Why aren't your salespeople surpassing their quotas if you believed you hired the appropriate individuals and everyone was a good match for the company? Employees are sometimes to blame, but more often than not, something outside their control is to blame.
It's not unusual for businesses to face a brick wall when it comes to hiring salespeople. New industry trends, flashy rivals, failed procedures, and a slew of other factors can all contribute to a drop in sales for your sales staff.
However, it's difficult to attribute a single individual's failure to meet objectives to a process or industry issue if the rest of the team is meeting its targets. Still, just because one team member is having problems, it doesn’t mean that they are a problem.
Based on real-world research and case studies, we've gathered six of the greatest techniques for increasing sales rep performance so you can get back to achieving your targets in no time:
Cooperation should take precedence over rivalry.
Gamification in sales is a popular method for boosting productivity. Outright rivalry, on the other hand, isn't necessarily the most effective method for increasing team productivity.
A business with an international sales division matched salespeople targeting one market against reps selling to another country in one case study. When one team began to gain a competitive advantage, the underperforming salespeople assumed the issue was the market in their target nation. As a result, their enthusiasm waned.
The CEO’s solution? He took the highest performing reps from the star teams and sat them next to the reps of the low-performing countries. By being in close proximity to the high-performers and learning some of their sales techniques, teams were able to turn their productivity around and began outperforming within weeks.
Consider emphasising cooperation over a gamification approach that pushes your sales staff against each other in order to complete more transactions. Cooperative sales culture is not only important for keeping your workers healthy and happy at work, but it may also assist in boosting your team's total productivity.
Have a mechanism in place for qualifying leads.
“You can't close an unqualified lead,” as “Mr. Inside Sales” Mike Brooks put it. The lack of a structured prospect qualifying process—or the lack of a sales process at all—is one of the most prevalent reasons why sales teams fail.
Having a framework in place for qualifying prospects takes the uncertainty out of deciding who to pursue and who to turn down. Begin by:
- Consulting a lead score: Many sales management platforms can help you quickly and clearly identify quality prospects. Some do this by analyzing visitor behavior on your website and generating a lead score based on the parameters you set.
- Identifying your ideal consumer entails the following steps: The first step is to understand who you're selling to and then communicate that vision to your team, but don't forget to assess and refresh that client persona on a regular basis as trends and marketplaces change.
- Capturing leads: By developing a lead generation funnel through your website and social media channels that captures contact information, you can turn cold calls into warm leads.
Once you have an automated process in place that identifies who is most likely to convert, your team can quickly follow-up and keep their pipeline full.
Your follow-up procedure should be documented and optimised.
A well-documented follow-up procedure saves a salesperson from wondering what to do next, in addition to qualifying leads. A good lead to sales management system can automate a lot of this and remind your salespeople who they need to contact and when they need to contact them.
Managers can also use CRM platforms to track and analyse data across all of their team's accounts, allowing them to pinpoint which follow-up strategies work and which don't.
Your team will have a better chance of performing consistently and meeting sales goals if clear processes are established at each stage of the pipeline.
Invest yourself in training session
Some people are born salespeople. They have the appropriate attitude, the correct tone, and they understand how to work with and communicate with a lead in order to bring them over the finish line. Others on your squad can close as well as you, but they may struggle in other areas.
Sales training is an investment in your staff. This provides those employees who are underperforming with more ammunition, tools, and resources to assist them close more sales. They may remain on top of sales psychology, communication methods, actionable words, time management abilities, and more with regular training.
Most importantly, a team that practises and participates in skill development exercises together develops a stronger relationship. Even in a competitive sales atmosphere, they'll be more inclined to help each other achieve their objectives.
Know the values and customer needs
A good onboarding process for new salespeople should involve a thorough examination of your product or service, ensuring that they completely comprehend your unique selling proposition (USP) and how it relates to the demands of your target market. Check to discover if the lack of performance is due to a value misalignment with consumers. If they don't communicate properly with their customers, their lead-to-close ratio will suffer.
Regularly reviewing your target audience and revisiting the information to determine whether audience segments move might be beneficial. This is an excellent opportunity to discuss audience requirements, pain issues, and roadblocks with the team. Make it a two-way conversation so your staff may bring up new concerns in prospect communication. This might assist a low-performing representative in staying fresh when it comes to matching requirements with value.
Sharpen your communication
Even the most engaged and motivated salesperson might fall short if their interactions with prospects are causing friction. This might involve the following:
- Pushy tactics
- Poor tone in spoken or written communications
- Long-winded communications
- Too much time or too little time between follow-ups
- Poor historical tracking that leads to poor communication and awkward follow-ups
Communication may and should be quietly scrutinised. Examine call logs and emails without informing the sales person. You won't be able to observe how they normally perform if you audit over their shoulder. You're going to receive the "my boss is standing over me watching me work" act.
If you notice a problem with communication, make an action plan with specific examples to assist them. Have the reps who are having trouble listening in on their colleagues who are succeeding. Make calls and provide customer follow-ups to show them how to enhance communication. Show by example with a real customer encounter so they may observe how the customer reaction improves firsthand.
In conclusion, while some people are just not good at selling, it's also conceivable that a failing salesperson requires coaching to help them reach their full potential. Examine their efforts, communication, and teamwork to ensure that they have the best chance of succeeding.