Sales - Article index
Building
A Sales Force That Pays For Itself by: Willard Michlin
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.
About The Author
Willard Michlin is an Investor, Business
Broker, California Real Estate Broker, Accountant, Financial Distress Consultant,
Well known Public speaker and Administrative/Business Consultant. He can
be contacted at his Ventura, California office by calling 805-529-9854
or by e-mail at kismetrei@earthlink.net. See other articles by Willard
at http://www.kismetgroup.com
kismetrei@earthlink.net
Courtesy of http://www.ArticleCity.com/
