It’s funny if you like irony, that on what I figured out was a salesperson’s 19th anniversary (almost to the day) with the company they work for, they said:
“Month End #228 – not that I’m counting”
Sure, over the past 19 years he has made a good living. Yes, he enjoys working with customers. He is a solid performer who consistently hits his sales targets.
YET:
Tracking sales for himself and customers takes more time each day than selling.
—> always making him wonder if he is really getting paid for everything he sells
—> frustrating him that the paperwork requirements hinder his sales productivity
Many requirements are mutually exclusive – hitting one objective makes it impossible to reach another.
—> activity example: number of calls and quantity of opportunities found may not seem mutually exclusive, but a day with only 37 calls (under the target) that resulted in such good conversations that talk time was 31% and new business opporunities found was through the roof – he was scolded for low dials.
—> results example: one month, out of nowhere from his perspective, a new target was set for a product that was in direct competition to his best seller. Hitting the new target would drop his best seller sales below THEIR target.
Every time he hits his numbers 2-years in a row the company splits off pieces of his territory – while his sales targets stay the same
—> after his best year ever, goals were announced company-wide (higher than the year before of course, salespeople get that) – two weeks later, they quietly split his customer base in HALF without either a goal adjustment.
—> another year they completely changed what product sets were sold by what salespeople.
Wondering why this post is part of the Inside Sales Leadership Corner and not part of Bitching over Beer?
As a sales leader, you don’t have to make popular decisions OR even worry about people liking the decisions you make.
What is critical for your success at making change while fostering a motivated sales team will be:
1. in today’s technological age there is no reason a salesperson should be manually tracking EVERYTHING they sell. While most salespeople are going to keep track of things themselves (at least for a while) after you implement a tracking system for them – figure out how to pull the numbers for them.
If you have an electronic way that orders are placed – inventory tracked – customers invoiced, your company has the ability to pull reports instead of making salespeople do it for you.
2. think about what activity targets you’ve set and WHY if a daily behavior is down – is that because they crushed another? Ensure you are tracking behaviors without missing the sales result you are trying to achieve through the sales activity.
3. take the time to explain changes. This doesn’t mean a salesperson gets to vote thumbs up or down for a change, rather that leadership examines how a change will impact individual salespeople.
The impact isn’t always about compensation; sometimes it is perceived punishment, will take learning new products or skills, other times a salesperson wants to know they matter.
You can make sure your team isn’t counting their career in terms of how many month end closings they have survived.
photo courtsey of © Photoeuphoria | Dreamstime
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