As a consultant who has worked with over 60 companies in the last 6 years (and run businesses for 15 years prior to that), spotting (and ultimately fixing) the holes in sales organizations is a predictable process. Business is all about patterns. And when you have a process to detect existing patterns, mold those patterns into best practice, and inspire the sales teams to take appropriate well managed actions, you create a winning and profitable sales growth model. 

Remember, as a business, you are getting the exact results your design calls for. In other words, the patterns you run over and over (called habits) create your results, like them or not. You want different results? Change the design/patterns of how you run your sales teams.

Where do you start? You must first understand where you are before you can get where you want to go. Begin with an in-depth audit on the various pieces and parts of your Sales Process. Go up and down your sales process, from beginning (proactive lead generation), middle (first meeting, discovery process, presenting, handling objections, etc.), to end (closing, managing ongoing relationship growth).  Simply look for patterns. Match these patterns up with global best practices to understand what changes you need to make to drive results.

After doing this so many times, most of the mistakes we find are uniform. Most companies are making mistakes that are costing them. The good news? We’ve taken our decades of helping tens of thousands of businesses and broken it down for you.

Here are the top 3 Most costly sales mistakes we see at CHI, you can assess your team to understand where you are.

1)     You do not have a clearly defined process, and are not actively training to that process.  I was doing an audit interview of a new client this week, and I asked him about sales process and sales training.  His response was “Yea, I know that’s important, but I mainly focus on hiring people with sales experience.” Now, you are probably thinking, “OK, so you are assuming someone ELSE trained them at excellent levels?” This is HIGHLY unlikely. Great sales organizations have a well defined process, and they train to it constantly. Skill development is a weekly MUST for them. Excellence in the process is not a ‘hope to have skill’, it’s a mandatory skill.

2)     You do not have traceable metrics that match up to every step of the sales process.  Many organizations are tracking revenue, but what about the step-by-step movement of opportunities within their sales cycle? The knowledge and strength you gain by committing to this is massive. We have a saying “Inspect what you expect.” Be able to assess (and coach) your sales people on how they are moving deals through the pipeline at any moment. Companies that instill this level of tracking with their sales people are quickly able to truly understand if deals are moving, or not and at what speed. This way you can see if your top producers are laser focused on moving each deal one step further. Your goal is to have EVERYONE on your team doing the same.

3)     You do not have the ability to tell your story mastered. If you are in a business that could be perceived as a commodity (i.e. you deal with constant quotes/bids/RFP’s, etc.) then your team’s ability to persuasively communicate your story drastically shortens your sales cycle. It is rare that I interview a salesperson who can succinctly communicate what makes your company different than the rest. Why? Because it hasn’t been laid out, scripted, tested, or role played. All of your salespeople should easily be able to answer the following questions:

1. What makes your company different?
2. What difference does your difference make?  (ie: what is the ultimate value you bring them as a client?)
3. What problems does your company solve?
4. Who have you solved these problems for (these are your case studies, and your sales team should have your top 10 case studies memorized)

These core questions are exactly what their prospects want to know.  And, if these salespeople meet with prospects day in and day out, they should be able to flawlessly answer those 4 questions—at a minimum.

Here’s the challenge: I have yet to go into any situation where a salesperson provided a compelling answer to those questions. The great perspective on this is there is a MASSIVE upside in working with these salespeople. 

Here are some MAJOR KEYS to Sales Management Success:

1)     Great sales organizations have a clearly defined sales process that every team member can explain and demonstrate. They practice regularly to create and assure mastery.

2)     Great Sales Organizations create traceable metrics. They know what gets measured gets managed. What gets managed gets done. Period. Stop shooting darts in the dark. Get the help you need to get laser tracking metrics in place to help you create a culture of high performance.

3)     Great Sales Organizations have laid out, to the letter, their sales messages and their stories. Their salespeople can clearly communicate what makes their company/product/service different. They know what problems they solve for people. They can easily and confidently tell stories (i.e: case studies) of your top clients. Being able to “sell the story” is far more compelling than the features and benefits of your product.

Taking action on JUST these 3 strategies will make a world of difference with your sales organization.  As you’ve heard me say many times “Persuasion and Selling is the MOST profitable skill set anyone can master.”

As the leader of the business, taking every step possible to create this level of discipline and mastery in your business is truly one of the most PROFITABLE skill sets you can bring to the table.

