How to Hire High-Performing Sales Athletes

Have you been frustrated trying to hire the right person for your job opening?

Do you want to hire a high-performing sales athlete?

Consider these items as you look for a qualified candidate:

• Know what you’re looking for, what the position is and the KPIs it must impact once a successful hire is made
• Predetermine the characteristics that a suitable candidate must possess
• Create or revise an up-to-date job description 
• Determine your compensation plan
• Have a territory and/or ‘book of business’ plan

If you think about these items in the context of a sports athlete, it will help you come to a clear understanding of why they are crucial for a successful sales focused organization with top notch sales performers. Take ice hockey which has three basic positions – goal tender, forward and defense. 

Can you imagine hiring someone who is capable offensively for a goaltender position? It’s no different in sales – are you looking for business development, a hunter, or a farmer? What specifically must they accomplish to yield success for the company? The clearer you are about the role you expect someone to play, the responsibilities and the expectation that go with that role, the better set you will be for success.

With some of the complexities of developing Sales Athletes, 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.

Read more about sales leadership on our website!

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team, sales leadership, and an effective sales management solution? 

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 

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.

Creating High Performance Sales Athletes

We all want top performers in our sales environment, right? It starts with a successful hire, someone who has the right ingredients, talent and/or potential. 

In order to hire the right person, we have to know what we’re looking for and be able to define our needs before we hire talent. Let’s say we’re looking for someone to manage customer accounts and create opportunities to grow customer accounts. This is hugely different than a position where we’re looking to add new business, grow a territory, break into a new market, or something else. This all has to be in place before we advertise that a candidate is wanted for a specific position and that interested parties should apply. 

Below is a list that may help with acquiring top candidates and growing them into sales athletes:

1. Know what you’re looking for, what the position is and the KPIs it must impact once a successful hire is made
2. Predetermine the characteristics that a suitable candidate must possess
3. Create or revise an up-to-date job description 
4. Determine your compensation plan
5. Have a territory and/or ‘book of business’ plan
6. Know how you will work with the salesperson (meetings, ride along, joint calls, reporting, etc.)
7. Have an estimate for how long it may take a new salesperson to get up to speed and deliver results
8. Know how you will handle subpar performance
9. Define the role for the position clearly
10. Define the responsibilities for the position clearly
11. Have clear expectations for the position
12. Manage all of the above early and often

Examine this list and note the items you are well-prepared for and those that you are less than well-prepared for. It’s not a disaster to make changes – even with an existing team or salesperson. Make the adjustments, announce them early, and declare that we’ll climb into this change together.

Learn how a sales coach can help with your sales leadership strategy on our website!

Sales Leadership, Management, and Coaching for Your Sales Team

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team, sales leadership, and an effective sales management solution? 

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 

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.

When Should You Consider a Sales Coach for Your Business?

A major reason for working with a coach is scotomas – blind spots. If you’ve ever experienced a blind spot, you know that it literally didn’t exist until you became aware that it did. We’ve all experienced blind spots, and coaches point out blind spots in athletes during every practice, drill, or game. This concept is just as true in sales coaching, whether it be for business development, sales force management, strategic selling, or simply about sales conversions. A coach will see and notice things others can’t see – at least until they’re pointed out. Needing a sales coach is nothing negative, in fact it’s a positive - a safety net - providing opportunities for greater success.   

Inviting a coach to your sales environment and team doesn’t mean an instant fix. Successful sales coaching takes time, as success is built on the relationship formed between the coach and management, the sales team, and its individuals. That relationship can function at the top of your organization (alignment, strategic direction, etc.), with sales management, the sales team and at the individual salesperson level. The sales coach will advise, mentor, train, and coach in the gap areas that lie between current performance/results and those that are desired. A good coach will advocate for the success of the organization and provide resources that result in positive change for the organization’s sales team – its culture, function, activities, meetings, pipeline, and results.   

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.   

Read more on our website!

Sales Management for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, 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?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution?

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 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.

What's the Difference Between a Sales Coach and Consultant?

In recent months, we’ve written about many sales topics and why it makes sense to be process-oriented, thoughtful, intentional, and employ KPIs to enhance your sales efforts and results.

Where does a sales coach come into play and where can your sales organization benefit from a sales coach?

