Ever felt like you were doing it alone? And no one understands your position?
Sales management is more than just keeping everyone on target and going in the right direction. There is so much more to driving a team.
Our Sales Management Forum Series is a stand-alone solution that allows Sales Managers and Business Owners to develop their people as well as focusing on improving sales. Our next session focuses on Building a Best Practice Sales Machine.
Building a Best Practice Sales Machine will give you valuable insights into developing a robust sales process that will help you increase your sales and shorten the sales process. You will learn:
Team and Client Structure
Developing a robust sales process
Proposal preparation – Stepping up a notch to “business case” preparation
About The Presenter
Alex Chan has in-depth experience in making big sales to big customers, having closed deals of up to $15,000,000 dollars. He has been contracted to lead tender response teams to win multi million dollar sales and to prepare strategic sales plans for major sales growth. In this forum he will share some incites into how to “hunt elephants”.
What participants are saying…..
“This is an incredible programme as it focuses us on building good systems and processes to measure the key ratios in sales. Once you have this, it is the GOLD to building business.”
Brenden Rolston
Managing Director – Action Mail
The casual session rate is only $359 +GST (including breakfast) for this time efficient half day.
This is outstanding value and attendance is strictly limited in our sessions to ensure you achieve maximum benefit, so register now as our programmes sell out quickly. The next session is on Thursday 19th April.
When sales are down, businesses sink into gloom as fears abound about the very survival of the business. Sales are crucial for every business and the maximum effort is put into ensuring robust sales performance. But sales are the sum total of a series of factors, many of which are external to the business. A sliding sales performance means every effort has to be put into improving them. The following are some answers to the question of what to do when sales are down:
Remember all current customers- When sales decline, it is time to get in touch with all the existing customers. Since they have been buying, special marketing skills are not required to convince them about your products, but instead they can be tempted to buy more with limited special offers. A small rebate may help to push sales levels up.
Special incentives- Few customers can resist a rebate or special offer. When sales are down, interest in the products on offer can be renewed through incentives, special offers and discounts. This will increase volumes even though the offers may reduce the profit margin, which may not amount to much.
Ask for discounts from suppliers- When sales are down, earnings can be maintained by reducing manufacturing costs by asking for some special discounts from suppliers providing the raw materials for the products. This is another way to maintain the same margin as before.
Use the time to refresh sales programs- When sales are low, it is time to rethink sales and marketing and re-do some of the old programs. This may mean discarding some of the older practices and adopt newer ones.
Create an online presence- When the real world markets are down, perhaps its time to make a foray into the virtual global market place, by creating an online presence in the form of a website. An attractive, user friendly website can help to push sales beyond geographical boundaries as well. It will help to make up for sagging local sales.
Trimming and cost cutting- When sales are down, trimming expenses and cutting costs help to make the business financially fit. At such times a closer scrutiny of the financial accounts will show gaps and loopholes that can be plugged, expenses that can be reduced or cut, and hence reduce recurring expenses. Spending wisely is an alternative when savings do not take place.
Improve customer service and build relationships- Sales can be down due to a general recession or due to new competition. In both cases, it is time to get the marketing and customer service act together by taking a closer look at perfecting customer service, deliveries on time, answering queries, providing all types of service and assistance and so on. At such times, building relationships with customers through customer engagement, knowledge sharing and keeping them involved by soliciting their opinions will prove helpful in biding the low demand time, and ensuring that the future sales do not plunge.
The question of what to do when sales are down is industry specific at times. Besides some of the above mentioned steps, some additional steps that will benefit specific industries can also be taken.
Dare to dream and work to win by Thomas Barrett, goes about explaining what is clearly stated in its subtitle, namely, understanding the dollars and sense of success in network marketing. The book elaborates on the process of creating wealth, personal success and the psychological background to it, and how network marketing can be used for success. Written simply, it is easy to understand and absorb. It also teaches the reader what it means to be an entrepreneur and how to think like one. Life as an entrepreneur is very challenging and requires a specific mind set, which needs to be cultivated.
