How Professional is your Sales Team?
During good times you can get away with a less than professional sales team; however, during the challenging times we are presently experiencing you need to bring your “A game” if your company is going to survive. How professional is your sales team? Here are a few things to evaluate about your sales force.
Telephone use. Are all calls from customers returned promptly? All calls preferably should be returned the same day, but no longer than 24 hours from receipt. Do your associates answer the phone professionally and cheerfully or does it sound like they're being interrupted when they answer the phone? If they don't answer the phone is their voicemail greeting professional and does it contain information about how to reach someone else who can help them if they aren't available? Do they change their voicemail greeting when on vacation so that the customer who is calling for them knows to ask for someone else?
Prompt response to e-mails. All e-mails should be responded to within four hours and all e-mails should be responded to before the end of the day. Even if your response simply states that you are looking into the situation, you need to respond and set an expectation level for resolution to the issue or question.
Following up. It's amazing to me that many of the salespeople who call on me never follow up after the original call. It's a total waste of the cost of the original call if follow-up isn't done promptly. Recently I needed to have the driveway and parking area restriped at one of our branches. I contacted five companies that had been referred to me by friends. Only two of them even bothered to return my call. Then, only one of them got me a quote. I had to contact five other companies so that I could get two other quotes, as I never buy anything without getting at least three quotes. I thought we were supposed to be in a recession! Why did I have to make 10 phone calls to get three quotes?
Projecting a positive attitude. Do your salespeople complain to their customers about how tough business is or do they share good news with their customers and project an upbeat persona? I don't care how challenging the economy is; your customers don't want to listen to your salespeople whine and complain. Go on some sales calls with several of your salespeople. If they complain about the economy to their customers in front of you imagine what they say behind your back.
Pricing and negotiating. Are your salespeople trying to beat your competition on price or do they try to get a premium for your products based on superior service, deeper inventory, faster delivery, greater product knowledge, and other factors? Have your salespeople been trained in the art of negotiating? It's amazing to me how many so-called “professional salespeople” have never had any training in negotiations. I always enjoy negotiating with salespeople who clearly have never been properly trained in the art of negotiating. I routinely take them to the cleaners even though I feel bad for them that they have been sent into battle by their employers without the proper weapons.
Sales training. Has your sales force been professionally trained or have they just been thrown to the wolves? When I used to do sales training I would ask the people in the room to raise their hand if they had ever been to a sales training class before. Generally, around 90% of the attendees had never been to any formal sales training classes. They learned from another salesperson “who's been around a while” but usually that person has never had any professional training either. I know times are tough but if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. It's a lot more expensive.
How does your sales force stack up against the above? If you know for a fact that your sales team excels in all of the above areas I assure you that you are in a distinct minority and you are probably cleaning your competition's clock.
© Copyright 2011 by Jim Sobeck. All rights reserved. This information may be reproduced as long as full credit is given to the author.