While there are lots of potential obstacles and roadblocks to building a great sales organization, there are several blatant issues that are responsible for about 90% of failures.
The Five Biggest Issues that Derail Sales Organizations
Issue #1: No solid hiring process
A solid sales organization starts with solid people. Having solid people starts with having a solid hiring process. Look, salespeople interview well. That’s their job. One person I know had 6 jobs in 12 months. He was completely inept so he only lasted a short period of time, in one case 3 hours, but he was good at selling on the interview. Okay, that’s extreme, the point being: you need a step-by-step process that begins with the basics but then moves people out of the traditional interview process to find out who you’re really dealing with. The best hiring process is one that includes activities which identify transparency, competitiveness, honesty, and attitude. Once you have your step-by-step, non-traditional process in place, don’t skip steps. No matter how good someone looks, or who they’re related to, make sure they are interviewed by all the key people and are made to jump through all the hoops required for proper qualification. Remember the first part of the number one rule of hiring: hire slowly.
Issue #2: A lack of accountability
It’s critical that standards are set and people are held accountable. The biggest issue I see in ALL organizations, not just sales organizations, is a lack of accountability where people are allowed to slack off, not do what’s expected of them, and still keep their job with no consequences. Salespeople need to know what’s expected and then follow through with those expectations. The longest the wrong person should be with you is 180 days, although you’ll probably know you have the wrong person in a week or two. I’ve seen salespeople allowed to stay on for years when they weren’t doing the job almost from day one. You’re not running a charity and you’re not doing anyone any favors by keeping them around. In fact, you’re killing morale and the office atmosphere. Remember the second half of the number one rule of hiring: fire quickly.
Issue #3: A lack of sales training
Most companies spend far too much time on training other than sales training. While product and other technical training is good and necessary, the most important activity of a salesperson is to sell, thus the most important training they get is sales training. They have to be able to do the most difficult sales tasks well, namely: they have to be able to hit the streets and cold call and sell to strangers. There should be an onboarding process for new salespeople and a large component of that process should be how to sell. Each organization also needs to have a proven sales process in place. This is a step-by-step system which includes all the key aspects of selling from identifying prospects, to contacting them, to presenting, to closing, to following up, to account development and relationship building. The goal is for each salesperson to have all answers to objections, questions, and everything else that can come up in a customer or prospect meeting, scripted and committed to memory. They should be role-playing with each other, and even with friends and family members, so they are always prepared. When you can wake a salesperson up at 3 a.m. and they can answer any question or objection, they are ready to go. That said, don’t let salespeople sit in the office during prime-calling times practicing scripts because they don’t have them down yet. That’s just an excuse not to go out and do the hard work.
Sales training also needs to be continuous. Sales managers need to be testing salespeople by role-playing with them and asking them questions and giving them objections throughout the day. They should also be going on calls with them. Sales meetings need to be focused on sales education and training. In sales meetings you should be talking about competition, building value, and other items that improve sales skills. Sales meetings are not for looking at charts and eating donuts.
Salespeople also need to be doing their own training. They should be attending seminars, reading books, listening to and watching programs and videos, and they should have their own educational library. While the company has to have the training systems and processes in place, salespeople also need to take responsibility for their personal and professional development.
Issue #4: Negative attitudes are allowed
When I mention negative attitudes I’m not only referring to those of the salespeople. Many times it’s the support people who cop an attitude or act as if they’re more important or better than everyone else. You either have to change these people quickly, not likely, or move them out quickly, more likely. They say one negative person affects six others but it’s worse than that. Negative people and attitudes will drag your company down faster than almost anything else.
Issue #5: A bad product or lack of support
A company and its sales team are only as good as the service, support, and product that the company turns out. If a company turns out a bad product, that’s obviously a problem. That said, in my experience it’s usually not the product but rather the support and service that are the problem. It’s simple, if something does not get installed or implemented on time or, if customers are not responded to and issues are not addressed on a timely basis, success is usually short lived. It’s imperative that your support group is super-responsive, knowledgeable, and has a great attitude. Serving the customer must be the number one priority.
John Chapin is a sales and motivational speaker and trainer. For his free newsletter, or if you would like him to speak at your next event, go to: www.completeselling.com John has over 27 years of sales experience as a number one sales rep and is the author of the 2010 sales book of the year: Sales Encyclopedia. For permission to reprint, e-mail: johnchapin@completeselling.com.
