How to Develop a Proactive, New-Business Sales Team!
I don’t know about your business but in my experience proactive, positive, consistent new business winners are the holy grail of any sales organisation. All of my clients have their own unique ways of motivating, managing and running their sales teams yet they all have problems from time keeping those teams on target and “up for it!” In this article I am going to cover the core fundamentals of How to Develop a Proactive, New-Business Sales Team. These are the same strategies and techniques that I have used to help many of my clients explode their personal and their team’s sales. These strategies all combine an exciting and proven mix of attitudinal, skills and structural development that really works and what’s more they’re fun so your staff will want to use them!
When I ask my clients what stops them from achieving their business goals they tell me that they just cannot find enough staff who will consistently canvass new business and this prevents them from opening enough new accounts. Or even worse that once their staff have got “enough” business in the pipeline they will simply stop their proactive activities. This is common place in sales teams in my experience and afflicts most sales people. This reticence to pick up the phone is a combination of factors and one which I have made one of my core sales focuses so that I can provide my clients with what they need – more sales.
When we talk about sales teams we tend to talk about skills, strategies and experience. Whilst these are important they aren’t the key. We’ve all recruited someone who’s been there, seen it and done it yet when they turn up in your business they just seem to leave their skills at home! You know the type – the “big-hitter” you recruit because of their CV and their ability. You’re already counting the increased revenue onto the bottom line yet right from their first day you know that their attitude’s shot! I’m sure you can think of your own examples…
What’s missing is sales motivation – the ability to access the sales skills that we have within us. Anyone can pick up the phone and say “Hello” to a client even if they don’t know how to structure a call and a salesperson with high sales motivation will. A salesperson with low sales motivation however will often avoid the phone at any cost giving “reasons” for not doing so such as “I don’t have the time”, “I don’t know the market well enough” or “I am too busy” … the list goes on!
Sales motivation has three areas that are crucial to the success of your new business teams:
- Being motivated to want to sell
- Remaining motivated during the sale
- Re-motivating yourself after the sale whether the sales went well or badly
Helping sales staff to understand their own sales motivation levels before they pick up the phone, coaching them in core skills whilst they are on the phone and reflecting with them whilst they learn after the call is essential to creating a successful sales engine. This holistic approach ensures that you will get results fast.
So what’s wrong with good old training?
Well, there’s nothing actually wrong with training in of itself. It’s what your staff do with it that counts. When you think about it, the training is worth nothing if your staff don’t use it to get results. And that’s what you need – action and results!
Lets imagine that a person goes to a specialist doctor with a bad back. After the examination the doctor says that he thinks that they should do 20 minutes of exercises every day. The patient complains and says that they want some painkillers. The doctor repeats his advice but the patient is adamant. After a small negotiation the doctor prescribes some painkillers but says “remember to do your exercises”. Three months later when the patient returns to the doctor with an even worse back and he admits that he never did the exercises whose fault is it?
You need to find ways of working with your teams to get phenomenal results not to prescribe pills. Anyone can pop pills!
OK! So how do I do this?
In working with many leading organisations I’ve found that most sales training is too complicated for many sales staff to assimilate and use on a day to day basis. You need to start by implementing simple, repeatable, manageable processes and techniques. We all know that for a successful business common sense must be common practise. You need to focus on simple things that will have an immediate impact on the ability of your staff to win new business now. Just imagine your team reaching new clients, pitching new decision-makers and having more success utilising strong opening statements, getting past gatekeepers, handling objections and building effortless rapport!
Some studies show that 83% of sales are made because people like each other! When your sales teams hit the phones with the right attitudes, the necessary core skills and the ability to build rapport they will rapidly get results. This first contact with new clients not only defines your company but also dictates how seriously you will be taken. How many times have you seen your staff get passed down the line by a client to later be told that the decision-maker was actually the first person they spoke with? As you know, this is usually because the sales person wasn’t taken seriously enough in the first place. With these core strategies under their belts this will become a thing of the past.
