151 Quick Ideas to Motivate Your Sales Force

Frank Horvath, Julie Vincent

• Publisher: Career Press
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781601630490
• eBook ISBN: 9781601639127
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Sales
• Index: Business

Traditional ways of motivating a sales force have included money, incentives, contests and even turnover (regardless of performance). While it's true being a sales professional is not for everyone, there is a way to identify, build and retain a top-notch motivated sales force. The trick is to build and keep a sales team that delivers sustainable results.

The insights included in this book are designed to shift your thinking about traditional ways of motivating sales professionals you manage. It categorizes key sales-motivating management skills, tools and techniques while incorporating the art and science of sales management, leadership and the human dynamic. In this book you'll learn:

• Coaching and Development
• Sales force Processes and Systems
• Keys to Sales force Leadership
• Reward, Recognition and Incentives

Sales managers that learn, know and implement a next-in-class approach to motivating their sales professionals will reap high rewards and beat their competition.

1

Share and Make Sure Sales Professionals Understand the Realities of Your Business

One of the biggest assumptions sales leaders and managers make is that sales professionals really understand how the business operates and how it makes a profit. Do not assume everyone understands the realities of your business. Ask yourself, do sales professionals understand how you make a profit and what’s important to your operations? How about competitive intelligence? Have you researched and collected current

Assignment

Begin inserting financial operating metrics and competitive intelligence into your regular meetings with your sales professionals. Also use one-on-one conversations as an opportunity to share what the business is focused on, including the impact to sales, cash flow, and profitability.

competitor information that can be shared? Do they understand your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flows? How about your strategy, business brand, and key goals and objectives?

Epilogue

The best sales professionals relish opportunities to share in the realities of your business. This enables them to sustain a competitive advantage when selling against overly optimistic sales competitors.

2

Align Your Sales Professionals to the “Likes” of the Customer/Client

This is about relationships that your sales professionals want to have with the customers/clients, and not about the fluffy “likes” that unskilled sales professionals put stock in as those that work with their customers and clients. Customers and clients know what they “like” in a business relationship. Sometimes it’s purely transactional—and they only want to purchase your product/service at the

Assignment

Create a client/customer profile that includes their general “likes” in developing business relationships. Share this information with the sales team and others within your organization to ensure this is used and helps facilitate building prospect relationships and maintaining current customer relationships.

lowest possible price. A relationship doesn’t matter.

On the flip side and most important side of the sales process, it’s your sales professional and her/his relationship that matters. It’s also about the investment he/she makes in solving a business problem. Skills and competencies associated with your sales staff will have to be matched to the “likes” (or, defined differently, “preferences”) of the customer/client. Customers and clients don’t know what they don’t like. It will take extra effort for your sales professionals to uncover the “likes” or “preferences” as part of their relationships, when they buy products and services or solve their business problems. Customers/clients are also likely to pay extra, or value the relationship more when their “likes” and their needs as an organization are matched to the sales professional.

People don’t like to feel as though they are being sold. Rather, they like the opportunity to make decisions about their purchases. Coach your sales professionals to focus on allowing your clients and prospects to feel that they are the ones making the buying decision. You will experience a marked increase in closed.

Epilogue

Business relationships grow when you understand how your customers “like” to buy, not to be sold. Being sold imakes your client decline a sale.

3

Collect Feedback From Your Customers/Clients for Improvement

Improvement in your sales performance is an ongoing task. This is a motivational factor imbedded in the DNA of all top sales professionals. Your support in collecting constructive feedback will not only be welcome, but also will be a demonstration that you

Assignment

Develop a formal written and verbal customer survey process. Build a process that includes commitments to regular intervals of formal feedback and review of results.

are truly trying to comprehend the process of feedback—not just for the sake of collecting feedback, but for the importance of learning how to improve the sales process. This translates into a motivating factor for your sales professionals. This should be a major priority, but don’t get confused about only collecting feedback from your sales team. Sharing objective feedback also builds confidence in your customer relationships. By doing this on a regular and routine basis, your sales team will understand that it is an important part of their jobs to provide you with important feedback that they hear from their customers /clients. Used correctly with your sales team, feedback can also be tied to formal individual and team performance coaching.

If the information is handled constructively, your sales team will use it as a motivator to solve customer problems, address customer inquiries and complaints, and be willing to proactively provide you with a continuous loop of constructive process improvement-focused feedback. Along with your expectation to provide collected feedback on a regular basis, this will facilitate a continuous improvement philosophy for your sales team’s ongoing growth and development as sales professionals.

