10 Tips for Business Owner and Sales Manager for Increasing Sales

Sam Williams, President, New View Group, LLC

10 Tips for Business Owner and Sales Manager for Increasing Sales
By Sam Williams, President, New View Group, LLC

1) Write or update your business plan. Everything is always changing, and the Great Recession has actually accelerated the pace of change. Discretionary purchases haven’t and won’t recover for awhile. Price, convenience and value are even more important than ever. So make certain that your Business Plan identifies these changes and that your offerings are properly repositioned. If you don’t have a business plan or need help updating it, the Hispanic Chamber can help. An excellent bilingual resource can be found at http://www.kutztownsbdc.org/course_listing.asp.

2) Write or update your sales plan. A sales plan is more detailed than a business plan. The first part of a sales plan consists of an analysis of your existing client or customer base. It examines what percent of your clients are likely to leave. It estimates how much more of which goods or services you can sell to those who remain. It explores how many new clients you will have to add to make up for those lost and to meet or exceed you growth targets.

An Excel models is built that shows how many and what types of sales leads (opportunities) must be generated and processed through the various stages of the sales funnel in order to produce new clients and desired revenues. The plan then examines how to select and deploy your sales force to generate and to manage the targeted number of opportunities. A Chamber Member experienced with creating sales plans is:

New View Group (Sam Williams – swilliams@newviewgroup.net)

3) Hire and position the right people for the right sales jobs. Account executives, also known as “Farmers,” are best suited to nurture and to retain existing clients and to sell more to them. Outside sales executives, also known as “Hunters,” are best suited to prospecting activities and to securing new clients. Technical sales representatives provide the expertise that is vital to retain existing clients and to help to close new accounts, but they aren’t particularly interested in prospecting or nurturing activities.

An excellent way to determine what sales roles best suit existing or prospective employees is to have them take DISC Profiles. DISC is an acronym that stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. Classic profiles for many positions including sales jobs have been developed during the 60 years during which DISC has been in use. (One of the best ways to learn about DISC is to go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DISC_assessment.) Chamber Members who provide DISC assessments and assistance in hiring sales executives are:

New View Group (Sam Williams – swilliams@newviewgroup.net)

4) Perform background checks. It’s always a smart idea to check references from supervisors and to run background checks on candidates. If you can’t get through to the managers with whom you would like to speak or they won’t tell you much, ask the candidate to provide you a copy of their tax returns for the past few years so that you can verify his or her claims of commission income. Those who balk often can’t substantiate the earnings claims they may have made to you. One Chamber Member skilled in this area is:

5) Train your sales manager and sales force. Once you have the right types of people in the right positions, the training that you invest in them will ‘stick’ and make them far more productive. The training should pay for itself in as little as one or two months. Chamber Members who provide sales and customer service training include:

Business-to-business sales - New View Group (Sam Williams – swilliams@newviewgroup.net)

6) Craft the right compensation programs. There are off-the-shelf assessments that can tell you what motivates your farmers, hunters, technical sales representatives, inside sales consultants, professional sales executives and business development managers. Create a mix of base salary, commissions, bonuses, praise, contests and recognition that rewards and excites them. Remember that compensation plans should be structured so that 80% of your sales force can achieve or exceed their targeted levels of total compensation. Chamber Members who can help to build and tune your sales compensation programs include:

For retail sales - ActionCOACH (Steve Douglass - sdouglass@actioncoachsolutions.com)

Business-to-business sales - New View Group (Sam Williams – swilliams@newviewgroup.net)

Printing sales - TG & Associates (Debra Thompson - debrat@tgassociates.com)

7) Set sales activity goals and meet frequently. Once you have your qualified and trained team members in place, set sales activity goals for each type of position and then track the outcomes. Meet with individual sales representatives regularly to review their performance and to provide coaching tips on how to reach their goals.

Experienced sales executives usually don’t need to or want to meet more than twice a month. When you do meet, take a quick look at the DISC profile of each to remind yourself of what to do and not to do in meetings with that individual. Be sure to review each prospect in his or her pipeline, check to see whether of not the sales opportunity was advanced and work on next steps together. Newer representatives may benefit from weekly coaching sessions for the first three to six months.

8) Evaluate performance quarterly. Many sales managers mistake commissions and bonuses as a form of performance evaluation. Actually these are forms of compensation and are not substitutes for thoughtful evaluations. Some sales managers may formally evaluate performance only once year, but quarterly meetings are by far the most effective method.

9) Never stop recruiting new sales people. You never know when one or more key sales people may leave you. Also, you may cling to marginally performing sales executives because you have no one else with whom to replace them. My advice is to continually recruit. Keep the resumes of those candidates who looked promising. Interview candidates even if you don’t have an opening at the moment. While they will probably accept employment elsewhere, remember that about 30% of new hires don’t remain for a full year, usually due to personality clashes with their managers. If you stay in touch with the ones who showed the most promise, they may be interested talking with you again sooner than they know.

10) Reposition or fire fast. After a careful evaluation you may conclude that some sales people simply aren’t performing well in their roles. If you have performed DISCs on them, have placed them in the right sales positions, have trained and coached them and they still aren’t performing, help them to find a new career or company. Quickly. This process will be much easier and faster if you have already built up a stock of promising replacements. A Chamber member who is skilled in Tips 8, 9 and 10 is:

TG & Associates (Debra Thompson - debrat@tgassociates.com)

Sam Williams is a member of the Chamber and is a Board Member. He is president of New View Group, LLC, and can be contacted at swilliams@newviewgroup.net or (520) 390-0586. New View Group provides revenue development consulting to CEOs and sales skills and sales management training to B2B sales teams.