But that’s not enough! You’ll have to put systems and strategies in place to get your sales team to do these things on a daily basis. I would call doing what you know works – professionalism. Unfortunately however, sales people spend a lot of time talking about professionalism but very little actually delivering it. If you had an administration person in your company but they refused to file alphabetically you’d pretty quickly remove them from the payroll! But with sales people we let them go on for years and years doing everything wrong whilst they make the excuse of being an individual or having charisma! You must not let this happen in your business. Ironically, as you implement these structures and they start to take effect the morale in your teams will rise as staff realise that they are doing something worthwhile.
Watch Out for Rogue Franchisees Post Termination Especially Online
The worst thing that could happen in the franchise relationship is a franchisee which has been terminated for cause taking revenge. You see, if the termination is not done right it can severely hurt the brand name of the franchising company online. It’s even more critical today than it ever has been considering social networks, and the viral nature of negative comments in social media. Franchisors have often been criticized by franchisee attorneys, when settling legal disputes and demanding a “gag order” or legal requirement with penalties that the franchisee never talk about the negotiation or the termination, or any of the details.
Many believe this goes against free speech, however in business law, the parties can agree to anything they wish, and generally it is a stipulation that is put in there by franchisor attorneys to prevent the franchisee from causing financial harm to the brand name post termination. A rogue franchisee which has been in a franchising system for a while knows the ins and outs, and there are many ways that they can go online anonymously, or have a friend post information which will be detracting to the franchisor, perhaps spilling the beans of a failed product launch, or an upcoming change with a franchising company.
Now then, there have been franchisees which have put up websites such as “Such and Such Company Sucks dot com” and in this case the franchisor can have that website turned off because it violates their Federal Trademark and copyright, as it uses their company name in the website domain. Nevertheless, it takes time to get that done, and by then the damage has already hurt the brand name. And even if the franchisor can soothe a rogue franchisee, get the website taken down, the chances of them collecting any damages are slim to none because a former franchisee that’s been terminated, probably doesn’t have any money.
Meanwhile, it isn’t about money, it’s about the strength of the brand, and if the franchisor’s brand name has been reduced to rubble, it will be difficult for them to sell new franchises and it will hurt the existing franchisee’s sales, and that could be trouble. It seems to me that almost every franchisor I’ve ever talked to has had a situation similar to this somewhere along the line and generally it is from a disgruntled or post termination franchisee causing the problem.
The Differences Between A Commercial Collections Agency & Lawyer
If your letter writing and phone calls have all failed to resolve a debt issue, it is time to call in a professional – a commercial collection agency or a lawyer specializing in commercial debt collection.
The most obvious choice to collect an unpaid debt is a commercial collection agency. Agencies come in all sizes; some are local, some specialize in handling certain kinds of commercial debts and others are national in scope. The cost varies, depending on the volume of business you bring to the table and the amount of debt that is to be collected. Plan on paying 25 to 30 percent of the amount collected, with some agencies demanding a 50-50 split. Some commercial collection agencies offer a flat fee service that can help sift out some of the easier commercial debt to collect before paying a high percentage.
A commercial collection agency will take many of the same actions against the debtor that you have probably taken. Third-party commercial collectors are aided by specialized phone systems, computers and software designed to automate the process and make it more effective and cost-efficient in retrieving payment on delinquent accounts. A series of letters will be generated sternly warning of the consequences of ignoring repayment. Phone calls will be made to deliver the same message.
There are also lawyers who specialize in commercial debt collection. They can be more effective than a collection agency, especially if the debt needs legal action immediately. An collections attorney may charge an hourly fee or collect at least one third of the amount recovered, or both. Attorneys usually charge a minimum fee or require the debt be of a minimum amount. Payment to the attorney will be in addition to any court-related fees and charges connected with a lawsuit, if you decide to pursue a judgment in court. If you’re not willing to take your customers to court over a past-due account, then there’s probably no reason to hire an attorney.
Most companies refer debt to a commercial collection agency first and then turn to an attorney if the agency can’t do the job. The price of a collecting a debt depends on the complexity and magnitude of the commercial collection. Often a debt can be collected with a few commercial collection letters from a commercial collection agency.