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TURN YOUR
SALES ASSOCIATES INTO SUPERSTARS:
DEVELOP A SALES PROCESS TO IMPROVE PROFITABILITY
Take a look at your sales staff. You’ll likely find that
it consists of a few superstars -- those who bring in large
volumes of high-margin sales -- and several others who perform
adequately. How can you balance this situation? Implement an
improved sales process.
The dictionary defines a process as a series of related steps
that lead to a desired result. If one of your sales staff members
is in a slump, a formal sales process can help this person identify
his or her deficiencies. So, though not everyone on your sales
staff can be a superstar, following a sales process may boost
your sales associates’ performances and increase your
company’s profitability.
9 Steps to Sales Celebrity
Sales superstars possess three key characteristics: aptitude,
an eye for numbers and tactics. Your sales process must address
each of these to help your sales associates improve their skills
and, maybe, turn themselves into superstars. Here are nine steps
to follow:
1. Determine prospects.
Does your marketing department help you generate leads, such
as by creating customer profiles for your products or services?
If not, ask it to create a database of customers who may likely
benefit from your products or services. Doing so will better
focus your sales staff’s efforts.
2. Make appointments.
If selling your product or service requires a face-to-face presence,
making appointments is crucial. Why? Because you want to generate
interest in learning more about the value of your products and
services. Whether a prospect responds to some form of advertisement
or from a cold call, successful sales associates must be able
to get through to the decision makers.
3. Maintain sales
activity records. Your sales staff interacts with many potential
customers. Because it’s critical to keep track of what
is said or promised at every part of the sales cycle, consider
implementing one of several good contact management systems
on the market. In addition, require your sales people to limit
the administrative aspects of their jobs to either early or
late in the day. After all, effective sales associates spend
the best part of the day calling and meeting with customers.
4. Develop consistency.
Top salespeople generally repeat the same successful basic tasks.
Experience allows them to fine-tune tactics to achieve greater
sales results.
5. Build relationships.
Customers buy from people they like and trust, and who deliver
what they claim. Your sales staff must develop relationships
with those they serve. This applies to long-term sales as well
as quick, transactional business.
6. Ask effective
questions. When talking with prospects, your sales staff must
know what draws customers to your company. Salespeople who make
great presentations but don’t ask effective questions
are doomed to mediocrity. Often, 20% of the sales force make
80% percent of the sales. The most effective salespeople spend
80% of their time listening and 20% talking. A large portion
of this talking time should be used asking intelligent, insightful
questions based on customer research done before the sales call.
7. Qualify prospects.
The most valuable nonrecurring asset that you possess is time.
Effective salespeople spend their time with prospects who are
the most likely to buy from them. Four aspects of a worthy prospect
include:
• Clearly discernible and
fulfillable needs;
• Readily available decision
maker;
• Definitively assured creditworthiness;
and,
• Timely desire to buy.
8. Overcome objections.
The worst scenario for any salesperson is to expend a large
amount of effort on a sale only to have an unknown issue come
out of left field and kill the deal. Closing should be the easiest
part of the sale, but for many it’s the most difficult.
An objection is viewed as a bad thing, but in reality it may
be good for the sales process. Why? Because an objection is
basically a customer request for more information that, if handled
adequately, will educate the prospect and build relations with
the salesperson. Encourage your sales staff to actively raise
possible objections rather than hope that they never come up.
9. Present solutions.
A wonderful sales presentation is useless without satisfying
a perceived need. Your product must fix a problem or help accomplish
a goal. Without either, what motivation does a prospect have
to spend money? Before your sales staff begins presentations,
make sure they understand what the customer wants to buy.
Put
It All Together
After you have identified characteristics of strong sales
performance in your company, document them. Create an ongoing
training program for your sales staff, and put in place mechanisms
for ongoing sales coaching.
If a train rolls on a track that is missing a rail somewhere
down the line, it will derail. If your sales staff follows
a sales process but misses a vital step, it will lose the
sales opportunity. Creating a sales process can increase your
sales associates’ ability to land larger sales and boost
your bottom line.
"We all have possibilities we don’t know about.
We can do things we don’t even dream we can do."
Dale Carnegie
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