Sales is a very tough gig. When most people think of sales, they imagine someone who has a “silver tongue” or who is simply good at slick talking people. To be honest, that is not an accurate assumption of what it takes to be successful.
Many business owners leave the future of their business in the hands of their sales staff without really knowing how to train them or what to look for in qualified candidates during the hiring process. So what happens is they end up hiring someone who ends up costing them money rather than making them money? There are tons of different solutions to this particular issue, but one of the best long term strategies is to create solid sales processes that all of your sales staff can follow that will ensure they succeed.
Another way to look at it is to think of your sales processes as the foundation of your business. Building a business is a lot like building a home. If you have a weak foundation, the whole place will implode, and all of the money you poured into your investment goes down the drain. However, if you have a solid foundation, you can build the home of your dreams and it will last for many, many years.
One of the toughest parts of having a career in sales is finding qualified prospects. Lead generation requires activity. Not everyone on your team will be thrilled with the type of prospecting activity they have to do in order to generate the leads. It is critical that you sit down and develop sales processes that can help your sales staff generate new names of potential clients in a systematic way. Keep track of the type of activity that each person on the staff completes and what the results were. This helps you to identify what part of your processes is working and which ones aren’t.
Once the need is established, your sales staff needs to be able to demonstrate how your products and services meet that need better than your competitors. Having this be a repeatable process helps your staff develop product knowledge as well as giving them confidence when talking to new people.
Once you have a customer, the next step is creating a solid customer service process. Having a good customer service process will again build confidence in your staff and help them to retain clients. The result is establishing a positive reputation for your business in the community.
As a business owner, you may decide to separate your sales team into two groups. One will be the hunters, those who land the accounts. Then the other group, the farmers, handles the customers as an account manager. Many sales people may only fall into one camp or the other, and cannot handle both functions well.
It is critical to your success to have solid sales processes to help bring out the best in your staff and establish a reputable business in your local area. If you need help creating and establishing solid processes for your sales staff, contact us today and our professionals will help make sure your business has a solid foundation.