After evaluating your sales team it is likely that you want to set up short term, mid term and long term priorities in order to achieve sales growth.
But as focusing on the short term is the most critical, here are some ideas that you can look to implement now, after reviewing your current sales performance:
- Work out if you have the right people in the right roles, if you don’t, then it is likely you need to make some changes.
- Create and/or develop a proactive pipeline, so activity can be tracked and pre-determined.
- Develop accountability for everyone involved in sales – no excuses when it comes to results.
- Work out what kind of coaching is required and whether that can be done in-house, or outsourced.
- Create a reliable recruiting process to hiring and holding onto A-players.
- Understand motivators of the sales team and implement them through management and leadership activity.
It is only once these key elements can be covered in a business that skill-based training should be considered, because if there is no foresight into what needs to be achieved, and the foundations in place to back up whatever training is completed, then measurable results won’t be evident.
It is also important to remember that obviously short term sales growth will only take you so far. The only way your business will continue to see improved performance and increased profits is by making sure you create change (the right change) that can be sustained, and which is instilled in the everyday function of your sales team.
How can something specific, like the OMG assessment, assist with accelerating growth, both short and long term?
An external evaluation looks at your people, strategies and systems objectively, and can tell you whether your people can actually execute the company’s strategies, meet your expectations and belong in the roles they are in.
You can learn which of your existing salespeople could be performing two, three or even four times better and can discover what you must do in order to help those people achieve their potential. It is also important to understand which of your people won’t ever perform any better than they do right now and why. There needs to be a complete analysis of your pipeline for quality and quantity, as well as a report on the effectiveness of sales management.
Working out all of the above in house would be extremely time-consuming and what if it is done incorrectly? But if you’re serious about improving your ROI, increasing profits and achieving sale targets, then evaluating every aspect of your sales process (including the people and pipeline) is a must – there is no point in pouring petrol into a car if there is a leak in the petrol tank, or if there is a more serious problem under the bonnet. It’d be a waste.
