Depending on your sales and marketing
team, your small, medium or large business can fly or
flop. With a motivated and energetic
group of sales people you can sell even
the weakest of product.
Use Your People for their strengths, but as a team
You might be tempted to hire employees
outside of your small, medium or large business, but
an in-house sales force offers you more
control, and at the same time more flexibility.
The closer you keep your sales people,
the better your marketing will be. Keep in mind 100 percent of the expenses
associated with an in-house sales team
must be paid by your small, medium or large business,
so what you put into your sales and
marketing team is essentially what you
must get out.
Your Sales Team gets motivated when the can spend as much time in their workday closing sales. It is imperative there is a good supply of qualified leads and prospects and that there is a way to manage them to help automate the Marketing and Sales business processes, to follow-up with hot leads and important customers. This frees the salesperson to do what they do best - call and meet with customers to foster a great relationship between them, the business and the customer.
CRM and Sales Force Automation (SFA) are two different things.
Sales Automation should always lead your CRM efforts.
Never assume all salespeople are alike. Never train them on Sales software like they are alike. Each has strengths and weaknesses, strategies and power, hierarchy and pedigree. Each needs a customer Sales software solution, complete with training and degree of choice whether even to participate in the new system, or not. The Sales software rollout should be designed up-front to mitigate risks in the rollout. Configure the software and strategy and training accordingly.
Use all of the resources you have at your disposal.
Your Sales team gets motivated by competition. Having monthly, quarterly and yearly quotas, goals, bonuses, gamification - all are about unlocking the competitive spirit of the Sales person and makes them want to blow out all records, to continuously improve and make more money doing it. Simply put, Salespeople want to be the best. And well they should, it is their job, after all.
What makes the elite of all top winners is better technology. This helps them succeed. Sales forecasting software is not just about tracking quarterly numbers, it is also a tool to helps Sales teams succeed, through competitive motivation.
Motivate your sales team by giving them a goal to go after, and a clear vision on how to go after it. This doesn't mean the goals and plans won't change frequently. In fact, that is what you want. As you learn more about your Sales, Customers, Prospects Partners, etc it means you want to change things for the better as you go. It is the way of the world now.
We use the words "Nimble" and "Fail often" and "Iterative" to describe forward-thinking businesses and their Sales teams. These are all describing innovation, and an innovative Sales Team is always measuring what is working and not working, changing strategy, testing and finding the right mix.
Planning a short-term, medium-term and long-term rollout and training strategy works better than trying to 'drink from a garden hose'. There are so many things a business could do, it is more about what the employees can handle from a training, learning and adoption standpoint. You get a quick win first, and then the CRM keeps giving, on a timely basis, forever.
Choose your staff wisely
Simply because someone is a "smooth talker", does
not mean that individual can sell your product.
To find the real cream of the crop you must first
evaluate the candidate to see if he or she has these
qualities.
1. Financially motivated
2. Excited to expand their knowledge
3. Self-assured
4. Welcomes a challenge
5. Determined
6. Aggressive
7. Able to deal with negative responses
8. Focused - a good listener
Say it like you mean it
Explain yourself, and tell the team exactly what
you are looking for. Find a common ground where
you and your employee are excited to help each other,
because inevitably you need each other to make the
small, medium or large business succeed!
Sales Team Training - Coach, Educate,
and Guide your sales and marketing team
The most important thing in sales is
to knowing your product. Nobody wants
to buy a product that they are uneasy
about. Your sales and marketing team
needs to be confident in what they sell.
Encourage your sales and marketing team
to seek additional training to further
educate them in specific areas of expertise.
Not only should your sales and marketing
team know everything about your product,
they should know everything about your
competitors too, because that is where
you expand as a small, medium or large business.� When
your sales and marketing team knows
what the competition was, is, and will
be doing, you will always be on top!
Offer good compensation to your sales team
Make sure that your small, medium or large business
has a solid compensation plan in place
before you advertise the positions.
Work out a base salary, and then discuss
commission upon reviewing the skills
the employee has to offer. This will
motivate your sales and marketing team
to work diligently for your small business.
Non financial
motivation
Listen to your sales team and appreciate them for
the hard work that they are doing to help establish
your small, medium or large business.� Paid holidays, maternity leave
and other benefit packages such as medical and dental,
are all great incentives to work hard for your small, medium or large
business, and to stick with it in the long run.
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