The efficiency and effectiveness of a company’s sales teams are pivotal to its success. Managers and organisations that allocate resources, including time, money and effort, to cultivate high-performance sales teams consistently achieve revenue targets, gain a competitive edge, and navigate evolving market dynamics adeptly. As per Vikas, a concentrated effort across all organizational levels to construct high-performance teams is imperative and will shape the organization’s success and longevity. Now, let’s explore the strategies for establishing such high-performance teams.
Hiring the right people:
Hiring the right people is a strategic investment that directly impacts an organization’s performance, culture, and ability to thrive in a competitive landscape. It sets the foundation for long-term success and growth.
Chanakya, the ancient Indian strategist, emphasized the importance of hiring the right people with the following quote:
“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for the love of it.”
Hence designing an effective hiring process for sales professionals is crucial to building a high-performance sales team.
Steps to create a robust hiring process:
- Define the Role:
– Clearly outline the responsibilities, goals, and key performance indicators (KPIs) for the sales role.
– Determine the level of experience and qualifications required.
- Create a Job Description:
– Develop a comprehensive job description that includes job responsibilities, required skills, qualifications, and expectations.
– Highlight the company’s values and culture to attract candidates who align with them.
- Develop a Candidate Profile:
– Identify the ideal traits, qualities, and competencies you seek in sales professionals, such as communication skills, problem-solving skills, listening skills, presentation skills, resilience, and customer-centric mindset.
- Sourcing Candidates:
– Utilize various sourcing channels, including job portals like naukri.com, timesjobs.com, monster.com etc, social media like linkedIn etc, employee referrals, and industry-specific networks.
– Consider partnering with recruitment agencies specializing in sales roles.
- Resume Screening:
– Screen resumes to shortlist candidates who meet the basic qualifications and experience requirements.
- Conduct Initial Interviews:
– Conduct phone or video interviews to assess candidates’ communication skills, motivation, and cultural fit.
– Ask questions about their sales experience, achievements, and approach to sales.
- Assessment Tests:
– Administer sales assessment tests to evaluate candidates’ sales skills, product knowledge, and problem-solving abilities.
– Use role-specific scenarios to gauge their sales acumen. For example, What measures will you take to curb attrition? What activities will you undertake to increase referral sales? Etc
- Face-to-face Interviews:
– Invite candidates for face-to-face interviews with a panel of interviewers, including sales managers and team members.
– Assess their sales techniques, past performance, ability to handle objections, and alignment with the company’s values and culture.
- Behavioural Interviews:
– Conduct behavioural interviews to explore candidates’ past experiences, their approach to sales challenges, and their adaptability.
– Ask situational questions to gauge their problem-solving skills.
- Sales Presentation:
– Ask candidates to prepare a sales pitch or presentation to demonstrate their selling skills, product knowledge, and ability to engage potential clients.
- Reference Checks:
– Hire an agency or appoint an internal staff to contact references candidates provide to verify their work history, performance, and character. A thorough Reference check mechanism may help you avoid hiring an incompetent person.
- Final Interview:
– Conduct a final interview with senior management or executives to assess alignment with the company’s strategic vision and long-term goals.
- Offer Stage:
– Extend a job offer to the selected candidate, outlining compensation, benefits, and expectations.
– Allow time for negotiation if necessary.
- Onboarding:
– Develop a structured onboarding program to help new sales professionals integrate smoothly into the team and understand the company’s products, processes, and sales strategies.
- Continuous Feedback and Evaluation:
– Regularly assess the effectiveness of your hiring process and make adjustments based on feedback and outcomes.
Remember that hiring sales professionals is about their skills and cultural fit, as they often represent the company to clients. Tailor your process to your organisation’s specific needs and values to ensure you select candidates who will contribute to your sales team’s success and have the potential to be a part of a high-performance sales team.
