“My sales reps stink.”
Here are 7 questions to answer before you fire everyone.
I was speaking with a CEO who was critical of his sales team’s 2023 performance. His Sales VP hired reps with excellent pedigrees, but most weren’t covering their costs. The top performer just quit to work for a competitor.
The changes that improve sales results often need to occur well before closing any sale. Here are some questions I asked to determine if the company was giving its sales reps the best opportunity to succeed.
- Do you have a plan? Define how you will market, sell, and measure. Start with something simple (a guess), and adjust as you see actual results.
- Are you selling to the right buyer? If your service results in IT savings (as in staffing cuts), you may want to start with the CFO who benefits vs. the impacted CFO.
- Where do your reps find buyers? Cold calling may reach local business owners, but probably not corporate executives. Think about where your buyers go to learn and network – then be there
- How are you marketing? If sales can be in direct buyer contact about 1% of the time, fill the other 99% by educating buyers (helping them succeed), building awareness of your company, and generating interest in what you do.
- Did you hire the right reps? Hunters, trappers, and farmers have unique skill sets and very distinct personas. Hire reps aligned with what and how you’re selling.
- Are you giving them enough time? If your sales cycle is 12 months for an annual contract sale, you’ll need to allow adequate time/investment before you see revenue impact.
- How do you measure success? Start with pipeline activities like leads, presentations, and proposals. That will give you a much earlier success indicator than actual sales, so you can make adjustments well before sales are closed. Use a tool like Zoho, Pipedrive, or HubSpot to automate the marketing/sales process, including reporting.
