Sales Progress Blog

Behind every great sales team, there is a sales manager that helped them achieve their numbers and their success. They helped inspire their team and motivated them to enhance their performance in every way possible. They coached their reps through the tough times and gave them the tools to help them meet their bottom line. Great sales managers are hard to come by, but they all share a couple common characteristics:

They build and support.
Great sales managers know how to build their teams up and keep them there. They give them the tools they need to effectively sell, and furthermore, they are there when their sales team needs help. If a sales person comes to them for assistance, they do not just give their employee the answer. They sit them down and have the rep go through their problem, and they figure out a solution through teaching and coaching.

Read on…

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These days people are more protective of their money, and instead of spending it freely, they are saving. For sales teams, it has become increasingly important to keep a hold of current clients; since, as most studies show, it costs six times more to get a prospect to buy than it does an existing customer. So, the question becomes, “How do we maintain our relationship with our client and get them to buy?”

Most customers leave because they are unhappy, and sixty-seven percent of clients leave because of a perceived feeling of indifference. Managers and supervisors need to coach their inside sales team to keep in front of their customers. Look at who you have not talked to in the past year and who you have not contacted in the past 30 days and make sure to send them an e-mail or phone call to let them know that you are still interested in them. Ask customers how the product you sold them is working out or if they need anything else. This way, you are letting your customers know that you value them.

Here are a couple more steps that you can take to improve your sales and increase your business opportunities:

Send Items of Interest. Find out information about your customers.

Read more…

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Today is an important day for most Mid-westerners because it marks the beginning of summer and the end of those cold, brutal winter months. With all the distractions of summer days, managers may begin to worry about one thing: their employee’s sustainability.

Sustainability - to keep up or keep going.

Everyone has those days, when work is the last place you want to be, and you’ve already started to think about weekend activities…but it’s only Monday. The sun is shining outside, the pools are packed and you’re stuck in an office. As a manager, how do you keep sales up and employees going during the summer months?

There are many things you can do to keep your employees motivated and train them to increase their sales sustainability :

admin Sales Management, Sales Training Add new tag, coaching, effective coaching, Employee Coaching, employee training, Enhance Performance, linkedin, management leadership training, motivation, sales, sales coaching, Sales Management, summer sales, sustainability, sustained learning, teamwork, training reinforcement

recently read a great and very short post from the blog of Seth Godin, titled
The relentless search for "tell me what to do". The post read:

If you’ve ever hired or managed or taught, you know the feeling.
People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I’m safe."
When asked, resist.

We typically think of people NOT liking being told what to do, but think about your staff and fellow employees, and even yourself, how many times a week do we indirectly ask, “What should I be doing.”  We may say, “what tasks should I be completing today,” or “I have the following problem, how should I fix it?” but all in all we are saying, “tell me what to do.”

This frame of thinking not only becomes a way to push off responsibility as Seth suggested above, but it can also breed laziness and a lack of accountability.

Managers can use coaching techniques to get employees to come up with their own solutions to problems.  Use questions like, “What do you THINK you should do,” or “If you were me, what would you tell yourself to do.”  These questions allow for a dialog to open, and you can now lead your employee to a suitable solution they essentially came up with on their own.  When your employee owns the solutions they will work harder to make it work because it is their own butt on the line.  If you simply give them a solution, they can half-heartedly attempt it, and if it fails they can blame you.  Don’t play the blame game; make your staff responsible for their actions.

If you are an employee, and you have finished your work for the day, proactively seek additional projects you can work on.  Go above and beyond, but keep your manager in the loop to ensure you are not wasting time.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training business coaching, coaching, effective coaching, Leadership, Manager, sales coaching, Sales Coaching Methodology, Sales Manager

According to independent consultant Joe DiDonato , in his article “The Future Workforce” published in the December/ January edition of E-Learning magazine, training is leaving the classroom in favor of more interactive and successful training methods.  He looks to the emerging overload of new information and proposes the best new model for training to be

20% Classroom
30% Non- Classroom
50% Performance Support

It’s important to note that 80% is to occur outside of the classroom! Keep this in mind as you consider your new training efforts.  If the proposed program includes almost exclusively classroom training, then you should reconsider it.  Successful training now requires more than one-day workshops. Training reinforcement activities, management coaching, and real world problem solving are all now imperative to successful employee training and retention.

Research by Sales Performance International supports this shift, according to them participants of typical sales training methods forget half of what is taught within 5 weeks.  Protect your investment in your employees by choosing a program that supports retention of skills and changes in behavior.