Employee Training and Onboarding:
Proper employee training and onboarding build confidence in team members, align them with the organization’s goals and values, enable recruits to become more productive quickly, help enhance product knowledge and sales techniques, and foster a sense of belonging and teamwork improving collaboration and communication within the sales team. Orientation also helps recruits become familiar with industry regulations and company policies.
As per Vikas, Training and onboarding programs can be more effective, if the following key elements are incorporated.
- Welcome Kit
- Desk and Tools allocation (laptop, Mobile SIM, Dongle, ID Card, Visiting cards, etc)
- Company Culture and Values
- Employee benefits
- Sales Training
- Product and Service Training
- Compliance Requirements
- KPI explanation
- On-the-Job Training
- Organisation Structure and introduction to team and colleagues
- CRM and Specific App training
- Process Training
- Continuous Training
- Feedback and Assessment
Setting SMART Goals:
Setting SMART goals for a sales team is essential for creating clear objectives and ensuring everyone is aligned toward achieving them. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Here’s how to set SMART goals for a high-performance sales team:
- Specific (S): Clearly define the goal, avoiding vague language. Be specific about what you want to achieve. Consider the following questions:
– What is the exact sales target?
– Which products or services are involved?
– Who is the target audience or market segment?
– Where will the sales efforts be focused (geographic regions, channels, etc.)?
- Measurable (M): Make sure the goal can be quantified and measured. You need to know when the goal has been met or how far along you are in achieving it. Ask questions like:
– How much revenue or how many units need to be sold?
– What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will track progress?
– What is the baseline or starting point for measurement?
- Achievable (A): Ensure that the goal is realistic and attainable. It should be challenging but still feasible with the resources and capabilities of your sales team. Consider:
– Is the goal within the team’s capacity given the available resources and time frame?
– Are there any obstacles or constraints that need to be addressed?
– Can the team develop the necessary skills or strategies to achieve the goal?
- Relevant (R): The goal should align with your organization’s overall objectives and be relevant to the sales team’s role and responsibilities. Consider:
– How does this goal contribute to the company’s broader mission or sales strategy?
– Is it the right time to pursue this goal based on market conditions and business priorities?
- Time-bound (T): Set a specific timeframe for achieving the goal. This creates a sense of urgency and accountability. Questions to ask include:
– What is the deadline for reaching the goal?
– Are there any interim milestones or checkpoints along the way?
– How frequently will progress be reviewed and reported?
Here’s an example of a SMART goal for a sales team:
“In the next 30 days (Time-bound), the sales team has to sell a trading-related education program to its 300 customers who have invested in the stock market previously (Measurable) by reaching out to 4000 Franchise customers (Specific) since they have 30,000 customer base collectively and 300 is just 0.1% of the total customer base (Achievable). Stock market investors should Ideally make their investment decisions based on education and hence it is aligned with the company’s vision (Relevant).”
Providing the Right Tools and Technology:
Rapidly changing technology has been influencing the way we communicate with people/prospects around us. As per Vikas, sales professionals have to leverage newer communication channels and tools to stay ahead of competitors. Organizations need to ensure that their sales team is equipped with the latest as well as effective tools and technology. Some of the leading sales tools are mentioned below.
Sales CRMs:
Bulk WhatsApp marketing automation tools
Social selling platforms
- Linkedin Sales Navigator
- X
Establishing synergy among Team members:
As per Vikas, no target is too difficult to achieve if the sales team is aligned and synergised. Collaboration among Team members has multiple benefits.
- Facilitates Knowledge sharing: Collaboration among Team members enables the sharing of industry best practices, the latest developments in the market, product knowledge, and case studies which leads to a more informed and skilled team.
- Increases operational and sales efficiency: A well-synergised team follows sales processes, and assigns tasks carefully which reduces duplication of work and brings in efficiency.
- Set the healthy and performance culture: cohesion and collaboration among the team create a conducive culture for individual and organizational growth.
