The Client Needs to Steer

The increase in the productivity of a sales team is most often linked to small incremental changes in thinking and behavior. Moral of the story: There are no big secrets.

As Darren Hardy hammers home throughout his best selling book The Compound Effect it is the small daily changes that we make in our lives and practice CONSISTENTLY that effect real changes in our lives.

If your sales force practiced these simple principles, their productivity would stand a much better chance at improvement:

Do you as a manager encourage (and do by example) your sales team to ALWAYS be engaged in personal improvement?

This can take the form of books, seminars, webinars, etc.

Does your sales team "walk the talk"?

That is, do they use their own products and services? If you sell one brand of car, does your sales team drive another brand? This is probably not going to encourage others to think that they really believe in their product. (If they really don't believe in the product, then you probably have a bigger problem.)

How is your team trained to react to "No"? 

The more people that say "No", then that means they are approaching more people. "No" doesn't mean failure. It can mean one step closer to success.

Do you find that your or your team are "steering" customers to products or services that YOU want them to buy?

There is very little success achieved in this approach. In order to satisfy our customers, we need to FULLY understand what THEY want and need and direct them to our products and services that satisfy those needs. It rarely works out the other way around.

Are YOU and your team personally organized?

I am going to include in this good grooming and ... yes, this includes smelling good. If this sounds silly to you, just ask yourself how you feel as a customer when you see someone in a suit and tennis shoes (yes I have seen this recently with a car salesman here in Phoenix) and could pick out everything he had in his dinner salad from what was between his teeth.)

Do you and your sales staff how followup call sheets AND notes from their meeting with their potential customers?

Are you and your sales staff practicing all your best practices ON A CONSISTENT basis?

We are creatures of habit. The more we practice our best behaviors, the better we get at them.

In summary, you as a manager must walk the talk, set expectations, and provide the tools for your staff to be successful.