Two ways to boost morale of your sales team

 Culture  No Responses »
Jan 252012
 

This is part of the ‘Ask Tristan’ series.  If you have a question, please email me: asktristan@thephysioco.com.au

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Q: Tristan, how do you keep staff morale up to hit sales targets when we seem to be missing them every month? I feel that I am setting realistic targets. Do I set a poor and easily achievable target to push up morale or do I keep setting targets that are in line with what I feel we should be able to achieve? – JB

A: Dear JB,

Firstly, take a deep breath, you’re not alone on this one! Driving consistent sales is really tough.

Next, don’t set a short-term low target, that just reduces your expectations.  You need to find a way to hit your targets and every time you do, you have to celebrate! Success creates more success. 

In my experience, setting goals for someone else is risky business.  I’m very rarely inspired by someone else’s target or goal. The same applies to getting your team motivated, they have to feel like it’s their goal. To get your team focussed on achieving your sales targets I think you need to consider two things:

  1. Involve your team in the goal setting
  2. Make chasing the target more fun

Now you might be thinking that only you, as the business owner/manager, can know what expenses you have and therefore sales you need to create a decent profit. In my experience, the more you share with your team, the greater their commitment, understanding and loyalty will be. You don’t have to share all your financials just yet if that makes you uncomfortable, but, at the very least, share some numbers so your team can understand where you’re coming from.  (Whatever profit you’re making, I’ll bet your team thinks it’s at least 2-3 times more!  Be honest with them).

As far as making chasing the target fun, how about breaking the monthly target down to daily goals and having a mini-reward for hitting the target each day?  The mini-reward doesn’t even have to cost you anything, it could be parking in your car space or starting work 15-mins later. Be creative.

Good luck!

Tristan

Do you ‘practice’ on your customers?

 Culture  No Responses »
Aug 122011
 

Are you a professional? If so, are you practicing, rehearsing and improving your skills every week so that you can perform at your best with your customers when it counts? 

Every professional athlete spends significantly more time training than competing. That’s the norm.  Traditionally, professional athletes train during the week and compete on the weekend. If professional athletes only turned up for game day and didn’t practice it’s unlikely they’d stay professional athletes for long.  Their practice is critical to improving skills, finding form and outperforming the competition.  The same doesn’t seem to apply to us other ‘professionals’.

One of Jack Daly’s tips from his Winning Sales Strategy session was the importance of practice.  To highlight the point, he gave us an exercise to complete.  The exercise was a simple sales conversation between a practicing salesperson and a makeshift prospect.  The third person was an observer that took notes on what went well and what could’ve been improved.  In less than 5 minutes, our group had completed the exercise and was into a rich conversation about how the conversation could’ve been improved.  In less than 8 minutes, all three of us agreed that we had each learned something new.  

We didn’t have time yesterday to rotate roles and practice some more.  However, I have no doubt that the second and third times would’ve resulted in even better performance and more learning.  

All of this learning and sharing came from a made up scenario!  Imagine if we did this on the real scenarios in our own business?  The so called ‘difficult’ conversations that are often avoided would become a walk in the park because we had practiced them over and over. 

One of the greatest cyclists of all time, Lance Armstrong, was famous for riding his bike 6 hours a day, every day.  The more he practiced the better he performed.  Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, also regarded as the some of the best athletes in history, were obsessed by the amount of time that they practiced.

Being a professional that outperforms the competition requires regular practice and lots of it.  Whatever your role, is it time to stop practicing on your customers and commit to regular role practice in your business?

PS – to receive these Culture is Everything posts in your email, click here

http://youtu.be/p2CRhF9az74 Lifetime value of a customer Over a lifetime, how much is every customer

 Culture  No Responses »
Aug 102011
 

Lifetime value of a customer

Over a lifetime, how much is every customer worth to your business?  For a car company, it could be up to $400k, for Taco Bell it might even be $13k – for Taco’s!!

Take 5-mins to watch a pumped up Jack Daly as he explains how to calculate the lifetime value of your customer.  (If you’re in a super-hurry, you can get the concept in the first 1 min).

PS – I’m heading to Jack Daly’s Winning Sales Strategies workshop tomorrow. Stay tuned for more Jack Daly intensity..

The detail. What do you know?

 Culture  No Responses »
Feb 122011
 

Today, my wife picked up her shiny new car.  In the process, I noticed something interesting – neither the sales guy or the bloke arranging the finance knew the finer details of their jobs.

Let’s call the guys from the car yard, Bill & Ted.

Bill was responsible for the car finance.  When I asked Bill why he had given us four copies of the finance agreement (2 signed, 2 unsigned) his response was: “I don’t know. It’s some kind of legal requirement but I never ask”. Hmm, I think you should know the answer Bill… 

Ted was the salesman who sold us the car.  I liked Ted, he was genuine and helpful, but he too didn’t know the minor details of his job.  Before we drove off, Ted gave us the 30-minute intro and demonstration of how to use the car.  He was connecting our phones via bluetooth when I asked him how many phones we could sync.  His response: “Ahh, about 4 or 5”.  Now between us, Kim and I only have two phones so it wasn’t an issue.  But, could we connect 4 or 5?  I think Ted should know the detail.  It’s his job.

If someone asks me a question about my work, I want to know the answer.  I feel a sense of responsibility to know the answer.  It’s my job, if I don’t know the answer, who will!?

The detail.  I think you need to know it. 

Life. A never ending series of sales pitches.

 Culture  No Responses »
Feb 082011
 

Do you sell?  If you said no, I don’t agree! (sorry!)

It occurred to me today that I’m ‘selling’ every single day.  At work, and at home, I’m eternally picturing what I think would be the best outcome and then ‘pitching’ to make that happen.  

A work example … I reckon we should have a party this weekend.  If the party is going to happen, I have to pitch the idea, gather support, overcome objections (“we can’t afford it”, “I don’t want it on a weekend”, “it’s going to rain”, “not enough people will come”) and, hopefully, lock in the ‘sale’ 

A home example … I reckon we should go out for pizza. Again, I have to pitch the idea, overcome objections (“I don’t like pizza”, “How about noodles?”, “I can’t be bothered”, “It costs too much”,  ”we went out last night”) and, hopefully lock in the ‘sale’.

I don’t always close the deal, but I’m forever ‘pitching’.  I think we all are.  

We never stop selling. Ever.