Countdown to Achievement

A sales career in the ’90s is not for the fainthearted – the competition is fierce! To get ahead in your market – and stay there – boost your sales with these guidelines:

1) Get back to basics. If sales training sounds great theoretically, make sure the time, effort and money you spend will pay off when the “course” is over. Remember, to sell successfully you must ask the right questions, fulfill client needs, sell benefits and know when to ask for the order. New “cutting edge” techniques will be more effective if you don’t forget the time-tested ones.

2) Emphasize accountability. Frequently check performance against goals. Managers should meet with salespeople individually and remind them that they are accountable for their goals. Have a monthly goal-setting meeting where salespeople set personal goals. Compare the individual goal total to the corporate goal and challenge your team to make enough extra sales per person to meet the corporate goal – everyone wins with increased sales and team spirit.

3) Adopt a hands-on management approach. Decrease memo writing and increase more personal forms of communication. To keep track of their performance, stay in touch with your salespeople and discuss problems and effective solutions. Accompany them on calls occasionally and stress the importance of sales meetings. Salespeople should be able to learn from and respect their managers, so be careful of the example you set. Always “walk the talk.”

4) Broaden your customer base. To ward off disaster should an industry suffer a slump, make sure no one client accounts for more than 20 percent of your business. Always make it a priority to seek out and sell to new clients.

5) Make your product or service affordable to more clients. Provide your customers with attractive and affordable packages. Be creative, and offer a wide variety of options so that virtually all prospects may find one to fit their needs – and budgets.

6) Improve customer service. Stiff competition in the 1990s means companies must work harder for repeat business. Make sure your customers – big and small – stay “yours” by giving them the service they deserve.

7) Know how to emphasize value. Most clients monitor expenditures carefully and spend only when necessary. To make the sales, show your prospects and customers why they should buy. Find your company’s niche – what makes your product or service different. List the reasons why a client should buy from you, and use the list to close more sales. Be sure every reason is a customer benefit – not just a product or service feature.

8) Develop team spirit. When management, operations and salespeople work together, overall productivity increases. Conduct a monthly, 100 percent positive, criticism-free meeting led by the operations director. To encourage cooperation and team spirit, salespeople and managers alike should know and follow company rules. In the words of Lee Iacocca: “If you want to succeed in business you have to operate on a team with everyone playing on the same side.”

9) Boost morale daily with morning meetings. They may last only 15 minutes, but are invaluable to your sales staff. Congratulate all salespeople who closed sales the day before and have each share briefly how they sold the account. Keep meetings positive – the purpose is to encourage – not discourage.

10) Get rid of non-performers. “One bad apple spoils the lot,” and nowhere is this more evident than in your sales department. Negative feelings and comments spread like viruses, infecting and discouraging everyone. Non-performers and/or negative salespeople often affect the quality of all staff members’ work, so weed out wet blankets and underachievers.

11) Invest in motivational and sales training tapes for your salespeople. These tapes enhance sales skills and keep morale high by counteracting daily rejection. Encourage people to listen to tapes en route to the office or sales appointments.

12) Watch your collections. Pay salespeople only on collection. Offer discounts to clients for cash in advance or timely payment. The more delinquent the account, the less likely that you will collect.

13) Hold sales contests. Make selling fun! Salespeople often get more of a kick from winning $100 in a sales contest than from larger commission checks. The $100 prize may prompt an additional $10,000 in sales.

14) Recognize achievement with high-visibility awards. Use write-ups in a company newsletter, engraved plaques or desk mementos. Recognition shows the management’s appreciation for a job well done and makes a salesperson’s good performance visible to co-workers.

15) Use role-playing in your sales meetings. People remember 10 percent of what they hear, 20 percent of what they hear and see, and 95 percent of what they experience. Mental understanding of a technique is no substitute for practicing until you’ve polished its execution as well. Practice makes perfect.

16) Keep your best salespeople selling for you. Encourage your selling stars to stay with you by creating an attractive, appealing environment. Give them the V.I.P. treatment they have earned. Most people recognize that consistently superior performance warrants greater rewards and will often increase productivity to gain top performer status.

17) Set a positive example. The top management’s attitude often determines the outlook of the rest of the employees. An upbeat, positive attitude spreads as easily as a negative one, so to have a positive, high-producing team, adjust your own attitude and project it to everyone in your company. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What you are shouts so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.”