Sales Management Implements a Measurable Selling System
“A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.” – H. Stanley Judd
As you start the New Year, thought you’d be interested in this story.
Jon was shocked when he took over as the Director of Sales for a medical supply company. As might be expected, he found a significant difference in the close rate of his senior and junior salespeople. The seniors converted over 90% of their proposals to business, while the juniors did only 10%! After analyzing the differences, Jon found that the seniors had clear-cut, agreed upon ideas they used before proceeding to close. The Juniors went more on “gut feel.” After getting over the initial shock, Jon realized he had a golden opportunity to make a major impact on overall sales.
Jon simply implemented the same well defined, measurable selling system for the juniors as the one used by the seniors. This standardization of the selling system, based on Best Practices created by the senior sales group, made a dramatic improvement in the performance of the junior salespeople as well. As a matter of fact, it almost doubled the total sales for the company.
It sounds like a no-brainer that a well defined selling process should be applied across the spectrum of your sales effort. Unfortunately, many companies lack a coherent and formalized sales process system.
Don’t leave it up to the individual salesperson to develop his or her own system. Develop and use a Best Practices system.
Does your company use a uniform selling system? Has it been documented so that everyone on the sales team understands and adheres to it?