5 Ways to Create a Successful Sales Team
Sales people are at the forefront of your company, product and name. They are the first representatives that your customers speak to when deciding to buy your service or product. They are also the people convincing them to return. That is a lot of pressure.
Therefore, building an effective sales team that can generate and convert leads is essential. But how do you do it? How do you find those special employees who can handle such responsibility? Here are five stages to building a professional and productive sales team.
Image Credit – Miguel Pires da Rosa (CC License)
Recruit Potential
Hire ambitious, positive people. They do not necessarily have to possess all of the skills you hoped for. If they have a desire to learn, a willingness to speak up, and plenty of determination they are going to be an asset.
Ask them to sell something mundane in the interview, like a pen, to see how they perform. If they can be exciting and convincing about a broken biro, they will most certainly make a good salesperson.
Most importantly of all, they need to be a good listener. They are representing your company, and must understand the culture of your business. This is only something that they can gain through listening to you, and other people. This is the trickiest thing to translate to a customer, but the most important. Building a good brand reputation is essential for your business success.
Communication and Reward
Make sure that your team know what you expect of them. Give them aims. These could include goals such as generating a certain number of leads, selling an amount of product, or awarding sales commission if they reach a certain mark. Make sure that your team get rewards for hitting their targets.
Having a team who feel respected and valued can make the difference between massive success and mediocrity.
Divide and Thrive:
Each of your sales staff needs to have their own set of leads. If you’re selling products or advertising in certain industries and areas, you need to have one salesperson working on a defined set of leads to prevent duplication of efforts.
Additionally, give your strongest sales member the better territory. Use your staff to create the most productive strategy that you can.
Continuous Training:
Remember to bring members of the team together to share expertise. Identify everyone’s strengths and let them educate each other. It will keep skills fresh, and challenge everyone. It will also keep your staff enthusiastic.
It is also important to regularly update your staff on where your company is heading. How are you growing? What are your hopes for the year? How many customers are you hoping to convert? By communicating your business plans and goals, your staff will understand your business values, and express that through their sales pitch.
Review:
Your business will change. So will your staff. Make sure that you keep reviewing your sales people. They might have talents that you can utilise. For example some personnel might have a hidden talent for teaching, and could train upcoming sales staff. Make sure you challenge your staff with new jobs and opportunities, and they will reward you by staying with your company.
Sales is the backbone of your company. If your conversions are poor, it will affect your entire business structure. Making sure that you have a happy, productive and effective sales team is essential to the growth of your business.
For more help and sales advice, get in touch with VSL today. Whether you’re an established company or a brand new start up, we can help boost your sales. From improving your business development to generating leads, we have the ability to help your business grow.
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Andy Dickens
Andy Dickens is a veteran of IT Sales, used to leading by example. He is the CEO of Virtual Sales Limited (VSL) who offer telesales, telemarketing, lead generation and appointment setting services to B2b businesses. He previously was Sales Director EMEA for Red Hat and before that ran sales at Visio before it was acquired by Microsoft.