UNHAPPY WITH SALES – IT MAY NOT BE THE SALES TEAM!
Larry Goddard
Strategy, Growth, Family Business & Turnaround Advisor & Executive Coach
Let’s face it – ever since Eve tried selling the apple to Adam, management has been frustrated by what they consider under performance by the sales team. The finger is often pointed at “Sales” - the leadership, individual sales staff, or the entire sales organization – as not working hard enough, focusing on the wrong things, not focusing at all – and costing the company lost revenue and opportunity.
Unless you have incredible skills identifying and nurturing talent, and in addition you have consistently excellent products and services, you are likely to have experienced average performances from your sales team and more than likely at times some disappointing results.
While issues with the sales team may be a contributing factor to sales misses, there are many other areas your business needs to address if the goal is to maintain market share or even take share, i.e. grow faster than the market growth rate. In these times competition is likely to be highly aggressive. To take business away from the competition you need both a focused, hard - and smart - working sales team, AND to provide them with the tools for success.
Following are some of the key tools for improving your business’s sales performance:
1. A Compelling Value Proposition - Don’t expect your sales team to outdo the competition if your business does not bring differentiated, relevant and dynamic products and services, reasonably priced and backed by robust customer services.
The Right Products - If you are sending your sales staff into the marketplace with products or services that are just “me too” the results are likely to be lackluster. There is no shortage of choices customers have before them. Strive for superiority in design, function (features and benefits), quality and value for money.
Brand Name and Company Standing - Your Sales team’s most valuable tool is your reputation. A strong brand name is a key sales tool. If a prospect – business or consumer - has a favorable impression of the company, she will be more interested in what you must sell. Building and maintaining your reputation is a long-term, never-ending task, especially in the age of social media and instant feedback. Make sure your image is positive and constructively deal with any issues.
2. Marketing – The better you are at Marketing, the better your sales team will perform. Well-crafted and data driven marketing programs facilitate sales performance. Here are some of the services your company should provide to support the Sales team:
Trade and Consumer Outreach - Ensuring your brand is recognized, visible and admired by its target audience can play a significant role in and predisposing your audience to buy. Strong marketing helps the salesperson get his foot in the door or the online customer take notice.
Market Intelligence - Lead Generation - Sales staff need to know how to locate qualified leads. This information will make salespeople more effective, by not wasting time on prospects that are not a good fit. Lead generation systems that provide the sales team with qualified leads free up time for selling.
Competitive Data – Arming the Sales team with information on the competition’s strengths and weaknesses, price points, trade terms and other data will allow sales to tailor proposals and presentations for maximum effectiveness.
Public Relations – Many media channels are looking for content. Creating buzz or just plain news on your products, business strategies, success stories or even key staff can help make your products and your business aspirational and relevant.
Collateral Materials - These are invaluable to help sales tell the story in the most appropriate manner. Materials should be both technical (features and benefits) and “user friendly” – right for the channels and people you need to win over. They should be produced in the formats that the sales team needs – digital, or hard copy. If necessary, the team may need samples, “leave behinds” and fixtures to create a solid sales presence.
3. Supporting Operations - Information and Technology can create major efficiencies in your sales process. Data analysis can help the Sales team identify both issues and opportunities with customers.
Simple Order Processing and Tracking - The easier you make it for sales staff or customers to create orders, the better your results will be. Up-to-date and accurate price lists, catalogs, sku identification and easy-to-use order placement tools will minimize user frustration and help with efficiencies. Likewise, the easier it is to track orders – accurately – the more satisfied the team and your customers will be.
Customer and Sales Data - Providing your Sales team with actionable data about their accounts will help address problems with sell-through and identify opportunities for sell-in. Knowing your best-selling items and ensuring customers have the top performing SKUs, as well as the new products that are trending strongly, can also help sales with their account management.
Credit and Trade Terms - Is your credit department a “sales prevention” function or a key part of your business development efforts? Sales staff need to understand the credit situation with their accounts, and credit needs to be up to date with customer needs and business levels.
Customer Services - Keeping up with market expectations of what the “table stakes” are regarding business terms and conditions is a fundamental sales tool. For example, on-line retail businesses are now constantly dealing with expectations for free shipping, unlimited returns and perpetual promotions. Your business doesn’t have to accommodate all customer requests and outlandish expectations. Timely and accurate responses to inquiries, swift and fair resolution of issues, and professional and upbeat communications all help build relationships with customers and diffuse difficult situations. It’s great if your customers like you – but that’s not a necessity. They just have to like doing business with you. More than that – they have to want to do business with you because you help them be more successful than the competition.
4. Supply Chain and Logistics - These functions need to be in tune with customer demands, new product launches, and fulfillment expectations. If they can meet demand on time, accurately and efficiently they are significant aids to supporting and growing sales.
Inventory - Salespeople and customers are turned off by significant out-of-stock items, especially in “A” products. Conversely, excessively low turns on “D” items seldom make financial sense.
Shipping - Should be accurate, timely and efficient.
Quality - Can be a real differentiator in the market. Pushing your operational team and supply chain to continuously improve quality and quickly resolve any issues will build sales team confidence and win customer trust. And by dealing with problems promptly and with transparency, your team and the market will be accommodating.
5. Leadership and Training - Providing your team with all the above resources is important. Giving them the best in terms of leadership, direction, coaching and training is vital.
Management – should be able to add value through your Sales team. Management cannot take the place of the team. Your sales leadership should understand the industry, be able to articulate best practices, and also understand your business model. Management should provide motivation and remove barriers to success – while still holding the team accountable. And the quality of leadership should be right for today’s COVID-19 marketplace dynamics.
Training and Coaching – will help develop the staff who have potential and identify your sales associates who need extra help, or just aren’t getting it done. As with management, training and coaching should fit in with what your sales force is dealing with now and is likely to deal with in the future. Sales staff who were superstars in-person may be mediocre via zoom or video. Training sales staff to utilize available data will also help productivity.
Hunters and Farmers – your Sales team should fit your business model. If you are relying on significant growth through new business, you need great Hunters and are likely to be disappointed if your group are primarily Farmers. The best sales teams have the right balance between Hunters who will bring in new business, and Farmers who will serve the current customer base.
When your business can truly demonstrate that your products, quality, service and terms and conditions are truly superior to the competition—in a manner that customers value—the salesperson’s job will be markedly easier. Creating and developing these sales support tools is Management’s responsibility. If these tools are not in place, it is hard to blame the Sales team for sales performance that is not blowing the doors off.
By Larry Goddard and Laurence Franklin
Larry Goddard, a strategy, growth and turnaround coach and consultant, is the CEO of The Parkland Group, Inc. and SOAR Growth Strategies (www.SOARgrowth.com)
Laurence Franklin, business advisor and board member, is the former CEO and business leader of Tumi, Coach, Elizabeth Arden, and Frette. www.linkedin.com/in/laurence-franklin-18a88427/
©Copyright, 2020, Larry Goddard and Laurence Franklin. All rights reserved.
While the authors believe the information contained herein is accurate, readers are advised that this information does not cover all circumstances, and readers should consider their own unique circumstances and consult their own financial and legal advisers before taking any action related to these topics.
LinkedIn Article:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unhappy-sales-may-team-larry-goddard/