Tag Archives: How to increase sales

Sales Coaching

7 Secrets Of A Winning Sales Coach

I recently heard a fascinating story from a Sales Coach who told me how he succeeded in overcoming some major challenges when he was recruited as a rookie sales manager for a major-brand forklift dealership in the late 1990s. Despite the brand name and the brand’s reputation for quality and excellent resale value, the dealer’s sales record for new, reconditioned, and used forklifts was abominable and had been lousy for quite some time.

At this Sales Manager’s request, I’ve agreed to keep him anonymous, so for our purposes, I’ll simply refer to him as George.

George had been the number one salesman for a southern California forklift company selling more units in his territory in a month than most of his competitors sold in a quarter. George was fairly well known throughout the industry so a failing dealership in the northwest desperately needed to sell or die, so management went after George like the hare chasing the tortoise.

Well, this was nothing new for George. He’d been recruited for years by dozens of other dealers all over the country. But the dealership the northwest was something else. Sales had been slipping for several years, market share had plummeted to historic lows, and the service and parts departments were experiencing a serious revenue shortfall due to the cumulative, drop-off in overall new, reconditioned, and used forklift sales. So, the dealer principal called George and literally begged him to meet for dinner so he could offer him tons of money and complete freedom to run the sales department anyway he saw fit.

George is anything but dense. So he looked at this opportunity for what it could be, not for what it seemed to be. The new job would undoubtedly be tough challenge with lots of inherent risk of failure. On the other hand, it could be an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When he looked at the new job’s potential, George realized he had nothing to lose. Not really. After all, if he could turn this company around, he’d be able to write his own ticket with anyone, anywhere. On the other hand, even if he failed, he could always hit the road and earn six figures selling forklifts for any dealer, anywhere.

So, he looked the dealer principal in the eye, shook his hand, and accepted the position.
George inherited seven salesmen and two saleswomen with his new job. The only producer in the entire sales department was a mid-forties lady we will call Jasmine (not her real name). Now, Jasmine had only been in the industry for about five years, yet she was selling forklifts like there was no tomorrow. None of the other eight salespeople seemed to have the experience, training, motivation, or the character necessary to focus on much of anything beyond a draw, driving a company car, and taking paid holidays.

Morale had dropped as low as sales, profits, and the infrequent commissions check.

George immediately sat down individually with each sales person to talk about what was really going on. He promised to keep each conversation confidential as he asked each sales person to talk about why they weren’t generating more sales and profits. He was disappointed but not surprised to hear the usual excuses for poor performance he’d heard from salespeople for years: “There’s no business in my territory because it’s saturated with forklifts” and, “Our competitors outsell us because their prices are lower and I can’t compete” and, “The economy is slowing down and no one is buying” and on and on.

Within 3 months of George’s arrival in the sunshine, all those excuses faded like memories of last year’s Grammies, and the sales department was selling new, reconditioned, and used forklifts like never before.

So, what happened?

What did George do to change things around so dramatically?

Well, here’s what he told me:

GEORGE’S 7 SECRETS

George’s 1ST Secret – Do nothing: For the first few weeks after he became Sales Manager, George did nothing at all. He didn’t make any changes; in fact, he didn’t even make any suggestions.

The sales crew was delighted because they began to believe that George would never be as good a sales manager as he had been a territory salesman. There were two reasons for this unlikely attitude. First and foremost, the sales crew didn’t want things to change, not really, because they didn’t believe change would do anything but make them work harder for less. Secondly, they’d heard all about George’s heavy hitter reputation, thought it made them look bad, so they secretly rooted for George to finally fall flat on his behind.

Given the severity of the sales situation, the big question floating around the company was why isn’t George doing anything? Is he just lazy? Is this the Peter Principle in action? Is George simply not up to the job? Or, is he too much of a wimp, too scared to tackle this huge, long-term problem head-on?

Not hardly.

George did nothing because he was too smart to move too quickly, too soon. He knew that before he could institute changes to increase sales and profits, he first needed to invest some serious time and patience learning to understand the dynamics that had killed sales for so long at this particular dealership.

This time and patience thing took more than a little courage on George’s part. It was tough for a results oriented guy like George to overlook caustic comments from Senior Management and pass off the disappointed stares flashed his way by the few people in the sales department who really did want change. Nevertheless, he stayed focused on gathering information, analyzing sales records and call reports, talking with sales people, managers, department heads, and customers, digging for the root causes of the only problem that really mattered: Not Enough Sales!

