(By Loyd Ford) The power in sales starts with what you believe. It’s in what your local sellers believe, too. To flip around the old saying, “If you believe it, you will sell it.”
Every single person on your team wants to win. The difference between those sellers at the top of their game and those in the middle or dragging up the rear comes in what each one thinks actually produces winning for them. We run across this all the time in programming and the most important opportunity you face is knowing the difference between how each member of your team sees their performance.
Some sellers are doing basic sales. Some are crushing it by uncovering every rock. Some sellers grab every piece of knowledge and try to apply it all to their selling. And others are doing the bare minimum to skate by hopeful they won’t be noticed by the watchful sales manager. If you are managing sellers, you need the best performance from each of your sellers. Here are some thoughts on supporting local sellers in ways that grow your revenue.
- Educating local sellers is one of the most powerful things you can do to create individual power performers. Your sellers knowing more is rising value in your cluster and can mean more sales and deeper profit. Managing sellers is different for each individual seller, but we know that when sellers feel you are supporting their growth….their growth very often equals your growth. Continuously arming your sellers with educational opportunities will help you when it comes to retaining the best sellers longer, too.
- Encouraging local sellers creates more of a balance for them when they see and hear rejection all the time. Sales is not for the faint of heart, but managing the rejection, encouraging local seller gifts and helping local sellers feel they can overcome is a secret trait of great sales managers.
- Empowering local sellers to make choices won’t always result in the best outcomes, but across time it will create learning situations and you will be more and more surprised by better outcomes as they grow. You can’t be everywhere, but you can teach and empower sellers to be everywhere on your behalf. That will give you more power to impact your local market and leverage more revenue for your company regularly.
- Knocking down walls for local sellers is perhaps the most important thing a manager can do for a seller; if they feel you are knocking down walls for them, they are more likely to do the same for you on a daily basis. Sometimes those walls will be company policies that get in the way of a deal. Sometimes it will be the psychology of the seller or a lack of ease for the customer that you can impact to make purchasing easier for the buyer. No matter how you do it, making your sellers life easier will positively impact your revenue numbers.
- Rewarding local sellers in front of others and honoring their contributions is another secret that can have stirring results. We talk about this all the time in programming: People want to be heard. With sellers, they want to be seen. The thrill of selling is performing and having others know you are performing. When a sales manager (or market manager) rewards sellers and praises sellers in front of others it has two positive impacts. It electrifies the recognized seller and it sends out a competitive signal to other sellers to dig deeper.
- Exercise your sellers. Sellers can get bored and sometimes need a reminder that amazing things can happen because of radio. Don’t be afraid to shake things up and give your sellers measured, but totally different, opportunities to sell special products or events that can create a freshness by busting up the boring sameness that can develop in sales across time.
Selling can be an amazing career. However, if you really are a teacher, an encourager, a servant-manager, you have the most exciting job in your company. You can impact outcome.
Every person on your team is human capital. They deserve investment and growth, encouragement and protection. Your vision for leading your team can literally make the difference for your company maybe more than any other position in your cluster.
Loyd Ford is president and chief strategic officer at Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works (RPC). Reach Loyd at 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
