Written by Rob Malec

www.robmalec.com

If you want to increase your sales and ultimately grow your business, you need to know how to motivate your sales team. Contrary to what you may think, money may not necessarily be the main driver (at least not for every member of your sales team).

Figuring Out the “Why” is the Key to Motivating Your Sales Team

The secret to understanding how to motivate your sales team is getting to the “why” of how your people operate. This is the deepest motivator and the thing you want to focus on when trying to improve your team’s performance. Learn what the “why” is for each of your salespeople, and your team will prosper.

Your top sales performers may indicate money as their primary motivator, but it is likely not their true number one motivator. In my experience as a Fractional Vice President Sales, the reason money is articulated as such is because it is the safe answer. This is the case because usually the stage has not been set for deeper, more personal (honest) answers to be okay.

Remote and distance working have led to a new kind of team environment. Gone are the days of face-to-face meetings and bumping into colleagues by the espresso machine. Group interactions are now primarily via Zoom and the like. Zoom fatigue has now led to team members leaving the cameras off or simply using the telephone. It’s not surprising, then, that deeper interpersonal communications happen less frequently and to a lesser depth.

Be Intentional About Getting to Know Your Salespeople

It takes considerable effort for a leader to open more personal dialogue with staff with the goal of learning more about them as people. Since chance encounters and over-the-water-cooler chats don’t happen anymore, leaders must be mindful of learning more about their salespeople.

Use Team Meetings as an Opportunity to Learn About Your People

If you as a leader set the tone and create a forum for more openness, then over time your team members will feel comfortable being candid with you. An approach I have found to be very effective is to make it safe for a sales team to share interests they have that are not work-related.

I accomplish this by taking the first 15 minutes of the weekly Zoom sales meeting over the course of a month to share photos and stories of my travels and interests. After that, I ask if anyone else would like to do the same. Invariably there is someone who would like to do so. It’s a great way to get to know people, understand what they are like outside of work, and give insight into the person that we see (or work with) every day. Sometimes I’ve had people ask to share their photos and other information even before I suggest it.

Hold Monthly One-on-One Coaching Sessions 

I schedule at least one full one-on-one coaching session per month with each salesperson to focus on learning how they are doing as people. I ask what stresses they are facing, whether they’re feeling supported at work, and how things are going overall in their life. 

Doing this purposefully over time leads to a comfortable dialogue and relaxed disclosure. It has been my experience that almost everything I see in a person’s behaviour at work and performance is directly tied to what’s going on in their life outside of work. Going slowly with this so as not to make it intrusive builds trust and helps you learn more about how to support that employee.

Encourage a Buddy System

Creating a buddy system within the sales team is very effective for cultivating stronger inside-of-work relationships, even in a remote working arrangement. Often newer staff are hesitant to reach out for help and more tenured staff appear too busy to give it. In the end, no one feels personally engaged. 

The buddy system allows your senior people to share their wisdom and the new people to receive it. Tenured folks learn from the questions new employees ask. Newer employees learn how to get help. It also gives all parties a voice in their ear that is not that of their boss, which gives a broader perspective for problem-solving.

To Find Out How to Motivate Your Sales Team, Ask!

The most overt thing I do to learn about salespeople’s “why” is to simply ask them. I have found it is better to ask this question after doing the things mentioned above for some time. This sets expectations around trust and safety. If asked too early on, you will likely be told what the salesperson thinks you want to hear rather than their own truth.

This approach to getting to know your sales team’s motivations, along with other ways to be a great boss, is sure to set you on the right path to improved revenue. Understanding how to motivate your sales team is a nuanced endeavour. If you would like to discuss how you can do so, please feel free to reach out.

Written by Rob Malec

www.robmalec.com

Looking for the best way to grow your revenue? It’s a common mistake to assume that means landing new clients. In fact, easy money is yours for the taking if you put some effort into getting new revenue from your existing customers.