GEORGE’S 2ND Secret – Build Relationships with Sales Players: After George analyzed management support, financial resources, company image in the territory, facilities, equipment, customer service, parts and service support, product quality, and the company’s relationship to its factories, he concluded that he was right about the root cause: The sales team was simply incapable of doing its job. Sure, like any warm body, each sales person was capable of taking an order for a forklift, but nine of nine sales people weren’t trained in the skills they needed to sell significant numbers of forklifts. Eight of the nine obviously lacked confidence and direction and had never experienced any consistent success . . . so they had no positive history to fall back on. Nine of nine sales people worked – when they worked – only for themselves because not a one of them had a clue about the collective importance of working together as a team. Last but not least, since Jasmine had always been off doing her own thing, completely disassociated with the rest of the group, her colleagues had no role model to emulate.

George made it his business to continue to get to know each sales person, both as an employee and as a person. Each afternoon, he would invite one of the nine to come to his office early the next morning for 15 minutes or so before the switchboard opened, just to talk. He provided fresh coffee, hot chocolate, and a variety of pastries to please any taste. Discussions were friendly, casual with lots of give and take. Over time, each individual came to learn that George wasn’t a threat and, at the same time, they began to believe in George as a leader and as a coach who could and would help them sell more and earn more, more often.

GEORGE’S 3RD Secret – Create a success role model on the team: If you’ve heard the term “Stepping Up”, you probably heard it in the NBA or NFL. “Stepping Up” means that a top performing player assumes a leadership role on the team. Because Jasmine was the only real performer in the sales department, George decided to help her “Step Up”. He trained her thoroughly on the ins and outs of the Sales Coaching concept to help her realize that despite years of separation, the team really needed her to become a Success Role Model. George knew very well that the best way to transform eight below average producers was to get them to emulate the one strong performer.

George also realized that if Jasmine’s sales began to drop – for any reason – she would lose credibility with the rest of the team. So, he worked to coach her, subtly and quietly, because he didn’t want to offend her sensibilities as a top performer. He worked with her consistently because he wanted to keep her numbers strong. In George’s second month as Sales Coach, Jasmine was able to generate nearly 200% of budgeted new, reconditioned, and used sales in her territory. And, senior management and others around the company began to drop their doubts about George’s abilities.

At this point, we asked George why he didn’t simply set himself up as the team’s role model. After all, his sales history was nothing to sneeze at!

His reply?

“I felt that my example wouldn’t be as meaningful as the example Jasmine could set,” he said with a smile. “After all, even though these sales people weren’t particularly friendly with each other, they knew Jasmine well enough to respect her abilities as a top-notch sales person and would therefore be more likely to emulate her strategies and tactics.

“We started slowly at first. In Sales Practices and Team Meetings, I’d ask Jasmine to talk about her week was going. She’d tell us who she sold to and why. It was just casual conversation. No lectures, no pressure. After a couple of weeks, I began to encourage the others to interact with Jasmine, to ask questions, to talk about their successes and failures. And, in no time at all, we had our Success Role Model working to help the team sell more, more often, with no resentments and no resistance.

“Over time, I realized that Jasmine had become Sales Coach in Sales Practices and Team Meetings while I had become the moderator. Gotta tell you, I couldn’t have been more pleased that my plan worked out so well, so quickly.”

GEORGE’S 4TH Secret – Clearly communicate performance goals: George refused to waste time with mealy-mouthed platitudes. Because he felt obligated to turn the company around as quickly as possible, because forklift sales people work in an incredibly competitive business, George refused to take anything for granted. He believed that he owed it to Senior Management, to himself, and especially to Sales Players, to come clean and communicate his expectations to everyone concerned.

So, George established the following three categories of Performance Goals for the team:
Activity Goals, Behavior Goals, and Results Goals.

An ACTIVITY GOAL, for example, requires each Sales Player to send out a minimum of 25 mailers per week with telephone follow up calls within seven days of each mailing.

A BEHAVIOR GOAL requires each Sales Player to provide a customer quote within 24 hours of the initial contact.

The RESULTS GOAL that got the most attention requires each Sales Player with at least one year in a territory to sell a minimum of $100,000.00 in sales of new, reconditioned, and used forklifts each and every month.

GEORGE’S 5TH Secret – Set your standards high: No matter how effective you are as a Sales Coach, George says, no matter how hard you and the company work to support the sales department, there will always be someone who won’t step up to the plate. George doesn’t hesitate to confront poor performers because he refuses to tie the team’s performance to the lowest common denominator. He focuses on the only thing that really matters: Consistent, profitable sales! If a sales person can’t or won’t generate enough in profits to exceed the company’s cost in payroll, commissions, benefits, etc., George recruits a replacement and immediately cuts the player from the team.

If a Sales Player is a marginal performer but is willing to admit the shortcomings that need to be fixed, George, Sales Coach, works to bring that person to the point of making the “Final Decision” which means they either ‘decide’ to join the team, immerse themselves in the Sales Coaching process, and start selling or they ‘decide’ to leave the company . . . immediately.