For more information on picking a successful training program, download our free whitepaper : Four Steps to Sales Training Success.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Management, Sales Training business coaching, coaching, effective coaching, employee training, Enhance Performance, free whitepaper, Learning, learning strategies, managment training, sales coaching, training and development, training reinforcement, training techniques, workplace training

We constantly talk about the importance of coaching, and tips or strategies to do it better, but why should we incorporate coaching into our organization anyways?

Here are the top 7 reasons why your organization needs to coach it’s employees.

1. Employee Retention, research proves coaching increases employee retention, which therefore decreases hiring costs.
2. Managers who get close to employees work can solve real world challenges.  A manager’s knowledge is one of the best resources an organization can have, coaching allows managers to have insight into their employees work allowing them to apply their knowledge specifically to real world issues.
3. Coaching creates better succession planning due to internal talent growth.
4. Coaching creates an organizational energy of growth and learning.
5. Programs build coaches within all leadership circles.  The more coaches an organization has, the more “performance-improving” employees it will have.
6. Business requires employees to constantly grow and develop new skill sets.  Organizations with managers who are coaching create a competitive edge because they become more adaptable to needed change and growth.
7. Employees who experience a continuous increase in skills and work performance actually become more open to change and challenges.  This, in itself, is enough to start an organization wide coaching initiative.

If you would like more information on coaching your employees, attend our Free Breakfast Presentation: Why Coaching Builds Business Success , or email Tim Hagen at Tim@salesprogress .com for more information.

Tim Hagen Sales Training business coaching, coaching, effective coaching, Leadership, management leadership training, Manager, sales coaching, Sales Coaching Methodology, Sales Manager, workplace training

Last week we talked about a post from Selling Power discussing the top issues on the minds of sales leaders in 2010.  Shortly after posting I came across these interesting new stats published in the December/January edition of E-Learning Magazine from the Spring Board Project.  I would say these statistics create a strong case for why we need to continue to train our employees.

50% of employers say they currently have such a serious gap between their needs and employees’ skills that if affects their productivity.  In today’s business world, there is no room for drags on productivity.  According to this statistic 50% of businesses could improve their productivity by providing additional training for their employees.

48% of employers do not provide ongoing education or skills training primarily because of cost.  Budgets are tight so this is certainly a valid point, HOWEVER if you are one of those company’s whose productivity is struggling due to lack of training you may be costing yourself more money to your bottom line because you won’t spend the money to invest in your employees.

80% of workers show keen interest in pursuing further education and training.
Give the people what they want, it just may be what your company NEEDS.

62% of workers say a convincing reason to pursue training is that the future economy will be extremely demanding, and if their skills are not to up to date, someone will pass them by.  This is very true; you could also take this stat to a broader view.  Given that the economy will be demanding, if you do not update the skills of your employee who is to say that your customers won’t pass you by for a competitor with better-trained employees?

Certainly training your employees can be expensive, and in tough times there may not be the financial resources available to run a true training program or to hire an outside resource.  With that in mind it’s time to get creative.  Take advantage of free resources available via the web.  Article sites, blogs by sales trainers, websites like Selling Power which offer thousands of free resources, coaching your employees, role playing, all of these things are free and can be beneficial to the needs of your employees.

If you know someone is struggling with handling price objections you could first send them an article on handling price objections, and then schedule time to role-play and practice handling those objections.  These two simple things can really spring board the employee ahead, and will cost you nothing but a little bit of time.

This year stop using budget as an excuse to not train your employees, and get creative with free resources.  Your bottom line will thank you.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Management, Sales Training coaching, Leadership, sales, sales coaching, Sales Management, Sales Managers, Sales Progress, Sales Representative, sales skills, Sales Success, Sales Training, sustained learning

I often laugh when I hear people say they could never do sales. When I ask why, they state all that rejection and hearing the word "no". It hit me, that’s why so many people actually fail at sales because they hear the word "no" so often. The sad fact is they should never hear that word if they follow a simple to use sales formula.

1. Ask (open-ended questions, these usually start with "what" or "how")
2. Shut Up & Listen
3. Address what the client said and seek a way to help or solve a problem

THATS IT

Isn’t that what sales is suppose to be about? Asking clients questions to see how we can or maybe cannot help. Most sales people have preconceived notions of what they are going to say or do in a sales call. What a BIG mistake. This puts you in the frame of mind of "Saying" and not asking. This is the biggest mistake I see when working with clients. Sales people who know what they are going to say before hearing a word coming from the client.