In my work as a Fractional VP Sales, I regularly encounter business owners who are so busy trying to find new clients that they forget to mine their existing customer base. Further, in the rush to find those new clients they don’t realize that some of their long-time loyal customers are leaving out the back door.

Unlock Easy Money From Existing Customers

To get new revenue from your current customers, you need a systematic approach to mine your existing customer base methodically over time. Planning your work, and working your plan unlocks this vault of easy money. The tried-and-true “Land and Expand” approach to customer success generates revenue reliably and predictably. 

A client will rarely raise their hand to ask to learn about your entire suite of products and services. As time goes by, it’s unlikely they will stay up to speed on your new product enhancements, additions, and deletions. That’s why it’s important to have your team stay personally connected with your customers – this will present daily opportunities to broaden your service footprint there. 

A Strategy for Expanding Revenue From Current Clients

Email blasts and newsletters are nice, but you only need to look at the low open rates on them to realize that most of your customers aren’t seeing this information. Try this strategy instead…

Segment Your Customer Base and Schedule Regular Meetings

Work with your team to segment your customer base into four tiers (A, B, C, D) based on annual revenue generated. This will give you a clear baseline picture of which clients are contributing what and who could benefit from an expanded suite of products or services.

Then, set a connection cadence for each tier that will dictate how often a team member should reach out to the client. For example, tier A clients are to be personally contacted once a month, B’s every 2 months, C’s every 3 months and D’s every 6 months.

Master the Art of the Customer Business Review

The objective when meeting with these clients is to perform a Customer Business Review (CBR).  During this meeting with the client, your representative will

• close out on any outstanding customer service issues
• recommend new products and services that the client would find helpful
• attempt to get connected to other parties within the buyer’s organization that could use your company’s help

The magic of conducting productive CBR meetings is in the preparation. To close out on any outstanding customer service issues, the person conducting the meeting will need to have researched your CRM to confirm if any exist and whether they were resolved. 

If they are to recommend new products and services, they will need to know exactly which ones are currently being used by the customer, to what degree, and in what application.  They will also need to know ordering patterns, total revenue generated, and payment history. Gathering this information requires access to your accounting software.

To deepen their connection base, your representative will need to understand who the players are they currently deal with and what their roles are. To probe for more applications for your products and services, they will need to strategize where they would like to be connected next.

These new connections may reside within the department you are currently in. On the other hand, they may be in other departments that you don’t currently service but could use your products and services. It may be that instead they are not within your client’s organization but are external to their company. Understanding who your client’s providers are may even lead to net new client acquisition opportunities.

When delivering on the sales coaching part of my consulting role I have worked with clients to help them create and streamline their “Land and Expand” process. As with most things, there are many nuances around this. If you would like to learn more so you can bring in easy money, I am happy to help. Please feel free to reach out at [email protected]

Written by Rob Malec

www.robmalec.com

Many people believe that sales is the art of persuasion. This isn’t true. More accurately, it is the art of helping a potential buyer move forward in the consumer decision-making process. If the seller is persuading a would-be customer to do this, then they are pushing, not selling by helping. 

If you want to win loyal customers for life, the way to achieve that is by being genuinely helpful, not pushy. Do this by helping would-be buyers move forward through the stages of the consumer decision-making process.

Stages of the Consumer Decision-Making Process

‘Moving a buyer forward’ in sales can mean many things. It may refer to scheduling another meeting, an agreement to bring other relevant decision-makers to the table or granting an audience with the CEO. Whatever form it comes in, forward movement helps the buyer move toward being helped by your firm to solve a problem they have.

When it comes to purchasing decisions, buyers need to move from the Interested Stage to the Want Stage, and finally to the Need Stage.

The Interested Stage

This is where most sales start. At this stage, a buyer has some curiosity about how your products or services might be able to help them. 