George told us that that the only thing worse than someone who quits and leaves is someone who quits and stays . . . so he never allows anyone to quit and stay.

Author’s comment: Sensible approach . . . no wonder this guy’s a winner.

GEORGE’S 6TH Secret – Emphasize dignity and respect for all: Look, George says, after the dust settles, we are all just people. We are fallible human beings who make more mistakes than we care to admit. So, George makes it his business to firstly admit his own mistakes, no matter how tough it may be to do so. Because he agrees with Dr. Phil when he says you can’t change what you won’t admit, George expects Sales Players to accept responsibility for their own shortcomings. Irrespective of performance failures and character flaws, George constantly reminds the team of his expectation that everyone – Sales Players, senior management, department heads, key personnel and, of course, the coach – will treat everyone else with complete dignity and respect.

George promotes this aspect of his Sales Coaching effort by taking the entire sales team out of the office once a month – every month – for a fun dignity and respect building group activity – go-karting, golfing, dinner, lunch, breakfast, something.

GEORGE’S 7TH Secret – Coach hard, play hard, and win: George believes that his job as Sales Coach is just as important as Joe Gibbs’ job was as Coach of the Washington Redskins. Like any winning NFL coach, George recognizes that he has to stay close to the action. To be an effective, credible coach, he has to be visible to Sales Players, customers, prospects, senior management, department heads, and key personnel in the company. So, like any good coach, George spends a great deal of time each week talking to people, on the phone, in meetings in his office, traveling with Sales Players, in front of prospects and customers, asking questions, and observing how sales plays are won and lost.

As a result, George has gained incredibly accurate and timely insights into his performance, into the performance of the Sales Team, and into the real needs of customers and prospects. These insights of course have helped George set realistic team goals, reward winning Sales Players, supply real customer needs, and thereby triple sales within 12 months.
You can do the same and more . . . if you really want to.
Right?

RATE YOURSELF AS A WINNING SALES COACH

Take time now to discover just how good you can be by taking time to understand how good you already are!

Respond to the following scenarios using five basic scales. A quick way to score this test is to simply use a highlighter to hit the number that most closely matches your response.
Your responses will not only help you determine where you stand on the following five critical elements of Sales Coaching, but will also help you prioritize those areas you may need to improve:

1. GOAL SETTING SKILLS: My goals are realistic, clear, compelling and support our company’s complete sales success in our territory. I discuss Sales Goals with Senior Management and with every Sales Player, individually and collectively, on my team. I supply lists of Sales Goals to Senior Management and Sales Players on a regular basis for their review, discussion, and final approval.

NEVER. . . [5] RARELY. . . [10] OCCASIONALLY. . . [15] USUALLY. . . [20] ALWAYS. . . [25]

2. COMMUNICATION SKILLS: I communicate often, easily, and quickly. I double-check to make certain each person I speak with understands my position and I also double-check to make certain that I understand the other person’s position. I place a greater emphasis on listening than I do on speaking.

NEVER. . . [5] RARELY. . . [10] OCCASIONALLY. . . [15] USUALLY. . . [20] ALWAYS. . . [25]

3. JOB SATISFACTION AND PERFORMANCE: I enjoy my work. I make a solid contribution to the bottom line with my Sales Coaching skills. I take good care of myself, physically and mentally, so I remain capable of performing at the top of my game.

NEVER. . . [5] RARELY. . . [10] OCCASIONALLY. . . [15] USUALLY. . . [20] ALWAYS. . . [25]

4. PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS: I work to maintain a sense of balance between my position as Sales Coach and the responsibilities of my superiors and colleagues. I consistently challenge myself to improve my performance as Sales Coach, as a colleague, and as an employee. I constantly search for newer, better ways to expand my skills and the skills of my Sales Players. I am willing to delegate wherever necessary and I freely share coaching responsibilities with Assistant Coaches and role models.

NEVER. . . [5] RARELY. . . [10] OCCASIONALLY. . . [15] USUALLY. . . [20] ALWAYS. . . [25]

5. TEAM BUILDING SKILLS: I stay in close, daily touch with each Sales Player to coach, motivate, and help in any way I can to increase sales and profits. I am quick to praise Sales Player successes and I never publicly criticize anyone in the organization.

NEVER. . . [5] RARELY. . . [10] OCCASIONALLY. . . [15] USUALLY. . . [20] ALWAYS. . . [25]

RATE YOURSELF AS A WINNING SALES COACH

What does this test mean? How did you score? Add up the total number of points and consider the following score analysis:

TOTAL POINTS – 125-115: EXCELLENT. You are doing a great job. Your goal setting skills, communication skills, job satisfaction and performance, professional relationships, and team building skills are well thought-out, realistic, and viable. Pat yourself on the back and keep up the good work.

