Strengthen Your Sales Team With These 8 Strategies
Originally appeared on ForbesBusinessDevelopmentCouncil.com
It's that time again: The holidays are over and everyone is diving head-first into their New Year's Resolutions. While personal goals may include working out more or taking up a new hobby, business leaders typically resolve to improve their organization's people or processes.
Striving to do better than the previous 12 months is always a good way to start the new year off on the right foot, but it's important to make sure your goals are realistic, actionable and attainable. We asked members of Forbes Business Development Council to share one resolution they have for strengthening their sales skills or sales teams in 2021. Here are their best responses.
1. Focus On Customer Happiness
Changing the mindset of the sales professional from selling to consumer happiness is a resolution every company should make. Empathy and understanding – not just of the product but the customers themselves – is something we instill daily, but we’re doubling down on it (this year). We want the customer to see our sales teams as trusted advisors who want to make their lives better. - Joey Holt, Amerisleep
2. Personalize The Sales Process
We plan on taking a more personalized approach to our sales process. We want to refocus the team so they can speak to the unique value for that individual prospect instead of talking about the unique value in general. We plan on getting more specific on a call by call, meeting by meeting basis. And while it may take more time and effort, we should convert better than ever. - Joel LeBendig, CommunityCo
3. Get Back To Basics
One of our core values is "Powerful Simplicity." As we've grown, the operations in the pre-sales process are becoming more and more complex creating a checklist of administrator work. To strengthen my team's sales skills, it's going to be vital to remove unnecessary friction so we can focus on improving fundamentals and refocusing attention on the details that impact outcomes instead of focusing on reports. - Nico Marroquin, Logikcull
4. Drive Collaboration
To further penetrate existing customers and drive additional revenue streams, we plan to collaborate across business units to identify key customers who can benefit from all of our offerings. By bringing together teams from various divisions, we hope to leverage existing relationships and knowledge of the customer's business process to provide more holistic solutions than one-off offerings. - Christopher Kingman, TransUnion
5. Nurture The Human Connection
We resolve to have more face-to-face meetings. We get lazy with technology and forget that the human connection is a priority – and is necessary to further develop relationships. - Wayne Elsey, Elsey Enterprises
6. Use Collective Critical Thinking To Overcome Weaknesses
We are in the process of reviewing every category of our business, and our strengths and weaknesses as a team. If we cannot be honest with each other and speak to our weaknesses in order to improve together, then we will not be successful in front of our customers. We have to be open to change, look for ways to improve and help our customers – not just bring another widget, but bring the best widget. - Emily Hauptvogel, H&H Products Company
7. Set More Offsite Meetings
An incremental but significant goal for the new year is to get every member of our sales team out of the office far more regularly. Even if the meetings are not with prospects, coffees or lunches with connectors or referral sources can be extremely impactful in the long run. Further, developing the mindset of trying to get in front of people – and then doing it – is critical to success in sales. - Adam Mendler, Beverly Hills Chairs
8. Empower And Motivate The Sales Team On An Individual Basis
As leaders, we often get caught in managing by numbers and stats. The performance data is the end result, so what is the cause? Not every salesperson is motivated the same way, so we cannot address them all the same. Empowering them on an individual basis will create greater success. Dive into their personal goals and challenges and ignite their drive. - Keith Gruebele, bhg-inc.com