The early Interest Stage is typified by buyers doing online research to learn about the product and service options which exist that may help them solve a problem. It is possible to lose buyers at this stage. However, in the current sales environment there is plenty of empirical evidence to show that website content and configuration can effectively draw buyers in and hold their attention. If your company is not successful in doing this, have a look at your web design and digital marketing fundamentals. 

The late Interest Stage is where your front-line sales team comes in. By this point, potential buyers have narrowed down their options to a list between two and four and are trying to get down to the one or two that are the best fit. Arm your team with value-based sales questions to help guide the buyer through this stage. These questions should help in understanding three things:

• the buyer’s current state
• their problems and pain points
• their vision of what an improved situation will look like for them (their gains)

Working through these questions helps them clarify where they are, why they are stuck and where they want to get to. Having this clear in their mind sets the stage for your sales team to help them forward. 

 The most efficient deployment of resources for a company is to have lower-paid business development staff fielding inbound inquiries. Given the conversion rate from bona fide inquiry to next-stage conversation is typically somewhere between 25 and 50 percent, having a high-priced salesperson field these inquiries is not an efficient use of resources. This salesperson’s efforts would be better spent helping later-stage buyers and closing deals. Have a clear process map that identifies the exact point at which the business development person should hand off the buyer to the salesperson.

The Want Stage

Potential buyers in the Want Stage have whittled down their choices and are deciding between one or two options (maybe three). This is where you want your seasoned salespeople to take over.

In this stage, more technical questions will arise that will need detailed answers to carry them forward in their decision-making process. This complexity requires strong product knowledge and feature application expertise on the part of your sellers.

The Need Stage

At this point, the buyer is down to one or two options and wants to firmly decide on the best one for their needs. It is crucial to use values-based questions in this part of the sale to help buyers make their decision.

Work with them to recognize the value in business terms that they will get from choosing your company. Go a step further and quantify that value to help them understand the business case for choosing you. This means being aware of the potential positive impact on their top line, middle line, and bottom line will help make your case in terms of dollars and cents. Being able to highlight the positive impact your product or service could have on their processes by saving time and simplifying will further cement that going with your company is the best option.

The Interest-Want-Need path of the consumer decision-making process is universal. However, each industry comes with its specific considerations. Work with both your marketing and sales teams to inventory this flow so that you can set up your new customer acquisition systems to map to it in the most effective way possible.

Regardless of the industry, selling by helping starts with having a genuine conversation with your potential buyers. I outline how to master the conversational sales method in my book, Sell More by Selling Less. This method, combined with the tips discussed above, will help you beat your sales targets predictably.

As with all things sales, there is a great deal of nuance around how to navigate the Interest-Want-Need path for your company. If you’d like some help thinking through how this applies to your business, feel free to contact me.

Written by Rob Malec

www.robmalec.com

I recently came across the most simple and elegant formula I’ve ever encountered that cracks the elusive code of increasing the revenue that you as a business owner can generate from the total of your team’s marketing, sales, and business development efforts.

I encountered this in Timothy Gallwey’s excellent book The Inner Game of Work (the entire Inner Game Series is excellent and well worth your time).

An adaption of his formula for improving work performance applied to sales and revenue generation looks something like this:

Sales Performance = sales potential minus sales inhibitors

Here’s how this applies in the real world from my perspective as a B2B Fractional VP of Sales…

To Increase Sales, You Must First Understand Your Sales Performance

Leadership must clearly define the specifics of sales performance so that the team knows exactly what productivity level (and in which KPIs) needs to be achieved. Given that Revenue Generated is a lagging indicator (it reflects what has already happened), you also need Leading Indicators (projections of what is likely to happen).

The classic trap is to not have Sales Activity and Results leading indicator KPIs in place. When this is the case, leadership can’t confirm on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis what direction the sales ship is going in and at what speed.

