Twenty Questions Every Sales Manager Should Consider Regarding Their Salespeople

1. Do all of your salespeople plan the effective use of their time each workday in 30-minute increments?

When salespeople don’t plan their days they will never accomplish all that could be done. They will spend their time doing urgent tasks instead of focusing on important activities that will increase their sales. When time is planned in 30-minute increments, achievement increases because there is focus on doing the important things as efficiently as possible.

2. Do all of your salespeople keep their sales pipeline full with qualified prospects?

The more opportunities a sales person has in their pipeline the more sales they will close. Selling is a numbers game. If they don’t have a full pipeline, they are probably not planning time each day to find new opportunities.

3. Do all of your salespeople know their sales call to close ratio?

Selling is a process. The results of a salesperson’s activities are in direct correlation to knowing and following their sales process. It is really as simple as: contacts to appointments, appointments to quotes, quotes to follow-ups, follow-ups to closes. If a salesperson knew that for every twenty people they contacted that they would eventually make one sale and that one sale would generate a certain commission, then that salesperson would religiously follow their sales process.

4. Do all of your salespeople spend their time only with qualified prospects?

It is important for salespeople to be able to qualify their prospects as quickly as possible. Using effective questioning techniques will allow them to quickly assess the opportunity. Selling is a numbers game. The more qualified prospects in a salesperson’s pipeline, the more sales they will make.

5. Do all of your salespeople obtain a steady stream of referrals by following a customer referral dialogue?

The most effective means of finding new business is through doing more business with existing customers. The second most effective way of finding new business is through referrals from existing customers. Every current customer should be providing referrals on a regular basis. A system for receiving referrals and turning them into sales is a skill every salesperson should practice regularly.

6. Do all of your salespeople never complain that your product prices are too high?

Professional salespeople sell themselves first, reputation of the company second, product third, and price fourth. The customer thinks that price is the most important factor only because poor salespeople over time have focused on price. Ask a customer how important low price was to them when they didn’t receive their shipment on time. People buy from people they believe, like and trust. Sell yourself first. There is no loyalty in price.

7. Do all of your salespeople exceed their sales goals on a consistent basis?

Too many managers hold salespeople accountable for performance without teaching them how to reach that level of performance. Even when goals are established, if system of accountability has not been established and regularly followed, goals will not be achieved. Most managers are focused on the goal and not the daily steps required to achieve the goal. Monitor the steps and the goal will be achieved.

8. Do all of your salespeople conduct follow-ups at the right time and never use the two deadly questions?

Selling is a process not an event. National statistics suggest that it takes between 5-7 contacts to build the trust to persuade someone to purchase from you. Eighty-four percent of people say no before they say yes. The follow-up is where salespeople turn the no into a yes. By-the-way, the two most deadly questions are: Have you made up your mind yet? Do you have any questions?

9. Do all of your salespeople look forward to your sales meetings?

Most meetings are to long, lack direction, fail in achievement, don’t involve every individual and tend to be negative. Solution – Time specific agenda that incorporates the principle of Assign and Report. Give everyone a chance to tell a success story. Take action, don’t just talk about and think about issues. Resolve and move on.

10. Do all of your salespeople follow a personal development plan that helps them to achieve continual improvement?

Most salespeople have no idea what it takes to become a professional salesperson. They do what they think is right or what they have seen others do. I wouldn’t want to go to a doctor who just did what he thought was right without any study or practice in the field of medicine. Professional salespeople have studied the principles and skills associated with sales and look for improvements on a daily basis. Even after receiving a medical degree, the average doctor spends on average eleven hours each week improving their knowledge and skills.

11. Do all of your salespeople implement all the good ideas they learn from sales education seminars you send them to?

Salespeople are not just born; they are well trained and highly motivated. They are motivated because they understand the relationship between skills, effort, time and money.

12. Do all of your salespeople spend two hours per week building strategies with the sales manager on a 1 to 1 basis?

To be successful at anything there must be a system of accountability. To hold salespeople accountable for their performance on a weekly basis and to teach and train them to perform better at their trade on a weekly basis is a formula that will deliver sales success. Corrective action can be taken 52 times each year if needed.

