How to get the most out of your sales staff

When economic conditions are hard, being a sales manager can seem like the most difficult job in the world. The challenge of managing your sales force effectively is often overwhelming. It is important to understand the limitations and opportunities that are available to you. A clear understanding of your role as a sales manager is therefore central to being able to make improvements to sales results.
 
The dictionary definition of ‘management’ is to be in charge of, or, to control. These are unhelpful in understanding the key to successful sales management. How do you control a sales force that can be all over the country at any one time?
 
As a sales manager you have to think of yourself as a leader of a team. Leadership involves giving people guidance and direction. Being a leader, means being able to aid and facilitate. It involves creating the right conditions so people can excel. It is as a sales leader that you will start to get the most out of your team.
 
An environment for success Creating the right environment is central to having a successful sales team. If the conditions are correct you will have a motivated sales force, which is one of the main ingredients to achieving outstanding results. The key to motivation is recognition.
 
Ultimately everyone wants to be appreciated and their hard work acknowledged. This is reflected in the incentives and commissions that your company provide, but this is rarely enough. This is especially true when times are hard and targets are not always met. Make sure you recognise people’s efforts and achievements. Don’t rely solely on commission schemes, but also recognise employees publicly, by articulating and praising their successes.
 
Public recognition of staff encourages everyone to do well. This should be done at regular team meetings. Allow people to meet and share experiences that can be valuable to everyone. Don’t be afraid to use the knowledge and experience of the whole sales team. Regular meetings give people confidence and make them feel part of something.
 
This is important if they are alone on the road for long periods of time. It is essential both at the team meetings, and also on an individual basis, that you listen and show empathy and understanding for your sales staff. In difficult times people need to feel you appreciate the challenges they face day to day. They will also be far more forthcoming in recounting experiences and problems they are facing. Knowledge is power and this feedback is important. It ensures you have an understanding of what is going on in the field, and can therefore be effective, in helping your salespeople get better.
 
Encourage people to share some of the mistakes they have made. People learn from mistakes and if they know it is o.k. to sometimes get it wrong, they will get it right. If people are not afraid, they will be innovative and take risks. It is often in this exciting environment that great results occur. You must also foster an environment of trust.
 
People learn to give what they think you expect. Trust your sales people when they are on the road and you will find they rise to the challenge. Theodore Roosevelt articulated this well when he said “The best executive is the one who has the sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and enough restraint to keep from meddling with them, whilst they are doing it”.
 
The right approach If recognition is the key to motivation, then incentive schemes and competitions become very important in getting the best out of your sales staff. Just like an athlete would not perform at their best if there were no competitors or clock to race against, similarly, a salesperson also needs competition and targets, in order to be encouraged to push themselves to the maximum.
 
However, many sales managers miss opportunities to improve sales figures by only giving incentives based on final sales figures. While it is important to reward success, these incentives often fail to tackle problems within the sales process, which are preventing sales being made.
 
It is therefore important for managers to see the wider picture and incentivise behaviour and not just results. Behaviours that get rewarded will be repeated and therefore can often lead to a dramatic improvement in sales figures. For example, in hard times, because of the higher rate of rejection, sales people tend to make less client visits.
 
This obviously has a knock on effect to overall sales figures and the whole scenario becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. In this situation providing incentives based on number of client visits can make a real difference to your company sales figures, and break the downward spiral. Similarly, companies have had tremendous success running incentives based on number of referrals collected; being that this is usually easier business to convert.
 
Setting Targets In order for any commission and incentive scheme to have a positive affect you must be aware of what behaviours need improving. This means ensuring that sales staff keep accurate records of lead generation figures, call rates, referrals, conversion rates and anything else which may be important to your business. It is impossible to go through all this information at once.
 
However, it is important that you systematically review all the data over a given sales period. An overall picture can then also be built up through regular meetings and also visits in the field. Not only will this information ensure that you run excellent incentive schemes that can really make a difference to your results, it will also enable you to set realistic targets and objectives for your sales force.
 
It is vital, in order to get a good performance from sales staff, that they know exactly what is expected of them and that it is realistic. If salespeople don’t feel that targets are in any way achievable there is little motivation in trying to achieve them. Targets should be agreed at reviews or appraisals which should be pre-planned and take place on a regular basis.
 
At these appraisals avoid the temptation to give people a monologue on how they are doing, but ask for their opinion. People are often very honest and realistic about their own capabilities and performance. Don’t tell people what to do but reach conclusions together. People don’t necessarily believe your words but they believe their own. Improvements to be made should be written down and signed by both parties. The consistency of having objectives written and agreed means people are much more likely to respond in a positive way.
 
The importance of training Finally, if you identify areas that need improving in your sales team, it is important that they get the help and support to get better. As sales gets ever more sophisticated it is important that you give your staff the tools to be able to do the job. Training also helps in motivating and retaining staff. By investing in such a public way it is the best demonstration to staff that you believe in them and that they have the company’s support.
 
There is a higher turnover of staff generally in sales than most other professions. However, it is much better to train staff who eventually leave than to not train staff who stay and under perform in your organisation for years. As a manager you are there to create the conditions to enable people to realise their full potential. If you make that your primary objective, then success will come for both you and your sales team.
By Grant Leboff Principal, The Intelligent Sales Club