Are you 100% sure your sales team is performing to 100% of its ability?
One of the primary jobs of a sales leader is drawing the full potential from your sales talent. Through motivating, coaching and nurturing their talent, the goal is to have a team of top performers.
But, as we know, sales professionals can be tricky to manage. At their best they can be self-starting, motivated and a tour de force. When they aren’t at their best, they can succumb to doubt and lack of self-belief which shows in their performance.
Having worked with thousands of sales professionals, here’s what we know about what sales leaders can do to bring out their best performance.
Bear these five steps in mind to ensure your team is firing on all cylinders.
1. Set clear expectations and goals at the start
It goes without saying that clear expectations are key. Yet, often sales leaders worry about micromanaging and how it feels to the team member. But look at it from the sales professional’s perspective.
As much as we don’t like to be micromanaged, there is comfort in knowing what our manager, team or organisation expects of us. Actually, it gives us a sense of certainty. We psychologically sign-up and work towards achieving those goals.
The conversations you have will enable you to work through and surface any capability issues, so you can address them early.
There is a real skill here to get this right. The aim is to achieve the balance between setting a stretch goal and not putting salespeople in a situation where they believe the target is unattainable.
2. Clearly communicate what you need from them
Sales professionals appreciate knowing they are on the right track and that you are aligned on strategy and approach. Communicating employee responsibilities to new hires, in particular, can have a long-lasting effect on your business.
However, a study by Gallup shows that nearly half of all employees don’t know what’s expected of them at work. The study’s authors believe that employees are less engaged at work when they do not have a clear understanding of what’s required of them.
Previous Gallup research found that only 33% of U.S. employees and 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. While there are 12 elements of employee engagement, the study suggested that clear communication of expectations could be the most foundational one.
3. Hold them accountable to their goals and objectives
You can’t expect what you don’t inspect. Remember, what gets measured gets done. Setting clear expectations and agreeing on them is just a start point
If we no longer pay attention to those goals and objectives, we are unconsciously signalling to the people we lead that they are not that critical. Measuring against progress reminds us the expectation still exists.
It’s interesting to note that we tend to perform to a level that others expect of us.
If you have a good relationship with your leader it’s unlikely you will want to let them down. There is a psychological contract you have created between you and your team member.
4. Reward them
Sales staff are generally driven by success. It’s the victories that keep us moving forward. We like the feel of it. We enjoy the dopamine hit we receive when we experience success or it is acknowledged in any way.
This doesn’t necessarily need to be a cash reward. It could be verbal or some other form of acknowledgement of success and contribution.
Of course, remuneration and rewards are important for any employee. But for salespeople, this is a real factor. It is essential that rewards and compensation are linked to performance.
Despite this, there are still a large number of companies with rewards that are poorly linked to the employees’ accomplishments. These companies are then surprised by the poor performance of their salespeople or by seeing the best of them move on.
Understand that no matter what sector a company is in, the remuneration structure is a decisive element for improving the performance of sales teams. It’s critical to have a real gap between the excellent, the good, the average and the people who struggle. The best won’t be motivated to go above and beyond if there’s little-to-no difference.
5. Coach them
It continues to amaze us to learn that so many sales leaders do not provide the level of coaching that their salespeople would like.
This can be partly down to the salesperson themselves not reaching out and being honest about the support that they need. This may be through the fear that they will be seen as inadequate
The sales leader, on the other hand, continues to make assumptions about the salesperson’s capability or, worse still, the salesperson gets frustrated and does not demonstrate the right level of capability, making it even more difficult for them to reach out for the coaching they require.
This can be solved by having a coaching conversation that is built on trust and mutual respect; asking for help never comes easy for any of us. We feel we’ve been hired for a job and we should be able to do it.
The best sales leaders are only too aware of this. They won’t make assumptions or simply accept their team members are okay when the figures say otherwise.
Effective sales leaders aim to create a safe environment for the salesperson to engage with them on any issues long before they become a real performance issue.
Experienced sales leaders are able to read the situation and provide the level of support required.
Discover more about how we can support you to get the best from your sales talent through one of our programmes tailored to your needs. Call us on +44 20 3303 0415 or email info@thewinacademy.co.uk to book a call with a member of our team.