A few years back, I was hired by a manufacturing company who was doing 7-8 million dollars in sales per years. They had been in business about 20 years and had experienced a few growth spurts, but were now in a stagnant position the past few years They were struggling to hit the next level. The owner was extremely knowledgeable in the industry and always felt that the company could easily have 6 successful salespeople who could make 80-150k per year in commissions.
The issue was that he had 1 superstar salesperson, 2 who were slightly above average, and then a constant turnover in spots 4-6. The superstar was very focused and driven, and was willing to share successful practices, but only on a limited basis. Teaching others was not her strong-point or passion, she was very driven for to complete her daily activities. It was a struggle for the new hires to learn the industry (it was semi-technical and detailed) while gaining traction in their sales books. This led to them giving up, not receiving the necessary support or guidance. Daily sales meetings taught basic questioning strategies and product knowledge, but there was no Proven Repeatable Sales Process (PRSP) for them to follow along to take companies from interest stages to closed deals.
All sales processes follow similar patterns, with some variations depending on the industry, length of sales cycle, etc. I was able to quickly put together a flow chart of best practices and questions, guiding the user from one step to the next (PRSP). The company used Salesforce as their CRM, so the next step was to take those best practices and customize Salesforce for the sales reps to follow along the path to closed deals. Whether they were making outbound calls or taking an unexpected one, they could pull the customer up and know exactly where they stood in the deal progression, and what questions needed to be asked and/or answered next. This relieved anxieties when handling large numbers of accounts, as well as building the confidence of the newer folks.
Now that the salespeople had a structured plan to follow, it was time to focus on the benefits of this for management and ownership. As the hiring manager, I tailored the job description, employment ads and interview questions to ensure each potential new hire would be willing and capable of following the plan. For the owner/CEO, the sales forecasting became much more reliable, since deals in the pipeline could be analyzed for close rates at all the different stages. This made setting the company goals each year much more efficient and eliminated the guesswork and potential to set them too low or too high.
After a year, those spots 4-6 were filled by solid, productive (and happy) salespeople, making solid commissions. So what came next? It was time to expand the sales area of the office, to create more space to add in salesperson #7…#8… and so on.
This post was written by Brent Bassett
