Handing every salesperson a lead list and a phone and expecting them to produce isn't enough. Any sales team needs some support from above in order to function competitively. Does your sales team have all of the following plans in place, along with a thorough understanding of each? If not, it may be time to make some adjustments.
Compensation Plan
How does your compensation plan work? What is it intended to accomplish (e.g. encourage new sales, boost wallet share for existing customers, bring on more high-worth clients)? Does it take into account salespeople who finish way above or way below their quotas? The sales manager and every salesperson on the team should know the plan thoroughly and should get an immediate, clear update when the compensation rules change.
New Salesperson Training Plan
Every time a new salesperson joins the team, he'll need training. At the very least, he needs instruction on how the company's products work, what the marketing plan consists of, the features and benefits, costs and prices, optional add-ons, and so on. Less experienced salespeople may also need a refresher in their basic sales skills.
Existing Salesperson Training Plan
The existing members of a sales team need regular training, too. Products change, company goals change, marketing materials change – and the sales team needs regular updates on each. Perhaps more importantly, the marketplace is constantly changing as well. Prospect attitudes shift over time, and new competitors arrive on the scene while old ones quietly retire. Periodic refresher courses on general sales skills are also a good idea to kick the team out of its ruts.
Company Plan
Top executives have both short-term and long-term plans for their companies. Most businesses, especially publicly traded ones, write up these goals and their plans to achieve them in great detail. But how many share those documents with the sales team? Rather than force the team to wade through long technical documents, the management team should supply a summary for its salespeople so that they can keep their activities in line with the company's needs.
Metrics Plan
Any sales activity that can be controlled and measured is a sales metric. For example, the number of cold calls a salesperson makes is a metric, but the number of closed sales is not (because salespeople can't entirely control that). Salespeople should have a full understanding of what metrics they need to complete and which activities will best contribute to success. The metrics plan is the most flexible and should be re-worked regularly between a salesperson and her manager, to reflect her current performance and how she's doing compared to her goals.
Qualification Plan
Any time a salesperson spends selling to someone who isn't qualified to buy is wasted time. Every salesperson should know what an ideal prospect looks like, what an acceptable prospect looks like, and what a non-prospect looks like. You can develop these profiles by studying your existing customers – from the best to the worst – and seeing what qualities the clients in each category share. Then this information can go into a qualification plan that helps guide salespeople in determining which leads are truly prospects.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
Compensation Plan
How does your compensation plan work? What is it intended to accomplish (e.g. encourage new sales, boost wallet share for existing customers, bring on more high-worth clients)? Does it take into account salespeople who finish way above or way below their quotas? The sales manager and every salesperson on the team should know the plan thoroughly and should get an immediate, clear update when the compensation rules change.
New Salesperson Training Plan
Every time a new salesperson joins the team, he'll need training. At the very least, he needs instruction on how the company's products work, what the marketing plan consists of, the features and benefits, costs and prices, optional add-ons, and so on. Less experienced salespeople may also need a refresher in their basic sales skills.
Existing Salesperson Training Plan
The existing members of a sales team need regular training, too. Products change, company goals change, marketing materials change – and the sales team needs regular updates on each. Perhaps more importantly, the marketplace is constantly changing as well. Prospect attitudes shift over time, and new competitors arrive on the scene while old ones quietly retire. Periodic refresher courses on general sales skills are also a good idea to kick the team out of its ruts.
Company Plan
Top executives have both short-term and long-term plans for their companies. Most businesses, especially publicly traded ones, write up these goals and their plans to achieve them in great detail. But how many share those documents with the sales team? Rather than force the team to wade through long technical documents, the management team should supply a summary for its salespeople so that they can keep their activities in line with the company's needs.
Metrics Plan
Any sales activity that can be controlled and measured is a sales metric. For example, the number of cold calls a salesperson makes is a metric, but the number of closed sales is not (because salespeople can't entirely control that). Salespeople should have a full understanding of what metrics they need to complete and which activities will best contribute to success. The metrics plan is the most flexible and should be re-worked regularly between a salesperson and her manager, to reflect her current performance and how she's doing compared to her goals.
Qualification Plan
Any time a salesperson spends selling to someone who isn't qualified to buy is wasted time. Every salesperson should know what an ideal prospect looks like, what an acceptable prospect looks like, and what a non-prospect looks like. You can develop these profiles by studying your existing customers – from the best to the worst – and seeing what qualities the clients in each category share. Then this information can go into a qualification plan that helps guide salespeople in determining which leads are truly prospects.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
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