Epilogue

Feedback is the cornerstone of sales process improvement. This applies to your customers/clients as well as your sales team.

4

Benchmark Individual and Team Sales Performance

It’s true that what you measure gets done, and top-notch sales professionals want to be benchmarked. This is the only way a top professional gets motivated—by going above and beyond goals and objectives that have been set for past performance! Sales professionals are motivated by their ability to beat and exceed sales targets. Once these targets are set and agreed to, a top-notch sales professional will exhibit behaviors that coordinate her/his time and daily activities to beat and exceed sales goals and targets. Also remember that benchmarking sales metrics for performance allows you to see gaps in performance

Assignment

Identify and document your key sales performance metrics. Identify your competition’s key sales metrics. Include this in formal individual and team performance appraisals.

that need to be addressed. In addition to increasing individual motivation, benchmarking can provide you, as the manager, visibility into the benchmarks your competition uses and perspective on how to beat them.

Take note as a sales manager: Your competition benchmarks their performance against yours. Your sales professionals are also knowledgeable about what’s expected of their competitors’ sales teams.

Epilogue

Because it’s in a sales professional’s DNA to be motivated by metrics, goals, and objectives, benchmark their performance in order to help them understand how their performance stacks up.

5

Align Sales With All Departments

Don’t be a sales manager novice. If you want to be the best, then keep in mind that sales planning, budgeting, and forecasting must align with all the resource requirements of marketing, finance, operations, customer service, and manufacturing. This should be one of your major priorities on a recurring and annual basis. This also needs to be an ongoing part of sales operations management during any given fiscal

Assignment

In addition to the formal sales planning required as part of sales management, create a formal process for your sales force to collect and provide competitive /external sales information and competitive intelligence.

year. As you align your sales process to the rest of the business, also think about sales force intelligence-gathering and how the information you gather about your competition can be incorporated to help the rest of your organization perform better. The information collected by your sales team needs to be collected in a formal way, and continuously shared so that this information can be incorporated into communications with key operations of the business. Salespeople love to acquire, and are motivated by acquiring lots of intelligence about their competition—their paychecks depend on it. Use the assignment here to include your sales team in the intelligence-gathering process. It assists in building a strong relationship with your sales team.

Epilogue

Sales professionals want to win and contribute to the ongoing sustainability of the company.

6

Set Sales Goals That Are a “Stretch,” Not Realistic

Mediocrity kills sales performance. Some sales professionals “sandbag.” Top-notch sales professionals are motivated by their ability to achieve and acquire more, more, more. If you want sales performance to be the best, and you want to highly motivate your sales team, it’s time to think about going beyond what is realistic and create and lead sales goals that are truly a “stretch.”

Assignment

Do not be afraid to set “stretch” goals and objectives for your sales professionals. They relish wanting to achieve, and achieve to a higher level. Review your current performance and compensation plan. Identify areas for sales performance improvement and set the expected targeted performance. Include pay incentives to achieve the targets.

Most sales professionals also set goals for themselves that are higher than what you set for them. Ask for and have a continuous dialogue with your sales professionals about their goals and objectives, and what you have set for them to accomplish. You might also want to consider reviewing your compensation program so that you have the ability to stretch opportunities, not just meeting “realistic” goals and objectives.

Epilogue

Set the “stretch goals” and coach vigorously to help your sales professionals accomplish their goals. Watch them relish the challenge.

7

Develop a Specific Sales Plan That Is Communicated to Everyone in the Organization

