10 Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Salespeople

Every once in a while I’ll sit back and ponder my experiences in the world of business from a sales perspective. During these moments of reflection my mind is flooded with memories of the good times and the bad. Sometimes I catch myself smiling as I ponder experiences that were so incredible I find it hard to believe they were real. The pictures of other memories are painfully real, but they are similarly my own. What would have been different then, knowing what I know now, is a constant theme of these occasional moments as my mind drifts through scenes of the past. Another recurring theme focuses on the skills and knowledge of past business leaders I had the privilege of associating with. Here are ten key points that I have learned about salespeople during the course of my truly incredible business career.

1. It’s all about the money. Salespeople should be your highest paid employees. Don’t implement any policies or procedures that will limit a salesperson’s income. Several years ago I literally ran into a close friend of mine at an intersection near my parents home while on vacation. As Tom jumped from his car and I from mine, we embraced, not having seen each other since graduate school. I asked Tom what brought him to town and he replied that he was on an unofficial extended vacation. The president of Bell Helicopter, the company Tom worked for had implemented a new policy limiting the commissions earned by its salespeople. One of the salespeople had earned more commission income the prior year than the president, so he put a cap on the number of helicopter a salesperson could sell before commissions would no longer be paid. Tom had reached his limit by July so there was no incentive to continue working to sell any more helicopters. Thus, the unofficial extended vacation. I worked with a company a few years ago that paid its salespeople a declining commission on their sales. They were paid a 20% commission on the first $500,000 in sales, a 15% commission on the next $200,000 in sales and everything beyond that was paid a 10% commission. No salesperson ever sold more than $500,000 dollars. Why would they work harder to sell more and be paid less? So they didn’t.

2. Salespeople don’t know what they are capable of achieving. Find ways to open the minds of your salespeople to truly comprehend what is humanly possible. I’m often reminded of my clients who have been working hard and making a decent income long before I came on the scene. These are good, hard working salespeople who know that the harder they work the more successful they will become and the more income they will earn. Matt was a classic example of this scenario. He was considered the best salesperson in the company, earning around $100,000 in commissions the prior year. He wasn’t too sure it was possible to sell much more or to increase his commission income. Twelve months later, to his amazement, Matt took home more than three times what he had earned the prior year. We see it every day. Salespeople believing they are doing all that can be done, then discovering what is humanly possible and achieving more than they ever imagined.

3. If you don’t train them, who will. They don’t come all trained and ready to go! There are only a handful of colleges or universities that offer a degree or any significant training in sales. Most sales skills are learned through on the job experience and mentoring. There is no guarantee that this experience is teaching correct principles and skills. In fact, from analyzing the performance of typical salespeople, this form of learning only perpetuates poor skills and bad habits. Take responsibility for training your salespeople to become the professionals you expect them to be. You wouldn’t go to a doctor or use the services of an attorney who didn’t have a formal and accredited education and degree, would you? The best investment you will ever make in your company will be the training of your salespeople. Seriously, if you don’t train them, who will?

4. Like any other employee, if you want results, hold them accountable. Salespeople should monitor their performance each day and be held accountable to report their performance on a weekly basis. The following statement should become an absolute and unwavering principle adopted by every business executive: “Where performance is measured, performance improves. Where performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates".

5. Just like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. There is a direct correlation between what a salesperson is capable of earning and the performance of that salesperson. Provide your salespeople the opportunity to earn a great income, without limitations and you will receive unlimited performance. As business owners you make major investments in equipment, technology and services. Why not make a major investment in the people responsible for selling your products and services.

6. High Salaries vs. incentive income. Salaries motivate employees to come to work. Incentive compensation motivates employees to work at their highest level of performance. In other words, if you want to experience the greatest return on your employee investment, pay them a commission. Pay for what you receive, not for what you want. Salespeople want to be paid for performance. That is the only way they feel they can be compensated fairly.

7. Goals are the foundation of performance. All salespeople should establish and work towards the achievement of goals. Goals are a measurement of activity and success. Goals allow people to stretch beyond their normal reach. Setting and achieving measurable, challenging and achievable goals is the single most important activity salespeople can pursue.

8. Praise is a far better motivator than criticism. Several years ago I worked for one of the largest international companies in the world. The president of our division, in a report to the board of directors, mentioned that his management style was based on healthy doses of intimidation and embarrassment. He was brutal to his employees and never took the time to focus on the positives of their performance. I came into the office one day with a client at about 11:00 am. The president of the company noticed me coming into the building and contacted my boss with the instruction to fire me on the spot along with the person I was with. I had been meeting with the client since 7:00 am reviewing the details of a major sales agreement and had then return to the office with the client to finalize our agreement. I had just concluded a fifty million dollar agreement and the president of the company, who ruled by intimidation and embarrassment, could only think of firing me because he thought I was late for work.