Before we try to answer this question, it’s important to make a distinction between a coach and a consultant:

• A consultant possesses expertise and can be considered a subject matter expert (SME). They will often provide a report or recommendations that they think will lead to a desired outcome. They are often not involved in the implementation and outcome of their work.
• A coach, by definition, means to train or to teach. A good coach will understand people's strengths and weaknesses while promoting and maintaining motivation for those that they work with. Unlike a consultant, a coach will be there through thick and thin to ensure that success is realized.

A major reason for working with a coach is scotomas – blind spots. If you’ve ever experienced a blind spot, you know that it literally didn’t exist until you became aware that it did. We’ve all experienced blind spots, and coaches point out blind spots in athletes during every practice, drill, or game. This concept is just as true in sales coaching, whether it be for business development, sales force management, strategic selling, or simply about sales conversions. A coach will see and notice things others can’t see – at least until they’re pointed out. Needing a sales coach is nothing negative, in fact it’s a positive - a safety net - providing opportunities for greater success.  

Read more on our website!

Sales Management for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, 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 build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution?

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 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.

Improving Individual Sales Performance

It’s really easy to put people on the defensive, so with leadership and management, sales team members must understand that they are important players and that asking for information about their results, their pipeline, and activity are the norm. 

The reason for gathering this information is critical to the success of the organization and so is the impact of their individual sales effort – success reaching a sales goal. Information sharing between salespeople and management/coaches should happen on a regular schedule. 

If information sharing hasn’t been a part of your sales efforts, then when it’s first introduced, it may feel foreign and awkward both at the salesperson and at the management levels. We suggest standing appointments at regular intervals – schedule the whole year in advance! Persistence in holding information sharing meetings will win out in the long run.  

For management, information sharing meetings (also known as 1-2-1’s) with salespeople can be magical and facilitate building a relationship, to probe, to support, and to learn of individual successes and challenges, and whether all salespeople have the same struggle. One such area may be talking about money, which can be a challenge for many salespeople. If all your 1-2-1’s suggest this is the case, then a team workshop on how to talk about money with prospects will be valuable. Once the workshop has been held, the learnings that came with the workshop can be reinforced through healthy dialogue during 1-2-1’s.

Learn more about improving your sales team on our website!

Sales Management and a Sales Coach for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales process and 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?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? 

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 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.

Creating Sales Athletes and Improving Sales Performance

In recent months, we’ve written about pipeline(s), CRMs, a common language for your sales team, KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators), and sales results. 

Great athletes and other performers such as actors and musicians have coaches, and often have more than one. Why not take this approach with your salespeople? Sales leadership, sales management and sales coaching all play an important role in creating sales athletes. Sales leaders and managers can set the stage for success where sales coaches can get into the nuances of sales.

Some of the approaches we discussed last month can be applied at the salesperson level with answers to the following three questions:

1. Are the results you are getting on target with your individual sales goals (YES or NO)?
2. If NO, how strong is your pipeline (with a good number of viable opportunities at all stages of the sales process)?
3. If the pipeline is weak, what regular activities is the salesperson is engaged in?

Read about how to improve your sales management strategy on our website!

Sales Management and a Sales Coach for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales process and 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?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? 

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 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.

Improve Sales Performance at the Organizational Level

Enhancing sales performance can take place at the organizational level, the management level, the sales team level and at the salesperson level. This isn’t about placing blame; it is about accurately assessing what is and isn’t working as well as it should.

The outcome of your analysis could result in efforts that will both reveal issues and enhance performance that drives results. Some of these include:

•    Clarity around corporate goals, targets, and strategy
•    Is the focus new business or follow-on business, or both?
•    Review of or revision of your defined sales process with stepwise stages
•    Expectations around lead generation and follow-up
•    Role clarification
•    Ride along sales calls (joint/multi-person)
•    Call recordings and review
•    Team training sessions
•    Book reviews (sales methodology)
•    1-2-1 meetings and coaching
•    Role plays
•    And much more

In the final analysis, at all levels of the sales organization, performance can be adjusted for better outcomes. Enhanced performance will show up when answers to the first 3 questions above confirm that the necessary changes have been successfully implemented.

It’s as simple as that! Well, it’s not always simple and it can be a lot of hard work to transition a mediocre sales performance to a great one. Read more on our website!

Improve Sales Performance with a Sales Coach for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales performance, process, and 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?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution?

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales effectiveness and improvement analysis (SEIA) report! 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.