Salesforce Search

4 Things your sales people need to hit their sales targets.

Try this out with your sales team in the next sales meeting. Start by asking a question about a key feature of the product or service you sell such as why should I buy from you? Ask every person for their answer.

Are the answers all the same? The answer is likely, no.

One of the biggest reasons sales people fail to hit their targets is lack of a clear, consistent message around the key features and benefits of your product or service. The next question to ask is, “Have we given them a sales toolkit to succeed.”

Even seasoned sales professionals require a great toolkit to succeed and here are a few things your team should have:

1.       A well thought out 30 second elevator pitch on your company’s value proposition. Work on this with your team so that every person gives the same answer to the question, “Why should we buy from you?”

2.       A clear sales process that everyone follows including the initial approach, discovery and close. By doing this you will know where the process is falling short and you can take corrective action.

3.       Great collateral marketing material that supports the sales person throughout the process reinforcing the value proposition of your company.

4.       A CRM system to track, schedule and measure activity for the purposes of forecasting and planning.  Too often we speak with companies that have nothing in place and deals fall through the cracks.

If your company has 1 or more of these, great you are on the right track. Getting all 4 will take your sales team and business to the next level.

SalesForce Search specializes in sales recruiting and sales compensation design. To discuss our sales recruitment or sales compensation services, please call 1-800-461-SELL (7355) or email us at info@salesforcesearch.ca

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Update on Employment Trends in Sales

We have spent the past 3 months meeting with CEO’s, VP’s of Sales and sales managers in order to determine what their hiring and training needs are for the next 12-18 months and we wanted to share the results.

·         80% of the companies we spoke with are planning on adding sales people to their teams, not just replacing poor performing reps

·         65% are making a large investment in sales training for their sales teams to improve and retain top sales people

·         Companies are receiving large volumes of resumes but most are not suitable for their sales jobs

·         Only 30% are investing in training to make their sales managers better coaches

·         Most have a positive outlook for revenue growth for the next 12 months but lack the internal resources to properly source, screen and hire top sales reps

·         Sectors such as manufacturing and packaging which have lagged for the past year are looking to add headcount to their sales teams

·         The majority of those surveyed, feel industry specific experience has become less important and the focus is now more on the selling skills. To this point, most companies agreed their internal screening process is inadequate to screen for selling skills

·         10% of companies are looking to outsource part or all of their sales function

We’ve also been meeting with a lot of great sales people looking for their next sales job. Here’s what we’ve found:

·         There are a lot of great sales people on the market right now

·         Candidates are frustrated with the length of the interview process with many organizations

·         In many cases, they are not contacted after an initial interview to get feedback or closure on the process

·         Expectations for base salaries for sales people has come down dramatically over the past year

·         Most are looking for a stable, growing company to work for

·         Even veteran sales people want to know potential employers have great training and development programs for their sales people

·         Contrary to popular belief, younger sales people are looking for a company to spend most of their sales careers with one or two companies

The results are important for employers as they compete to win the top sales people on the market today.  If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call at 1-800-461-SELL or email us at info@salesforcesearch.ca.

SalesForce Search specializes in sales recruiting and sales compensation design. To discuss our sales recruitment or sales compensation services, please call 1-800-461-SELL (7355) or email us at info@salesforcesearch.ca

 www.SalesForceSearch.ca

 Follow us on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/salesjobsearch

http://twitter.com/salesforcecomp

OK, so you’ve finally managed to convince your sales team to do  more cold calling.  And perhaps you’ve even taken it a step further and got them to refine the message so that they’re leaving a strong benefit statement.  But 95% of your reps’ calls are going to hit voice mail.  So then what?  Well, if you’re like us, you leave a carefully crafted message that gives the prospect a reason to want to speak with us.  However, no matter how strong the reason, rarely does this alone initiate a call back from the prospect.

Poll your reps, and ask them what they do after this first voice mail.  Ask them when they make a second call, what is the second message, do they do anything special to warm up the calls, and do they do the same thing consistently with every single prospect.  Chances are strong that if you have ten reps, you’ll get ten different responses.  And why?  Shouldn’t all of your reps follow a defined, standardized and identified best practice? 

Our partners, SalesForce Training & Consulting, have built a phenomenal prospecting program they call an Approach Stream.  An Approach Stream is a series of planned set of messaging to prospects with defined ‘hit’ dates, varying from voice mail to a specialized email tool we use that allows us to track our prospect’s interest, as well as post cards and letters.  The SalesForce Approach Stream is a best practice, that is designed to do three things, namely;

1)      Send a more powerful and compelling message to our prospects;

2)      Improve our efficiency; and

3)      Differentiate our offering.  The aim is to stop asking your prospects to do things for you, like “Please call me back”, and to start to provide your prospects with items of value that can help their businesses run more efficiently.

With the right approach stream, you can track your prospect’s interest and then zero in on those prospects that look like they need your help, eventually discarding those that don’t respond at all.  To date, SalesForce clients that have leveraged this best practice have reported phenomenal results.  The process has allowed their reps to contact more decision makers, book more meetings, and edge out their competitors from the process. 

Regardless of what approach tool or call sequence you use, ensuring all of your sales people are sending a consistent, effective message may be the key to winning and losing deals in this tough selling environment.

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Regardless of your profession, one of the most important things you can do to help ensure a successful career is to continously upgrade your skills. Staying current in your field of expertise can put you ahead of your peers and will increase your value to your organization.

As a sales professional keeping your skills sharp is critical. Even if you’ve been successful in the past there is always room for improvement. Whether it’s enhancing your prospecting approach or refining your objection handling techniques, even the smallest improvement can make a significant difference. Imagine increasing your close ratio by just five percent - this would translate into increased revenue for your company and more commission in your pocket.