13. Do all of your salespeople arrive at appointments well prepared with a scripted presentation?

Most salespeople just wing it. Since most of them have never prepared for a career in sales they don’t understand the importance of preparing for each sales opportunity. They show up and then they throw-up on the prospect by telling the prospect everything they can think of about their product or service without first assessing the prospects needs.

14. Do all of your salespeople look the part of a well-groomed sales professional?

The first impression a salesperson makes is their appearance. If a salesperson looks the part it will go a long ways towards their success. The first reality is perception. Salespeople should dress one level above their audience.

15. Do all of your salespeople remain excited about their work, and your company’s products?

It is much easier to sell a product that you believe in. It is also easier to remain motivated when you believe in the company. Both of these variables are influenced by a salesperson’s income and compensation. If the company provides a good working environment and the salesperson believes in the company’s ability to deliver the product or service, then with the proper training and management the sales person should be able to earn an income that will cause them to be excited about their job.

16. Do all of your salespeople practice effective listening skills and don’t over communicate?

No skill is more important than listen. Telling is not selling. In communications, the most important thing a salesperson can do is to effectively determine the need or pain of the prospect. If salespeople don’t know how to listen they will never discover the pain. The sale is the prescription for removing the prospect’s pain.

17. Do all of your salespeople have long-lasting relationships with their customers and prospects?

People buy from people they believe, like and trust. Selling is based on relationships and relationships are built over time. When they discover the needs of the prospect and work to find the proper solution to their needs, the relationship will strengthen providing the trust necessary to make the sale.

18. Do all of your salespeople take responsibility for their own performance without excuses?

If salespeople don’t take responsibility for their performance then whether they are successful of a failure, it won’t make any difference to them. They do what they do without any personal obligation. They will never achieve the success of those who are responsible for their performance. These salespeople always have an excuse for their poor performance.

19. Do all of your sales people have a regular diet of sales skills books and other material about building sales relationships?

No one is born with the gift of salesmanship. It is a learned skill just like Law, Medicine, Accounting, Carpentry, etc. Those salespeople who have learned the principles and skills of sales will outsell all others four fold.

20. Do all of your salespeople perform at the highest rate of return on your investment in them?

Most salespeople have no concept of their potential nor do they understand the investment that management makes in them. The biggest single cost in a salesperson that doesn’t perform like they should is the cost of lost opportunity. If you want to make the most of your salespeople train them and hold them accountable on a weekly basis for their performance.

To Be Successful At Selling You Must Have The Prospect’s Trust

While listening to the news the other night the question was asked, “Why do people watch one newscast over another?”  The answer, “Trust.”  I believe the answer is both true and profound.  People listen to and believe those people they trust.  Selling is very similar to a newscast; in both cases, people are persuaded by and believe the words of people they trust!  In a sales coaching session today, one of my clients, somewhat discouraged with her closing ratio asked, “What more can I do to increase my sales.  I find the opportunities.  I discover, uncover and remove the pain.  I prepare and deliver a quote and yet, I experience a lot of indecision and hesitancy on behalf of the decision makers.”  In total frustration she pleaded, “What am I doing wrong?”

I don’t think she was doing anything wrong in her sales process as far as she was going.  What she was doing wrong was what she wasn’t doing.  She wasn’t building trust with her prospect.  Far too often I find salespeople doing exactly as this client.  They do everything right up through the step of delivering the quote.  Once the quote is presented, they believe their job is completed and the next step is to wait for the prospect to respond.  Either they like the quote or they don’t.  If they like it, you get the order and if they don’t, well you know how that goes.

