Ask Andi: My sales force is stagnant. The newest ones make the most calls. As they settle in and work on opportunities, they lose focus on lead generation. Most make fewer calls. Their production falls off. How do I challenge them to keep sales calls on track?

Thoughts of the Day: Customer objections can be hard for the sales force. Then sales calls become challenging. Keep sales on track. Set up systems and structures to ensure your sales force is selling consistently. Coach and mentor salespeople. Create a team mindset to boost performance across a group of people with varying skills. Encourage additional efforts. Create friendly, internal competition.

Don’t let your sales force get stagnant

In the beginning, salespeople use up time in the day by making a lot of calls. Set up appointments to fill their calendar. Reach out for introductions to key contacts and new prospects. Do a lot of networking and build up referral sources.

Typically as the calendar fills up with sales activities the outreach slows down. Focus shifts to active prospects and productive referral sources. Salespeople also get distracted implementing new programs. New introductory calls fall to the bottom of the priority list. Networking for new contacts and additional referral sources drops off. Eventually, the pipeline gets very thin.

Combat loss of focus and momentum by putting in place tools your team can use to achieve consistency. Agree on a standard set of actions that have been proven to produce short and long-term results. Use calendars to plan out and recap sales schedules and marketing campaigns.

Get to the core of buyer challenges

Block time weekly to make prospecting phone calls, go to networking events, meet with referral sources and circle back to re-approach cold leads. Teach everyone on the team how to implement activities that have been proven to deliver a high degree of results. Track activity to ensure that the majority of each salesperson’s time is spent focused on selling.

Build relationships with your people by working with them. Be aware of individual strengths and weaknesses. Meet one-on-one with people who aren’t making their calls. Show them how to adjust their schedule to fit in essential sales tasks. Emphasize how results come from continually adding to the pipeline. Be willing to admit there have been times you’ve struggled to meet your goals and share lessons you’ve learned about how to stay on track.

Help everyone in sales to respect differences and get along. Zero tolerance for bullying. Give quieter members of the group opportunity to share what they know. Try to match individual assignments to individual strengths. For example, assign good negotiators to close business, good relationship builders to nurture opportunities.

Address challenges to engage potential buyers

As much as sales positions require individual performance, there can also be great value in group sales goals and teamwork. Go out on joint sales calls. Insure introductory approach calls get made by setting up times to make phone calls together. Dial-in sequence so everyone can listen, share in the successes, and learn from the breakdowns. Pair up people who are really good at a specific activity with others who need to learn how to do that.

Money and competition are motivators for many salespeople. Show your team that you appreciate their efforts with recognition and compensation. Keep focused on calls by setting a goal each week. Recognize people who consistently meet or exceed that goal. Build a performance club that people can earn their way into by consistently doing what you want them to do.

Create an attitude of winning. Help people bond together by giving them an important mission such as growing a profitable, thriving business. Ask the team to brainstorm how they would produce extraordinary results. Then encourage them to implement the plan.

Hand out awards publicly. Put peoples’ pictures up on the walls. Hand out commission checks in sales meetings. Use regular sales meetings to boost motivation by talking about the growth plan and progress that’s been made towards achieving the plan.

Looking for a good book? Try… The Power of Understanding People: The Key to Strengthening Relationships, Increasing Sales, and Enhancing Organizational Performance, by Dave Mitchell.