TOTAL POINTS – 110-95: GOOD. You are performing well. Your scores tell you which areas need improvement. Prioritize objectively; select the single most critical area to work on first and take immediate positive steps to develop the skills you need. Put your ego aside and ask your Assistant Coach(s) and Sales Players for suggestions.

TOTAL POINTS – 90-80: FAIR. Review your responses. Pay special attention to high scores and low scores. On reflection, do your responses accurately portray you as Sales Coach? Would you change any response? If you wouldn’t change any response, change your behavior relative to the lowest scored scenario. A tip: The most critical scenario is number 1, Goal Setting Skills. If you didn’t score well on number 1, jump on the problem and get all the help you can . . . immediately.

TOTAL POINTS – 75 or LESS: TIME FOR A CHANGE? If you are not suffering some sort of temporary setback (domestic problem, health problem, personality clash at home or on the job, short-term financial crisis, etc.), stop what you are doing and discuss your situation with someone you trust. If you’re unable to immediately change your responses to these scenarios, you should seriously consider stepping aside in favor of someone else in the organization who is better equipped to perform as Sales Coach.

EPILOGUE

This team thing is nothing new. We all play our lives out on a variety of teams . . . the team at home with our families, the on the job team with colleagues, the team we play on with good friends and close neighbors and on and on.

Some of us stand on the sidelines, watching and cheering . . . we are called receptionists, sales coordinators, service and parts folks, truck drivers, and senior managers. Some of us take the field and compete . . . we are called Sales Players. And a crazy few of us do it all: we watch, we cheer, we train, we cajole, we motivate, we even play . . . we are called Sales Coaches!
As Sales Coach, your primary responsibility is to create a Winning Environment in your company, an environment that comes about only when you:

*Identify precise goals . . . be clear and very vocal about what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it and colleagues & friends will hold you to your goals!

*Clearly communicate winning ideas to your team

*Transform winning ideas into winning realities

When you clearly communicate your goals to individual Sales Players, they will begin to adopt your goals as their own. And, when your Sales Players understand the value and significance of your goals, they will play harder to help you achieve them.
And that’s how you play the sales game to win.

Copyright © 2008 by l.t. Dravis. All rights reserved.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, Email me at LTDAssociates@msn.com (goes right to my desk) and since I personally answer every Email, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/L._T._Dravis/204600

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1446994

Sales Coaching

Increase Sales by Not Talking Yourself Out of Sales

The more you talk. The longer you talk. The more likely you are to talk your way out of a sale. As you speak you’re unwittingly laying little land mines for yourself that blow the whole deal.

You’re so excited about what you do and how you do and what it does for your clients you can’t wait to tell anyone who will listen all about it. Your passion and enthusiasm are a good thing. However, you can be just as passionate and just enthusiastic and actually say very little.

Your sales success is directly proportional to the amount of time the prospect does the talking. Your job is predominantly to keep the conversation going rather than talking. You talk because you’re afraid to give up control of the conversation.

Talking isn’t maintaining control of the conversation it’s a means for you to manipulate the conversation in a way you think best serves you. The prospect is fully aware of this and disengages quickly. The longer you talk the more the prospects defenses go on high alert and they simply close down and stop listening to you at all. They’re only thinking about how they can get rid of you as quickly as possible.

Even when you don’t make the fatal mistake of using a presentation for one-on-one or one-on-two conversations, you still speak in presentation bursts rather than holding a real conversation. The problem with speaking in presentation bursts is the minute you’re off target with what the prospect is thinking about or cares about you’ve lost them. You’re gambling you’ve got it right. Risky business!

During a first meeting you’re tempted to get yourself to a point where you can tell the prospect about what you do, and you might use a similar client as a way to open the conversation.

So you might say, “Jane I’ve been working with another business owner in your same industry who was having trouble meeting their sales goals. The reasons they were struggling include: poor communication with and among the sales force, a limited number of internal experts with product knowledge, and a fast changing product line. When this business owner needed to communicate with his sales people he needed to do so fast plus he needed a way to provide on-demand training getting the sales people up to speed on the new products or changes in existing products. My company provided him with those capabilities. As a result their sales increased, they had fewer customer complaints, and lower costs. Tell me about your business situation.”

Blah, blah, blah if you didn’t hit the right problem Jane is hoping you’re going to shut up so she can get rid of you. While this whole spiel may have impressed you it left Jane cold. Jane like every other person on the planet has one person she’s concerned with, Jane.

Rather than telling your story in this ridiculously long block of dialogue you could have accomplished the same thing and had Jane right there with you actually listening intently to what you were saying. All you had to do was start with a genuine question.