Your sales activity leading indicator KPIs should include:

• # of Sales Leads in your sales funnel at any given time
• # of Sales Leads that have been contacted by your business development folks
• # of buyer-facing sales meetings conducted each week
• # of buyer-facing sales meetings scheduled for the upcoming weeks
• # of viable sales opportunities and corresponding revenue in the deal funnel

Looking at this list of leading indicator KPIs, it’s easy to see that predicting your incoming revenue reliably and predictably is possible if you’ve enacted them. All of these are the things that cause sales to happen. If by week one or two of the month, these KPIs are trending down, you will likely have a dry spell coming up but will still have time to course correct.

Working with your team to ensure that they keep the pace on hitting these KPIs is a continual coaching and training endeavour that has a direct ROI when followed diligently.

The key lagging indicator, Revenue Generated, needs to be clearly articulated as well. What is the revenue required by a sales professional, in what time period, and at what margin for each product? Clarity here will help ensure that your sales team is focused on generating the type of results that will keep your business healthy and poised for increasing sales and growth.

Consider Your Team’s Sales Potential to Increase Sales

Think of your top sales performer who regularly overachieves on their sales plan. Imagine if you could hire a few more folks who are dialled up just like they are—how great life would be! When building your team, hire wisely (for more information on how to do so click here.)

If you have a legacy team, sales potential can be assessed by looking at past performance and putting that beside the traits and characteristics your salespeople possess. This will allow you to determine if they have what it takes to be successful in selling within your market.

The reason for looking at both sides of this equation is that a person who performed poorly in the past may simply need some help getting unstuck to unlock their sales ability.

Be Aware of Sales Inhibitors That Prevent You From Increasing Sales

Things that get in the way of revenue generation success for a salesperson can be either internal or external.

Internal Sales Inhibitors

Internal inhibitors include things like mindset, an adequate knowledge base (both in product and sales approach), and the skill to apply all of this.

The salesperson whose mindset is to take it personally when a buyer says “no” to them will never succeed. They will drown in their bad feelings.

The salesperson whose mindset is “I can’t sell because of [insert external force acting upon them here],” will also never succeed. It’s rare that the stars align, market conditions are ideal, competitive pressure is low, and your company is operating like a well-oiled machine. The best salespeople adapt and deal with adversity effectively rather than looking for excuses for poor performance.

External Sales Inhibitors

External sales inhibitors are things in your company that are getting in the way of selling that you can change. Things that get in the way of selling include:

• Unclear sales goals
• A lack of sales coaching
• Overly complex sales compensation plans
• Production plans not matched to sales plans
• Administrative processes that make setting up new customers and placing of orders onerous

Most often these are the types of things that business owners can control or highly influence to find a solution. At your company, determining what these issues might be is as simple as asking your sales team. It’s my guess they will respond loudly and quickly when asked, “What types of things do we need to fix in order to make closing of sales easier for you?”.

Applying the Formula to Increase Sales

Assess your sales team and grade each seller on their Sales Potential.  The simplest way to do this is to take an inventory of the traits and characteristics of your best salespeople and measure all others against this standard. There are also many paid inventories out there that can help you.

This assessment will tell you whether or not you have the team in place that can achieve the revenue generation success required to take your business to the next level. It may be that you have the raw material for success but require some process optimization and training to bring the best out of your folks.

On the other hand, it might be that you have the wrong people in the sales seats on your bus. If that’s the case, you can then strategize appropriately how to get the right people in. Then, ask a question of your sales team about what roadblocks to selling exist.

Inventory those, set them up and knock them down one by one by addressing and resolving them. This will likely involve multiple stakeholders across multiple departments, and (sadly) not be a fast process. It will, however, definitely be worth the time and effort when it ultimately helps you improve revenue generation.

As with all things, there is nuance to cracking the code of how to increase sales. If you would like to chat about this further, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]

Written by Rob Malec

www.robmalec.com

Using a sales coach might seem counterintuitive when the sales team reports directly to the business owner or sales manager. Consider a sales coach to be a force multiplier with a clearly identifiable ROI. If you want to increase revenue generation rapidly, then it’s time to engage the services of a sales coach.

