As a sales manager or small business owner in a sales industry, selling is everything. Without sales, your business cannot succeed. It’s why you set up, it’s what you want to do, and it’s what you need to do to make money and turn a profit. None of us goes into business thinking that we’ll fail, but many sales businesses struggle to get the return that they need or attract enough customers to do well. And, even those businesses that start out well and quickly build a sales team can start to struggle later on. It’s easy to assume that if you start well, things will grow and develop on their own. But it’s often not the case. Even the best sales teams have periods of complacency. When they rest on their standards and fail to realize that constant high sales require constant effort. If you are struggling to keep sales levels up, it might be time to give your sales team a boost.
Get the Right Tech
Nowadays there are apps and software programs for everything. To monitor and to improve performance. Sales are no different. The best cpq software can boost your team and help you to track sales and individual performance. Software can help you to add structure to your sales and marketing plans and give you an easy way to communicate with your team. If used and installed correctly it can also add a level of automation to providing quotes and advising customers. This can make your sales peoples jobs much easier and give them more time to focus on actually selling products.
Offer an Incentive
Incentives are a great way to get more from your team. Some people believe that they aren’t necessary, and that staff should always do the job that they are paid to do. But, in reality, to sell well, they’ll often have to go beyond their basic job description and do more than they are being paid to do. If you expect this from them and reap the benefits of it, what’s wrong with also offering something extra? Incentives don’t have to be huge, just something to boost morale and improve performance. You could even use them to introduce a little competition to the team, which is another excellent way to increase sales.
Make Your Goals Clear
One of the main reasons that salespeople flounder is that they don’t have clear goals and targets. Staff often struggle to hit targets when they’re not sure what they are. Try to keep your team up to date with any company information, setting them clear objectives and goals and being totally transparent when it comes to explaining what you need and want from them.
Listen
A mistake many managers of staff make is not listening. Your team often have reasons for not being able to do their job to the best of their ability, and they’re usually the first people to notice when something isn’t working. Ask them what they need, ask for their feedback and opinions and listen to what they are telling you. Try to give them what they need to sell well.
