How committed is your sales team? Are they willing to go the extra mile? Will they do whatever it takes to help you grow your business?
If you really want to build an over-achieving sales team, the single most important trait to look for in the people you put on your sales team is their commitment to doing "whatever it takes" to be successful. Obviously when we say "whavever it takes" we do not mean your sales people should break the law, lie to customers and prospects, or engage in other unethical behaviors. What we mean by commitment is having a sales team that will:
- Push beyond their comfort zone
- Engage in the daily behaviors that drive successful results
- Ask tough, timely questions to drive intelligent conversations
- Improve themselves through training, professional development, and personal development
- Make the extra call, send the extra letter, do the extra follow up, read the extra article, ask the extra question....
- Consistently follow your sales process
- Hold firm on price and preserve margin
- Provide help and advice to their teammates so the entire sales team benefits from their experience and perspective
- Do the "grunt work" that produces results (cold calls, prospecting, working tradeshows, networking, etc.)
- Ask for help when they need it
- Be responsive to sales coaching and management input, following through even if it makes them uncomfortable
When you build a team of sales people who are truly commited - to their success, to your success, to growing both personally and professionally, to growing your business, to doing "whatever it takes" to be successful, you will be on your way to building an over-achieving sales team.
Two action steps for you to take if you want to act on what you've just read in this post:
- Request our FREE "Building An Over-Achieving Sales Team" audio series. In this audio series we further explain our perspective on the key traits to look for when building an over-achiving sales team and share real examples and stories from our sales force development consulting practice.
- Sign up for our upcoming CEO Seminar "How to Build An Over-Achieving Sales Team" on Wednesday, March 30th, 7:30-10:00 am featuring top-rated speaker and best-selling author Dave Kurlan.
In our experience CEOs typically get the sales team they deserve. If you choose to let someone else on your management team take responsibility for building your sales team don't be surprised if the results are less than you expect. Commitment starts at the top - how committed are you to building an over-achiving sales team?