You can’t help anyone or sell anyone until you understand what’s going on with them now. So instead of puking on Jane you could have simply asked, “Jane can you tell me a little about your current situation?” Jane granted you an appointment. She wouldn’t have done so if she didn’t have at least some concern in relation to what you do, so let her tell you about what’s going on with her and her company.

Jane only cares that you’ve helped someone else with the same problems after she’s decided she has at least some interest in moving forward. She may think there isn’t a solution to this problem because she’s tried other things and they didn’t work. If that’s the case, then you can share how her situation reminds you of a similar client’s story. When you share this story tell it in small bites allowing Jane to ask you to tell her more.

If Jane doesn’t ask questions you immediately know you’re off target. The only way to get back on track is to ask another question that will help you understand what’s going on with Jane. Your objective is to understand what Jane needs.

When you can share a client story you’re doing two things. You’re helping to build the prospects desire for a solution that they didn’t have before because they didn’t think there was one. Plus you’re providing proof and overcoming the objection “I don’t think this will work or I don’t think this will work for me.”

The reason it’s so easy to increase sales by talking less is you allow the prospect to think through their situation and discover on their own why they need your solution. As Ben Franklin says the best ideas are the ones you think are your own. Haven’t you found this to be true?

Yes, now you can discover the “7 Secrets” [http://increasesalescoach.com/]

Ladies, you’re destined to be a Sales Genie [http://increasesalescoach.com/sales-coaching-for-women]

Increase Sales Coach Gets Results Sales Training Can’t BECAUSE it’s never just a sales issue

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Cheryl_Clausen/56791

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1157642

Sales Coaching

Winning Sales Coaches Don’t Manage

How would you like to coach a team that wins at the sales game like top-ranked teams win in the NBA, NFL, and NHL?

Why wouldn’t you? Who’s better at producing consistent winning efforts than professional sports teams?

Business?
Education?
Government?
Science?
You gotta be kidding!

Professional sports teams excel where business, education, government and science fail because professional sports teams invest in developing extraordinary coaches who develop extraordinary players.

And there’s a nugget of truth that ought to excite even the most jaded sales manager . . . don’t you think? If an extraordinary coach in the NFL can develop extraordinary players, why can’t you?
It’s no accident that successful professional teams win off-field before they ever win on-field. No team reaches the NBA playoffs, plays in the Super Bowl, or wins the Stanley Cup simply because it pays big bucks for talented athletes. To make it to the top of its sport, a winning team, like a winning business, has to play well in every facet of its operations or lose.

Don’t you agree that it’s tough in field sales these days? In fact, it may well be tougher today than ever before in recent history. You and your sales force work your hearts out, day in and day out, struggling against determined competitors to sell your products and services to prospects and customers who demand the impossible: low prices, discounted financing and instant, top-notch service.

How can you rise above the fray, how can you set yourself and your sales team apart from your competitors, and how can you achieve the consistent success you so richly deserve?
Simple . . . you need to find new business models, new strategies and new tactics to cope with these challenges.

Where can you find these new business models, strategies and tactics?

Like we said before . . . look no farther than professional sports teams.

When you compare the way business plays the sales game to the way professional sports teams play their games, you discover some interesting dichotomies.

First and foremost, business does not demand the best from its greatest asset: sales professionals. Because business doesn’t hold individual sales professionals accountable for their failures to perform, when you evaluate the win/loss record of the typical sales team in any company, large, medium, or small, you find it consistently loses many more sales than it wins . . . usually at a rate of about ten to one.

If you applied this win/loss record to the National Football League, which plays 18 to 20 regular season games a year, the typical NFL team would win 2 games a season.

Unlike professional sports coaches, sales managers typically stay out of the action on the sales playing field because they’re too busy sitting behind their desks managing the administrative affairs of the sales department. How can the average sales manager get in the sales game when he or she is too busy working on projections, profit and loss statements, personnel problems, factory politics, and company politics?

If professional sports teams played the same way most sales organizations play the sales game, NFL quarterbacks would run failed play after failed play, quarter after quarter after quarter, with no input from coaches. If professional sports teams operated the same way most sales organizations operate, Major League Baseball pitchers would walk player after player, inning after inning, while managers ignored the action and sat behind desks shuffling papers in offices far away from action on the field.

Business seems to be perfectly willing to put up with sales managers who consistently run bad plays. And, as if that isn’t bad enough, business is also willing to retain field sales people who consistently fail to achieve performance goals and sales projections.

Business doesn’t lead . . . business follows economic cycles. As a result, business gets sales people-bloated during good times and goes sales people-lean during tough times. Why?

