It may appear to be critical these days, but the fact is that CEOs have lamented for years over their need for more sales. Whether it's a small business or a large corporation, growth is king. Numerous studies and a variety of personal interviews state that growing sales is #1 or near the top of the largest issues CEOs face.

SO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT?

This is one of the first questions I ask leaders when they tell me they need to increase sales. The responses are interesting to shocking. Here are a few of my favorites:

* "We are going to just ride it out. When the economy comes back we will get our share."
* "I am not happy about it, but it is up to our sales leader. If he does not get it going soon, I will have to replace him."
* "We are cutting back the sales staff. If we cannot sell enough at least we are going to spend a little less. And, we can weed out the lower performers."
* "We brought the sales team in for a three-day training workshop to improve their skills."
* "We invested in a CRM system so we can see what they are working on and get more accurate forecasts."
* "We are cutting our prices so at least we can generate some volume."
* "I would like to get rid of the entire sales team, but people keep telling me I need them."
* "I am personally getting a lot more involved in deals to make sure that we win."

These responses, and the ones going through your mind right now, prompted me to ask the logical follow-up question: "How's it going so far?"

Overwhelmingly the responses included gems such as "Not very well," "We spent the money but didn't see any change," and "Things actually got worse."

If these are the alternative available to us and they don't seem to be working, WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

Let's start by reflecting on how the CEOs beliefs and behaviors contribute, OR NOT, to sales. Answer the questions below to see how you are helping your sales team succeed or are hindering their improvement.

ARE YOU, AS A CEO, CONTRIBUTING TO SALES?

By answering 10 questions, you can discover how you, as a CEO, are personally impacting your sales team and how the entire company feels about them. Answer the following questions quickly with a YES, SOMEWHAT, or NO.

1. Do I foster a culture (policies, recognition, stories) that enables the entire company to support the sales team?
2. Have I invested in our sales team to give them a competitive advantage?
3. Have I worked with my sales team to understand the critical steps our customers take in evaluating our products and services and have documented the best approaches for all to use?
4. Do I have a clear strategy for where our growth will come from, determined our most probable customer, and communicated it to the entire organization?
5. Have I encouraged my sales leaders to understand what behaviors and activities lead to sales and supported the deployment of the tools they will need to implement them effectively?
6. Do I understand that a sales leader's job is to develop a team of sellers, and do I devote part of their pay to making it happen?
7. Do I continually invest in my sales leader to be sure they have access to the best education, tools, and practices to drive continual improvement?
8. Do I routinely make sales accomplishments visible to the entire organization, recognizing sellers and those that support sales?
9. Do I believe that sales is a process that can be taught versus a skill that is inherent in certain people?
10. Do I look at sales as an investment in the business versus a cost to be managed?

If the majority of your answers were YES, you are most likely helping your team succeed. Continue to reinforce the behavior and support your sales leader.

If the majority of your answers were SOMEWHAT, you are doing some of the right things but need to take a closer look at ways you can improve.

If the majority of your answers were NO, you have an opportunity to make some changes that can make a big impact toward improving your sales.

If you want to grow sales, it all starts with you!

CEO STEPS TO GETTING RESULTS

Below are a few of the changes our clients have made that are getting results.

* Publish a growth strategy. Let everyone in the company know what type of client you want to work with and show them how to get the leads to sales people. Follow it up with a routine communication that shows people how their efforts are driving sales. You would be surprised how many of your employees are connected to people that could be customers.
* Invest in your sales leaders (if that's you, still do it). Sales is a discipline like any other function in the organization and it's driven by the boss. Sales people do best with a clear set of expectations regarding what they're supposed to do, how they should behave, how frequently and what results they should be getting. Most managers learned their job from their former manager who never learned to do it well. Be clear their job is not to sell, but rather develop a team of people that can sell your products and services. Then, provide them the education and support they need to do it well. If you dedicate a portion of their compensation to how well they do it, you'll definitely so improvement.
* Create a step by step method for engaging your customers, but understand that you can't fix people over the weekend. Put in a methodology that clearly outlines what activities help your prospects make effective decisions. Document which steps, tools, and resources advance the sales, and reinforce them over time. No one changes their behavior over a weekend. If that were true, we would all stop smoking, lose weight, and strike the ball like Tiger Woods. If you want the new approach to stick, think of it as the beginning of several months of teaching, or re-teaching, skills to resistant adults. It takes time and it's up to the manager to teach and coach until a new habit is formed.
* Stop making your manager the score keeper. When I ask sales leaders their biggest challenge, they tell me they just don't have enough time to do it all. When I inform their boss, I hear "They'll just have to work harder." As we dig into what they spend their time on, we often find that more than 50% of their time is spent adding up forecasts, sitting in meetings to communicate the latest projection, working with the CRM team on the latest upgrade, or helping marketing with what signage to use for the next trade show. Studies show that when they spend their time in the field coaching their reps, sales go up significantly. Reduce their administrative time wherever you can and help them focus where they're needed most, teaching their team to be better.
* Take as much pride in your sales team as you do your products/services. In a world of the internet and products that are obsolete by the time they get to market, how you go about engaging and working with your customers may be your biggest advantage. The best sellers want to work for companies that believe in, invest in, and continually develop their sales leaders and teams. If you're not doing this, they know it and it shows up when they talk to your customers. Participate in significant sales events. Send an email to the entire company recognizing key wins, let the sales team know they are the lifeblood to your cash flow.

