Finding salespeople with the right mindset and expertise is challenging. Clients often ask me where they can find “the right salespeople” to help them win more deals.
The scalable, sustainable answer is… we need to develop them.
While you should always be on the lookout for top talent, you’re best bet is to identify salespeople with the right mindset and increase their competency for your unique sales environment.
Read on to gather insights on:
- Aligning your organization to hit your sales goals
- Importance of ongoing sales methodology development
- Creating an effective selling environment
Isolate Key Sales Skills by Clearly Defining Roles
The first step is evaluating your existing Sales Team is to clearly define each unique sales role within your sales organization.
In small and mid-sized companies, it’s common for one person to cover multiple functions. As the business scales, sales positions tend to become more focused and specialized to optimize performance.
For example, at a smaller company, salespeople may cover everything from selling the product to new order coordination to ensure customer satisfaction. But as the business scales, adding a customer service representative to handle functions related to customer retention becomes justifiable.
Your customer service resources can also be dual positioned to learn more about your customers with the objective to uncover new opportunities through their support role.
In my previous article titled, “Reveal Your Sales Skill Gaps with the Customer Journey”, I provided a comprehensive approach I use with my clients to take inventory of the current scope of sales functions active within a sales department.
Often, businesses don’t have conscious recognition of the various sales roles naturally playing out to support their customers’ journey. This makes it impossible to ensure assigned resources embody necessary sales skills to perform at optimal levels.
You Should Always Sharpen Your Sales Skills
Sales development isn’t achieved in one training or coaching session. It is a continuous process where you evolve a seller’s skillset to meet whatever challenges they are facing.
The market doesn’t stand still. Buyers choose new ways to buy and what worked in the past isn’t guaranteed to continue working. Competitors will enter the equation and you’ll need to evolve your sales strategy yet again.
That’s why the first step of our Sales Development Continuum model focuses on evolving sales methodology to conquer new challenges that arise.
These concepts need to be formally introduced to your inside and outside teams through sales training, “real world” application coaching, and ongoing sales management guidance.
I wrote a piece that guides you through the scope of each step in the continuum wheel called, “Sales Training Is Only Part of the Answer”. Check it out to compare your current approach to closing sales skill gaps with our proven method.
Intentional Sales Management is the Difference Maker
Sales development is a core responsibility of the Sales Manager. We win in the trenches when our salespeople can be effective without oversight. This happens over time with effective skill gap identification and the sales management commitment to develop our people and equip them with the tools to win.
Focused and experienced sales leadership coverage makes a profound impact – it’s not something to assign to the owner, VP, or GM to “do on the side”.
In my role as a Fractional Sales Leader, I help you zero in on the things holding your business back, working with you to correct them, and taking the lead on getting the new infrastructure functioning.
Success is achieved when the timing is right for me to hand off the baton to the right sales leader who is capable of driving success long-term.
If you’d like to discuss the improvement you’re looking for in your business, contact me at (773) 203-7086 or jmcleod@salesxceleration.com.
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I am part of a national group of Senior Sales Leaders who collaborate to share insights like the examples shown in this article. We formed because of our shared passion to help business leaders exponentially grow their revenue.