“”I MANAGE WITH MY GUT.”” “”Experience matters; I only hire people who have a book of business.”” “”I just know when I see a good salesperson.””
Ever heard a sales manager make these statements? Here’s a reality check:
You can hire someone with a book of business, but a recent JS Group survey showed only 16% of an experienced rep’s business comes with them when they move to a competitor. The statistic is even more dire—7%—when that rep leaves for a noncompetitor.
You may think you know a good salesperson when you see one, but with over $1 trillion (that’s nine zeros!) spent annually on sales forces and more than a 50% failure rate on new recruits, hiring on instinct is fraught with peril.
Same goes for managing with your gut. It may work with a limited solution variation or a small team, but it doesn’t scale. More important, it isn’t the right way to build your sales capacity. In fact, without proper systems to manage salespeople’s impact you can find yourself wasting more than 40% of your sales capacity annually.
The bottom line? To innovate in sales and lead the pack, you need a performance-based approach to channel sales management. Follow these three recommendations to get started:
Hire Using Digital Analytics
Sales success is no longer measured by how many cold calls a rep makes or their old book of business. Today, successful salespeople have the right digital footprint and social selling expertise. In fact, a social selling expert will perform 76% better than their peers.
Want to find them? In the interview, ask candidates to show you the following:
- A LinkedIn social selling score of 70+; have them pull it up live from this link: https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/social-selling/the-social-selling-index-ssi
- 5,000+ connections on the social platform used in your industry; have them show you live
- Four or more recommendations or reviews on your social platform of choice in the past six months
- At least five videos posted (that they recorded/created) in the past six months
Need to train them? HubSpot has some free training videos that will cover the basics, or reach out to firms like JS Group to participate in a social selling boot camp and leads program that will educate and evolve your entire sales team (or partner sales rep) to make the grade in a social selling world.
Automate the Right Stuff
Guessing is for low-performance teams. Sales tools like Set Sail can turn your data into better sales behaviors. These tools capture the data in your CRM and your email and evaluate all touchpoints to see how sales really happen in your firm. Using this data, they automate the best micro actions to take for each sales engagement and can even design reward programs (points work!) that incent sellers to take those actions that move the sale along. These tools are improving sales success by 11-37% when used consistently. It’s time to prioritize the science of sales over the art of the sale!
Master Virtual Presentations
In our new digital normal, your sales teams must be able to create connections and make sales in a remote-first world. This is about ensuring that your reps and/or partners are immediately accessible and productive regardless of their remote location and can collaborate effectively.
Having tools like Star2Star and Microsoft Teams is not enough. Your sales team must be trained to use these tools effectively during the sales call. Reps should be able to do a flawless two-minute introductory pitch that engages their audience and has them clamoring for more. If your team is struggling with this skill, there are some great coaches who can help them perfect that pitch.
By following just these three simple suggestions you will see an improvement in your sales productivity and results. The bottom line is the game of sales has changed and so we must change with it. Happy selling!
JANET SCHIJNS is CEO of JS Group (jsgnow.com), a channel-centric sales and marketing firm.
* Percentages cited are from JS Group’s annual survey.
