Selling liabilities threaten the prosperity of established Fortune 500 companies as certainly as they do sole-proprietor start-ups. One, or more, or all of these generations-old, business-killing selling habits is usually to blame. Which habits describe your company?
- Your salespeople are still paid a bounty (commission.)
- Your salespeople are expected to perform other company duties in addition to selling.
- You still send your salespeople for sales training.
- Your salespeople still make cold-calls, give sales presentations and overcome objections.
- You still believe one way to increase sales is by making more sales calls.
- You still hire salespeople who buy into all the above.
Your Salespeople are Paid on a Commission Basis
Old habits die hard, but die they must if your company is to survive and thrive in our constantly evolving economies. Employers who hire salaried salespeople are justifiably more discriminating about who they hire. They are, after all, making a sizable investment. As such they demand standards one would expect of any professional in her/his field. Salaried salespeople generate more annual sales and are more likely to become loyal, long-term employees enabling them and their employers to profit from the healthy client and prospect equity they build.
Your Salespeople Perform Duties in Addition to Selling
Professional salespeople sell. Owners of successful companies never squander the talents of their salespeople by having them pull administrative or delivery duty. Salespeople serve their employers, customers and prospects best while in the field, not in the office and not running errands. Salespeople are hired to increase your company’s market share. Let them do it. Sales will soar.
You Send Your Salespeople for Sales Training
Today’s sales training teaches salespeople versions of the same selling tricks that cause salespeople to be the most avoided business people in North America.
We train our pets. We train human beings mandated to perform repetitive tasks. We educate professional salespeople. Selling is a fluid, intellectual, creative business growth activity … disciplined and principled … within ever evolving business environments. Examine the principles, disciplines and qualities of the lessons your salespeople are being taught and ask yourself … Will these lessons teach my salespeople selling conduct the market will welcome or avoid? Welcomed salespeople close sales faster and easier.
Your Salespeople are Still Making Cold-Calls, Giving Sales Presentations and Overcoming Objections
You dislike uninvited salespeople rudely walking into your place of business or catching you off guard on the telephone. You grudgingly tolerate sales presentations most of which do not apply to your needs. Your blood pressure spikes when salespeople refuse to take no for an answer. How do your salespeople conduct themselves?
Set aside, just for a moment, what the sales trainers, books and webinars teach. Buyers have evolved and, like you, no longer have time or patience for cold-calls, sales presentations and having their objections overcome. If your sellers are still employing these strategies they are damaging your company and their future as salespeople.
You Believe that One Way to Increase Sales is by Making More Sales Calls
Time is still our most precious non-renewable resource. Today’s evolved salespeople schedule sales meetings with only the most qualified prospects. Properly educated salespeople know long before they leave the first meeting with a new prospect, whether they have a sale or not. Only spend time with those ready to buy.
If the Salespeople You Hire Still Sell Ice Cubes to Eskimos No One Profits
Selling is often the vocation of last resort. Most salespeople believe all the cliché selling facts and strategies they hear, read and see not because they lack intelligence or integrity. They are simply unenlightened. You can change that. And when you do be prepared to have your salespeople warmly welcomed, respected and admired, and … prepare yourself for the increased sales you deserve.