How to Improve Your Sales Performance

Every business wants to improve its sales performance. Unfortunately, they may not always reach their annual objectives due to poor performing employees, software issues or unachievable goals. To ensure you achieve your objectives every time, we’re offering insightful advice on how to improve your sales performance.

Don’t Overmanage

No employee wants their every move scrutinized by a sales manager every working day. It’s important to encourage trust in a team member’s sales skills, which will make them more productive during working hours. A good sales manager can motivate a team through rewards and incentives, which will inspire everyone to work hard to meet a company’s goals.

Only Hire Talented Candidates

Many businesses make the mistake of believing anyone can sell their products. However, selling is a skill that not every employee will possess. You must have charm and warmth, as well as being committed to learning about every product to provide the best pitch possible.

During the interview process, look for characteristics that would make a candidate a good sales person. For instance, are they likeable, confident or friendly? Hiring the best candidates will prevent you from spending a considerable amount of money on training while ensuring they provide a return on your investment almost immediately.

Before hiring any candidates, create a map of behaviors that you believe may make an exceptional sales representative. Once you have created a template like this, hire sales employees who offer those traits.

Defined Expectations

Every team member must know what is expected of them each week, month or year. A sales manager must, therefore, provide defined expectations through clear communications. Detail what a team member must do and when they need to meet a deadline. Also, be clear about the rewards or repercussions if they hit or miss a sales target.

Synchronize Your Software

Many successful companies utilize Salesforce and NetSuite, two cloud computing software services, to improve their sales management operations and customer relations. However, instead of using two different services, it is now possible to synchronize both software options with salesforce data integration.

The Salesforce and NetSuite SmartConnector will allow companies to identify their revenues at a faster rate, gain a 360-degree insight of their customers, minimize costs and achieve a faster time-to-value. The configurable cloud computing solution is capable of synchronizing data and can connect your front office to your back office.

Spot Potential Weaknesses

Do you have a member of the sales team who is always looking at the bigger picture? They may make a great sales manager one day. To survive in a competitive industry, a sales manager must have a forward-thinking attitude, and must continually monitor small trends to prevent big problems for your company. For example, they must review a sales rep’s statistics to spot little changes in seemingly good numbers, so they can provide effective coaching to boost an employee’s performance.

Use Successful Sales Reps as Motivation

Tensions can easily bubble in sales, as reps will be working hard to meet their objectives. Unfortunately, a successful sales rep can sometimes demotivate an employee who is yet to reach their sales target. However, it is both a business owner and sales manager’s job to use this success as motivation for others. Aim to respectfully highlight a high-performing employee’s performance to create a successful sales team, making an individual’s success aspirational over confrontational.

Provide Positive or Constructive Feedback

Every employee wants to hear they are performing well in their job, which is why you must provide your team members with feedback to boost their motivation. Feedback is also essential if a member of a sales team is failing to perform, as you can help them to identify where they are going right or wrong so they can improve their skillset.

Celebrate the Big and Small Victories

If an individual has reached a target or the company has met its annual objectives, celebrate the little and large victories with your sales staff. It will make an employee feel a sense of pride for their contribution to the sales team, or to share in another’s success, which could motivate them to receive a similar celebration for their efforts. Even providing bottles of beer or a glass of wine on a Friday will serve as a reward for all their hard work throughout the week.

Time Management

Every successful sales professional understands the importance of call time management, and this means spending a select amount of time with a customer before moving onto the next call. Knowing when to end a phone call and how to do it professionally is a skill that not all candidates may possess. If your team are struggling with time management issues, encourage them to work smarter with clearly-aligned goals that indicate how many calls a sales rep must make each day.

Uncomplicated Tracking

Complex sales processes not only confuse sales reps, but they can make sales tracking complicated for a manager. Many companies often turn to cloud computing software integration, as it allows them to track a sales rep’s performance in real-time so that they can provide employees with immediate guidance or flexibility.

Build Confidence

Have you noticed that a good sales rep’s performance has taken a turn for the worst? They might be struggling to cope with a tough target or lack of confidence. Don’t chastise a rep for the performance dip unless necessary. Instead, provide them with a smaller amount of calls to make each day, which can help them regain their confidence and prevent them from burning out.

Meet with an employee at the end of the week or month to discuss how they are feeling in the role, and if they have noted any areas for improvement. A meeting like this will ensure you provide your employee with realistic goals week in week out, so they can continue to help a company grow. Remember, too much pressure can cause an employee to lie to customers, stretch the truth or make desperate phone calls, which could ruin your reputation.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for preventing automated spam submissions.