The elements involved in building a sales force, especially one
that pays for itself and also adds value to any business, are
many and varied. The whole purpose and direction of a sales
manager needs to be directed to creating a sales force that
causes the employing company to expand through increasing sales.
This is done by the following general steps: Training sales
staff to be able to sell the company product in large volume;
correcting how sales presentations are made; handling any
customer flaps his sales people make; and then testing and
hiring more sales people, to create an ever increasing sales
force. This is a continual process that a sales manager must be
doing to justify his existence. If he doesn’t, the company
cannot expand.
Training to make a good sales person “Training them to be able
to sell the company product in large volume.” A very wise
American philosopher once stated that all a salesman had to do
was to continue to try to interest the customer and the customer
would eventually buy, if the sales man continued to try to
interest the customer! Like all great truths, they are ‘obvious’
once stated.
So, what does it take for a sales person to continue to try to
interest a customer, no matter what objection the customer
raises and despite the sales person’s own impulse to ‘give up’
after a while? Lets look at the elements:
The sales patter: The first of these would be a successful sales
patter. Here we are talking about getting a hold of someone or
several people who are successful, at selling to customers, in
the target industry, or a similar industry. Once such person(s)
are found, you need to interview them to find out what they DO
that made them a success. We are looking for the actions they
take and the things they do, not what they think.
The best person to interview for this information is usually the
most successful sales person, right there in the company, if one
exists. Notes should be carefully made of the actions they take
to get a sale and these notes should be very exactly written up
and turned into a patter that can later be drilled on new and
old members of the sales force.
Advertising and preparation: Next, a series of sale recruitment
advertisements need to be created for the local newspaper. The
receptionist of the company needs to be briefed on what to do
when calls come in. The adverts need to be big enough to attract
attention and have enough mystery in them so that people
actually call in to find out what its all about.
The receptionist should understand that all she is doing with
calls from the advertisements is routing them to the person
doing this project. She does not answer questions about what the
company is and what is being offered. She simply arranges for
them to come in for an interview at a scheduled time or collects
their phone numbers so that they can be called back and
scheduled to come in, by someone else.
The interview: When applicants for the sales position come in,
their interview is very specific and to the point. There are
certain very specific criteria that are being looked for in a
good sales person. The two main one are, (a) can they persist
along a given course? (b) Are they are interested in people?
That is an easy statement to make, to be sure. However, to find
such people requires very exact interview procedures. The first
step is testing. We use a series of 3 tests. One of these
provide a detailed look into the 10 most important job related
traits such as Stability, Goal attainment, Composure, Certainty,
Activity level, Aggressiveness, Responsibility level, Correct
estimation, Appreciativeness and Communication level.
The other 2 tests measure an applicant’s ability to solve
problems and how well they are able to following instructions –
a vital test for anyone operating machinery where understanding
and following instructions are very important!
With the results of the 3 tests, one only needs to ask the
applicant questions regarding his past job failures, past job
successes and when they first decided that they wanted to be in
sales. These answers, compared to the results of the 3 tests
tell the whole story and can really make it very easy to select
applicants most likely to succeed as sales people.
How the compensation is done: For this project to be successful
and actually pay for itself, the sales applicant needs to be
hired under very specific financial conditions. They need to be
hired on a draw + commission. This means that they get a low
amount of money weekly for a certain period of time and if they
do well, they should be producing enough sales to repay their
draw and start making money quickly, for themselves as well as
the company. How this is worked out is key to the success of the
project. If this is not worked out correctly, sales people will
either not start, not produce and stay too long and drain the
company or quit before their training is effectively completed.
The mastery of the conversation: A successful sales person
requires one skill above all others. This is the ability to
guide and control a conversation. If he or she can guide and
control a conversation, it is then possible to continue to try
to interest the customer and be successful at it.
For a salesperson to do this one action well, an in-depth 3-day
training on the basics of conversation and how to guide and
control a conversation, is vital. Communication between people
(conversation) have very certain and definite laws, which if
followed, puts a sales person in total control of a conversation
without making the other person feel like they are being
controlled!
Drilling the sales patter: After the sales applicants have
successfully mastered the art of controlling a conversation,
they now need to be drilled on the successful sales patter. If a
full day is devoted to drilling them on this and they are
drilled to a point where they easily and smoothly deliver their
patter, without referring to notes or becoming tongue-tied or
embarrassed, then and only then, will they be ready for the next
step.
Get them out selling: After the above steps are completed and
your sales people are ready to ‘hit the streets’, they should be
divided up into groups of 3 to 5 people with one of them being
the sales manager of the group. They are then sent out to find
customers and deliver their pitches (sales patter).
This should be done in such a way that there is not great
pressure on the sales people for the first few days. Tell them
to go out and practice on any customer they find. The objective
is to get them comfortable delivering their patter.
They are given realistic targets to achieve and when they flub
and do not get results, they are corrected and sent back out by
the person that is overall in charge of this project.
Failures: Not all will make it through this line-up. Correct
them as much as possible and if they cannot make it, turn them
loose and concentrate on the others that are making it. As the
sales manager you also need to work on starting new groups
through the process. Continue these steps until you have all the
sales people you need to really boost the company sales.
Personnel: The number of sales force trainers required to train
the company sales manager on this procedure and help him build
his sales force is only 2 people. They will need to work in the
company for 30 days. One of these would be the person overall in
charge of the project. He or she creates the sales
advertisements, get the people in, does the tests on them,
interviews them and decide which ones to hire. This person also
does the corrections. The assistant does the
conversation-control training; the successful sales patter
drilling and help the lead trainer with the corrections of the
sales teams.
Summary: An effective sale teams can be built that pays its own
way, enhances the company sales and increases the value of any
business. The key to it all is having a hiring method and
training program for the sales people that follows the exact
laws involved in guiding and controlling a conversation.
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