An international bestseller, available in many languages, Dare to Dream and Work to Win has transformed the lives of hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs who learnt that the path to success cannot be reached through shortcuts or jumps and starts but through persistence and perseverance, courage and vision, stamina and networking. Success is now largely a function of one’s expertise in network marketing. The right work ethics, principled approach and courage to pursue dreams, hold all aspiring entrepreneurs in good stead. Dreams no matter how bold or even outrageous, can come true if pursued with courage and passion, which also involves hard work and single minded focus on success.
Thus the four fundamental principles elaborated upon in the book include:
The correct approach- having the right approach towards work and business is important. Work must be enjoyable and spur you forward, since that is the only way to meet new challenges and surge ahead.
Consistency in actions is the foundation of network marketing. Consistent actions taken cumulatively add up to a big initiative. Barrett insists that it is the small actions completed consistently that help to complete the big picture of a business.
Duplication is important in network marketing. Keeping things simple makes them easy to be duplicated. Methodical approach and easy to follow steps can be taught to all team members and this will help in increasing and extending the business, which will culminate in wealth creation.
Sufficient time to devote-this is a prerequisite since everything takes time to grow. Growing a team needed for network marketing is also likely to take time, and therefore one has to be patient. These are things that cannot be done in fast-forward mode or overnight. The author talks about the concept of flight time, which is time at the wheel, and network marketing is no different.
These principle need to be combined with personal qualities like courage, vision and stamina to stay steadfast on the defined goals. Business building requires a definite psychology, and this is explained in the book at length, to benefit not just those in network marketing but also enterprising individuals in other fields as well.
Dare to Dream has been behind the professional success of thousands of readers, who have also additionally found personal success after reading the book and the principles it focuses on. The author is so certain about what he has written and its impact on people that he offers a money back guarantee to all those who are not satisfied with the book.
On this video is three Sales Managers talking about their experiences on the High Performance Program run by SalesStar. Even for Sales Managers who have done many training and coaching courses before say that the SalesStar High Performance Program offers something new and exciting. The SalesStar High Performance Program is not a generic program, it is a tailored program that is customised to your business.
SalesStar.com recognises that developing a high performing sales team is similar to developing a high performing sports team. We work with Sales Manager and salespeople who are essentially “corporate athletes” working in a functional team environment (look out for our upcoming blog – “The Functioning of a Corporate Athlete” in July).
Sales Manager – The Super Coach
Sales People – The Natural Talent – Team DNA
Sales Process – The Rules of the Game
Sales Training – Practise, Drills and Training
Mindset – Belief in Success
Recruiting – The Best Players
Non-performers – Relegated players
1. Robbie Deans and Wayne Bennett are Super Coaches. With the Midas touch, they have the ability to turn every team they coach into gold winning champions. Wayne Bennett had a purple patch when he was the coach of the Brisbane Broncos, winning several NRL championships. He then went on to coach the St George Dragons into a champion team and win an NRL premiership and was instrumental in aiding the Kiwis to win against Australia in a world cup final. Champion coaches make champion teams! High performing sales teams require a Super Coach in the form of a Sales Manager. Someone who can recruit and develop the right players, someone who can create a winning culture and get the mind-set of the player’s right pre-match. A Super Coach leads with conviction to instil belief and trust into his players and then takes them into battle to win.
2. Naturally players have strengths and weaknesses; some are adaptable and can play in various positions, while others need to focus on specific positions to thrive. Then there are others who just shouldn’t be in the team because they don’t have the DNA or just lack fundamental skills. Companies should recognise that sales people are not all built equally, they have different attributes and to get the best from them we should be playing to their strengths. Some may be excellent hunters while others are better at managing accounts. Trying to convert an account manager into a hunter is like turning a prop into a winger. They are different animals and need to be treated that way. And some sales people do not have the right DNA and traits to be successful in sales!
3. What are the rules to the game? Are the players playing to these rules? Is the coach coaching to these rules? If you don’t know the rules to the game you are not going to be successful. The Sales Process becomes the fundamental rules of the game. Sales managers need to coach and hold sales team accountable to these rules to get the best from them, allowing sales people to use their own style. Jonah Lomu and Terry Wright where both All Black Wingers with very different styles. Lomu would typically use his strength and size to go through players while Wright used his pace to get around players. Both played the same game with the same rules and used a different but effective style.