Because when times are good, business gets greedy and tries to grab every dollar it can by sending too many people after what ultimately turns out to be too few opportunities.
And then, when the next economic slowdown occurs, business panics and cuts back.
And then, when the inevitable recovery comes along, business gets caught flat-footed and winds up throwing too few people at too many opportunities, creating a costly cycle that plays havoc with sales, profits, and people’s lives.

When business loses, it refuses to accept responsibility for its own failures. Instead of looking within to make necessary changes and improvements, business tends to blame outside forces including ad agencies, competitors, the government, even customers, for its problems.
Whenever a professional sports team loses a game or a season, it doesn’t waste time playing the blame-game. Professional sports teams take immediate responsibility for their failures. Nothing, not politics, money, and/or relationships, changes a professional sports team’s motivation to achieve defined performance. Failure to perform (Win) causes the team to make immediate changes in management, coaches, players, training, or whatever else it takes to turn the team around.

Business bounces from loss to win to loss because it is unwilling or unable to invest the resources necessary to train sales professionals to perform at the top of their sales games.
Professional sports teams, on the other hand, are more than willing to invest whatever it takes to prepare coaches and players to compete and win against their toughest competitors.
So, what does this mean to you?

It means this: If you’re serious about winning, you’ll study, adapt, and apply professional sports team performance strategies and tactics to prepare your team to win against your toughest competitors.

Sales managers will become sales coaches.

Sales people will become sales players.

And, sales meetings will become sales practices.

After all, if you can’t coach your sales team to renew and reinvent itself as well as a professional sports team so you can win more sales in changing market conditions, your team loses and so do you.

When all is said and done, your mastery of the skills and techniques we present in this article may be the most important contribution you ever make to your sales team, your business, and your profession.

We sincerely hope you agree.
_________________________________________________________________________

The old days when the typical sales manager was an authority figure whose primary responsibility was to manage the time and efforts of sales people are as far gone as black & white television, carburetors, and whitewall tires. Also gone are the wasted days when field sales people were forced to scramble around their territories, struggling to make arbitrary quotas just to keep the boss happy.

Those were baseless quotas that required sales people to make so many cold calls, personal calls, and telephone calls each day . . . all of which had to be documented with a wilting stack of call reports to be turned in every Monday morning to the Sales Manager who desperately needed to make sure sales people were working.

And sales people were working alright . . . writing up call reports every Sunday night to be turned in Monday morning!

Ah, the good old days.

The field sales game, like every other aspect of business-to-business business, has undergone incredible technological, cultural, and social changes over the past few years. Companies that insist on hanging on to outmoded, traditional sales methods and marketing approaches do more harm than good to their sales and marketing efforts. Restrictive policies (call minimums, call reports, arbitrary office reporting days and times, etc.) are a complete waste of time because they don’t do anything to generate sales or profits.

The more sales people put themselves in front of customers and prospects, the more they sell and the more they earn. Sales people need to get face-to-face with prospects and customers to develop relationships, to assess product and service applications, and to put a human imprint on the selling process.

What is important to today’s customer buyer is not whether a sales person claims his yellow widget will last longer or is more popular than someone else’s orange widget . . . what is important to today’s buyer is the answer to a critical question: Can I trust this person to sell me the right product or service for the right application for the right price?

Prospects want to trust that the sales person and the company he or she represents will make every effort to ensure the product or service purchased will minimize downtime, maximize productivity, and provide a fair return on the investment.

Whenever you create that level of trust with a prospect, you’re guaranteed a sale.

As you work your way through BOTH SIDES NOW©, you’ll learn everything there is to know about virtually every significant business strategy and technique – aligning priorities, benchmarking, competitive analyses, coping with culture change, cutting overhead, goal setting, improving quality, and managing resources effectively . . . you’ll need to effectively and quickly increase sales and profits.

This article will help you build, motivate, and lead a winning sales team, a team of sales professionals whose collective ability to win can be uniquely built upon compelling and profound knowledge, skills and understanding; fundamentals which are essential to all great human achievement.
_________________________________________________________________________

PREPARING FOR YOUR 1st PRACTICE SESSION

Suppose you ask Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, or Phil Jackson the following question: “Hey, coach . . . how important is it to prepare for the first practice of the season?”

What do you think he’d say?

One answer and one answer only: Preparation is everything.

If that’s true (and you know it is), what, specifically, should you do to prepare for your all-important first practice session?

