Senior managers and business owners will not think twice about investing in the most common tools for growing their sales team: sales training, coaching, incentives, superstar searches, bonus/commission plans; motivational events, etc.
About 90% of the time, these investments lack the key ingredient to ensure an ROI. Very few companies provide sales teams with consistent, quantified competitive advantage content that sets your company apart from the competition. You may be significantly limiting their fire power.
Skills from training and coaching are a must. But without the differentiating message you are sending them into battle with an unloaded gun. Much of what is necessary to provide firepower comes from management because sales people do not have access to the metrics needed to build their story.
For example:
Do your salespeople today sell with promises? “We will deliver within 24 hours”. No one believes in those promises today. So the sales guy wants to say, “Our on time delivery for the past 3 years is 97.9%,” but he/she can’t because management either doesn’t have or hasn’t provided the metric!
Here are a list of common metrics often needed by salespeople, but frequently unavailable from management that can differentiate your company: Inventory turns, response rate, return rate, accuracy, training provided, availability, complaint rate, on time/in full, completion success rates, etc.
What are some of your best kept secrets that you should be providing to your sales team? Give them firepower they may be lacking today. Help them close more sales and maintain healthy margins.
Smart Advantage has been providing firepower for over 20 years to sales and marketing teams