Mistakes in sales are usually very subtle and are attributed to a lack of sales planning. The planning should require what questions will be asked to ascertain specific areas of need, and what are the possible solutions for those responses. What do we hate about sales people? They are too pushy, they talk too much, they didn’t even listen, etc. The sad fact is when asked what specific questions sales people use to ask their client to define needs they respond with a long-winded synopsis’s of what they try to do in selling. By the way, they never answer the question. Here are the top mistakes sales people make:

1. They ask close ended questions (questions that require a "yes" or "no" response).
2. They have no planned or defined questioning sequence.
3. They rarely listen to what clients say because they are already thinking of what they want to say next.
4. Their call objectives are usually centered on the notion of what they want to do versus seeking information to help the client. This mentality pigeonholes their thought process.
5. The biggest mistake I get from sales people is that they know what they are doing. The attitude is centered on the perception they have mastered sales. Sales is NOT an event you simply master, rather a process you can always get better at.

So how do we help sales people succeed? How can we get sales people to perform better? The first thing we need to do is break down the basics of sales techniques into a very simplistic components. Next, we need to condition their behaviors to follow the sales components. The trick is not how to do sales, rather getting people to break their habits into a very question-based approach that is centered around the client, NOT them. Sounds easy, but it is not. Sales people hate to change. Here are some basic methods to help sales people improve their sales

1. Use question sheets to be filled out by sales people.This helps steer them and provide a glimpse of what is actually said.
2. Start each question with the words "what" or "why". This guarantees the client will provide ample information.
3. Listen! OK, so what does this mean? We need to break sales people’s habits of thinking what they want to say while the client is talking. This inhibits the sales person from learning something that could actually help close the sale. You do this with listening games and role-playing activities.
4. Encourage sales people to come up with at least 1 new question before each sales call. This promotes the thinking and associated behaviors with asking and listening

Sales is really easy if we focus on what we want to learn, what questions provide that information, and ultimately how we can solve/address the customer issues. Sales people often have their own way of doing things, but let’s challenge them to look at the fundamentals.

Tim Hagen Sales Management, Sales Training Leadership, sales coaching, Sales Management, sales methodology, Sales Progress, sales skills, Sales Training, Tim Hagen

A 2009 Sales Performance Optimization Survey done by CSO Insights reported that only 58.8% of sales people were meeting their quotas in 2009.

If only half of your company’s sales force is hitting their numbers the important sales skills, sales effectivenessquestion becomes, how do we increase sales?  The average number of phone calls and meetings has already increased significantly throughout recent years but even with this increased effort sales are down.

So what do we do?  Work SMARTER.

CSO Insights came to this conclusion while evaluating their survey results.

“ The real objective is going to be how to make great calls: motivating stakeholders to meet with you; creating a sense of urgency that moves evaluating your solutions to the top of their priority list; differentiating yourself from the competition; selling value rather than discounting prices; creating a compelling business case to get the project approved now.  This will require your salespeople to be more effective at selling than they were in 2008.”
-    CSO Insights

While an increase in calls and meetings is always a good thing, don’t forget to adequately prepare for them.  If your going to put in the extra effort to make the extra calls and book more appointments make sure you get the most you can from each of these interactions.  Make sure your selling value not price, find out your customers needs and tell them how you can solve them to create urgency to buy, and make EVERY call a great call with 110% of your effort.

Work SMARTER in 2010, and watch your competitors fall by the wayside.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training sales coaching, sales effectiveness, Sales Progress, sales skills, Sales Training, Tim Hagen

Defining a sales coaching culture at any organization can be nebulous as well as ambiguous. A coaching culture can take on the appearance of many different faces. There are however, specific attributes that will illustrate if an organization has truly created a coaching culture.

• Coaching cannot be a departmental activity. The management team must cooperatively and consistently drive performance using the same methods and techniques through out the organization.
• A coaching culture has managers openly discussing performance issues and techniques to drive performance across departmental lines.
• Management discusses and cooperatively engages with one another to drive performance and communication across departmental lines for the betterment of the organization
• Culture of employees who feel challenged and inspired for personal development, career growth, and continuous pursuit of helping the organization’s bottom line.
• The organization has embraced a specific theme for performance development.
• Coaching should not be viewed as a task to be completed but rather as a unique opportunity. The true relationship should be centered around the opportunity coaching not only provides the employee but also the manager.
• Managers value coaching, but also admit their need to be better coaches.
• All coaching and training leverages “real world” issues and solutions.

Tim Hagen Sales Training free sales and marketing tools, sales coaching, Sales Managers, Sales Progress, Sales Training