Define your primary objective in your first sales practice . . . the questions: Be smart and start at the beginning: The main objective behind your first sales practice is to introduce the Sales Coaching Concept to your team. You know that you’ll introduce the Sales Coaching Concept to some folks who know nothing about Sales Coaching while others will know or think they know everything there is to know about Sales Coaching. So, what do you think? Will the Sales Coaching Concept be a tough sell to your team? Will the majority of your sales team understand and agree that Sales Coaching will generate more sales, more profits, and more income? If your team is skeptical, will the primary concern be about whether Sales Coaching will work as opposed to how it will work? How will you introduce Sales Coaching to your team? Will you simply drop the concept on the group and make a plaintive announcement with the expectation that Sales Coaching will be accepted and implemented immediately? Or, will you start slow, explain the concept, open a dialogue, and patiently work toward consensus? What are your performance expectations . . . for yourself, for individual sales players, for the team? How soon do you expect to see an impact on sales and how significant should you expect that impact be? How much investment of time and energy is the company willing to put into Sales Coaching to make it work for everyone involved? How much investment should the company make before it realizes a return? And, how do you think this article will impact the every day lives of individual Sales players and how do you think will it impact the team as a whole?

The first sales practice . . . the answers: Without pointing fingers, let every Sales Player know precisely what your performance expectations are . . . for yourself, for each individual, and for the entire team as a group. Prepare a list of prioritized expectations, edit the list carefully and thoughtfully, and, even though you should take your list of expectations to the first Practice Session, we suggest you take the time to memorize it. Why? Because you’re likely to get peppered with questions in the first sales practice and you don’t want to struggle for answers, get sidetracked, and forget to cover something important.

Paint an honest but positive picture . . . Nobody likes change, least of all, sales people. So, let’s face it; you’re likely to get passive, perhaps even aggressive resistance from your Sales Team to the Sales Coaching Concept. So, consider how individual personalities might shape the group’s reaction as you decide how best to present Sales Coaching to your team positively, honestly, to get broad support. Clearly communicate the potential for growth and success that comes from utilizing the Sales Coaching approach. Talk about the fact that Sales Coaching is more than theory . . . it is a proven, incredibly positive tool each Sales Player can use to increase sales, profits, and income.

Explain the technical stuff . . . Don’t pull any punches here. Be honest about why you need to make a change. Talk about specific reasons behind the lack of acceptable sales, profits, and income the team should be generating. Spell out specific techniques that individual Sales players – and the team as a whole – can use to improve sales skills. Though you want to be completely honest, don’t allow this part of your practice session to become personal. You won’t gain anything by slamming individual or collective feelings. The team will respect your honesty and will at the same time appreciate your sensitivity. Nevertheless, we caution you . . . if and when you’re forced to make a choice between honesty and sensitivity, the respect that comes from honesty will be far more important to your ability to coach than appreciation will be . . . so tell it like it is.

Eliminate negatives with positives . . . Let Sales players know that you have absolutely no interest in criticizing individual mistakes, errors, or shortcomings. Make it clear that your only interest is to equip each Sales Player to sell more, more profitably, more often. Build consensus by actively soliciting viable solutions to any obstacle that may threaten the team’s overall ability to increase sales, profits, and income. In every conversation, maintain your focus on the primary goal: To build a winning sales team.

Establish new relationships with sales players . . . You are now someone you’ve never been before. You are no longer the Sales Manager. You’re not the VP of Sales and Marketing. You’re not the General Manager. Because you are now the Sales Coach! And, as Sales Coach, your first responsibility is to emphasize the human side of coaching. By that we mean never criticize, put down, or put a Sales player on the spot – even if you think you’re kidding – in front of anyone else. Make sure that every dialogue develops communications not confrontations. Though you’re still the boss, you will find that a new dimension will have been added to the relationship, a leveling of positions that, handled properly, will allow you and Sales players to work more closely than ever to achieve common goals.

EPILOGUE

There is an old saying in professional football that applies to Sales Coaching: The will to win is meaningless without the will to prepare to win.

As Joe Gibbs, one of the all-time great NFL coaches, once said, “A winning effort begins with preparation. The game may be played on Sunday, but it is won on the practice field during the week; in meeting rooms, where coaches and players prepare the game plan; and in the weight room where the best players do a few extra repetitions.”

How is this any different from your Sales Game? Your Sales Game is played on a prospect’s field every time a Sales Player gets in front of a prospect to ask for an order. How does your Sales player get on the playing field? How does your Sales player get in the right position, in the right place, at the right time, to ask for the order and score the win?

Practice. And where do Sales Players practice? In sales practices in your conference room and in your office where you and each Sales Player prepare and practice each individualized game plan. And, where will you find your best Sales Players? Like coach Gibbs said, you’ll find them practicing . . . maybe not in the weight room, but perhaps in front of a mirror at home to improve their ability to win by doing a few extra repetitions as they practice presentations.

