Friday, January 2, 2009

Converting Good Salespeople to Great Salespeople

(Source: Greg Nanigian)

After 18 years of helping Chief Execs, Sales Managers and Sales People capitalize on their strengths and overcome weaknesses, here are my Top Five ways to Convert your good salespeople to great salespeople!

1.) Create a contest. That's right and here are some categories: Most Improved; Most Guts; Most 'Coachable'; Best Prospector; Best Closer and Most Receptive to New Ideas. Notice many of these have as much to do with getting results as they do with being able to improve performance. So, many of these categories recognize growth and improvement in sales effectiveness and that's what it takes to bring a good salesperson to greatness!

2.) Get them on a good Goal Setting Program. Believe it or not, most salespeople are more motivated by their personal goals than company goals! It makes sense doesn't it? Don't you want salespeople working for you that are motivated by money? Now, let's get them focused on making money, let's get then into a good goal setting program. Ask them to come up with three or four things that they'd like to buy in the next year. Have them spread the total amount over twelve months and add it to their monthly expenses. Now, help them to figure out what sorts of behaviors are going to be necessary in order to achieve those goals. Specifically, how many sales calls, contacts on the phone, dials and sales. All of this must be boiled down to daily activity. In the end they'll actually know what they need to do each day in order to achieve their goals! This will give them renewed focus and motivation! And it will be the most compelling kind of motivation, the which comes from within - self motivation!

3.) Start coaching them daily to their behavioral goals. Meet with them in person or have a telephone appointment each day, even if it's just ten or fifteen minutes to review their actual behavior against goals. Use this time to review their behavioral goals for the next day as well. If they had a rough day, it's your chance as "Coach" to "put then back together" so they go home with a clear head, wanting to perform tomorrow. Also, daily coaching sessions are your opportunity to 'tell it like it is'. When someone isn't performing to goal, let them know. Then make suggestions as to how to improve performance and let then know you'll be there tomorrow, same time, same place to coach and help again.

4.) Recognize successes, even the little ones. Be sure to give out those compliments, but keep in mind compliments for performance MUST be earned. We must not compliment negative and thereby reinforce non-productive activities. However, to help build the salesperson's self-esteem and build more of positive activities we need to be sure to compliment it. So if a salesperson's goal for the day was to make 30 dials and they had never done that many before, be sure to commend them for it and even praise them for it during a sales meeting. It doesn't have to be a sale in order to be worthy of a stroke. Sales will come if the proper activities are happening combined with the proper techniques and attitude. Our commendations add fuel to keep these necessary activities, techniques and attitudes going and growing to help the average salesperson become the winner.

5.) Enroll them in a professional Sales Training Program. Non-Traditional Re-enforcement Sales Training is the most effective available today. It is highly effective with prospects and clients yet a very natural and comfortable approach for the salesperson. Always have your salespeople assessed for growth potential and strengths and weaknesses before you start them in sales training. In this way you will be sure to have the right training for each person, from the start and save time!

Following these suggestions on average will bring another eighty-five percent effectiveness from your salespeople. That's a huge increase in sales with no increase in benefits or having to hire anyone new! Plus it will be great for morale and your people will respect you even more for what you have done. Anyway, working with winners is always more fun, exciting and the profits are greater!

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