How to Use Sales Leadership to Train and Manage Sales Athletes

Do you have a sales athlete that isn't living up to their potential? 

Are small or bigger elements being missed?

Are they avoiding a critical area such as talking about money or budget?

Have you tried:

1. Let them know that you want to work closely with them to make gains and/or find area that once addressed with result in better outcomes
2. You may consider freeing their schedule of some responsibilities to allow more focused time on specific activities that will support desirable outcomes
3. Meeting with them weekly or more frequently to check in and course-correct along the way

As a sales leader, it’s no fun to resort to extreme measures, and none of what we have addressed is designed to lay blame or be utterly critical. If we make the comparison to top athletes in a sport and we want top sales athletes, we must adjust just as any sporting organization will do regarding their talent. Sometimes we may find that there is no culture fit with a given individual within our organization or that one person can ‘spoil the barrel’ for others. In many ways the solution is to evaluate, spell out expectations, support talent in achieving them, and cut your losses when supportive efforts don’t work.

None of what we have described above is easy and it does not happen overnight. If you have challenges getting your sales team to perform, maybe it’s time to consider a Sales Coach. Sales coaching isn’t one size fits all. Your sales coach may work exclusively with a few salespeople or with the team. They may work solely to support the sales manager to be more effective in their sales coaching role, or to complement their efforts as a sales manager. Engaging with a sales coach may begin with an assessment of your current sales team – one that identifies areas that will produce the greatest return on investment. If you are even a little open to the idea of sales coaching, what’s the harm in a conversation - one where you can determine if there is a good reason to explore whether sales coaching is or is not a fit for your organization… one where NO is OK.

Sales Leadership for Your Ann Arbor Business

As business and sales coaches in the greater Ann Arbor, Michigan area, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales efforts on track. If you’re not happy with your organization’s sales results, coaching can be a great option. This may be the perfect time to examine or re-examine your sales efforts, the process, stages, pipeline(s), language, and KPI’s you’re using. So don’t wait - proactively evaluating your entire sales function will lead to better results.

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Want to achieve results that matter and/or grow your high-performance sales team? We've worked with many businesses with sales leadership in Ann Arbor, and we can help you too. Not located near Ann Arbor, Michigan? We also offer virtual services and can work with you no matter where you are.

Contact us today to schedule your complimentary discovery session! Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form and receive a free Sales Focused Organization checklist.

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

How to Manage Poor Performance in Sales Athletes

You’re an existing sales manager, a new one, or someone who has been promoted to a sales management or sales leader position. You have an existing team and will likely hire more salespeople, and you’ve been charged with hitting a 20% year over year growth in sales results.

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s say the expected growth is in top-line revenue. Depending on your organization, the focus may also be on other KPIs, such as gross profit, net profit, and/or other important KPIs such as net new accounts, average revenue per sale or account, and more.

One of the first things a manager may do is to take stock of what is and isn’t in place, and then determine the level of effectiveness for each area or element. This may include a CRM, meetings, goals, individual performance against goals, and more. When it comes to salespeople and performance, it would not be unusual to find some at the top, middle and bottom of performance metrics.

A manager with this scenario may wish to keep the good success elements and people going without disruption and see if they can raise the level of performance of the less well performing people and or elements. Below are a few items that could be explored with those on the sales team who are not performing optimally:

• Take a close look at their ‘book of business’ in your CRM
• Summarize their results, pipeline, and their level of activity
• Look for areas where the KPIs are not likely to support success and desired results
• If the results and pipeline are weak, is there enough activity?

Read the full list on our website! 

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Want to achieve results that matter and/or grow your high-performance sales team? We've worked with many businesses with sales leadership in Ann Arbor, and we can help you too. Not located near Ann Arbor, Michigan? We also offer virtual services and can work with you no matter where you are.

Contact us today to schedule your complimentary discovery session! Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form and receive a free Sales Focused Organization checklist.

Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We’re here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.