Beyond your sales team, the rest of the organization has a strong desire to understand how the business is growing through increases in sales and new cust...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• How to Use This Book
• Introduction
• 1 - Share and Make Sure Sales Professionals Understand the Realities of Your Business
• 2 - Align Your Sales Professionals to the “Likes” of the Customer/Client
• 3 - Collect Feedback From Your Customers/Clients for Improvement
• 4 - Benchmark Individual and Team Sales Performance
• 5 - Align Sales With All Departments
• 6 - Set Sales Goals That Are a “Stretch,” Not Realistic
• 7 - Develop a Specific Sales Plan That Is Communicated to Everyone in the Organization
• 8 - Fire Bad Customers/Clients
• 9 - Keep Abreast of Industry Trends and Share the Information With Your Team
• 10 - Conduct an Annual Sales Conference Reviewing Past Sales Performance and ...
• 11 - Focus on Customer Service
• 12 - Develop Business Case Studies That Demonstrate Competitive Value
• 13 - Create a “Virtual Bench” of Sales Professionals
• 14 - Maintain Competitive Benchmark Information for Compensation
• 15 - Maintain Competitive Benchmark Information to Help Manage Performance
• 16 - Hire Top-Notch Sales Talent Outside Your Industry
• 17 - Profit vs. Revenue: Understand Your Sales Objectives
• 18 - Take Time and Give Time to Think About Sales Strategy and Plans
• 19 - Establish and Communicate Your Sales and Marketing Brand
• 20 - Ensure Everyone Understands Your Compelling Value Proposition
• 21 - Validate Your Brand With Your Customer/Client Base
• 22 - Be Realistic About Sales Goals
• 23 - Establish Team and Individual “Buy-In” to Sales Goals/Objectives
• 24 - Buy Shares of Stock in Your Customers/Clients
• 25 - When Forecasting Sales Numbers, Forecast Reality, and Be Conservative
• 26 - Define Clear Accountabilities
• 27 - Hold Sales Professionals to Clear Accountabilities
• 28 - Define and Assess Sales Competencies for Understanding Personal Strengths ...
• 29 - Provide Regular, Consistent Feedback on Performance
• 30 - Test Individual Sales Knowledge About Products, Services, Customers, and Competitors
• 31 - Recognize Top Performance With Regular Awards of Achievement
• 32 - Fire Nonperformers
• 33 - Set the Expectation That Sales Professionals Understand the “Ins and Outs” ...
• 34 - When Evaluating Performance, Focus on Results, Not on Time
• 35 - Set Up a Scoreboard of Sales Results
• 36 - Conduct Weekly Sales Status Calls With Your Sales Team
• 37 - Send a Handwritten Note for Outstanding Performance
• 38 - Set Expectations for Professional Appearance
• 39 - Do Not Tolerate Bad Sales Behavior
• 40 - Don’t Tolerate Excessive Drinking and Sales
• 41 - Don’t Tolerate the Strip Club Mentality
• 42 - Know When to Use the Carrot or the Stick
• 43 - Treat Sales Professionals as Professionals
• 44 - Create Internal Competitions
• 45 - Create External Competitions
• 46 - Put Your Sales Performers Into “A,” “B,” and “C” Categories
• 47 - Do Everything You Can to Move Your “B” Sales Contributors to the “A” Level
• 48 - Put Your “C” Sales Performers on a Performance Improvement Plan
• 49 - Expect Sales Professionals to Have a Business Objective for Each and Every ...
• 50 - Conduct Account Reviews
• 51 - Establish In-Depth Account/ Customer Visibility
• 52 - Expect Your Sales Professionals to Understand the Finances of Their Customers/Clients
• 53 - All Extra-Curricular Activities Must Involve a Sale
• 54 - Establish the “No Excuse” Rule
• 55 - Teach Skills in the Use of Tools, Techniques, and Customer and Competitive Data
• 56 - Provide Opportunities for Mentoring and Sharing Lessons of Success With Customers/Clients
• 57 - Provide Coaching to Improve Performance and Strength
• 58 - Provide Ongoing Learning Opportunities to Improve Sales Proficiency
• 59 - Train and Have Your Top Sales Performers Conduct the Hiring of New Sales Recruits
• 60 - Role-Play Successful Sales Skills
• 61 - Train Sales Professionals in the “Language of Business”
• 62 - Teach Sales Professionals to Uncover Pain, Budget, and Decision-Making ...
• 63 - Teach Sales Professionals Project Management Skills
• 64 - Teach Listening Skills
• 65 - Teach High-Impact Consulting Skills
• 66 - Allow Time for Reading New Books and Articles on the Topic of Successful Selling
• 67 - Give Guidance on Qualifying Prospects
• 68 - Use Failure as a Learning Tool
• 69 - Analyze Sales Mistakes as Lessons Learned
• 70 - Teach How to Overcome Objections
• 71 - Invite an Industry Pro to Give Advice and Coaching
• 72 - Conduct a DiSC Profile on Each Salesperson
• 73 - Share and Interpret DiSC Profile Results
