Understanding the Sales Force

Explain why so many companies have so many salespeople like George.  And why do so few companies have so few salespeople like Charlie?  If we know which one possesses true sales best practices, then why aren’t we hiring and developing more Charlies?

Not too long ago, our only option for making a presentation, holding a meeting or conducting a seminar was to get in our car, hop on a plane, show up and shake hands.  Then came web applications like WebEx which, in many cases, allowed us to present without leaving our desks.  Pretty cool.

Tonight, Jon Lester, of the Boston Red Sox, pitched a no-hitter. It was the first no-hitter by a Red Sox left-handed pitcher in more than 30 years. It was the second no-hitter by a young, promising Red Sox pitcher in eight months. I attempted to find the probability of pitching a no-hitter but all I could find was a scientifc formula that one would have to understand in order to get the answer. So I took another route, estimating that there are approximately 3820 games played per season and, maybe 1 or 2 no-hitters per year. So that would make the odds of hurling one about 1 in 1900 or a mere .05% chance.

First, make sure you read this post from several days ago.

The ultimate accomplishment for your salespeople is to have a base of clients and customers that are so happy that they generate enough introductions to grow revenue without having to look for new business.  “Look” includes, but is not limited, to cold calling, following up on leads and referrals (no introduction), networking events, leads groups, social network sites, blogging, newsletters, speaking, golfing and more.

1) Do you get wrapped up like this salesperson did or can you clearly see these problems when they are presented? 2) Can you get your salespeople to stop and regroup? 3) Can you present them with the proper action so they have a chance to avoid a trap like this? 4) can you make sure they get a lesson learned from their adventures? 5) can you make the lesson profound enough so that they don’t repeat it?

When your compensation and incentive programs aren’t getting the job done, it’s time to look beyond the traditional motivational programs and get creative. There are a number of other ways to motivate salespeople and I’ll discuss three of them here.  I’d love to have you comment with your personal favorites.

In the May 12 edition, 19 accomplished people told Fortune Magazine about the best advice they ever got.  16 of those 19 were prominent business executives and no fewer than six of them cited something having to do with sales.

Your salespeople should be imitating David Copperfield on every single sales call.  At the end of calls, their prospects should be wondering what just happened to make them feel so good.