The sale really begins once the quote has been presented and yet, many salespeople believe presenting the quote is the end of the process.  People buy from people they BELIEVE, LIKE and TRUST.  There are many people offering similar products as solutions to similar problems with similar pricing.  Why does one salesperson win the sale and why do the others lose the sale.  You might be thinking to yourself, “That’s easy, the difference is price.”  Well, it is only price if you let it be price.  I’ve seen too many situations where the prospect purchased the same or similar product and paid more for it from one sales person than was offered by others.  The decision to purchase is not always price.  I was talking to one of my clients who told me he quoted the lowest price and didn’t get the order.  He was totally frustrated and claimed he had no idea anymore what it took to land a sale.  I encouraged him to ask the prospect why he lost the sale and the answer was, “I didn’t believe you would be able to deliver it to me on time.  You talked about how busy you were and I didn’t want to risk not receiving the product when I needed it.”

When you spend the time to build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with your prospect, you will close those opportunities that seem to hang in limbo, and you will make sales without becoming the low priced, thinnest margin seller.  How do you build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST?  Romance the sale.  As I met with my client this afternoon I asked her if she was romancing the sale.  She knows better and admitted that she had become complacent.  She had fallen back into the bad habit of presenting the quote and then waiting for a decision.  That approach encourages the buyer to line up all the quotes and then pick the lowest price.  Salespeople need to spend time with the prospect in order to build the trust necessary for them to feel comfortable buying from you.  Ask yourself, “Do you want the buyer making the purchasing decision in your absence, or worst yet, in the presence of one of your competitors?

Romancing the sale allows the sales person to have multiple contacts with the decision maker.  Romancing the sale provides the perfect opportunity to present additional information to help convince the decision maker of the value of your offering.  Romancing is the vehicle by which salespeople build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with their prospects.  Why do people watch one newscast versus another?  Trust.  Why do people buy from one salesperson versus another?  Trust.  Why was my client not closing as many sales as she should have been?  Lack of trust.  What will she be doing on a regular basis beginning today?  Romancing every prospect and building BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with each one of them.  She won’t make every sale, no one ever does.  But I can promise you, just as I promised her, your sales will improve dramatically when you spend the time to develop BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with your prospects.

SALESPEOPLE MUST KEEP SCORE TO WIN AT SELLING

Keeping score is found in the core of human existence. From the beginning of time man has found some means of counting, tracking, monitoring and numbering everything within the human realm. In the world of sports it’s the score and the time that makes the difference between a winning team and a losing one. Selling is no different. Every salesperson, every sales manager, every business owner and every executive is counting; in other words, keeping score of sales performance. It’s natural and normal and something we all do. Who sold the most, what were the margin dollars, how many returns did we have, what’s the commission percentage, it’s all about keeping score.

I’ve never heard a sales manager say, “I’m not interested in how much our people sell, I’m just happy that our salespeople like their jobs.” There is only one thing that matters, profit! Now I’m not suggesting that profit comes at the expense of honesty, integrity, and the customer’s best interest. At the end of the day, what difference does it make how much the sales people love their jobs or how hard they work if they are not generating a profit. A company that doesn’t make a profit doesn’t “make it”. If the company doesn’t make it then no one makes it. Sales people must keep score of the sales they make as well as all the activities that leads up to making the sale. This is where most sales people fail. They only keep track of the sale, oblivious to all the activity necessary in making the sale.

By nature, selling is dynamic. It involves multiple activities consuming varying amounts of time and generates differing amounts of money. These three variables, activity, time and money are the core components of the sales equation. At best, salespeople and management are tracking sales, but they never seem to pay attention to the elements of the sales process, or in other words, those activities that directly lead to the completion of a sale. In its simplest form, how many people does a salesperson need to speak to in order to find one person interested in hearing what the salesperson has to offer? To how many people does a salesperson need to tell his story before he finds one prospect willing to purchase his product or service? How many times does a salesperson need to follow-up with a prospect before they feel comfortable enough to make a purchase?

Selling is not an event, selling is a process. When the correct process is followed with precision, then a certain number of sales will be made. Salespeople and management are all tuned in to tracking sales, but they are not in touch with the process leading up to making the sale. What would it mean to you if you knew with a certainty that you needed to contact fifty people to schedule five appointments and make a total of twenty-five follow-up visits in order to make one sale, which would generate a commission of one thousand dollars for you? Would you make fifty contacts? Would you schedule five appointments? Would you make twenty-five follow-up visits? I believe you would if you knew for sure that those activities would produce a thousand dollar commission.

