6 Proven Tips to Build a High Performance Sales Team
“It is not your customer’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have the chance to forget you.” –
Patricia Fripp
What makes a sale team great? Is it the ability to sell ice to eskimo? Or something more?
Every organization wants its sales team to perform excellently. Sales manager often dream to create a high-performance sales team.
Here are some proven methods to develop a high performing sales team.
Talent development
As a sales leader, your priority should be the growth of your team which should be reflected in the effort you make. It is important to understand your team so that you can identify the approach that works best with them. It includes understanding the strength and weakness of your team. This allows you to create goals with an objective plan and help them become better. The more you work with your team, the more your team members will be devoted.
Value selling training
Value selling training is sales performance coaching which helps a business to create a high-performance sales culture. It is done through interactive design which includes skill application, role plays, case studies, group exercises, video-based instruction, sales planning, solution selling best practice modeling and sales coaching. The implementation process is ensured by using four steps – assess, design and deliver, implement and support, measure and continuously improve.
Outcomes of effectively implementing the solution selling training include – increased number of qualified sales opportunities, increased revenue, stronger customer relationship, greater insight in decision-making process.
Hire the right candidate
One of the most important steps to building a high-performance sales team is to let the right people on board. Being a sales manager, you should be careful about hiring the best candidates for your sales team. It might be tricky, but sale is a challenging role in business. Make sure that you have gone through the proven track recorded, cultural fit and experience of the candidate in your organization. A candidate should be able to thrive in the sales culture of your organization.
However, remember that not everyone is going to be champion. If you hire the right people in your team, you can create a good sales culture and build an effective sales team. With the right structure, approach and coaching, you can make your team succeed.
Explain your sales process
Sales process is neither defined nor decided by individuals. Letting your star performer and poor performer do as they wish will give to undesired results. You can optimize the best process. The key is to define your sales process. Map out each sales person’s step and measure their efficiency. Many companies do not have exact understanding of the process that will give them result. However, with the right training, a sale team can achieve the best output.
Promote a better working culture
It is not a secret that sales team often work under a lot of pressure. It is one of the most common reasons behind the inefficiency of a sales team, managers often refuse to acknowledge. Making the sale, and hitting a quota are some tasks which keep the sales team engaged.
Sales department do need incentives and quotas, but too much work pressure discourage and disengage them. To promote a more human approach is important.
Work close with marketing team
Better coordination between marketing and sales team can boost the performance of both the teams. If sales team doesn’t coordinate well with marketing team, you might be losing leads generated by marketing team. Both teams should be encouraged for better working relations.
In today’s competitive market, a high-performance sales team is dream of many companies. You don’t need drastic steps to increase performance. Small steps, taken strategically is sufficient to bring the desired result.