The exciting part is that this is all within your control and it works. And, it works in every economy. Your customers are always looking for the best value. Sales team that help their customers make good business decisions by understanding their needs, concerns, and risks, will always have a competitive advantage.

We've worked with studied, and witnessed a transformational change that takes place when the CEO modifies how they look at the sales team and its purpose in the organization. Modest investment, new focus, and a sales philosophy driven from the top will get your sales team moving confidently and quickly.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Braun

It's definitely clichéd, but I think this is one of the most critical elements to successful sales management and that is to make sure you are tuned into the right radio frequency with your salespeople.

There's only one radio station that your sales executives like to listen to and that radio station is: WIFM. (You might say WIIFM, but let's not get too technical here...).

This is the "What's-In-It-For-Me" radio frequency. This is the only station they pay any attention to and if you're not broadcasting on it all the time, 24-7, then your sales reps are gonna switch you over to some other station on XM or Sirius radio...or worse yet, turn off the radio completely!

Keep this in mind when you go through the course material in SMMA, making sure that when you learn a new concept, think about how you will relay this to your sales team. Always think in terms of how you will discuss things with them...and what's really in it for them.

Because they really don't care about anything else.

Here's the dilemma you're getting it from all sides; your boss is telling you daily that he's "$6 million in the hole", your Sales VP is calling you and emailing you as to "why your team's closed accounts in their pipeline last month was so weak" (because he has numbers to hit too, y'know) and you know exactly how much in sales YOU need to get to at least hit quota so you can bring home some kind of a commission check this month because your spouse needs money to pay for that brand new dishwasher...

Your salespeople don't care about any of that.

People are selfish by design, they think primarily about themselves first. In fact, in a study done by AT&T, the number one word used in telephone conversations (I'm not sure if they were eavesdropping here or what) which beat the number two word by a ten to one margin is the word "I".

People care about themselves first. always

And sales people care about themselves first, second and third. Your needs and those of your bosses don't even crack the top three.

So when you get on the phone with them bitching to them about their sales numbers, what do you tell them? Do you tell them about how your VP wants this, your Director want that and you want the other?

They will tune you out because they just don't care at all about any of that...

All they care about is how THEY are going to hit THEIR sales number and how THEY are gonna pay for THEIR dishwasher that THEIR spouse keeps bugging THEM about...

And the sooner you understand this and start using techniques and language that IS ON THEIR RADIO FREQUENCY; you will never get them to perform to their fullest capabilities.

But as soon as you do talk to them in a language that they easily understand, and do it all the time (not some of the time), but ALL of the time, they will "pre-program" you on all their favorites and preset buttons on every radio they own.

This is very important to keep in mind when you are talking with your sales team, because after all, how you communicate with them largely determines how good of a leader and sales manager you are.

So just talk to them in their own terms.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ralph_Burns

Various objectives of sales force management and motivation are better achieved in a group situation than in individual discussions. Here I cover five areas where the sales manager might wish to harness the power of the group environment to achieve an objective.

1. To dramatise feedback. Praise has a much more lasting effect on a sales person if it is experienced in a group situation. Express appreciation therefore in the presence of other members of the team if you want to particularly emphasise the performance of an employee. Be careful, however, when criticising a salesperson in the presence of the group. Criticism in front of a gathered team can destroy the self-esteem of the employee. Public warnings also have an extremely negative effect on those not involved. They worry that the same thing could happen to them.

2. To encourage consultations. Many members of the external sales force are reluctant to accept something their superiors say. They are much more willing to learn from colleagues, on the other hand. A new route planning technique discussed during a conference by a successful member of the external sales force, quickly leads to positive experience and is quickly accepted. Use colleague advice given in the group specifically for your own training purposes.

3. To awake ambition. Comparison of performance carried out in a group situation is one of the strongest methods of spurring sales people on to greater efforts. Members of the external sales force are motivated if they see themselves in front of colleagues who are given a poorer assessment. Discuss performance results in great detail in the group therefore and make use of the "acceleration effect" given by success. If there is a "sporting spirit" in your team then the negative aspects of colleague comparisons (envy, jealousy, resentment) rarely arise.

4. To discipline. Groups have their own unwritten laws. The norms of a motivated sales team are: a positive attitude to the company and to the product/service, constructive collaboration, a will to succeed, commitment. These norms affect educational processes within the group. Misbehaviour by sales people (destructive attitude, notorious fault finding, lack of punctuality, unfriendliness, dereliction of duty) are eliminated simply by means of the regulating mechanism of the group norms, without the need for disciplinary measures. During a discussion with sales people, ask the group for their views on a problem which you are experiencing with one employee. Keep out of the discussion yourself and just act as mediator. A team of sales people with positive norms will soon bring a "black sheep" back onto the right path.

5. To create a sense of identification.The members of the field sales force need more today than just an emotional filling station. The group situation is ideal for providing sales people with "fellow feeling" and moral support. Sales people should meet together every four to six weeks for a conference in which they can exchange experiences with colleagues, work out new objectives with the sales management and experience team spirit. Sales people who only meet as a group two or three times a year lack identification and enthusiasm.

Application of these techniques will have a positive impact sales force behaviour and results. You can learn these techniques and more on a good sales management training course.

Richard Stone (richard.stone@spearhead-training.co.uk) is a Director for Spearhead Training Limited that specialises in running management and sales training courses. Richard provides consultancy advice for numerous world leading companies.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_A_Stone