by Rick Baker
On Nov 25, 2015
What do you need to do to get your sales people juiced up about the amazing opportunities you see everywhere you look?
First, does that question resonate with you?
Specifically - Do you see amazing opportunities everywhere you look?
I hear entrepreneurs say that all the time. Entrepreneurs see lots of opportunities. And, entrepreneurs are often puzzled because people who follow them do not see the opportunities or have trouble ‘capturing’ them. I hear that often…not necessarily as complaints…just statements of the facts as entrepreneurs see them.
Entrepreneurs and other business leaders want to capture opportunities. These people are builders and opportunities enable growth. So, it is important to find ways to juice up sales activities to capture the amazing opportunities. Yet, many entrepreneurs struggle with this. Entrepreneurs know they need to juice up sales activities but they have trouble figuring out how to get it done.
Here are some suggestions on how to juice up sales activities:
- Complete a down-deep-and-personal assessment of your sales staff. Spend a little time on assessments. Spend more time on assessments. Understand personal strengths and personal weaknesses. This is the key. Really Understand Your Sales People Personality.
- Skip the formalities. Use few words. Use simple words. Remember the …address the 20% that impacts 80%, forget the rest. Just cover the most-important things…with clarity. Create a Bare-Bones Marketing Plan 80/20 Rule.
- Engage People Strengths: Each of your sales people has specific strengths. Make sure each person understands his/her individual, specific strengths and how those strengths mesh with role activities and sales success. Adjust work activities to fit the people strengths. Each sales person must be allowed to engage his/her individual strengths. Do not force sales people to conform to a fixed set of sales activities…allow your unique people to succeed uniquely.
- Plan Around or Over the Gaps…Not Through Them: Accept the fact there will be gaps. Your people will not be able to do things the way you do things so do not use yourself as the performance benchmark. There will be individual gaps [each sales person will have personal weaknesses] and there will be group gaps [overall weak areas, ie, activities where no one on your sales team is strong]. Do not fight those gaps. Do not attempt to change sales people so they fill the gaps. Just engage people strengths to fill gaps. Apply the 80/20 Rule…work on no more than 20% of the gaps. If your people do not have the necessary strengths then hire people with the strengths required to fill the gaps. Often, you will find yourself wanting to hire hunters. Again, that 80/20 Rule applies…at best 20% of sales people are hunters.
- Set Some Rules…Carefully: Be careful. You should have just enough rules to make sure sales people understand the game. Don’t spoil the game. Do not micro-manage.
- Lead By Example…Discuss Carefully: Do deals. Provide ideas. Be careful. Make sure you convey the fact your sales activity works for you but it will not necessarily work for others. In fact, it is unlikely it will work for others. Every sales person needs to understand how to put his/her strengths to best use. That is a key message. Repeat it often. Work to help people make it happen.
Footnote:
80/20 Rule: The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 Rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.