I was coaching a successful sales team the other day. This team has experienced 28 months in a row of nailing their goals and increases. Obviously not a small feat. They have NOT hit it the past 2 months and getting close to not hitting a third. When coaching a business sales trends I pay close attention to their habits and beliefs. And to the big one”¦have they begun to wing it?
Sometimes the market drives the money. And when a sales team gets caught up in that market they forget to be proactive. And then they slowly begin to react. I interviewed the entire sales team with the sales manager and general manager present. I asked them to start telling me what was going on?
Most of them assumed I just wanted to hear the negative so that’s what I got. I wrote down all of it onto large “post it easel paper” and stuck it to the walls for all to see. There were 6 sheets of paper all over the walls. From that point I asked them to tell me what they wanted.
I got a list of 9 different items. What I did was modeled the interview process by getting their Situation Analysis written and up all over the walls. Then had them articulate their short and long term Objectives. From this point all of them are going to write their own Plan moving forward.
The Plan will be how many of these interviews they will be conducting per week until they right the ship. After all, X# asks = X # $$.
Taking the time to really listen to the client, and write all of what they say out for them to see, will reap higher closing ratios and sales activity.