With all of the uncertainty in today’s economy, some of you may be out of work or simply looking for a better opportunity. By upgrading your skills through sales training you are increasing your chances of a higher paying sales job and showing potential employers you are serious about improving your capabilities.

If you would like to learn more about our sales training programs, please call:

416-322-2888 x226

SalesForce Search recently surveyed over 300 employers in our first ‘Employer Sales Force Survey’. Those surveyed included companies both small and large in all industries including Financial Services, Pharmaceutical, Consumer Goods, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, and Technology.

The response rate to the survey was great - thank-you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey. The results provided us with valuable information regarding trends in sales force management, specifically in the areas of attraction & retention, resources, and sales compensation. We hope you will find the following survey results both informative and useful.

Attraction & Retention of Sales Teams

• The majority of survey respondents indicated turnover in their sales team has increased slightly since the start of the economic downturn. However, a significant number of respondents indicated the recession has not changed their sales teams’ turnover rates.
• When asked about their plans for hiring sales people over the next 12 months, the overwhelming majority of respondents indicated they were going to replace poor performing sales reps with better sales talent. This shows that while much of the attention during the recession has focused on downsizing, a significant number of of company’s do not plan to reduce headcount. Instead, companies are focusing on improving their sales recruiting efforts to replace under-performing sales reps with high potential sales professionals.
• Surprisingly, while some companies have invested in sales training and sales performance technology, the majority of survey respondents have not implemented any specific initiatives to retain their top sales people.

Sales Force Resources

• The majority of survey respondents believe the economic downturn will have no impact on the level or frequency of sales training provided to their sales team.
• When asked about the focus of their company’s sales training, the responses were evenly split between product training and selling skills. Interestingly, almost a quarter of companies surveyed do not provide any sales training to their sales team.
• While a large number of companies plan to upgrade their existing sales support and tracking technology, the majority of respondents are not planning any changes to their sales technology over the next year.

Sales Compensation

• The economy has certainly had an impact on sales targets - the majority of respondents indicated their sales targets have decreased by more than 10% over the past year.
• An overwhelming number of companies surveyed said the majority of their sales force did not meet sales quotas and received below target commission.
• Despite these results, most companies do not have any plans to change their sales compensation plans in the next 12 months.

What makes a successful hire? Most employers will tell you that success is finding a candidate who matches the requirements of the position and is a good fit with the company’s culture. However, it’s much more than finding a qualified candidate - the critical part of the process is what the employer does once the new employee starts.

There are several key factors the employer must consider to ensure the success of their new employee:

1. On-Boarding process- As an employer, what are you doing to ensure your new employee’s successful transition into their new role? A well organized and well thought out on-boarding plan will get the employee up-to-speed quickly and will increase their chances of future success. The plan should ensure new employees feel welcome, are introduced to the key players within the organization and externally, and are put through a meaningful and engaging orientation program. A favourable intial impression of the company will go along way toward the new employee’s buy-in of the company’s culture, values and mission.

2. Training - Companies often focus their training efforts on product  training. While it’s important for new employees to learn about the company’s products and services, it’s even more important for companies to focus on skills-based training. Especially in sales roles, employees should be provided with selling skills training at the outset of their employment and on a frequent basis going forward. Employees will view this training as an investment by the company into their future success…which is a key component to retaining top talent.

3. Resources - Organizations need to provide new employees the right resources to increase the chances of their success. This means providing the right technology to allow the employee to focus on the core activities of the role and perform activities efficiently and effectively.

4. Feedback - Initial feedback and coaching should be provided to new employees as soon as possible. Waiting until the scheduled performance management cycle, or until something goes wrong, is too late. Providing feedback early in the employment relationship will help get things off on the right track and enhance employee engagement.

No matter what companies do some new employees will simply not work out and will either leave the organization or be let go. However, organizations need to take responsibility for their new hires’ success…even more than the hires themselves. In most cases it is the actions of the employers, not the employees, that determine whether or not a new hire will be successful. Focusing on the factors described above will increase the chances of new hires turning into long-term contributors to the company.

SalesForce Search is a sales recruiting company which specializes exclusively in the recruitment and placement of sales professionals. To contact us please call 1-800-461-SELL (7355) or email us at info@salesforcesearch.ca

Follow us on Twitter:

 http://twitter.com/salesjobsearch

www.SalesForceSearch.ca

We had an interesting discussion this week with our partner SalesForce Training & Consulting.

They received a call from a sales rep from a publicly traded, billion dollar company based in the United States. She was recently hired into a business development role in Toronto and had no sales experience at all. She was instructed by her sales manager to, “find some sales training” in hopes this would be the catalyst to make her a sales superstar and blow away her numbers. What’s worse, her sales manager had no interest in attending the session!

Sales training needs to be an ongoing process and not an event. Expecting miraculous improvements in your sales results after 1 day of sales training is not realistic and will set up the sales person and sales manager for disappointment. Sales training is about changing behaviours and it is the job of the sales manager to reinforce the proper behaviours through coaching and feedback. Expecting a sales person to do this on their own will not improve sales numbers.

It was a shock to us in this environment that such a big company had no established sales training program and that they were placing their hopes in the hands of an individual with no sales experience.

Whether you find a sales person through your own internal resources or use a sales recruiter like SalesForce Search, make sure you are hiring the top sales talent and give them ongoing sales training and coaching they’ll need to hit their targets.

SalesForce Search is a sales recruiting company which specializes exclusively in the recruitment and placement of sales professionals. To contact us please call 1-800-461-SELL (7355) or email us at info@salesforcesearch.ca

 Follow us on Twitter:

  http://twitter.com/salesjobsearch

www.SalesForceSearch.ca