We’re halfway through the year. Salespeople and sales managers are looking at the sales numbers to determine if they are on plan to hit year end goals. As you examine your sales numbers, let me share the “one thing” that will ensure your sales team achieves their goal. And it’s actually pretty simple.
Make a decision.
Stop talking about what you should do, need to do.
Make a decision to stop talking and start doing.
#1. Make a decision to conduct a formal or informal win-loss analysis. Invest time with each member of your sales team and analyze WHY they are winning business. And then, do more of that. Analyze WHY they are losing business. Do less of that. It’s half-time and your sales team doesn’t have time to waste on sales activities or prospects that aren’t helping them reach their sales goal.
Make a decision to slow down to speed up.
#2: Make a decision to improve your sales team’s productivity. Your sales team doesn’t need more hours in the day. They need to know how to fully utilize each hour of the day. One of the quickest ways to improve productivity is to invest time calendar blocking each week and month.
Make a decision to teach your sales team how to avoid the common mistake of being busy, but not productive.
#3: Make a decision to sharpen selling skills. The specific skill that needs sharpening will be self-evident once you and your salesperson complete a win-loss analysis. The deep dive into data will show consistent patterns as to what step of the selling process a salesperson is experiencing deal fall out.
However, when you’ve identified a specific selling skill to improve, it’s important to make another decision. Make a decision to set aside time to role-play and practice. Mastery and improvement only happen with repetition.
Make a decision to engage in a LOT of practice with your sales team.
It’s half-way through the year. What decisions do you and your sales team need to make to finish out the second half of the year strong to achieve goals?
Good Selling!
