It’s a demanding time of year with quotas looming at the end of the fiscal year and a team of salespeople rushing to close deals in order to meet the deadline. Point blank: your job is stressful. Managing a whole team while trying to focus on quotas can be incredibly overwhelming.
However, part of keeping a sales team strong is not just evaluating “closed won” and “closed lost.” It is also evaluating where weaknesses are in the entire process for your team and figuring out when and how to make adjustments that are sustainable and make the sales team more effective as a whole.
We referred to successful sales leaders and managers on their sales team evaluation process and what ultimately makes their team more successful and able to drive more sales. Here’s how you can assess your team (and inherently, solidify your sales funnel):
It’s really easy to write off each salesperson based on how many deals they close or don’t close. But if members of your team aren’t closing as much or as efficiently, it’s possible something is missing in their sales process.
Where are they struggling the most? Evaluate if connecting with the consumer or assessing their needs is affecting their pipeline. See if the conversations leading up to a proposal or the proposal itself are not being executed as they should. Effectively, your sales funnel should guide your evaluation of their processes and help you see where your team may be struggling to execute.
You can call it a rubric of sorts, but there are questions you can ask yourself as you observe your salespeople in their sales process. Inc.com listed the intelligent questions you can ask yourself so that you can better provide feedback and coaching to sales producers.
Use these questions to better guide your team toward success. Point out where they can have more effective sales skills. Even the top producers need coaching and expertise. Having your outside perspective helps them sharpen their skills.
Take some time to check in with your salespeople on their prospecting. Majority of salespeople don’t love to prospect and can easily put such a task on the back burner for the sake of shiny, ready-to-purchase leads. However, not prospecting on the front end means less leads and deals on the back end.
In the end, you might have salespeople who struggle to close deals but are relentless and energetic about introducing themselves to people and getting new leads into the funnel. These salespeople may need evaluation from point #1. The ones who are lacking in prospecting will need encouragement and reminders to keep the ball rolling so deals can keep closing.
Split your team up by Top Producer, Middle Producer and Low Producer. Help the low producers establish soft skills. Introduce new ideas and learning opportunities for those in the bottom half. Divide your time appropriately based on their willingness to learn and grow in these areas. Attend calls with aspiring Top Producers regularly to give feedback. So much about being a leader is using your time wisely and giving where it’s needed.
Our team regularly invests in classes and webinars that strengthen their sales skills. Invest in regular training for your team no matter their performance skills. Planting seeds consistently and encouraging time set aside for learning are important habits you can instill in your team.
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Part of investing in your team means investing in the growth of your team. What are your sales goals for the quarter and the end of year? Does it make sense to add strong salespeople to the team and prepare them for a strong start to the new fiscal year? Can you afford the salary if they do not close more deals?
Recruiting and hiring shouldn’t be taken lightly, so if it does make sense to hire more people, be sure to start now. Pinpoint what you need from a future sales rep to help fulfill goals and don’t settle for less when hiring.
For more ways you can invest in your sales department and to learn more about closing out Q4 strong, check out our latest White Paper here.
