Posts Tagged salesperson

Is It Time That Your Business Adopted a Better Sales Model?

Posted by admin in Sales Management on January 26, 2012

One of the major differences between businesses that are stagnant and struggling and those that are vibrant and growing is a strong sales model.

Most businesses do not have unique, proprietary products or services. Website design, accounting, building products, recruiting, stationery are not significantly different from one business to another and having a compelling message and strong sales program is essential.

Building a sales system:

1) Develop a compelling sales message that separates you from the competition in terms that are important to your target audience. Work on your sales presentation skills and adjust after each presentation. Remember ‘the customer writes the pitch’ meaning that your sales pitch should evolve and grow with each presentation based on your prospect’s reaction.

2) Assemble some professional sales collateral – high quality business cards at a minimum.

3) Get your name out there. A professional looking website, Facebook, e-mail newsletter, twitter and a blog are the basics. To this can be added YouTube videos, strong presence on LinkedIn and focused business networking. Be consistent!

4) Develop a sales funnel. Every sale takes time to close, for a variety of reasons, and so it is extremely important to have as many quality leads as possible. Create a list of businesses that you would like to do business with and begin to contact them directly.

5) Use a sales management system. I like online programs like Salesforce or Capsule which are free at the one or two user level and can be accessed via the web – even on your smart phone. These programs allow you to see the proposed value of leads so that you can determine how much activity will result in how many sales. Keeping this pipeline full is essential.

6) Know what you’re doing next week. All of your marketing, social media and networking activity must result in face-to-face selling time. The problem is that most people don’t like to do this and will use all kinds of ‘urgent’ activity to avoid selling. If your sales calls are not booked by Friday for the following week they won’t happen. Allow this to go on for more than a few weeks then you will have some very difficult times down the road!

7) Never stop selling! Selling is the lifeblood of every business and it must happen constantly. If you experience regular dry spells in your business then you are not keeping your sales pipeline full! Make selling a priority and keep the business coming in! If you get too much business you can always raise your prices!

Most important is to realise that selling is a system and should be organized, supported and managed! Its success does not depend on the salesperson and if you are blaming your salespeople for the poor results you are looking at the wrong place – try the mirror! A good salesperson will thrive with a good sales system but the best salesperson can fail without the right tools!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6801954

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Why Do You Need a Sales Commission Scheme?

Posted by admin in Sales Management on January 26, 2012

The underlying assumption is that rewarding salespeople financially for performance will encourage them to work harder and sell more in pursuit of those rewards. This view is not borne out by academic research but in practice sales commission schemes are almost universally used. A carefully-designed commission scheme when implemented on top of good management practices and a solid sales process is a useful management tool – but it is not a substitute for these things.

How to design a sales commission scheme

    • Commission schemes are usually implemented at individual level
    • Ensure that the rewards incentivise the behaviour you want. You may want different behaviours from an account manager and a sales representative
    • Think carefully about the balance between basic salary and commission. The two combined form the OTE (on-target earnings) and the balance will have a strong impact on the motivation and behaviour of the salesperson:
      • The lower the proportion of basic salary the higher the OTE, since you are transferring risk to the salesperson
      • A high basic may mean that salespeople do not need any sales to achieve their minimum acceptable income
      • A low basic may result in aggressive sales behaviours or high staff turnover
    • Decide whether the scheme should be based on sales revenue or gross margin:
      • Revenue is relatively easy to measure but may result in unwanted price discounting
      • Gross margin supports prices but is more difficult to measure and can be open to manipulation
    • Implement appropriate controls on the sales process:
      • A pricing model or pricelist
      • Sign-offs
      • Commission payments only after contracts are signed
    • Understand that every commission scheme will have unwanted side-effects:
      • If a salesperson feels they are not going to achieve targets they will hold back new opportunities to the next year
      • Individual targets will prevent salespeople working as a team or spending time on anything that does not contribute to the current target
      • Salespeople will go after the easiest opportunities, which might not be the ones that matter most strategically
    • Check that you can afford all possible outcomes and that better performance against the commission scheme results in improved net margins for the business under all circumstances
    • Make sure that commission targets in total exceed the sales income budget – assume a conservative proportion of target sales will actually be achieved
    • The overall commission scheme rules should be published annually and each salesperson should have a written copy of their own targets and rewards, signed by them and their manager
  • Review performance with each salesperson monthly
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6805188

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