Sales Management Strategies and Techniques
It’s time for a confession. I am one of a handful of people on the planet who does not follow football. I understand the sport well enough to be dangerous but don’t make the time to watch it. Frankly, I’d rather spend my Fall and Winter Sundays at the theater or in hibernation. This year, despite my best efforts, it was impossible to ignore the sport, thanks to the Giants mania that infected my part of the world. While I’m still not a fan, one core issue piqued my interest: How do you get a team to perform at championship level? This issue was on my mind because it’s almost time for First Quarter review.
With three months of production completed, the First Quarter review is your first opportunity to critically assess your sales team’s year-to-date performance trends and results. Of all the quarterly reviews, this one is the most vital because it affords you the greatest opportunity to get a jump on performance trends and set the tone for the rest of the year. It also enables you to reality check your sales forecast and take action where needed. If the trends are favorable, you have the opportunity to reinforce your team’s behavior and stoke the fires of success. If, unfortunately, the trends are unfavorable, you have ample time to diagnose the problem, get to its root cause and take corrective action.
Since my experience in sports is limited to playing tennis doubles, I spoke with several rabid sports aficionados and reflected on what’s known about the characteristics of effective teams to identify the characteristics of high performance teams. Following are some conclusions that may help you spark (or goad) your sales team to championship performance.
ABILITY DOES MATTER.
While professional athletes have spent years learning the strategies and techniques needed to play their sport, they started with some ability and a healthy interest in the sport.
One of the oldest debates is whether sales people are born or made. While it’s tempting to think that anyone can learn to sell, the individual doing the learning has to have some inherent ability and interest. During my career, I have trained thousands of people and I can tell you unequivocally that everyone cannot learn to sell. I make this point because frequently bankers believe that by providing everyone with training they can easily migrate to a sales culture. The reality is that some people view selling as an unspeakable act and will never be able to sell. If you want a championship team, the team members have to want to wear your team colors and perform their roles.
IT TAKES MORE THAN MONEY TO MAKE TEAM MEMBERS PERFORM.
The sports arena is not the only place where the “free agent” mentality reigns. Ever since American business embraced “employment at will”, we have spawned a workforce of free agents: employees who know they are walking, talking marketable entities available to work for the employer with the best work environment and pay scale. Of course, our strong economy has also contributed to the current low levels of unemployment, making competition for talented workers even more difficult. Most banks are under pressure to attract and retain qualified employees, despite offering increasingly more lucrative signing bonuses, pay packages and incentives.
There is only one condition in which money matters: when your team members are paid below market rates. This condition will make it difficult for your team members to maintain their lifestyle at your pay rates. If this condition prevails, your team members will search for higher paying positions, no matter how much they like you personally or like their job. Essentially, money is not a motivator unless there’s too little of it. Simply paying people more for doing the same job will not motivate higher levels of team performance. And, if people don’t want to do a job, like making sales or referrals, simply offering incentives won’t change their minds.
LET TEAM MEMBERS PLAY TO THEIR STRENGTHS.
Each position on a team requires a specific set of abilities. Players, i.e., employees, should be matched to their positions based on ability not proximity. Some of your employees may be spectacular in service positions. This does not mean that they will excel in sales positions. (There is truth in the Peter Principle.) Motivation occurs when an individual derives a personal gain from the work he or she performs. This personal gain may be recognition, opportunity, or achievement. By putting people in positions based on interest and ability and by allowing your team members to capitalize on their strengths, you create the type of loyalty that can’t be purchased.
WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE.
At the start of each season, teams have an overall strategy. However, this overall strategy is supplemented by strategies for each game. Each game’s strategy is designed to capitalize on the team’s strengths and their opponent’s weaknesses. The same is true in selling.
Many bankers agonize over whether to set quotas. Without quotas, you have no way of creating measurable performance standards. Now, you might say, “Ann we took care of that. We have annual goals. Everyone at my bank knows the number of referrals they need to make and the number of accounts they need to open by the end of the year.” Well, that’s nice, but it’s not enough. If one feels that one has 12 months in which to make goal and it is the start of the selling year, one typically feels like there is all the time in the world.
At the start of a season, the championship team does not know that it will be the champion. They view every game as vitally important to their overall success because they know that the championship depends on sustained, quality performance. Therefore, annual goals need to be converted to incremental, achievable monthly quotas. And, if the annual goals are expressed as a number of transactions, e.g., a number of referrals or applications, you should also convert the transactions to a dollar figure, preferably one that reflects the net contribution margin.
WHILE HAVING A GOAL IS IMPORTANT, KNOWING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL IS BETTER.
Once these monthly targets are set, the sales team needs to be equipped with specific selling strategies to promote certain products based on the prospects’ needs and the competition’s weaknesses.
Team members also need to understand their roles and how what they do or don’t do impacts the rest of the team. In simplest terms, they need to understand the importance of making profitable, enduring account relationships. If the emphasis is on simply making sales, then your institution faces the high probability that it will wallow in unprofitable relationships or will constantly be trying to replace the money that runs, e.g., CDs, every time the competition offers a better rate.
PRACTICE MIGHT NOT MAKE YOU PERFECT, BUT IT DOES MAKES YOU BETTER.
Professionals know that if they are to reach and stay at the top of their game they need to practice. They also know that they have to learn and experiment with new plays. In the same way, we need to make sure that our team members – even the most experienced sales professionals on the team – get adequate training and practice in the form of role plays and drills. Basic sales training is not enough.
There is truth to the expression, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Unless one’s sales skills in the areas of prospecting, qualifying, pitching, overcoming objections and closing are used, one becomes rusty. If you are having a winning season, i.e., at or above your sales goals, it is tempting to reduce or eliminate the time spent on training and sales meetings. Don’t do it. Regularly scheduled sales meetings and training sessions will keep your sales team members at the top of their game. Make it a priority to keep the content of your sales meetings and training sessions fresh and innovative.
TIMELY COACHING IS IMPORTANT, EVEN WHEN YOU’RE DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT.
Just because the team coaches are not allowed to handle the ball during a game, doesn’t mean that they sit quietly on the sidelines. Some of them get so animated as they shout instructions; I’m surprised they don’t suffer a coronary. The fact is that people want and need to know how they are doing, preferably in a timely and meaningful manner.
If your sales team members are doing a good job, you need to be specific in describing exactly what they are doing well. Otherwise, you run the risk that they will attribute their success to the wrong actions. If your team members are in a slump, you need to be an astute behavioral diagnostician to pinpoint the problem and then provide suggestions for overcoming the obstacle. Remember: The goal of effective Sales Managers is to enable the sales team to exceed goal on a consistent basis.
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