• 74 - Teach Your Sales Professionals to Use the DiSC With Their Customers/Clients
• 75 - Send Your Sales Professionals to Professional Writing School
• 76 - Send Your Sales Professionals to Professional Acting School
• 77 - Establish a Mentoring Program
• 78 - Provide Constructive Feedback About Negative Behavior
• 79 - Establish Yourself as the Coach
• 80 - Create “Real Life” Sales Learning Opportunities and Teach the Lessons Learned
• 81 - Develop a Method to Transfer Sales “Knowledge”
• 82 - Spend Time Developing Yourself as the Sales Leader
• 83 - Understand and Teach the Key Metrics of the Business
• 84 - Do Not Make an Investment in Sales Training Unless You Understand ...
• 85 - Teach Your Sales Professionals the Skill of Self-Performance Evaluation
• 86 - Don’t Waste Your Time With Trendy Training Fads
• 87 - Your Intelligence Is Equal to the Thoroughness of Your Questions
• 88 - Teach the Sales Team How to Use Sales Data
• 89 - Encourage Your Sales Team to Deliver Value on Each and Every Sales Call
• 90 - Have the Right Systems and Processes in Place to Enable Maximum Productivity
• 91 - Ring the Bell When Someone Makes a Sale
• 92 - Eliminate, as Much as Possible, the Tactical Sales Work
• 93 - Leverage Technical Operations Talent in the Needs/Requirements Phase of a Proposal
• 94 - Pilot New Sales Concepts When Given the Opportunity
• 95 - Use a Sales Administration Technology
• 96 - Begin With the End in Mind When Giving Presentations
• 97 - Bring the Right Resources to Close a Deal
• 98 - Survey Your Customers and Provide Constructive Feedback to Your Team
• 99 - Practice the Art of Outstanding Presentations
• 100 - Establish and Maintain a Sales Funnel for Prospects and Deals
• 101 - Ask a Lot of Status Questions for Any Prospective Deal
• 102 - Be Sure You Engage Key Stakeholders on Deal Terms
• 103 - Solicit Internal Feedback on the Sales Process From Key Internal Stakeholders
• 104 - Deal With and Uncover All Facts Related to Any Deal
• 105 - Avoid Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
• 106 - Help Find the Decision-Maker(s)
• 107 - Don’t Expect Too Much Out of Trade Show Sales
• 108 - Use Social Networks to Extend Opportunities With New Prospects
• 109 - Use Blogging Technology to Create a Brand Following and “Thought Leader” ...
• 110 - Monetize Everything
• 111 - Sales Performance and Productivity Must Equal Dollars Invested in New Business
• 112 - Establish a Sales Process/ System and Stick to It
• 113 - Use the 7 and Out Rule
• 114 - Hire Only Skilled and Competent Sales Managers/Leaders
• 115 - Don’t Promote Highly Competent Sales Professionals Into Management Unless ...
• 116 - Have Your Top Executives Support Your Sales Efforts
• 117 - Make Sales Recruiting a Priority for Executives and Top Sales Performers
• 118 - Take Field Trips to Noncompetitive Industries to Learn New Ways to ...
• 119 - Conduct Retention Interviews With Newly Hired Sales Professionals
• 120 - Set the Organizational Expectation That Everyone in the Company Has ...
• 121 - Know All Your Sales Professionals By Name
• 122 - Get to Know the Sales Professional’s Husband/Wife/ Significant Other
• 123 - Get to Know the Sales Professional’s Family
• 124 - Send the Spouse or Significant Other a Thank-You Note for His/ Her Contributions
• 125 - Show Your Emotion and Passion About Sales
• 126 - Build Customer Relationships With Mutual Trust, Not Just a Contract
• 127 - Listen to Your Team
• 128 - Listen to Your Customer
• 129 - Move the Cheese
• 130 - Exercise, and Set Expectations for Your Team to Keep Physically Fit
• 131 - Establish the “No Asshole” Rule
• 132 - Solicit Sales Help From Key Internal Sponsors
• 133 - Create an Atmosphere in Which It’s Okay to Fail and Learn
• 134 - Don’t Expecting a Normal Distribution of Revenue From Your Sales Team
• 135 - Do Everything You Can to Keep Your “A” Sales Contributors
• 136 - Check Your Ego At the Door
• 137 - It’s Okay to Sweat, but Maintain Your Composure
• 138 - Hope Does Not Close Deals
• 139 - Maintain Your Sense of Humor
• 140 - Clear the Way for Streamlined Internal Decision-Making
• 141 - Be a Visible and Accessible Sales Leader
• 142 - Manage Natural Internal Conflicts Between Sales and Operations
• 143 - Don’t Take Over a Sales Call
• 144 - Provide After-Work Activities With Coworkers
• 145 - Celebrate Wins
• 146 - Include Customer Feedback in Product/Service Development and Give Credit ...
• 147 - Provide Company Logo Apparel to Wear When Meeting With Customers/Clients/Community
• 148 - Provide Various Competitive Rewards and Incentives
• 149 - Share a Salesperson’s Accomplishments With His/Her Peers
• 150 - Throw a Party
• 151 - Provide Competitive Compensation
• About the Authors