If I told you that you could improve your revenue by 18% across your team, would that be of interest to you? Of course, it would. But it’s not me telling you that, it’s the Sales Management Association. They’ve been collecting data for many years now, and there are 6 statistics from them that I really like to quote. In my mind, addressing these areas are at the foundational level when you attempt to build a world-class sales organization:
Sales Management Association Statistics:
Source: Sales Management Association
Note the 5th statistic: “A formalized sales process leads to a 65% increase in individual reps achieving their targets, and an 88% increase in companies reaching their goals.” In a nutshell, that’s why we think this competency category is so important. It’s at the foundation when you desire to create a world-class sales team.
The most successful companies follow a very well-defined sales process, and of course, we teach how to build one if you don’t already have one. But what if you’re a seller, and your company doesn’t have a defined sales process?
How can you get repeatable performance on your own?
It is of the utmost importance to have a customized, milestone-centric sales process that you personally follow. Without it, so much time can be wasted with a given prospect in a particular sales cycle when crucial milestones are unknowingly skipped. An effective process assures consistent, favorable outcomes and will generally prevent you from wasting your valuable time on opportunities that are unlikely to close, especially when sales cycles are long. Without a doubt, a powerful sales process with clearly defined milestones provides more consistent, predictable, and profitable results.
What Behaviors and Attributes Make Up a Milestone-Centric Sales Process?
These are some of the question areas that we use to determine if the behaviors, attributes, and skills are present for an individual seller:
Obviously, if they have a solid “CRM Savvy,” they would then tend’ to follow a good process. But many sellers look at using a CRM as more of a punishment than as a strategic asset. Although your process might involve additional steps that are not uniquely called out in a typical CRM, it’s a great starting point to build discipline in your team.
There are a lot of “milestone traps” that a seller can fall into that can sabotage their efforts. Here are some of the areas that are worth considering in your own efforts:
These are some of the behaviors that you can look for in your own teams if you haven’t taken advantage of our Tailored Fit Analysis to uncover your team’s strengths and weaknesses. If you would like to learn more about using competency data to drive your hiring, training, and coaching efforts, we invite you to watch one of our recent webinars: How to Implement Data-Driven Sales Enablement. View the webinar for free here: https://www.bakercommunications.com/webinars/How-To-Implement-Data-Driven-Sales-Enablement.html.