ONE OF THE MOST CONSTANT CONCERNS among entrepreneurs is what they can do to boost their sales. The most common response is through better customer service. But there is another pillar that is often overlooked: salespeople.
You can tell that you have your sales force well cared for… although on a closer look, you may find that it is actually making your day-to-day work difficult.
Do you want a simple parameter to measure this point? Watch your salesperson turnover.
The higher it is, the greater the level of disagreement that exists in that department.
But beware! Before thinking about a better incentive and commission model - an essential factor for your business to sell more and better - first analyze whether it offers basic support to your sales force.
According to our own research, four out of five salespeople do not achieve their sales goal because they cannot find the necessary support. Will your executives be part of this group?
Make sure that all the personnel that must support the seller in his work (warehouse, production, shipping, finance, purchasing…) know it and carry it out as part of their priority tasks. If not, many sales already made may be canceled or many potential sales fade away.
The main points to support your salespeople are: training, information, responses, compliance and feedback. Let's delve into each one.
TRAINING
It is very common that we hear that 'a good salesperson is only one who knows his product well'. But we find that in many companies, they just hire salespeople and throw them into the ring without any training period.
If you don't train your new salespeople to get to know your product or service, you are practically preparing them to sell too little or to leave the company on the slightest pretext.
Prepare the material with which you will receive your sellers. In these courses or documents you should include all the characteristics of the products and services you offer (from technical questions to marketing), the company's operating processes, the most common purchase objections and the useful experiences of you and of other sellers.
INFORMATION
There are two types of information that you should offer them. The first is made up of elements to show the client (photographs, catalogs, samples, price lists and discounts). It is very important that each seller has visual materials; Selling by word of mouth is very complicated. The second type of information refers to company policies: delivery times, stocks, discontinued items, credit rules… everything that helps the seller not to promise what he cannot deliver.
ANSWERS
Sellers must request support from other areas (warehouse, production, credit, shipping, collection) to close the sale. If your company thinks that the seller is being done a FAVOR by giving him the information he requests, your seller may experience a delay in the response he asks for and that can put the sale at the door at great risk. Communicate the priority of the sales department to the rest of the company. Avoid losing customers due to lack of good inward service.
COMPLIANCE
After closing sales, it is essential to comply with what was agreed. If something goes wrong in this process (prices, delivery times, model, color…) not only is a customer lost and the commission for the seller, but also a cost is created for the company.
Incredible as it may seem, it is common that collaborators from other areas who do not have contact with the real customer, do not feel the need to fulfill the commitments they made for their fellow salespeople (but which is actually for the end customers) and already closed sales are lost.
If you have only been concerned about the salespeople selling and pressuring them to do so, but you are not demanding that your other staff fulfill their commitments to the salespeople or your end customers, then you will lose customers.
FEEDBACK
One of the actions that your sellers will be most grateful for is that you notify them of how the customer service process is going: if the order has already been delivered, if the missing product has already arrived, if there was a delay, if there is any change in prices. This will help the executive to provide a good after-sales service, so important to retain customers.
It is very common that salespeople do not provide the necessary results in the sales of a company due to lack of support from you and your organization. Review the essentials we've outlined here and make the necessary adjustments to make sales executives the kings of your business. '
