April Ask the Guru

Wednesday 9th Apr 2008

Question:

I've just spent the last 6 months or so focusing on systemising my business to enable me to grow, and have now realised my income relies solely on my sales team and their ongoing success. I've always thought that hiring an experienced sales person who knew how to sell and close hard was the way to go...but they all seem to be up and down. When one is ok the other struggles and visa versa. So my question is, is it possible to systemise the sales process for my team and, if so, do you think it will give me more consistent results for them?

Answer:

Have you ever heard somebody say..."They could sell ice to the Eskimos" or "They’re a born sales person"...of course you have.

Well, just like throwing and catching or reading and writing, selling is a skill and skills can be taught! So the best thing you can probably do right now is systemise your sales process.

It’s important to understand that systems manage people and I’m glad to hear that you have begun structuring all areas of your business and the sales department should be no different...especially if you want more consistent success.

There are 2 types of sales people - intuitive sales people and trained sales people. Intuitive sales people are like the ones mentioned above, who many believe are born sales people. They just happen to know what to say, when to say it, how to say it and if you asked them why they said or did what they did to get the sale, they probably couldn’t tell you because it just felt right or made sense to them to do it that way.

These sales people sometimes get it right, but when they are in a slump, they struggle to fix why, as they don’t really follow a process and don’t know why they are now missing sales.

So if you want more control and consistency in your sales team and your sales figures, then implement a process your team can follow that will give them the success you both want. Your job is then to simply lead your team through the process and the process will then manage their success.