Street Smart Sales

Selling in the latter part of the 1980s was easy. Now business budgets are tightening and clients are holding onto their dollars.

Many salespeople who have sold only in the strong economy of the last decade will have to become street smart salespeople in order to succeed in the 1990s. There's no room for order takers in the new marketplace.

The three overriding concepts for selling in the ninety's are:

• Sell value to the clients
• Provide motivation and sales training
• Clearly define personal and station goals

Following are specific points that need to be developed by both the individual salespeople and management in order to insure that billing grows through the 1990s.

 1. Get back to basics: Some training may sound great in theory, however should ask yourself, “Will it work on the streets?” Fancy theory may sound good; but asking proper questions, listening to the client's needs, selling benefits and knowing when to ask for the order is what adds to your bottom line. All the “fad” sales techniques will fall flat if the salesperson isn't asking for the order.

2. Increase accountability: Review performance against goals more often. Managers need one-on-one meetings with the salespeople so they know that they are accountable for their goals. Also, you should have goal-setting meeting once a month and have your salespeople set their own individual goals. You might be surprised when you add them all up; they will often be higher than the corporate goals.

Maybe your corporate goal is $175,000. You add up all of the individual goals of your salespeople and it comes to $187,000. At this point you can create a new, higher group goal and help create the team spirit to achieve it. Tell them, “This company has never done $200,000”, and ask them if they would like to hit this new challenge. Create the desire within them. You only need $13,000 more in billing and if you have a staff of six, each salesperson's portion is an amount that is attainable. If each one offers to do from $1,000 to $3,000 more, you will hit that $200,000. You have broken a barrier. Next month they will do it again and go even higher. People strive harder when the goal is their own.

3. Managers must take a hands-on approach: Reduce memo writing and increase communication. Managers must be in frequent touch with the sales force. Talk to them about problems and directly help with solving them. You should also be periodically making sales calls with the salespeople. You should attend the sales meetings that are conducted by others. This is leading by example. It gives the staff the message that you consider the meeting important. As Tom Peters says, “There is no magic: Only people who find and nurture champions, dramatize company goals and direction, build skills and teams, and spread irresistible enthusiasm. They are the cheerleaders, coaches, story-tellers and wanderers. They encourage, excite, teach, listen, and facilitate. They say people are special and they treat them that way–always. You know they take their priorities seriously because they live them clearly and visibly: they walk the talk.”

4. Salespeople must broaden their customer base: If an industry goes into a slump, a salesperson is in trouble if that same industry comprises most of her lists. No one client should account for more than 20% of any salesperson's list. The salesperson should constantly be prospecting and selling new clients. Management should make this a priority effort.

5. Make your product or service affordable to more clients: Get     creative in putting together packages and prices that are attractive and affordable to your clients. Have many different options available so the client can find one that best fits their needs and pocketbooks.

6. Develop a team spirit: Management, operations and salespeople all working together create a greater bottom line. Let the Operations Director lead one sales meeting each month. It should contain no negativity or criticism. They should explain why certain rules have to be enforced. When the salespeople know the reasons behind the rules, they will be more understanding and will follow them. This will help foster the feeling of team spirit. “If you want to succeed in business you have to operate on a team with everyone playing on the same side,” says Lee Iococca. And Vince Lombardi noted, “There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don't win the game.” Then he describes what's different on winning teams. “Most people call it team spirit.”

7. Salespeople must know how to show value: Clients are watching where every one of their dollars goes. If it is not needed, it is not spent. Even if a client wants your product or service, he may not buy if he feels it is not needed. Salespeople need to sell value—showing the client “what's in it for them”. Find your company's niche–what makes your product or service different. Have your sales staff make a list of why a client should buy from your company. Be sure every fact has an attached benefit as it relates to the customers.

8. Increase customer service: In the 1990s, companies must spend the extra time to keep the clients they now have. No one should be taken for granted. In order to reduce their expenses, your best clients may “cut” you first if you have been neglecting them.

9. Have morning meetings daily to boost morale: This meeting may be only 15 minutes long, however they are invaluable to your sales staff. Don't discuss sales that were lost. When salespeople focus on failure they lose confidence and cannot sell. The staff should cheer all salespeople who sold an order the day before and each salesperson tells briefly how they sold the account. The sales staff may grumble at first about attending these meetings, but they will gladly attend once they get used to them. Remember, it takes 21 days of doing something new for it to become a habit.

10. Invest in your salespeople: Get sales training for your salespeople immediately—both new and experienced. It is more expensive to lose people who could be performing but aren't because of lack of sales skills. Money spent on training comes back to your company 10 times over in the form of more sales.

11. Get rid of non-performing salespeople: It's been said that one bad apple spoils the lot, and nowhere is this more evident than in your sales department. Negative feelings and comments seem to act like a virus and infect everyone. Non-performers and/or negative salespeople should not be kept around because they will bring down the quality of the work of all the other staff members.

12. Invest in motivational training tapes for your salespeople: All of your salespeople should be listening to tapes in their cars on the way to see clients. Because of the negative rejection inherent in sales, salespeople need a lot of positive input to keep them going. Audio tapes provide this for them.

13. Watch your collections: Pay salespeople only on collection. Offer discounts to your clients for cash in advance or timely payment. The more delinquent an account gets, the less likely it is that it will be paid.

14. Add sales contests: Make selling fun! Salespeople often get more of a “kick” from winning $100 in a sales contest than from their larger commission checks. One hundred dollars given in a contest can result in an additional $10,000 in billing.

15. Show recognition: Recognize performance in non-financial ways, also. Use write–ups in a station newsletter, plaques for the wall, desk mementos etc. People who work hard want others to know about it. Recognition from management does two things: it lets the salesperson know that the company is aware of his effort and it gives him something that shows co-workers how well he has done. Due to the competitive nature of salespeople, recognition is often more important to them than money.

16. Use role playing in your sales meetings: People remember 10% of what they hear, 20% of what they hear and see, and 95% of what they participate in. Salespeople may think they know techniques but may be unable to apply them effectively. Managers are often shocked at how poorly their sales staff perform in role playing. The cure?—more role playing.

17. Shoot for zero turnover of your best salespeople: The way to keep your best salespeople is to create an environment that they don't want to leave. This means that you have to treat them differently from your average salesperson. If you maintain a set of inflexible personnel guidelines, your best people will find another job where their unique talents will be recognized and rewarded. You may worry about the morale of the rest of your staff, but people generally recognize that a major difference in performance justifies different rewards. A side benefit is that the average performer will usually increase productivity in striving for the increased rewards.

18. Stress Positive attitude at all times: Dale Carnegie said, “Act enthusiastic and you will feel enthusiastic.” If you maintain a positive attitude and don't let things get you down, your actions will be positive and you will have positive results. Dr. David Burns, in his book Feeling Good , states, “[The] error is your belief that motivation comes first, and then leads to activation and success. It is usually the other way around; action must come first, motivation comes later on.”

19. Hire “go-getters” with energy who are not afraid to close the sale: This sounds obvious but too many times managers hire for other reasons. A salesperson comes from another company with an impressive record (which may have been inherited and not the result of that person's efforts), or is personable and easy to get along with (which may mean that they are too empathetic to be good closers). When hiring, look for salespeople with energy who are persistent in asking you for the job. If they can't sell themselves, they won't be able to sell your product or service.

20. Set a positive example: The attitude of a company filters down from the top managers. When a sales staff in a company is negative, you will usually find the same negative attitudes reflected in top management. To have a positive, high producing team, start with your own attitude and project it to everyone in your company. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What you are shouts so loudly I can't hear what you're saying.”