Copyright © 2008 by l.t. Dravis. All rights reserved.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, Email me at LTDAssociates@msn.com (goes right to my desk) and since I personally answer every Email, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

l.t. Dravis

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/L._T._Dravis/204600

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1148150

Sales Coaching

When to Bank on YOU to Increase Sales – Sales Coaching

Break the chains holding you down keeping you in the land of mediocrity, and unleash the success within you. Working as a captive agent is holding you back and keeping you from ever getting the success you could have as an independent agent. Are you ready to break free of those chains and write your own path for success?

Let’s face it. After a few years working as a captive agent and surviving you’ve come to realize the very things you thought you’d be getting didn’t materialize, and the way the deal is structured you’re the big loser. No need to be bitter.

It’s simple: you learned a valuable lesson you needed to learn through personal experience. I’ve had three friends who dreamed of owning a Jaguar. None of them still own one because, as they explained to me, the fantasy of owning one didn’t match the reality of owning one. Where do you go from here?

You’ll be glad to know that because you’re one of the successful ones you have options. You have the option of re-aligning with an independent agency, or starting your own independent agency where you call the shots and craft your own deals. There are only three things you need to take advantage of your options.

You start by developing superior selling skills. It didn’t take you long to figure out that presentation they had you memorize wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Now that you’re ready to move into the real money you need to hone the skills you’ve developed on your own into the skills of a true professional. A true professional not only makes more sales, the buyer doesn’t feel like they’re being sold.

With that said the most important skill is the ability to acquire your own leads. You know from experience, the leads you got from the captive agency and the ones you buy from list merchants are about one step above worthless if they’re even that good. Real leads reach out to you because you have something they want. Those leads can and will buy from you.

Vitally important last and final piece: the confidence you gain from knowing what you’re doing and how to do it. This confidence comes from knowing how to run a business not represent a business. As an entrepreneur you stand to have all the gain because you take all the risk. Smart entrepreneurs reduce their risk by aligning themselves with others who can help them to get where they want to go faster with fewer mistakes along the way.

Although you would think the best source for learning how to develop a successful agency would be an agency mentor this can be a misguided perception. It’s great to have a mentor show you how they do things so you can emulate them and do those things too. The danger comes from making the same mistakes the mentor makes and trying to duplicate a business model that doesn’t match your strengths.

Indeed, the success that got you where you are isn’t what will get you where you want to go. You understand that. Others, like you, have found coaching is one of the quickest ways: to develop professional sales skills helping more prospects buy from you, develop the means to acquire your own qualified leads, and develop a successful and sustainable business.

Put more money in the bank by counting on yourself. Identify the areas you want to improve, and reach out and get the help you need. As the success you have today has proven the quicker you take action and the quicker you take right action the quicker you get what you want.

Yes, now you can discover the “7 Secrets” [http://increasesalescoach.com/]

Turn yourself into a Sales Genie [http://increasesalescoach.com/marketing-article]

Increase Sales Coach Gets Results Sales Training Can’t because it’s never just a sales issue.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1132404

Sales Coaching

Why I Offer You This Secret Weapon – Sales Coaching

Everyone can have and use this secret weapon. It doesn’t require a financial investment nor do you need any special talents to use it. However, you will need to make a commitment to use this secret weapon every moment of every day to get the full value it holds.

This secret weapon is your opportunity radar. Sales is serious business, and you can’t afford to lose out because you’re radar isn’t working for you. To develop your opportunity radar you must first identify for yourself all the big problems or big wants that you can produce a desired outcome for. And you most only speak in terms of these outcomes never in terms of products, and never in terms of how great you are.

Develop a highly qualified prospect profile. Give your general profile person a name. Include every detail you can think of that would help you and others to find the people matching your profile. Include the standard things like age, sex, occupation, etc. also include non-standard things like special interests, beliefs, or hobbies.

Put yourself in your profiled highly qualified prospect’s shoes. Go where they go and experience what they experience. The more you can surround yourself with the people matching your profile the more opportunities your opportunity radar will detect.

Increase sales by enlisting the assistance of every person you encounter. Ask anyone who doesn’t match your profile who they know that does match your profile. Ask them to help you connect with that person. Make sure they appreciate the value of helping you to connect with this person, and make it easy and non-threatening for them to do so.

Recognize there are opportunities in nearly every experience you have. You just need to uncover them. Then you need to take action to reap the rewards of your opportunity radar. The more practice you have using your opportunity radar the more skilled you’ll become and the more your sales will increase.

Yes, now you can discover the “7 Secrets Top Producers Know that You Can Put to Use in the Next 9 Days” [http://increasesalescoach.com/]

Turn yourself into a Top Producing Sale Genie [http://increasesalescoach.com/sales-genie.html]

Increase Sales Coach Gets Results Sales Training Can’t

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Cheryl_Clausen/56791