10 Tips for Business Owner and Sales Manager for Increasing Sales Sam Williams, President, New View Group, LLC 10 Tips for Business Owner and Sales Manager for Increasing Sales By Sam Williams, President, New View Group, LLC 1) Write or update your business plan. Everything is always changing, and the Great Recession has actually accelerated the pace of change. Discretionary purchases haven’t and won’t recover for awhile. Price, convenience and value are even more important than ever. So make certain that your Business Plan identifies these changes and that your offerings are properly repositioned. If you don’t have a business plan or need help updating it, the Hispanic Chamber can help. An excellent bilingual resource can be found at http://www.kutztownsbdc.org/course_listing.asp. 2) Write or update your sales plan. A sales plan is more detailed than a business plan. The first part of a sales plan consists of an analysis of your existing client or customer base. It examines what percent of your clients are likely to leave. It estimates how much more of which goods or services you can sell to those who remain. It explores how many new clients you will have to add to make up for those lost and to meet or exceed you growth targets. An Excel models is built that shows how many and what types of sales leads (opportunities) must be generated and processed through the various stages of the sales funnel in order to produce new clients and desired revenues. The plan then examines how to select and deploy your sales force to generate and to manage the targeted number of opportunities. A Chamber Member experienced with creating sales plans is: New View Group (Sam Williams – swilliams@newviewgroup.net) 3) Hire and position the right people for the right sales jobs. Account executives, also known as “Farmers,” are best suited to nurture and to retain existing clients and to sell more to them. Outside sales executives, also known as “Hunters,” are best suited to prospecting activities and to securing new clients. Technical sales representatives provide the expertise that is vital to retain existing clients and to help to close new accounts, but they aren’t particularly interested in prospecting or nurturing activities. An excellent way to determine what sales roles best suit existing or prospective employees is to have them take DISC Profiles. DISC is an acronym that stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. Classic profiles for many positions including sales jobs have been developed during the 60 years during which DISC has been in use. (One of the best ways to learn about DISC is to go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DISC_assessment.) Chamber Members who provide DISC assessments and assistance in hiring sales executives are: New View Group (Sam Williams – swilliams@newviewgroup.net) 4) Perform background checks. It’s always a smart idea to check references from supervisors and to run background checks on candidates. If you can’t get through to the managers with whom you would like to speak or they won’t tell you much, ask the candidate to provide you a copy of their tax returns for the past few years so that you can verify his or her claims of commission income. Those who balk often can’t substantiate the earnings claims they may have made to you. One Chamber Member skilled in this area is: 5) Train your sales manager and sales force. Once you have the right types of people in the right positions, the training that you invest in them will ‘stick’ and make them far more productive. The training should pay for itself in as little as one or two months. Chamber Members who provide sales and customer service training include: Business-to-business sales - New View Group (Sam Williams – swilliams@newviewgroup.net) 6) Craft the right compensation programs. There are off-the-shelf assessments that can tell you what motivates your farmers, hunters, technical sales representatives, inside sales consultants, professional sales executives and business development managers. Create a mix of base salary, commissions, bonuses, praise, contests and recognition that rewards and excites them. Remember that compensation plans should be structured so that 80% of your sales force can achieve or exceed their targeted levels of total compensation. Chamber Members who can help to build and tune your sales compensation programs include: For retail sales - ActionCOACH (Steve Douglass - sdouglass@actioncoachsolutions.com) Business-to-business sales - New View Group (Sam Williams – swilliams@newviewgroup.net) Printing sales - TG & Associates (Debra Thompson - debrat@tgassociates.com) 7) Set sales activity goals and meet frequently. Once you have your qualified and trained team members in place, set sales activity goals for each type of position and then track the outcomes. Meet with individual sales representatives regularly to review their performance and to provide coaching tips on how to reach their goals. Experienced sales executives usually don’t need to or want to meet more than twice a month. When you do meet, take a quick look at the DISC profile of each to remind yourself of what to do and not to do in meetings with that individual. Be sure to review each prospect in his or her pipeline, check to see whether of not the sales opportunity was advanced and work on next steps together. Newer representatives may benefit from weekly coaching sessions for the first three to six months. 8) Evaluate performance quarterly. Many sales managers mistake commissions and bonuses as a form of performance evaluation. Actually these are forms of compensation and are not substitutes for thoughtful evaluations. Some sales managers may formally evaluate performance only once year, but quarterly meetings are by far the most effective method. 9) Never stop recruiting new sales people. You never know when one or more key sales people may leave you. Also, you may cling to marginally performing sales executives because you have no one else with whom to replace them. My advice is to continually recruit. Keep the resumes of those candidates who looked promising. Interview candidates even if you don’t have an opening at the moment. While they will probably accept employment elsewhere, remember that about 30% of new hires don’t remain for a full year, usually due to personality clashes with their managers. If you stay in touch with the ones who showed the most promise, they may be interested talking with you again sooner than they know. 10) Reposition or fire fast. After a careful evaluation you may conclude that some sales people simply aren’t performing well in their roles. If you have performed DISCs on them, have placed them in the right sales positions, have trained and coached them and they still aren’t performing, help them to find a new career or company. Quickly. This process will be much easier and faster if you have already built up a stock of promising replacements. A Chamber member who is skilled in Tips 8, 9 and 10 is: TG & Associates (Debra Thompson - debrat@tgassociates.com) Sam Williams is a member of the Chamber and is a Board Member. He is president of New View Group, LLC, and can be contacted at swilliams@newviewgroup.net or (520) 390-0586. New View Group provides revenue development consulting to CEOs and sales skills and sales management training to B2B sales teams.
El Informe Newletter - August 2011 Edition