Now, what if you knew that it would take a total of twenty hours of combined sales time to accomplish all of those activities. Therefore, a thousand dollar commission could be earned in twenty hours having accomplished all of the required activities comprising your sales process. If you worked a forty-hour week you could earn two thousand dollars per week, or four thousand dollars every two weeks, or eight thousand dollars per month. If you didn’t take lunch during the month, but just grabbed a bite to eat while continuing your sales activities, you could earn an additional thousand dollars each month. If you arrived at work an hour early each day of the month you could earn another thousand dollars a month. Time is money and the more time you spend following the steps of your sales process, the more money you could earn.

Unfortunately, most salespeople just do a lot of “stuff” not really keeping track of which activities are necessary to make a sale or how many of each activity is required to close a sale or the time they spend doing the various activities. They only count their sales at the end of the month. Sales happen as the result of following a process, whether you realize it or not. Understanding exactly what it takes to make a sale is the most important thing a salesperson can know! Successful selling is the result of diligently following a process and knowing how much time is required to complete the process.

Knowing your sales score each day of the month is critical to reaching your sales goals. If athletes don’t know what the score is at any moment in time, and if they don’t know how much time remains in the game, they will never feel the urgency to take heroic action to make a last minute score to win the game. I’ve worked with salespeople, who in the last few remaining moments of the month closed a sale that put them over their goal, while their associates, not knowing where they stood in relation to their goal, had called it a day, hours earlier. Successful salespeople, those salespeople who always reach their goals, understand these principles and keep score of all the activities associated with their sales process and know how much time they must invest to make each sale. They also know precisely how much money they will earn for their efforts. They regularly give themselves raises by increasing their activity and the time they spend in the sales arena.

Successful Salespeople Are Note Takers

I used to believe that I could remember everything. I'm confident that I did remember more when I was younger than I do now, but even then I couldn't remember it all. Have you ever had one of those "million dollar ideas" only to forget the details that made it so profound a few days later? We all experience those absolutely clairvoyant moments believing that we will remember the genius of our own thoughts never bothering to writing them down. Well, that's what napkins are for. I can't tell you the number of profitable business and personal ideas I have sketched out on the back of a napkin.

For salespeople to be successful, they must be able to remember facts, details, thoughts and actions relating to their customers and prospects. Write it down! If you don't write it down you will surely forget it, or at least the important details. Don't take a chance on a slip of the memory, it could mean the difference between landing a big sale or losing the opportunity of a lifetime. I remember years ago designing my mountain cabin on a napkin. The ideas just started flowing and instead of risking my ability to remember, I just started sketching, front, back, inside the fold and on several additional napkins.

Salespeople are problem solvers and you'll never know when or where the solution to a customer's problem will come into your mind. It could be any time and any place, so be prepared. Most cell phones or PDA's have the ability for note taking. Some even have the ability to record verbal notes. If that isn't convenient then carry a few 3x5 cards in your pocket. I frequently find myself making notes on the back of business cards so I can remember those flashes of wisdom that come when least expected. If you carry a day planner of some sort, you can always record your thoughts on the notes pages of your binder.

Another very important time for note taking is during a presentation. Remember, the most important part of any presentation is discovery; the fact finding phase that must precede the solution phase. Always take notes! Note taking during the discovery phase of the presentation will allow you to ask clarifying questions about the things your prospect has said. The notes become a resource for future evaluation and problem solving. Asking permission to take notes is an act of courtesy and a subtle reminder to them that you are paying attention to what they are saying and that their words are important to you. You are building their trust in your ability to solve their problems when they see you taking notes.

Note taking will keep your prospects honest. In future meetings they might say or present arguments different than stated in earlier meetings. You can pull out your notes and remind them of their prior statements or position, again reminding them that you know the facts and are not an easy target for manipulation. You will gain their respect from your thoroughness to detail. Through effective note taking and reviewing your notes prior to future conversations, you will demonstrate your photographic memory to your prospects. A key mind for facts and detail will give you the upper hand in every negotiation.