How would it feel to be part of the 1%? You have a flexible schedule and have a reliable, dependable, top-performing sales team. To many, that life will only ever be a dream.
That's because the 1% are willing to do things that others aren't. From creatively improving sales performance to being a leader and mentor, here's how you can join the 1% as a sales manager.
If you want to become part of the 1%, improving sales performance should be your biggest goal. That way, you can make more sales without having to contact more leads and spend more time on it.
But you shouldn't just rely on your sales team to do that. You have to lead them toward sales success. That includes showing them how to make sales and interact with people.
The better leader you are, the easier it is for your sales team to learn from you and support you. Even if you haven't actually done sales in a while, you shouldn't be afraid to jump on a sales call.
Members of the 1% are willing to do a lot of things. And sometimes, those things include tasks that are below your pay grade.
Of course, you can't increase sales skills when your team isn't interested in, or good at, selling. You should look for talented salespeople before adding anyone to the team.
A standardized talent assessment will ultimately determine if this person has the right combination and intensity of talents to be successful in your open position. The detailed analysis will provide you with a hiring recommendation as well as specific information on the behaviors you should expect if you were to hire them, and the type of coaching they will need to be successful.
When you have the right people in place, your sales organization will run like a well-oiled machine. You will exceed your goals and spend your time creating opportunities with your reps, instead of solving problems that don’t have anything to do with increasing revenue.
Talented people want to learn. They want to be trained and coached, and most importantly, they come to work happy and ready do their very best everyday.
When you start with talent, you end with performance — and reach the 1%.
A good sales team needs a leader, not just a boss. If you only ever tell your employees what to do, it's hard to see the sales growth you want.
You want to be a motivator for your employees. If someone comes to you asking for advice on how to make more sales, work with that person. Show them how they can speak or what they can say to increase their performance.
Empower your employees to improve their skills each day at work. Being a great leader makes your organization an excellent place to work. Then, you won't have to worry about losing your best salespeople and turnover rate. You'll be the one that reaches the 1% much faster.
Now is the time to evaluate your organization's current structure. Think about how you're able to make sales now and what you can do to improve sales performance.
Perhaps you primarily sell over the phone, but you aren't seeing as much luck there as you'd like. You could restructure your sales team to include some people that visit potential clients in person.
Then, your sales team can interact with clients more. You can use the information from those meetings to learn about the problems that clients face.
Your entire sales team can then use that information to improve sales calls and visits. And if the visits work well, you can implement more of them.
You also need to stay on top of frequent training and coaching to continue improving sales performance throughout your team. If you hire a team and train them once, that can work for a while.
But as sales trends change and your company releases new products or services, you need to keep training. Make sure your salespeople know what your company offers.That way, they can sell the best product or service to individual leads. So if one business needs something different, you can still fill that need and not lose that sale.
The more efficient you can be with your training, the better. You can use content, emails, and printouts so that employees can review the information without needing a long meeting.
A good business plan includes a plan for how you'll make sales. Even if you only run the sales team, you should create a sales plan with other high-level executives.
Your sales plan should include sales goals and projections. You should outline how you plan to meet those goals, such as with different sales methods.
Once you create a sales plan, you need to put it into action. Send the plan overview to each of your sales reps so that they know what to do. Be willing to answer questions so that everyone understands your expectations.
When looking to increase sales performance, focus on your team's strengths and existing skills. Perhaps you have one employee who is amazing at speaking to older adults.
Assign that employee to call older leads so that you can increase your chances of getting a sale. You can also have that employee offer their tips or advice to other sales reps on that strength.
It's also important for everyone to focus on and improve their communication skills. If someone is always on the phone making sales, have them switch things up and do an in-person sale every once in a while.
If you want to make it into the 1%, you can't just stop once you hit one goal. When you reach your sales plan goals, set new, more ambitious goals.
Keep working toward those goals and improving sales performance. That way, you can keep growing your team and company, and you can make more money.
Eventually, you'll be able to reach the 1%. But it takes persistence and continuous work.
Improving sales performance is almost every company's goal. But better sales performance will only get you so far. If you want to reach the 1%, you need to be creative and motivating to your sales team. That way, you can make it easier for them to keep improving their skills to help you make more sales.