Building a top-notch sales force is a dynamic endeavor. It requires a solid foundation of leadership, market focus, sales process and ongoing management. Many organizations have some – but not all – of these critical components in place and wonder why results may be lacking.
Is your sales force ‘fit’? Are your sales people thriving or just surviving? How would your sales organization measure up against the best in the business? If you’re serious about assembling a dynamic, results-oriented sales team, one of the easiest ways to get started is to take inventory of your current approach. Awareness is the first step towards improvement. The checklist below includes highlights from the full Top Line Sales Assessment.
Sales Fitness Assessment
Leadership
❑Can your salespeople articulate the vision, goals and strategic direction of your organization?
❑Do your sellers have written goals for the year?
❑Do your salespeople have documented expectations for behaviors, skills, sales activities and results?
❑Have you discussed the consequences of meeting, or failing to meet, your mutually agreed-upon expectations?
❑Do substandard results trigger a corrective action process?
❑Does your organization have a proactive, consistent, thorough approach to recruiting top-notch sales talent?
❑Does your company have a working process to solicit employee feedback and ideas?
❑Does your organization encourage professional growth and development and are resources for professional advancement available on an ongoing basis?
❑Are you and your sales people actively involved in the business community and industry groups?
❑Does your leadership expect and inspect ‘accountability’ at all levels?
❑Does your organization promote a winning attitude?
❑Do you recognize and celebrate large successes to reinforce successful habits?
❑Is your organization ‘fun’ to work in?
Market Focus
❑Are sales territories fairly balanced and clearly defined?
❑Does your organization have a robust customer database (CRM) that can be easily accessed and updated by your salespeople?
❑Can sellers communicate the ‘value proposition’ of the company in an authentic and engaging way?
❑Do salespeople have a clear understanding of how to ‘differentiate’ themselves and the company?
❑Do your salespeople clearly understand emerging market trends and how to capitalize on them?
❑Does your company have an effective customer feedback mechanism in place?
❑Are changes made quickly within your organization based on customer and market feedback?
❑Are salespeople and sales managers empowered to make decisions to enable them to respond to customers in a timely manner?
❑Are your marketing efforts and sales efforts aligned?
If you’re serious about building a powerful sales force, you need to excel in each of the key assessment areas. Commit to shoring up now. In part two of our fitness assessment we will focus on Sales Management and Sales Process. In the meantime, pick a few of the items above to improve. A pledge to addressing shortfalls, along with the realization that change takes time, should ensure that you’re on the road to ‘Sales fitness’ and results.
The TOP Line Account™ Sales Success Model
Common close ratio: 25%
Add pre-call planning: +20%
Add account strategy work: +20%
Add Win Themes™: +10%
Add competitive blocking: +10%
NEW CLOSE RATIO: 85%
A ‘Fit’ sales organization means ‘Ringing the bell’ more frequently with TOP Line Account™ wins.
The Perfect Book to Kick-Off your Year:
Invest in your executive selling efforts by giving your sellers the book that is guaranteed to enhance their sales performance. The TOP Seller Advantage: Powerful Strategies to Build Long-Term Executive Relationships includes proven strategies to ensure sellers develop long lasting executive access.
The C-suite executive perspectives at the end of each chapter reveal exactly how senior leaders view sales encounters and what would cause them to keep the door open for follow up meetings.
Pipeliner CRM empowers sales forces to be totally fit. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.
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