Changing how we work

The problem is; the standardised way we work out how to set sales targets and quotas can cease to be fit for purpose from month to month. Compare December to January, for example. One is slow due to holiday festivities while another represents a new year and new goals. Yet they are only a month apart. Previous targets and KPIs may be unrealistic, if not completely unachievable, so penalising our salesforce is never the answer.

We may not be able to control the shifting sands of time, but we can influence buying habits through marketing, and we can control what we do as a business. It’s important to keep in mind that this is the industry we choose, and such seasonal occurrences should always have been factored into our strategy.

What businesses can do

Every industry needs to prepare for a ‘sales boom’ as well as potentially quieter times. People go through boom and bust as well as businesses, and those living frugally are going to be keen to make up for the lost time when they can. We need to be ready when they do!

One method is to refocus on our salesforce. This is a great opportunity to provide training. Feedback and coaching are essential aspects of performance sales management. Do you do this enough? Your salesforce is the lifeblood of your business, so take this time to sharpen their skills and knowledge of your industry. Up-skill where you can and dig into each sales person’s strengths and limitations.

Finally, always maintain consistent but sensible levels of marketing. While it’s tempting to cut budgets during off-peak times, this risks becoming irrelevant. Customers need to know we still exist. They need to miss you, to know that you’re still open for business. Be seen and continue your marketing efforts as usual, particularly around your social channels. If you don’t, your competitors will, and they’ll also reap the rewards.

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You can benefit from a free trial with a demonstration on how to improve your sales performance management. With a host of powerful features, like sales territory management, sales quota management, and sales objective management, you’ll soon find yourself wondering how you ever managed with a simple spreadsheet.

1. Set communication schedules

If you do not set a specific date or time to call an employee, you will most likely keep pushing the call further and further down your to-do list until the communication becomes long overdue. At the start of each week schedule the times you would like to speak to your employees, whether individually or as a team, and stick to it.

2. Have an office calendar

When working remotely, it is easy for an employee to be missed off a meeting list or email chain and fall out of a communication loop. Create an online calendar that can be viewed and added to by everyone in your sales team, so every employee knows when important meetings are. If an employee notices they are not being included in a meeting or event, they will be able to raise this with you.

3. Use sales performance management software

When managing an online team, organising individual sales commission is an extremely time-consuming and confusing process. Instead of allowing emails about commission to interrupt the communication flow of your business, you should use sales performance management software which will automatically manage your sales team’s commission. This will allow you to communicate with your employees about more specific work matters, as all issues about commission will be handled for you.

4. Offer a platform for feedback

You may wish to create a separate company email address for team members to send their ideas and feedback to. This ensures general comments and suggestions don’t get lost in daily communications.

Contact Commissionly

If you’d like to learn more about sales performance management software, or more ways to improve communication within your team, contact Commissionly today!

1. Use real-life scenarios

Your salesforce will face different situations during sales. They may meet awkward people who are tough to handle and you can help them be familiar with these problematic situations. Practical activities, such as using real-life demonstrations or simulating conditions (https://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-design/simulation-for-sales-training-advantages), help improve the problem-solving ability of your salesforce. By testing them in these real-world situations, you get the necessary feedback to help your team improve their sales skills and feel more confident.

2. Create a continuous improvement culture

You should never forget that training your staff is a continual process. To meet your sales performance goals, you must use a system where you continuously review the performance of your salesforce on the ground. This action will expose any knowledge gap. Trends always emerge in the market, and you don’t want to be left behind. To help your team learn to adapt, you must also regularly refine your sales training methods. 

3. Identify individual needs

You should evaluate your staff’s training needs to identify problem areas. To do this, you can conduct individual performance reviews, personal interviews, or surveys. The information you get will help you know their weak points. This practice will make your training specific. You will prioritise on the relevant areas that add value to the overall performance of an individual. A personalised approach ensures you help an employee overcome a particular weakness during sales.

4. Use incentives

Your salesforce needs to be motivated to apply the training. You could set up a system that recognises those who succeed in applying the knowledge. It could be a commission-based system that appreciates their efforts. This action will push them to learn the concepts faster and earn their reward (https://www.commissionly.io/our-top-3-tips-to-break-your-sales-team-out-of-a-slump/).

Training will give your salesforce the mental edge they need to push your sales performance goals to a whole new level. So keep at it!

However, meetings often have a reputation for being a waste of time. Normally this is because they aren’t properly managed. Yet they have the potential to really help your sales team. So, here are some tips to make your sales meetings more effective and to help staff make their sales performance goals:

1. Use data to back up claims

When in a meeting, you need to use real data to highlight points. This is where sales commission software can be really helpful. Good software will highlight how much your staff have earned and what they need to do to meet sales targets.

When people can see their performance in numbers, it can help them to identify the need to change their habits/working efforts to succeed.

2. Have a plan for the meeting

When you create sales goals, you often have a plan of how your staff can achieve it. The same is true for meetings. When you have a set plan for the meeting, including what you want to bring up and what actions you want to happen afterwards, you’ll find the meetings will be more productive.

Another way to improve meeting productivity is to share the details of what you want to go through at the meeting before the start. This can be done via email and allows staff to prepare their responses.

3. Ensure meetings are two-way conversations

When one person is talking all the time in a meeting, those listening can often become distracted. This can harm the uptake of what you’re saying and therefore the meeting time is wasted. Instead, make the meeting a time for constructive conversation that goes both ways.

Two-way conversations are a great way for your staff to see meetings as a valuable aspect of their work that improves their work.

Conclusion

Meetings are an important aspect of communicating to staff and help make sales targets. They are complicated to run, but with the right mindset from you and your team, you can ensure they’re a productive part of your working week.