Owners usually do all of the selling themselves right after they set up their company. If the company is successfully, the owner hires new sales people and dedicates himself to managing the company. And this is where the initial success can come to a halt, as many business owners have no experience in managing a sales team. So what do they have to look out for?
- Insufficient product training: Sales people cannot sell well if they do not understand the product that they are selling. Because the owner knows his products like nobody else, he has the feeling that everything is extremely simple and everyone has to get it right away. But this is not how it works in reality.
- Unrealistic goals: When setting sales quotas, it is good to set them so that they can be reached 80% of the time.
- Lack of information: Any time changes are made to products or sales processes, sales people need to be informed as soon as possible. Ideally before the changes impact the clients.
- Uneven distribution of contacts: It is generally quite common that the best sales people get the best contacts. But this leads to feelings of resignation by the other team members. The owners must make sure that they assign contacts fairly.
- Lack of administrative support: Sales people should be selling. But if a stack of papers is awaiting them in the office and they keep getting phone calls with questions that have nothing to do with clients, they are unable to work effectively.
- Changing goals mid-period: High-quality sales people will prepare a sales plan so that they reach the set goals. Anytime you make a change, they have to start planning from scratch. You can be sure that this will really upset them.
- Don’t skimp on commissions: A complicated commission system, changes in the requirements for getting the commission, or commissions that are too low will definitely help you in discouraging the best sales people.
- Missing market launch dates: It sometimes happens that a new product is not launched on the market on time. It can happen, but if it becomes a rule, then it’s always the sales people who look bad because they are breaking their promises to the customers. The same goes for product features that don’t really work.
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