Is your small business “Sales Team Ready”?

Friday Funnel Focus by EPOCH Sales Management Solutions

Do you wonder why we ask this question?

It starts with a response from a panelist, Tad McIntosh, at a webinar that we hosted on where to find good sales candidates for small businesses. Tad, the President of HumCap, shared that the most difficult hire for a small business owner is their first SUCCESSFUL salesperson.  We agree with Tad and believe it is the number one reason that many small businesses get stuck on a plateau. What is your experience?

Some statistics show that sales hires fail 70% of the time.  Less than 20% of small business owners we talk with have ever hired and kept an “A” salesperson.  Even fewer have ever repeated the process. What does your personal experience show?

 So, why is it so hard for a small business owner to hire and keep SUCCESSFUL salespeople?

We believe one reason is that small businesses are typically not “sales team ready”.  Frequently salespeople are doomed to fail in a small business.  There are three reasons that we feel it is important for small businesses to build a great sales function and be “Sales Team Ready”.

1. If you have a proven, repeatable sales process, it is easier to define what type of salesperson you want and increase your success rate.
2. If you have a proven, repeatable sales process and a salesperson is failing, you know it’s not the product/service or the process, and you can move on more quickly. Hire slowly and Fire quickly.
3. If you have a proven, repeatable sales process, it is easier to attract top talent that want big commission checks from a large volume of sales.

So, how do you make your small business … “Sales Team Ready”? Build the right processes!!!

Make Your Business … Sales Team Ready

1. Focus on the Right Priorities
2. Build a Healthy Sales Pipeline
3. Win More Deals
4. Set up Sales CRM for Success

We will go into more detail on each of these areas in future blog articles, but these are the key points for the four areas above.

Focus on Right Priorities

• Get the Messaging Right. Make sure everyone can answer the question, “What problem does your business solve that people are willing to pay for?”
• Align Sales Strategy from Business Results Goals to Selling Objectives to Sales Activity metrics.
• Get Targeting Right. Identify Ideal Client Profiles by first building Ideal Account Profiles and then applying different prospect profiles to each Ideal Account Profile.
• Determine Prospecting Priorities. Build the right culture.
• Measure what matters. Build dashboards for Sales Results, Sales Pipeline Health and Sales Activities.

Build Healthy Sales Pipeline Processes

• Grow Existing Clients
• Intentional Networking/Referrals
• Intentional Marketing
• Multi-Touch, Multi-Channel Targeted Sales Outreach

Win More Deals Process

• Prepare for and Open Sales Call
• Discovery and Qualification
• Present, Propose and Close

Set up Sales CRM for Success

• Map Selling Process to Deal Stages
• Map contacts from leads to opportunities
• Intelligent custom properties
• Optimize individual set up to maximize efficiency
• Build dashboards to track progress
• Optimize sales activity functions to maximize efficiency

Documenting a repeatable sales process across these four areas prepares you for Sales Team success!

Want to explore the process further, schedule a free 30-minute consultation.

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While growing Small Businesses and Building Great Sales Teams is hard, the process to do this is simple. But, simple does not mean easy. 

Want to explore the process further, schedule a free 30-minute consultation.

In the meantime, get our guide to the 3 Part Formula to a Healthy Sales Pipeline