9. There are so few truly good salespeople in the world, structure their activities so they can spend all of their time doing what they do best. Don’t burden salespeople with task and responsibilities that keep them from the sales arena. Allow them the time and freedom to do what they do best. Keep them in front of customers and prospects looking for new opportunities to sell your products and services.

10. Nothing else happens until a sale is made. You can have the best “mouse trap” in the world, but until someone buys it, you are no better off than the company that has the worst “mouse trap” in the world. Always be grateful for the performance of your salespeople. Treat them with dignity and respect. This will motivate them to do even better. Without sales, there is no need for any other function in the company. Teach them, train them; hold them accountable for their performance and you will find the success you are seeking.

The Three Pillars of Sales Success

You control your own destiny and don’t let anyone tell you differently.  Don’t believe for one minute that you don’t have the power to achieve and become those things that you want.  To think or act otherwise is just an excuse to justify your situational mediocre performance.  To quote Cherie Carter-Scott, “Ordinary people believe only in the possible.  Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible.  And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible”.  As salespeople we tend to see opportunity and success in terms of past performance influenced by our peers and their uninspired performance.  We often think in these terms: “If no one has excelled, then it must not be reasonable to expect that anyone truly can”.  Let me describe three pillars of success, that when put in proper perspective and applied, will change your sales career.

Belief:  Belief is the foundation of all we do.  Human nature suggests that we believe what we can see clearly.  Missouri proudly displays the motto on their license plates, “The Show Me State”.  Unfortunately, our beliefs are deeply rooted in our culture and past experiences.  When you don’t believe you won’t take action and action is a fundamental measurement of success.  You need to take time to discover what you believe is possible and then challenge yourself to do it.  You can control your world by reprogramming the way you think.  By changing your operating system you can discover the truth about your beliefs and then alter those beliefs to achieve what you want.  Napoleon Hill through his great insight into human perspective said, “Any definite chief aim that is deliberately fixed in the mind and held there with determination to realize it, finally saturates the entire subconscious mind until it automatically influences the physical action of the body toward the attainment of the purpose”.  Belief is the key pillar for all sales success.

Attitude:  You can change your direction and condition in life by changing your attitudes about your situation.  As you rewrite your attitudes you are programming yourself for greater success in life.  You will discover that your attitude has a far greater influence on your success than your aptitude.  Average people have achieved phenomenal feats due to their positive mental attitude.  “A person’s life is truly what his thoughts make of it.”  Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, referring to this statement said, “This is one of the greatest laws in the universe.  Fervently do I wish I had discovered it as a very young man”.  There is a wonderful quote about attitude that I would like to share with you.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our ATTITUDES.”    –Author Unknown

ACTIVITY: Daily activity is the outward expression of your beliefs and attitudes.  If you don’t believe you won’t take action.  Activity is the vehicle of achievement and that vehicle is powered by belief.  The average person spends only half of the available time pursuing their beliefs.  They neglect to plan and schedule meaningful activities that will lead to their success.  This lack of planning diminishes both attitude and belief and thus creates a welcome host to the debilitating cancer we call complacency.  You should plan and schedule activities each day that will lead you steadily closer to the achievement of those things you believe you can accomplish.  You must monitor your progress daily to avoid the illusion of progress shrouded in the mirage of inactivity.  If you can’t measure your activity, there is a very strong likelihood that there isn’t any.  Put together a plan of action to achieve your beliefs and work on it daily.  By taking action, you will discover what so few people have ever experienced – “The power that lies within”.

Become A Doctor of Sales

A sales person is a problem solver.  Diagnosing the prospect leads to solving problems and problem solving leads to sales.  Doctors diagnose, treat and cure.  They want to find the root cause of a condition instead of just treating the symptoms.  No principle could be truer in the world of selling, but so seldom practiced.  Salespeople must learn to diagnose, prescribe and cure the pain of their customers and prospects.  Doctors are trustworthy and believable.  Their main focus is to relieve pain and suffering and then, to promote wellness.  Selling is not an event, but rather a process built on trust.  Just as in medicine, your customers and prospects deserve a thorough diagnosis accompanied with the best prescription for a cure.

As salespeople, you wear the title of doctor of sales.  You need to put your focus on the patient.  Your responsibility is to properly diagnose their need and then prescribe the proper cure.  Contrary to the actions of most salespeople, your focus is not to make a sale, but rather, to solve their problem with your products and services.  If you are unable to provide the proper care and treatment, you must do the same thing a doctor would do.  You must refer your prospect or customer to a specialist who can better care for their particular situation.  You may lose the opportunity to make a sale, but you will forever have their trust and respect.  When the prospect has a future need, they will contact you because of your integrity.

