We have someone helping us with sales. He’s opening a lot of doors, but not closing much. We like him a lot and would like to see him succeed as a sales leader. What should we do?
Thoughts of the Day: Sales is a multi-disciplined job. Look for bad habits that are getting in the way. Consider if fears are holding your sales leader back. Think about the kind of training you’re willing to invest in. Use a formula to figure out what to expect.
Most salespeople are not well-rounded enough to be good at every aspect of the sales job. If your sales leader is opening a lot of doors, that’s huge. Make sure the doors being opened are with people who want or need to buy.
Review recent opportunities. Make a list of attributes and qualities that describe your very best clients. Compare prospects to that list. Is there a strong or a weak match? If the match is usually strong, keep going. If it’s usually weak, practice how to qualify prospects using your best client criteria as a baseline, and how to walk away from low-quality opportunities.
Ways to improve sales leaders
Once qualified, is your sales leader doing a good job of keeping track of active prospects? Is there a clear set of activities leading from initial contact to close: gathering needs, confirming needs, presenting a proposal, negotiating proposal, close?
Does your salesperson have a list of active prospects, and does he update it daily? Is there a clear action plan for every prospect, with due dates? Are due dates accomplished as planned?
For example, when asking for commitments, does sales nail things down or leave things up to the prospect to decide? Is he trying to get a “no”, to find out where he stands?
Moreover, is your salesperson struggling with some of the classic sales “fears”? Fear of rejection, of insufficiency, of failure, of discomfort, to name a few. Consequently, many never achieve their full potential because they get lost in avoiding fears.
It takes real courage to succeed in sales. Observe your sales leader closely to see where he wimps out, and where he’s able to push through to get things done. Help him to face his fears by coaching him through the situations where he struggles.
Sales leader not performing?
Most importantly, zero in on some possible areas that need development, decide how much to invest in developing skills. Sending sales leaders for training will cost the company money. But losing out on closes costs so much more in terms of lost opportunity. Consider training courses that range from 1 – 2 days or coaching that lasts for months or years. Moreover, decide how much of a budget your company can afford. Sit down with your sales leader to look at options.
Typically a sales leader should be bringing in gross profit equal to 3 to 4 times what he or she costs. The first year might fall below that target, but he should be making progress towards that goal each month. Meanwhile, keep track of the number of sales calls, the number and value of prospects. Compare that to what it will take to hit their revenue and gross profit goal every month and for the year. In the case of this sales leader, I would expect to see lots of sales calls and prospects. And subsequently, a ratio of closes to prospects identified of 1:10 or better.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION:
Looking for a good book? “Sales: A Beginners Guide to Master Simple Sales Techniques and Increase Sales” by Daniel R. Covey.
