople rarely hold these meetings in high regard because they are looked at as unnecessary and a waste of their valuable selling time. Instead, start looking at every sales meeting as an opportunity to work on the skills, the hearts and the minds of your people. The key to great sales meetings lies in the preparation. What is the goal or the purpose of the meeting? What do you want your people to walk away with? Will you do all the talking or will you facilitate communication? What key elements or issues do you want to attack in the meeting? Will the meeting hold value for all participants? What time will it start? How long will it run? What type of assignments will be given from the meeting? What do you want to learn from the meeting?

Of course, many companies also choose to hire an outside coach or firm to provide additional training for their sales teams. This can often times be of major value to many companies in that the outside firm can often give a fresh voice and perspective to the company's vision and philosophies. In addition, an outside speaker or trainer can help validate the efforts of the company towards change (which is often times difficult and/or unwelcome). When using an outside firm, we suggest having a minimum one-hour conversation with the speaker/trainer/coach in advance of the training session so that they know where it is that you want to focus the training and what the main message is that you want your people to take away from the training.

Quarterly or Annual sales meetings are great times to get sales teams together for additional training and the facilitation of ideas. Depending on your company, these meetings can be held on or off site from your headquarters. However, when holding a meeting such as these, it is our suggestion that training is PART of the agenda, but not all. There should be time scheduled for team building, networking (sharing of experiences), socializing and recognition as well. Although you should be very focused on a training agenda, be careful not to take a multi day event and turn it into a training lecture circuit. It could have an adverse effect. Make sure that you do the things necessary to make sure that your people look forward to the training they will receive.

Most importantly, remember that, done correctly, the ongoing training and development of your people needs to be looked at as a positive, healthy and fun experience with strong follow through by the leaders.

Now that we have a solid, well trained sales team that is constantly being grown in quality as well as quantity, what do we do to make sure that they stick around? The Harvard Business School conducted a survey of top producing sales professionals that asked them to rank the top 5 reasons why they stayed in their current positions at their current companies. These are the top 5 reasons:

1. RESPECT-How is it that your salespeople are getting this from you or your sales managers on a regular basis? People choose the profession of sales because of the validation they receive when they succeed at getting to yes. This process, however, can take them through a series of rejections and letdowns from potential customers and prospects. How is it that we can make sure that they receive the respect they deserve for being the leading edge for your company? Often times, the answer does not cost a penny! Ask you salespeople's opinions. Thank them for working hard to build your business. Pay them on time, pay them what they earn and don't mess up on their commissions! Make sure the rest of the company regards them likewise. Pay attention to their suggestions. Work with them, coach them, train them, get in the field with them and you will be amazed what you will learn!

2. RECOGNITION-How many of your salespeople would say that they are overly recognized? Recognition is like oxygen for salespeople. As I mentioned above, salespeople have chosen their career for the feeling of validation when they get a win. When they do, make sure that it is treated as such. Recognition, like respect, often times costs nothing. However, it can mean the difference in the loyalty of your people. It is our belief that the things that get recognized get done. Recognition can be done in so many ways: A handwritten note from the boss expressing gratitude and enthusiasm over a job well done, a plaque that recognizes (in perpetuity) the salesperson or employee of the month, an announcement to the team over the office PA system for a random outstanding act, a place to publicly post rave reviews from customers or fellow employees. Remember, don't confuse compensation with recognition (although random, spontaneous bonuses can be very effective ways to recognize proper efforts) Compensation is a right, recognition is a gift!

3. POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT-Ask yourself this question: If I worked here, would I look forward to coming to work or would I dread going to work? Would you work for you? A positive, upbeat, competitive, enthusiastic environment is imperative for top sales pros. As salespeople, we face a world of negativity and rejection out in the marketplace. We have chosen a career as professional no-takers so that we may become professional problem solvers. The culture and environment in which we work is imperative to our happiness. Take a look around your organization and identify the areas that need improvement. Here's a flash for you: It's OK to have FUN-as long as the work is getting done. By the way, if you have the above two areas in abundance throughout your sales organization (Respect and Recognition,) you will have a positive work environment. As business leaders and sales managers, we are not always the best to judge whether we have positive work environments or not. Ask your people how you can do better-what can be added-what should be removed-what can be adjusted, changed, or enhanced....you'll be surprised at the answers you will receive!

4. OPPORTUNITY FOR PERSONAL GROWTH-In the previous two articles, we discussed the importance of ongoing and continuous development and growth strategies for your people through training. All top performers are looking to grow, to do better than they did last year. If you truly want to keep the hitters and the winners on your team long term, you must continually work with them to create ongoing opportunity for personal growth. In addition to what you offer in your internal training strategies, look to outside agencies and organizations for additional avenues of development for your people. Bring in speakers/trainers/coaches for your team. Send your people to seminars and/or training sessions on a multitude of subjects. Offer support and/or offer to pay for additional education or extended degrees. Build and offer a library of resources such as tapes/books/videos for your people to reference regularly. Offer optional training classes on weekends to those who wish to take advantage of them. Most importantly, you want to show your people that you are seriously invested in their growth and development and that you are willing to do whatever it takes to make them more productive and developed individuals.

5. MONEY-With most sales positions having some tie to commissions, and with commissions tied to results, and with results tied directly to Attitude, Skills and Activity, and with those things tied to the five areas listed above, ask yourself this: What comes first?

As you look to build a world-class sales organization, make sure that you are focused on the right things. As sales managers and business leaders, it is not our job to grow sales. It is our job to grow our salespeople in quantity and quality every day. The initiatives named in these three articles should give you a simple road map that will help you focus on how to get started.

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Article Tags: employee retention, initiatives, sales, sales managers, sales organization, training



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