10 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL SALES FORCE

Quick, what do you think of when you hear the term salesperson?  If you still think of a manipulator with a pinkie ring and open shirt who specializes in golf and is hell-bent on separating you from your money with high-pressure – allow me to bring you out of the Dark Ages.  Selling is a profession where the truly successful are people with integrity, honesty and posses superior communication skills.

As a business owner, you are under enormous pressure to maintain existing client relationships and to continually find new ones.  Have you ever stopped to think about exactly why the road to success has become so much more challenging in recent years.

• Do you have the feeling that your sales team could be performing at a much higher level of productivity?
• Are there unjustifiable peaks and valleys in their performance?
• Does the performance vary greatly between those that are your top producers to those that are least productive?

In studying some of the most productive sales teams in various industries, a core of key principles, beliefs, skills, and practices becomes apparent with those of the top tier.  The best sales teams exhibit an energy, cohesiveness, and structure of process that allows them to dominate.

Here we will examine the essential elements you must review, to take your team to a higher level that is focused on success:

1. DEVELOP A SALES PLAN THAT IS ALIGNED WITH CORPORATE STRATEGY

A company’s vision-where it plans to be in the marketplace of the future-establishes the focus of its sales team.  In turn both the company’s vision and the team’s focus will establish its mission. A clear and succinct definition of what the company does and how it benefits its clients is essential to your development.

2. DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT SALES PROCESSES

Successful selling demands, methodologies, productivity plans, time management skills, and sales processes.  Are you analyzing the areas of opportunity for productivity enhancement on a regular basis? If not, you’re losing money and opportunity on a daily basis.  Incorporate an automated sales force tool, but only after processes have been established and tested for effectiveness.

3. EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE YOUR MESSAGE

Do you keep your customers updated with how you have been serving them and keeping your commitments?  Customers tend to forget things, especially what is not consistently in front of them. Highly successful companies have a philosophy that everyone in the organization is a sales person!  Everyone, at sometime, must be prepared to communicate to a perspective client what the company does. Develop an elevator pitch that is clear, concise and effectively describes what your company does.

4. DEVELOP AN INTEGRATED SALES SUPPORT STRUCTURE

A sales person is only as good as the company he/she represents.  If you’re the best sales executive in the world, but are representing bad products or services, you will quickly reach your limit and ultimately fail.  Sales executives need support structures within companies to be successful.

5. INCORPORATE A TEAM SELLING APPROACH

It takes a true partnership within an organization to develop successful selling methods.  Selling teams are essential to successful selling. Marketing, sales, finance, management, technicians, and others within companies need to participate in the sales process.

6. IMPLEMENT CONSISTENT AND EFFECTIVE TRAINING PROGRAMS

Training within a company is essential to develop effective sales executives, but also to make sure a consistent method of communication is used throughout the organization.

7. DEMAND CORPORATE & PERSONAL VALUES

Honesty is essential to selling.  When you’ve stopped laughing, understand that knowing and responding to gray areas is essential to successful selling.

Integrity – The best sales teams do two things: 1) They establish strong credibility with ethical persuasion techniques and 2) They sell in a process.

8. ESTABLISH MARKET DIFFERENTIATORS

Every successful company has characteristics that set it apart.  These competitive differentiations might be in the areas of service, technical support, lead-time, or breadth of capability, not just price or product benefits.

9. COMMUNICATE VALUE ADD SERVICES WITH QUALITY INDIVIDUALS

The delivery of service value to the customer base has created a boon for professional salespeople and the companies they represent.  Simply stated, your sales force represents the single most influential statement of value-added service that you make to your customer base.

10. DEVELOP A CORPORATE PROGRAM FOR COMMITMENT & GROWTH

The biggest opportunity for increasing the effectiveness of most teams is creating new and dynamic forms of accountability.  Some forms of team building, idea generation, planning, and continuous improvement for any sales team is essential for growth.

Given these essential requirements for success, how can you, as a business owner, improve your organization in these areas?

There are many alternative sales solutions in the market today.  Companies have options available to them that weren’t available over the last two years.  The common denominator among successful companies is that they are process-driven and always FOCUSED!

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Sales Focus Inc. Pioneered the Sales Outsourcing Industry and has the most effective and proven process S.O.L.D.™ in the industry.  Our process has been implemented in many Fortune 500 companies along with small and mid-sized organizations in all industries.

Building Intelligent Sales Solutions has been our only focus since we pioneered the Sales Outsourcing industry in 1998. Sales Focus Inc., (SFI) has generated well over $10B in revenue for our clients, utilizing our repeatable S.O.L.D.™ process, which allows you and us to build dedicated sales teams focused on growing small & large companies alike.

Intelligent Sales Solutions Focusing on client acquisition, building and launching dedicated sales teams on a national level, all while reducing the cost of sales is what makes Sales Focus Inc. (SFI) unique. We create repeatable and sustainable business processes designed to bring sales results in a short period of time. SFI is able to provide a dedicated sales team across the country or across the globe to meet the needs of each individual client. Our sales representatives are thoroughly trained using our Sales Master Training Program for both tactical and strategic solution based selling. Sales Focus Inc. is committed to providing our clients constant sales intelligence in the form of daily, weekly and monthly reports, allowing for our clients to own the customers. Whether our outsourced sales teams are feet on the street or inside sales, Sales Focus Inc. is committed to driving down the cost of sales, generating immediate revenue and building “Intelligent Sales Outsourcing Solutions”.