Believe in being the best,

Gene McNaughton, President- Elite Consulting Division at Chet Holmes International

As we know “results speak for themselves” and nowhere is that statement more true than in sales. These results happen by running a detailed sales process combined with regular and consistent “sales strengthening” to gain more wins; i.e. increased revenues for you. 

This is a clear fact every business owner knows, however there is an integral part to this that is missing.

Experience shows that without P.H.D. (Pig Headed Discipline™) in your sales process efforts you are living with one of the most common pitfalls facing companies. The real injustice is that it is not difficult to fix.  Sure almost all companies talk a big game around the systemization of their sales process, but very few actually detail out the step by step process, then go to work with laser focus to become MASTERS of growing their businesses.

And for those that MASTER this process, THEY know that Sales Mastery is one of the most profitable skill sets that ANY company can achieve – if they are committed.

Every company that I work with as an elite growth consultant falls into one of the following categories, as it relates to creating true mental muscle with their sales force and maximizing every lead that they create:

1)     NO pre-identified sales process is in place – They simply hire people with the “sales experience” which they hope will result in sales.  It is a huge myth to expect someone with “experience” to be a top performer. If you aren’t teaching them YOUR foundational steps and holding them accountable to performing them with precision, you risk having a non-producing (and thus unhappy) sales associate and you won’t be too happy either.

What do TOP producing sales organizations have?

• Every step of their sales process is mapped out, from prospecting, to building rapport, to closing, to follow up, handling objections, and everything in between.
• Regular (weekly) skill enhancement meetings (ie: Sales Training) are scheduled to build and maintain the sales muscle among every person on their team.  They know that their salespeople get rewarded out in the field based on what they are practicing in private settings.
• Ongoing and rigorous testing around these sales processes is in place to assure both the understanding of the techniques, but most importantly that their salespeople can demonstrate the usability of these techniques in practice sessions.

2)     NO regimented Sales Strengthening process exists for their existing team OR their new hires.  In other words, many companies may have some random training, they may even bring in a hired gun sales trainer once a year – but the BIG MISS here is that sales training by itself won’t turn your world on fire.  What WILL turn your world on fire is regular, regimented sales strengthening. I’m not talking about 1 time per year or even quarter – I am talking about weekly.  Yes, weekly.

What do TOP producing sales organizations have?

• A pre-defined step by step, mapped-out sales process that is in play and assessed regularly.  They learn this by modeling their top performers and integrating external best practices.
• Scripts around every single detail of their process are in their tool box. This process is mapped out from cold calling, to the initial appointment, to building rapport, asking questions, presenting, closing, handling objections, asking for referrals – and their much needed follow-up system. Great companies strategize all of this in advance, and then train like crazy to create a repeatable and measurable selling system.
• Training/review/practice sessions are held on a weekly basis.  Remember, the skill ‘to do’ comes from doing. Great companies, like a winning football team, have a detailed playbook that they practice over and over to create precision in their execution. Your sales team needs to mimic this excellence.
• Sales processes are memorialized and driven into their new hire training. Before a salesperson starts with you, they should prove themselves in written tests and role plays to ASSURE you that they get your best practices and can demonstrate this to you or their manager.   They should be put into every imaginable scenario BEFORE they start calling on or talking to new prospects.

When I started my career as a financial planner for IDS/American Express, before I was allowed to have the job, and before I could even go to training, I had to prove that I could memorize their 23 page sales script – word for word. I had 2 months before my local branch would allow me to go to National Training; I had to perform this script impeccably to the entire management staff. While this discipline wasn’t fun, it not only made me want the job even more, it caused me to prepare, over and over – knowing that before I was hired, I had to do this same script, with their best practices memorized, and delivering it with the right volume, inflection and pace, before I would be granted the ability to represent them and start selling.  It made all the difference in the world. Once I was granted the job, we had on-going sales training every single week, from cold calling, to practicing an initial meeting, to handling objections, to closing and follow-up.

At the age of 23, I was fairly lethal in executing that pre-defined process. This same regimented process is what has been the cornerstone of every successful business leadership role I have had, and every successful consulting relationship – creating and building PHD in Sales Process execution.

So now that you know one of the keys of creating an Ultimate Sales Machine™ like culture in your company – the bigger question is:

Do you have PHD in YOUR sales process?

And if you don’t, what could it mean if you did?

Share your sales process thoughts with us on Twitter @ChetHolmes and use hashtag #ChetSales in your posts.

By Gene McNaughton, CHI Elite Consultant Executive