Editor’s note: Paul Kirch is CEO of Actus Sales Intelligence, a Fort Worth, Texas, business and sales consulting agency. He can be reached at 214-295-6111 or at pkirch@actussales.com.
We hear it all the time: The research industry is changing. Traditional research methods are losing out to newer ways to collect opinions. And everyone’s talking about big data. Many firms have felt some pressure and faced dwindling sales momentum during the last several months. It could be related to a shift in buying from the corporate clients who are exploring new methods but more than likely, it’s as much related to a lack of confidence about the global and national economic conditions.
No matter the reason for any slowdown, now is the time to step up your company’s sales efforts by building the right team and the right processes. Assuming you have a sales team in place, do you feel your current staff can help you reach the goals you’ve set as an organization? Surely you’ve set those goals, right? If not, you must set your growth targets and figure out how to get there.
Keep current clients
This type of planning normally incorporates a sales and marketing strategy to determine how you can drive greater brand awareness while attracting and converting new customers. In addition, explore how you’ll keep current clients engaged. Looking annually at your attrition rate is a great starting point. If you notice that you’re losing a significant number of clients or if you’re only winning the first project, dig into why. Is it a follow-up issue? Perhaps your salespeople have been asked to focus more on new business and aren’t giving existing accounts the attention they need. Maybe your salespeople love the hunt but aren’t effective at relationship management. Or it could be a fulfillment issue. After all, keeping your buyers happy is not only the sales team’s responsibility.
From my experience, non-repeat customers are an under-analyzed factor and one that can cost firms tens of thousands of dollars. The cost of acquiring new customers is substantially higher than the cost of maintaining relationships so when you get a new customer in the door who doesn’t continue to use you for future work, it’s a real opportunity missed.
Developing your sales staff
How are you developing your sales staff? If you’re like far too many decision makers, your answer is that you’re not. Or maybe you sent them to a training seminar, expecting huge improvements, only to find little or no productivity increases. This is often the case with canned training, which doesn’t look at the individual needs of your team.
Development isn’t a one-weekend activity. There must be follow-up and some form of accountability where your team is challenged to apply what they’ve learned. I believe in individualized training in a team environment. Everyone can learn from each other but the training addresses each salesperson’s personality, strengths and areas of development. Ongoing, personalized development is the best way to improve performance.
Motivate them
Assuming that you’re developing your team and you understand each person’s strong suits, it’s time to look at their level of effectiveness. Are they covering their own salary and cost to the company? Do their sales goals reflect an appropriate net gain for the company? Do you employ a commission plan to motivate them?
I often hear people tell me that their company doesn’t cap commissions, which means the more they sell, the more they earn. This can motivate certain individuals but only if an uncapped system really means that they can earn significantly more by selling significantly more. So many compensation plans are structured so that there’s very little incentive for going above and beyond sales goals. For individuals who are truly driven by greater earning potential through such a system, why not set a goal and then perhaps a stretch goal with a high reward for exceeding the set target? Note: I did not state that this should apply to all individuals, as not everyone is motivated by the same thing.
If you are reading this and arguing that all salespeople are motivated only by money then I’m sorry to tell you that you’re either misinformed or you’ve never had to manage a sales team. This doesn’t mean that a good compensation plan won’t lead to motivation but it’s less about the money and more about what the money might mean to the individuals. Also, some sales professionals are motivated by achievement and recognition. Big egos can be fragile and easily crushed so helping boost your team can have a huge impact on their performance.
I had a salesperson who worked with me who was a diamond in the rough. I couldn’t get him to perform at his peak until I discovered what made him tick. A bigger commission plan didn’t have nearly the impact that came from making him feel like he was an important person to the team and to the company. He went from one of the lowest performers to one of the highest and almost none of it related to the commission plan. (Although once he saw the fruits of his labors, he wasn’t willing to let his performance slide.)
Critical to driving success
Motivating and developing your sales team is critical to driving organizational success. I encourage an individualized approach as much as possible. This may seem daunting but it’s really just a matter of determining what drives each person. Work with them as a team but make time to focus on their needs separately.
Regardless of the changes that may come to our industry, it’s time to take a more serious interest in how your sales team is structured and what strategies drive their approach to client development. In the end, there will always be reasons why your business faces downtimes but the firms with a strong sales strategy and a team to support it will always have the greatest opportunity to succeed.