Full Throttle Sales & Performance Coaching LLC

2017

Topics that should be considered Questions that should be asked

  • Client’s Behaviors have changed, (what they think they know, and how they buy has changed)
    The sales process is no longer linear and it looks very different from the client’s perspective than it does from the sales perspective…

  • Too many inexperienced Sales Reps lack the business acumen required to bring value quickly
    Building business acumen doesn’t have to be a challenge, it should be a part of everything the sales professional does: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually.

  • Experienced Reps haven’t always evolved w/ clients to match these new buying behaviors
    If your reps are attempting to do things differently without following a proven process, it can actually be more damaging to your company’s reputation than helpful.

  • When sourcing for talent, we’re looking for Top Talent.
    We know that a great resume doesn’t always translate into a great producer. A great interview doesn’t always translate to the right fit for a particular assignment.

Here’s some questions you should ask yourself and your sales leaders.

  1. How are you ensuring that your sales force is meeting the client in a manner that puts them into a sales cycle? Ask them to give you 3 examples of how they are doing so. When you find those that are, you just outlined your next sales meeting and who should be contributing to it.
  2. How are you building sales and business acumen throughout your organization? How is it repeatable? How is it inspected? Does it support all steps of the sales process? If you were asked to pick up the phone and model what good looks like, what would it sound like? Take the model of good, put it on video, and use it in your next sales meeting, use it when onboarding sales, and use it to support what your leadership team should be looking for and coaching.
  3. When was the last time you spent time with your most experienced reps to understand how **they are evolving with the changing sales environment? When was the last time you reviewed their LinkedIn profile, reviewed what they are posting on LinkedIn? What are they tagging their clients or topics with? How does that align to what their clients are most interested in? Are they using LinkedIn to do their research? Are they aware of what their clients are sharing, liking, or posting? If not, guess what… You just created your next sales meeting. It’s something that can be implemented, repeated, and measured. Don’t assume your most experienced reps are getting all the business they could be getting, don’t assume they are evolving to keep up with the changing buyer demographics, take some time to Observe, Coach, and Develop.
  4. Have you ever hired someone that was a bad hire? The kind of hire you look back on and say, damn, we must make sure we don’t make that mistake again? Most of us have. Have you ever hired a hire that knocked the cover off the ball, a complete superstar? Hopefully most of us have. Now ask yourself this… What did you do differently? Usually the answer is nothing that I can recall. Hiring the right candidate shouldn’t come down to a 50/50 gut instinct decision. Hiring the right candidate should be based on information that can be gained through testing for problem solving skills, testing for the pace the person keeps in their life, what interest they have, testing for the candidness they provide that can only be uncovered through Pre-Hire Talent Assessments.