Assessing Sales Performance:
Regular performance assessments ensure that the team is on track against targets. It helps us measure the progress we have made, areas we are doing well with, and areas where we are lacking and need immediate action. It gives us micro and macro pictures of individual performance, product performance, segment performance, and area-specific performance which in turn gives us important insights into areas where corrective measures are required. As per Vikas, a regular performance assessment mechanism ensures that individual and team goals are aligned with the organisation’s objectives.
Even Chanakya’s philosophy emphasises objective and systematic assessment, accountability and continuous improvement.
How to assess sales performance:
- Focus on KPIs: Track progress against KPIs (For example, no of sales calls against conversion, leads against meetings etc). It keeps the sales team aligned with organisational objectives and directs them on the right track.
- Regular Reporting Mechanism: Design daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and year till date reporting systems to have a micro as well as macro vision of the business.
- Use CRM Software: CRM can share various reports which develop a 360-degree view of the business components. This helps conduct a SWOT analysis of each sales representative and provides him/her comprehensive feedback on areas of improvement and strong areas. Such assessment also helps us channel our efforts in the right direction.
- Peer benchmarking: Compare individual performance against team averages to identify top performers and use this data to set new benchmarks
- Focus on lead generation and conversion: Set targets for the number of leads to be generated by each team member, the number of sales appointments to be done, expected conversion rate and then track this on a daily or weekly basis. Any gaps in the performance should be highlighted and corrective measures should be taken to ensure desired numbers.
Motivating and Recognising Team Members
A motivated sales team can drive expected revenue, create a positive environment, enhance customer relationships, elevate others’ desire to do their best and foster innovation. A high-performance sales team will always be high on motivation.
Motivation can be infused through various approaches:
- Provide Rewards and Recognitions: Acknowledging top performers through rewards and recognitions will help boost the morale of the performers and will motivate others to also work harder in the hope of getting rewarded. For example, Sharekhan Ltd (a Stock broking firm in India) launches occasional contests where top performers are offered trips abroad to appreciate their exemplary performance.
- Offer Monetary Gains: in addition to salary, offer performance-based spiffs, spot incentives, monthly incentives, bonuses, commissions etc. Such opportunities to earn extra perks motivate a sales team to push themselves extra hard to perform.
- Set SMART Goals: Set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound goals. Reaching monthly, quarterly and yearly targets is an amazing feeling for any sales professional. It motivates them to stay focused and give their best.
- Offer Growth Opportunities: A Clearly laid-out growth path to climb up the ladder within the organisation keeps people focused, and loyal and motivates them to perform.
- Show Empathy: Remember every sales team member is human and humans go through different emotional, physical, psychological, financial and societal stages. Understanding them and helping them overcome negativities will motivate them to deal with personal and professional challenges effectively and come out as winners.
- Schedule Learning & Development Calendar: Periodic pieces of training will sharpen their sales skills to eventually boost their sales performance and that will lead to motivation. Even a feeling of mastering a new skill or technique elevates mood.
Improving Continuously:
As per Vikas, the Sales team should be agile, informed and adaptive to factors like changing customer behaviour, dynamic competitive landscape, economic upheavals, technological advancements, global events, natural calamities, customer trends etc
Continuous improvement within a team is not just a valuable practice; it is a necessity in today’s dynamic business environment. It leads to increased efficiency, higher-quality results, innovation, and a culture of engagement and adaptation, all of which are vital for an organisation’s success and longevity.
Conclusion on Building a High-Performance Sales Team:
In conclusion, the journey to building a high-performance team is a pursuit of excellence that requires unwavering dedication, strong leadership, and the collective commitment of every team member. As we have explored the key principles and strategies in this blog, it is clear that the rewards of such a team extend far beyond the workplace. They encompass a sense of shared purpose, resilience in the face of challenges, and the satisfaction of achieving remarkable goals together.
Someone said, ‘Success is not a solo act; It is a standing ovation to the harmony of a high-performance team, where unity breeds victory”.