How is your sales leader managing to generate new leads and motivate your team?
Friday, May 11th, 2012How is your sales leader managing to generate leads and motivate your team?
I sold management-consulting services for a company that went from 19 employees in 1990 to 2000 in 2003. Their sales are now over 180 Million and EVERY DAY they have a sales incentive. Yes, every day. It is faxed to 500 virtual reps motivated daily to knock down doors, make presentations to business owners and have energy to be convincing while stressing urgency.
This methodology was utilized to sell more today than yesterday, more this week than last, and more this month….you get the picture. You can boot your long-term plan if you continuously sell more each month and year. It’s very much about the “short termâ€.
Two years in a row, the company was recognized as the top ten fastest companies in America.
They often added an incentive of $100.00 for a day with two first-call closes or a $300.00 drawing and drew names from a hat for everyone who made a sale that day.
Within this process, I was able to sell 18 consulting engagements in one week. The outbound telemarketing operation set up three leads daily for outside reps that made presentations to business owners. The sales representatives also set their own appointments but most relied on those furnished by the company.
Now, we know most sales cycles are longer than one-call close opportunities. So, in your enterprise, has the sales leader identified what key activities convert to a sale? Maybe a 30-day software trial? You can base an incentive on number of trials in a week, month or quarter. If the quarterly goal is 4 trials, then establish a team incentive of everyone who sells over 4 qualifies.
The point is this. Daily, weekly and monthly motivation is a key to making numbers. If sales people aren’t being led by incentives there’s a good chance they aren’t making goal.
Because of the need for new sales, great companies create an environment of virtually unlimited opportunity for sales people. Companies that do not recognize this are never market leaders and opportunities within their organizations are normally limited. In every business, including ours, new clients are critical and if we don’t add new clients we will stagnate and die.
Effective sales managers also post sales results for all to see. This methodology of sales motivation is one of the most productive I’ve experienced. While selling office equipment, I couldn’t wait for weekly numbers to be on the sales office wall as it motivated me beyond belief. Previously sales people were fabricating their results and posting eliminated that.
The McCandlish Group understands sales leadership and can direct you to 3-5 viable leaders within a couple weeks!
GOOD SELLING!