Sales teams are the frontline of your business. These are the people that will generate revenue. And in order for them to work effectively, there are a number of things that need to be done to make everything go smoothly.
However, for many businesses, they don’t always take the best care of their sales team. And as a result, the sales teams will provide all kinds of different results. In the end, they become consistently inconsistent in performance.
It’s not quite their fault though but rather the conditions that businesses leave them in. Below are some of the big reasons the sales aren’t coming in as much and what you can do to solve the issues.
Different Onboarding
One big cause is that the tools and resources that the sales team is given are vastly different. Of course, if you’re dealing with a large sales network, different sales managers will have different styles of teaching. However if each sales team is instructing and focusing on vastly different material, the sales methods and results will be scattered.
Some teams will be following the same formula the business has put in place while others will send prospects to various points in the selling process.
Lack of Ongoing Sales Training
Every industry is constantly changing day after day and year after year. In order for businesses to remain relevant and attract more customers, they must be willing to be flexible. This means updating material and learning more about the industry.
And part of that learning process is of course teaching members relevant skills and getting them trained further.
Training will only help teams do better jobs in the future and a lack of it can lead to some people training on their own time while others don’t. This leads to mixed results.
An excellent way to accelerate these sales team-wide learning encounters is recurring sales training sessions and kick-offs. Here are practical tips for organizing a Kick-Ass Sales Kick-Off for your whole sales teams.
Scattered Sales Content
An organization needs to be organized of course and scattered content is one of those problems that can cause an incredible amount of damage. When you have a sales team who struggles to put together presentations, can’t find certain material, or is using old and irrelevant information in sales meetings, it can lead to a lot of problems.
Yes, sales reps can still make things work with scattered content but a lot of them can’t. The reason your sales are all over the place can be a result of scattered content.
Difference in Content Use
When you have a large sales network to work with, some content is going to be used over others. Whether it’s the type or how old the content is, the difference in use can lead to inconsistent sales performances as every sales member is left to their own devices on what to be using for each situation.
Ineffective Qualifying
Qualifying a prospect is an important part of any sales rep. You want to make sure that you have the right prospect so you’re not wasting time chasing after the wrong prospect. In order for this to happen, sales reps need to have a clear understanding of who their ideal customer is above all else.
Both the training and the material that are given to sales reps is crucial in this regard as it’s the difference between one sales rep qualifying prospects and making sales over other sales reps who spend too much time on prospects who will never close for whatever reason.
Lack of a Strong Sales Pipeline
According to world-renowned sales leader Dave Kurlan, there are two types of pipeline issues:
- A poor quantity
- Or a lack of quality
Kurlan notes in the post that when a pipeline has poor quantity it means there is a lack of goals, plans, and expectations that aren’t being communicated. This leads to sales departments making excuses, and giving no accountability.
And if the quality of your leads in the pipeline is the issue, it means the qualifying process isn’t performing very well. Some aspects are things like asking one or two questions to qualify someone while the process demands asking significantly more.
Lack of Sales Pipeline Inspection
In order for the sales process - or pipeline - to be effective, it’s important to continue to update it. You won’t know what to be updating unless you perform routine inspections of the process to see if it’s working and if changes need to be made at all.
This isn’t to say to never trust your sales team. However you want to ensure that they are working to the best of their abilities and that means ensuring their needs are being met and that they are given the tools needed to perform well.
a Simple Solution
Having reliable, efficient, and easily-accessible sales collateral is imperative for every business. Showell is an easy-to-use software primarily created as a sales enablement tool. It centralizes your sales collateral and permits large sales teams to access the marketing content online and offline.
As a result, your brand will make a strong impression during sales meetings thanks to a seamless and professional user experience. Showell can also help your employees track content consumption to make better data-driven decisions concerning strategy, prospect interest, and training needs.
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