Everyone Lives by Selling Something - Sue Barrett

Whether they are private or public companies, “not for profit” or government institutions. All of us in some way are competing for access to a revenue source to fund our organisation's existence.  How “fit” people are to take on the responsibility for improving the revenue line of an organisation is a hot topic in today’s competitive market, even more so now for organisations who have not traditionally seen themselves as needing to have a professional sales culture.

The Rules Have Changed.  Research shows that no longer can organisations and their people rely on their technical competence, passive referrals, their reputation, their brand or blanket advertising to bring in new business and new revenue streams as they may have done in the past. Now and in the future, organisations and their people also need to effectively self promote and prospect for new business using professional and ethical sales strategies, demonstrating real value for money.

The world of Sales has changed markedly? Most of us in sales have known for a long time that proactive, productive win/win relationships in selling are key critical to success. It’s not just about the product or the service. An effective sale is built on Problem Identification & Solution Finding: finding the best solution to solve our customers’ problems that benefit their businesses and ours. And, needs and solutions emerge from healthy proactive relationships with people. This is quite different to the now outdated product focused selling where sales people are limited to being ‘talking brochures’.

You can’t improve sales and salespeople without improving sales management.  One of the most common mistakes companies make in efforts to improve sales performance is to focus exclusively on salespeople. Experience has shown that sales managers are even more critical for creating durable performance change. Really proficient sales supervision can do wonders to improve the skills, strategies and competencies of average salespeople. Conversely, mediocre supervision can put a big dent in the effectiveness of quite good salespeople.  They must be leaders and coaches rather than administrators and organisers. They must be able to coach their staff in the structured consultative selling process and be able to lead by example, as many of the skills need to be continually reinforced on the job.  

Why is coaching so important?

Studies of high performing sales teams consistently show that systematic high quality coaching is a critical element in performance. Sales managers are the primary performance coach, which is a crucially important
role. They must be leaders and coaches rather than administrators and organisers. 

They must be able to coach their staff in the structured consultative selling process and be able to lead by example, as many of the skills need to be continually reinforced on the job. The role of coaching is to provide the reinforcement needed to maintain and enhance skills and behaviours. This is not to suggest that training is unimportant. In fact, a well-designed combination of training and coaching is by far the most effective and economical way to develop the ‘right’ skills, behaviours and knowledge and see a change in sales performance.

What impact does attending a training program have on change?

A study conducted a number of years ago found that within one week of leaving any sales skills training program salespeople had lost 87% of the new skills they had learned during the training program. Effective Sales Training can be defined as a planned program within the organisation that endeavours to bring about relatively permanent changes in employee knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours. And behaviour modelling training has been found to be most effective
 
What makes change, particularly in sales organisations, so hard? 

For one thing managers grossly underestimate the difficulty that is involved in changing a sales force. The actions they take are generally too small and too piece meal to bring about meaningful improvement.  Organisations simple don’t recognise the stubbornness of old habits and entrenched ways of thinking. 

And everyone wants the quick fix. As a general rule efficiency can be built more quickly than effectiveness. It’s a faster job to build efficiency, e.g. increase call rates or decrease expenses than it is to consistently recruit and build the levels of skills and effectiveness needed for selling today.

Change levers. Creating major or sustainable improvements in sales performance requires a systematic change effort.  Its success rests on the active involvement and leadership of top management. In particular changing the sales force will require actions in line with the following change levers:

• Clear vision of how to create value for customers through the sales process
• Organisation structured to focus on customers and providing added value for them
• Training programs to improve behaviour and skills and to develop strategies for sales, support staff and management
• Reward and performance measurement systems that encourage and reinforce change.

About Sue Barrett and BARRETT

Established in 1995 and winner of the 1997 Telstra & Victorian Government Small Business Award, BARRETT is an Australian Sales Fitness firm offering the best and latest in sales and sales management research, training, consulting, process & tools and sales recruitment kits to help people and companies achieve peak sales fitness.  BARRETT's ability to demystify the practices around achieving increased and sustainable sales performance has allowed many individuals and organisations to achieve remarkable sales and financial  success.

Visit BARRETT at: www.barrett.com.au