You must earn the trust and respect of your prospects.  If you take a selfish position and try to force fit your product to meet their need, you will lose their respect.  When you put the focus on them and not yourself, they will reward you with the sale.  If you put the focus on the sale they will lose respect for you and look else where for a solution to their need.  You need to reprogram your sales approach to the customer or prospect, not your pocketbook.  Just as animals can sense fear, customers can sense motive.  Once again, let me make it clear.  Selling is all about solving the customer’s needs with the right solution, not about making a sale.  The sale will come naturally as a result of taking care of the customer.  The hidden advantage of this approach is trust and loyalty.  The best way to find success in selling is to build a loyal customer base.  A loyal customer base is established through focusing on the customer’s needs and presenting the very best solution, even if it means a referral to a more appropriate solution.  When you suddenly realize that you are willing to sacrifice making a sale of your own product in order to provide the best solution for your customer, then you will be on the path to becoming a truly successful salesperson.

Here are five points to follow on the path to becoming a doctor of sales:

1. Change your focus.  Become more interested in helping your customer and prospect solve their needs than in making a sale.  The sale will naturally follow, once you have cured their pain.
2. Never prescribe before you have diagnosed.  Understanding their pain (needs) is the first and most important thing you can do if your desire is to truly help your customers and prospects.
3. When you understand their pain, prescribe the correct solution.  Never prescribe your product or service if it is not the best solution.  Making a sale will never justify prescribing an incorrect solution.
4. Refer your customer or prospect to a specialist if their specific need is beyond the ability of your products and services.  In the world of medicine, a referral to a specialist has become a common practice in caring for the needs of the patient.
5. Truly care about the individuals and companies you work with.  When they know how much you care, they will naturally reward you with their business.

Finding Hidden Opportunities Will Dramatically Increase Your Sales Results

Many salespeople wait patiently at their desks for the phone to ring so they can write sales orders with existing and new customers.  When the phone rings they are all about getting the order and if need be, jumping through hoops to satisfy the customer and demonstrate their customer centered service.  Until the phone rings they are busy doing stuff, but then they go into “super customer service mode” attempting to capitalize on every whim of the customer.  In today’s economy the phone isn’t necessarily ringing off the hook and when the phone does ring are you discovering all that the customer needs?  Let me make a broad assumption and suggest that average salespeople typically do not discover all of the customer’s needs whether they are answering the phone or calling on the customer in person.  Salespeople miss out on sales opportunities every day because their minds are shrouded in the fog of mediocrity.  They are so intent on meeting the customer’s immediate needs that they fail to realize the bigger picture.  The thing the customer needs may only be one element of the grand scheme.  Salespeople become so narrowly focused in fulfilling that one thing, that they overlook other opportunities that may represent far greater potential and profit.

Seek understanding by asking question.  What do you want to understand?  You want to understand how that particular need fits into the bigger picture represented by the what, where, who, why, when and how of their company.  What the customer tells you may be just the tip of the iceberg of their needs.  Ask questions to learn how to better meet the customer’s requirements and remember to ask permission to ask questions.  Asking permission is a courtesy that will put the customer in a “question answering” frame of mind.  Seeking to understand the bigger picture will also convey to the customer that you are interested in them and want to help to the fullest degree.

Let me share with you a fun little story about a young salesman who turned a small customer need into a much larger sale.

A young salesman landed a new job with a large “everything under one roof” department store.  The hiring manager indicated that at the end of his first day he would personally evaluate the salesman’s performance.  The young man’s first day on the job was rough but he got through it and subsequently found himself sitting in the manager’s office for his first day’s performance review.

The manager asked the young man how many sales he had made and he replied, only one.  Somewhat surprised by his answer, the manager responded that the average salesperson for the store usually made between twenty or thirty sales in a typical day.  The manager then asked the young man the dollar value of the sale.  He responded that the sale totaled $101,237.64.  The manager responded by saying “What in the world did you sell”?  The young man responded by saying that he first sold the customer a small fishing hook, followed by a medium sized fishing hook, which was followed by an even larger fishing hook.  The young man continued by saying that he then sold the customer a new fishing rod.  After asking the customer where he planned to go fishing, the young man suggested to the customer that he might need a new boat, so he took the customer down to the boat department and sold him a 29 foot Catalina twin engine fishing boat.

With this, the customer suggested that he didn’t think his Honda Civic would be able to pull the boat, so the young man took his customer out to the automotive department and sold him a Chevy Tahoe to pull the boat.  The manager in total amazement said, “A guy comes in to buy a fishing hook and you sold him a boat and a Chevy Tahoe?”  The young man replied, “No.  He came in the store to buy some Excedrin Migraine for his wife and I said, well, your weekend is shot, you might just as well go fishing!”

This is an entertaining story, but it also suggest that salespeople might be missing out on some serious sales opportunities by not asking question to discover the full scope of the customer’s needs.  Think to yourself these questions.  “Do I know all I can about this customer and his or her needs?  Do I know as much as they know, combined with my own knowledge and experience so I can provide solutions to satisfy the whole opportunity?”  Make these principles part of your sales skills and watch you income increase, while at the same time, taking better care of meeting your customer’s needs.