4. Practised teams are winning teams. We all know practice makes perfect but it also allows us to stay on top and in the game. So many sales organisations don’t create a culture that fosters the salespeople to practice their skills. They choose to have their sales people practice on the customer and hope it goes well. That’s like the All Blacks not practising for the World Cup and just turning up on game day in the hope that they will win.
5. When teams start winning, there is a common thread that can be attributed to success – “Mindset”. This is belief in ability. Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time said “I am the Greatest”. I wonder if he would have been as successful if he had said “I am not sure if I can do this”! Mindset is 50% of success in any sales environment. Sale people need to have belief in themselves and their product/service. They also need belief in the company vision and value proposition. Believe in your offering and you will be successful in selling.
6. The Canterbury Crusaders and Manchester United are two champion sports teams that recruit well. Always hiring the best players for the right positions will bring a return on investment (ROI). Companies that master the recruitment process will have a competitive advantage and opportunities to promote from within. As Jim Collins said, once you have the right people in the right seats of the bus, you can take the bus anywhere.
7. When the Warriors lost three games in a row, Ivan Cleary made some wholesale changes and replaced non- performers with up and coming stars. The result was five wins in a row. If you want to develop a high performing culture there is no room for mediocrity. Sometimes you need to make tough calls to get your point across. If you have non-performers, you need to set them free. Put simply, there is no room for them in a culture that breeds success.
SalesStar.com work with a range of clients to develop their salespeople into high performing teams. Our SalesStar Management Programme gives us the opportunity to turn Sales Managers into Super Coaches.
Watch this video and see Paul O’Donohue from SalesStar talking with David – a client – about his fears when dealing with a particular client and how this fear had significantly affected his sales. David talks about Overcoming his self limiting beliefs and what that has meant for not only himself but for his business.
Watch the video of Alan and Paul, Alan had issues with Cold Calling and after coaching from SalesStar, Alan went from having a fear of Cold Calling to Fearless Hunter.
It is now a universally accepted belief that sales training is critically important for sales staff. A well established practice that has shown results each time, sales training is the best tactic for companies to deploy for increasing sales volumes. A well trained sales staff helps to push sales even during times of recession or low demand, takes on responsibility for selling even with higher prices whenever the need arises for raising net revenue for the business.
Many businesses consider it a waste of money since sales training cannot come free. However, the business that does not have a well trained staff loses out to others who have gained from training and become experts at selling their company’s products. The question of whether sales training is important or not, can be answered by taking a closer look at the sales function of the business, and check:
Are sales high enough to bring sufficient revenue?
Is there room for improvement in sales figures?
Are the products being sold at discounts or at full rates?
Are sales taking place despite a recession, without any additional effort?
Do people have a good impression about your business?
Do you have repeat customers, or do they often go to your competitors?
Do you get complaints about your sales staff?
Sales training helps in more ways than one. Besides pushing volumes they learn the selling style acceptable to the company, following their rules and code of ethics. Selling techniques change and evolve with the ever changing markets where competition increases every day.
Why is Sales Training Important?
Sales is the most important part of a business on which the company’s survival depends
A well trained sales staff is required to push sales
How the sales team performs depends on their training, and where the training will take place, depends on the business owners
It is easy for anyone to sell during times of high demand, but it takes an experienced and well trained salesman to sell during low demand phases
Training will help the sales personnel understand the company’s products and services and how they score over competitive products
Sales training helps through new approaches like role playing and scenario based lessons
Sales training helps to improve the communication skills of the staff and teaches them how to acquire good verbal and written skills
Conduct and confidence are instilled in them to make a lasting impression on prospective clients
They can be taught how to be sincere and earnest, and these are qualities appreciated by customers
Sales training costs money but reaps returns that more than compensate for the expense incurred
Newer techniques of selling including online sales can be taught to sales veterans unfamiliar with them
If sales training is not considered important by your company, there could be a long term impact on the business that will lose in the sales race to those who have a well trained sales staff. Sales training can make a world of difference to the company and each of the individuals who get the training. Sales training is an investment which is bound to reap returns in the short and long term.
