How to Make Your Average Sales Reps Great
Business owners and leaders often ask “How do I get my average sales people to perform at a higher level?” It turns out that no magic is involved, and the best answer is not to steal the superstars away from the competitors.
A documented sales process
In our experience working with thousands of businesses, we found that one of the most effective ways to raise the performance level of the average sales rep is to provide that salesperson with a proven and repeatable sales process to follow. To understand why, it helps to understand some of the issues in play.
We find that the top salespeople do the right things in the right way at the right time out of instinct. It is just “natural” for the superstar to say “just the right thing” at the right time to move the prospect forward. Because of this, many people conclude that some people just “have it” and others don’t. But, by analyzing what these top salespeople were doing and saying, we realized that “just the right thing” is not magic, it is something that can be identified, documented, and put into practice by every sales rep.
Interestingly, these top salespeople often don’t realize what they are doing differently from the average rep, which is one of the reasons that promoting a top salesperson to manager is generally not a great idea. What they do is often so natural and instinctive to these top salespeople that they can’t explain it.
It turns out that many times the average sales rep isn’t sure what to do next. He may be unsure how to communicate information that the prospect needs. She may be unsure of what action to take next to move the prospect forward. They may be afraid of a decision point because they are not confident that the prospect will choose their product or service, and therefore delay taking any action. They may be unsure of how to respond to a myriad of possible objections and so avoid the conversation altogether. The average sales reps are also often skipping important steps in the sales process, during which they can lose prospects that should not be lost. There are countless examples of how a sales rep might be unsure of how to proceed, or take the wrong action for this prospect at this time.
Creating a documented sales process provides great assurance and instills confidence in these average salespeople. It allows them to focus on just the one next step in the process (eat the elephant one bite at a time, as I’ve heard countless times). They don’t need to know the best response to all possible objections, just to the likely objections at this point in the process. They now have a path showing them the next step toward the eventual sale.
And, if the documented process identifies and incorporates all the “just the right things at the right time” that the top salespeople do, and if it incorporates the numerous best practices that we have identified, then it provides the sales rep with a virtual road map of how to walk the prospect through the sales process with the best possible opportunity to close the deal. All the salespeople can perform like the top sales reps because they know the plan!
Impact on the company
You may be wondering, “How much can this really impact sales?” Let’s take an example company with 10 salespeople, and we’ll say 2 of them are outstanding and performing at a 10 level, 6 of them are average and performing at a 6, and 2 of them are poor and only performing at a 3. Implementing the proven and repeatable sales process will typically take the average performers from a 6 to at least to an 8; it may have no effect on the poor performers and only a small positive impact on the top performers. Taking the 6 average performing reps from a 6 to an 8 will result in a 20% increase in sales! And if the 6 average performers get to a 9, then the increase is nearly 30%. If our example company eliminated or redeployed the 2 poor performers, sales would still be up 10% while the sales expense would be down. Here’s another idea: replace the 2 poor performers with another average (now well above-average) performer. The possibilities are extensive; the point is that this can truly improve your company’s performance! Think how pleased everyone would be if sales were up 20% without breaking the bank!
The benefits of creating this proven and repeatable sales process are numerous: The organization owns the process, and is not at risk of serious decline if the top sales rep leaves; the organization experiences increased sales and profits because all the sales reps are delivering results at a high level; the clients have a more consistent and predictable experience and customer satisfaction improves; the time and cost to get a new sales rep onboard and up to speed are reduced significantly, and their chances of being successful are greatly improved.
The challenge
Creating a proven and repeatable sales process is not trivial. It takes significant effort along with the expertise to identify the critical steps and the resources needed to execute them. If your business doesn’t have a proven and repeatable sales process, please contact us to discuss how we may help you.