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Great phone sales requires
a great phone sales team. On the phone, customers can’t
even see the product; they must rely totally on the communication
skills of the rep on the other end of the line. This means
that if you are going to tap into the vast profit potential
of telephone sales marketing, you must hire great people and
provide them with great training. Our Phone
Sales Training classes are designed and taught by some
of the best in the business. We cover everything you need
to know to hire the right staff, give them the best telemarketing
training, and connect them to right people on the other end
of the line. All of this will mean great
results for you.
Avoiding
Sales Management Blunders
Hiring
a sales staff for your small business comes with the responsibility
to provide effective sales management. Learn the biggest sales
management blunders and how you can avoid them.
1. Mixing
Recognition with Coaching:
One common sales management blunder is to congratulate your
sales force for a job well done and quickly move to areas
of improvement. This tactic can often be interpreted by sales
staff as a lack of appreciation. A best practice is to separate
the recognition from the coaching. Save the performance improvement
areas for coaching sessions. Set up separate recognition of
your sales rep success even if it's a small celebration. It's
the little gestures of respect and celebrations of achievement
that gain the hearts and minds of the sales force.
2.No Sales
Plan: Another common sales
management blunder is not developing a sales plan to help
manage the sales team.
A successful
sales team requires regular planning tracking, and review to
achieve the targeted results. Every sales rep requires their
own action plan to direct day-to-day activities and set up accountabilities.
All sales plans have at least 3 requirements:
Sales Rep Development: Where most plans fail
is they are developed by the sales manager not the sales rep.
To ensure a high level of plan acceptance, have the rep develop
the plan and guide them toward the right objectives.
Regular Reporting: Sales plans should be
established on a weekly basis to provide flexibility in the
planning cycle. Reviewing can take place on a monthly basis.
Sales management excellence
involves reviewing the results against the plan to determine
missed opportunities and areas for improvement.
Sales Metrics: A successful sales plan focuses
on results and activities. Establish the proper sales metrics
to drive your business results. Metrics can include: number
of client phone calls, number of contacts, appointments set,
appointments conducted and sales closed. Do not overwhelm
your sales staff with excessive tracking numbers. Focus on
the few measures that matter the most to your
business.
3. No Sales Support: A common sales management
blunder is to hire a sales person without providing them with
the level of support required to succeed. Even if your new
rep is well-versed in your industry and a top performer, they
will still require help to familiarize themselves with your
company, products, and markets.
Not all sales reps require the same
level of support. For many small business owners, a hands-off
approach to sales management is not the best strategy. Successful
sales management requires a commitment to sales force training.
Regardless of the size of your firm, an investment in sales
training and support can pay big dividends on profitability.
Spending the time one-on-one and in the field with your sales
team will not only provide support but convey a sense of the
importance of sales people in your organization.
4. Focus on Control Sales Management: Many
new and unsuccessful sales managers will focus on the traditional
sales management by intimidation or control approach. The
top sales performers know they have a valuable skill set and
will quickly walk to a competitor if treated poorly.
Sales management
is a partnership between the sales rep and the sales manager.
Effective sales management requires sharing in the responsibility
to find the problems and bottlenecks in your sales process.
Seek the solution together with your reps. Be a champion for
helping them achieve their agreed results.
5. Lack of Sales Accountability: There will
be times when sales reps fail regardless of the support and
training they receive. It is easy to pass off the lack of
results to external forces such as competitors, the economy,
or poor marketing. Remember the sales rep was hired to bring
in sales. When support, training, and market potential are
available, a lack of results often means it's the rep's performance.
Who is responsible for the lack of performance?
Your sales management program. If your small business lacks
a clear policy of sales accountability, it remains your responsibility
to implement the process. Creating a culture of sales accountability
will not happen overnight. Expect to lose sales staff. Sales
reps who have under performed and will not accept personal
responsibility for their own results, will leave. This is
a good thing. A sales accountability culture only accepts
top performers; exactly what your business needs to survive
in a competitive market.
Other big sales management blunders do exist.
It is vital to have an honest feedback system in place. Alan
J. Zell, "The Ambassador of Selling" feels "most
sales managers do not have a system of feedback that will
allow the staff to have a way to comment back to the sales
manager without the fear of being chastised or being known
as a complainer."
Growing a small business is hard work. The
sales management function is often overlooked by small business
owners. Spending the necessary time wearing your sales manager
hat will help foster a rewarding culture and build a successful
sales team to boost your business to new levels.
Darrell
Zahorsky
Altanta
TeleSales Skills - Understand The Market
Phone
Sales Quote
"I'm easily satisfied with the very best."
Winston Churchill
Suggested
Reading:
Telephone
Sales
Management and Motivation Made Easy
by Valerie Sloane, Theresa Arvizo Jackson
Profitable
Telephone Sales Operations
by Robert C. Steckel
Planning
Telephone Sales: Handbook for Distributor Management
by Peg Fisher
Telemarketing
Telephone
Soliciting and Telephone Sales: At Home Opportunities
by Update Publicare Co.
How
to Be a Successful Telephone Sales Representative
by Amer Mgmt Assn Staff
Successful
Cold Call Selling: Over 100 New Ideas, Scripts, and Examples
from the Nation's Foremost Sales Trainer
by Lee Boyan
How
to Increase Sales by Telephone (A Mandarin paperback)
by Alfred Tack
Travel
Sales and Telephone
Techniques
by Foster
Telemarketing
for business: A strategic guide to telephone marketing and
sales
by Eugene B Kordahl
How
to increase sales via the telephone
by Alan Herbert Jordan |