Why Use a Sales Coach?

Here are a few specific signs to look out for when trying to answer the question, ‘Do I need to hire a sales coach?’.

1. The Business Owner is too Busy to Coach

If you are an early-stage business, it is likely you don’t have a sales manager. It’s also likely that you are wearing ten different hats and working eight days a week. Fires crop up, shiny objects appear, and you get pulled in many different directions on a minute-by-minute basis.

Effective sales coaching requires prep time, in-session focus, and post-session follow-up. Despite best intentions, overstretched business owners often just don’t have the bandwidth to apply to this task. It’s important to know when you need a sales manager.

2. The Sales Manager is too Busy to Coach

You may wonder, isn’t it the sales manager’s job to coach? Technically, yes. Practically, it can be a challenge. Much like the business owner, the sales manager may also be pulled in many directions.

Marketing, production, delivery, and accounting all vie for simultaneous attention – and may have been folded into the sales manager’s job role description. To some degree, knowing how to set your sales manager up for success can help. Even if you do so, rising sales team headcounts make coaching tough to accomplish. Beyond a head count of five salespeople, any sales manager is hard-pressed to meet their minimum weekly coaching goals.

3. Sales Managers May Lack Proven Methodology and Processes to be Effective Sales Coaches

The newly minted sales manager may be new to their role and still cutting their teeth. Identifying a sticking point with a salesperson or a sales process element is one thing but creating and seamlessly integrating an elegant solution is another.

Even experienced sales managers may not have all systems and processes documented. The absence of this infrastructure makes effective sales coaching difficult. It becomes tips and tactics focused rather than process & methodology focused. This results in the need for sales process and methodology training to be procured, which can be expensive.

4. Sales Managers and Business Owners May Not Be Good Teachers

We have all had excellent teachers in our lifetime – that person who “reaches us” and helps us break through a plateau. We have all also had teachers who were patently unsuccessful at doing so – and you’ve probably felt the frustration of investing time that you will never get back into a learning experience.

It’s often the case that the high-performing salesperson is promoted to sales manager. The logic is that because they can perform well, they can teach it to others. This logic is flawed. Because someone is a solid performer does not mean they are a good teacher or even enjoy teaching. Learning how to be an excellent sales teacher is necessary to get the coaching results you desire.

5. The Sales Team May Need More Bandwidth Than Those Parties Have Available to Commit

There are ways to be effective and efficient when implementing sales coaching. However, it is still time intensive. If the sales team is green, they will need a significant amount of coaching time in order to ramp up their productivity.

If the product or solution being sold is complex, the team will need focused attention being given to sales strategy creation learning. If ownership or sales management are busy in the ways outlined above, the time they have available to put into sales coaching simply may not be enough.

6. You Can’t Be a Prophet in Your Own House

You may have one of your team members come to you with a great new idea they heard from someone outside the organization, which turns out to be the exact same idea you had given them ten times before!

Objectivity and sound thinking packaged in a new way can be exciting and invigorating for a sales team. When sound ideas come from outside the organization, they have a level of street cred that homegrown ideas are not always afforded. This is yet another reason to hire a sales coach.

Is Sales Coaching Expensive?

Engaging the services of a sales coach does not need to be expensive. There are all manner of sales coaches to meet just about every learning need and training budget. Given the ROI on sales coaching services is so easily measured, you will quickly see if your investment is returning dividends.

You may even consider using a sales coach whose compensation is directly tied to the revenue the sales team generates. Such a commission program is natural, provides a clear incentive for all parties, and makes your sales coaching arrangement self-funding.

In my role as a Fractional VP of Sales, I’ve seen how effective sales coaching can transform businesses into predictable revenue-generating machines. If you’d like to discuss how sales coaching might be helpful for your organization, please feel free to contact me.