Check fund prices
News and Articles
Your Greatest Asset
Now you don’t need to be Einstein to realise that this is not such a good idea. But this is precisely what some organisations are now doing as they face a battleground tougher than many have experienced before. Evidence from the last recession in the early 1990s tells us, not surprisingly, that those that fared best during this difficult period, and grew more rapidly as the economy revived, were those that continued to invest in their staff.
But let’s be realistic. There will be budget cuts and these will be out of the control of many sales managers. So here are some thoughts about what can be done to continue developing and growing the sales team – even without a budget.
Ø Implement skill development sessions during sales meetings. It doesn’t necessarily need to be the manager who does this – successful and experienced members of the team can do it too. One of the best ways to learn about a specific subject is to prepare a training session on it for others. This approach will also, therefore, enhance the skills of the person taking the session.
Ø Utilise the successful and experienced team members as mentors to less experienced colleagues. It’s important that selected mentors are both successful salespeople and good role models. Newcomers, in particular, will soak up and mimic everything a respected peer says and does.
Ø The Internet is awash with free resources – are you taking maximum advantage of these? YouTube holds plenty of sales-related material – though take care to ensure that the advice from video clips is robust before exposing your team to it.
Ø Revisit training that’s been provided previously – some skills may have slipped, but can be refreshed.
Ø Ask selected customers to visit your sales meetings and discuss with the sales team what is and is not required in the current climate. This provides the added benefit of enhancing your relationship with them. Do ensure, though, that the messages they are going to send are constructive rather than all ‘doom and gloom’.
Ø For the field-based sales managers, ensure that days invested with the team are focused on development rather than days when you sell for them. When I was first employed as a sales manager, I was required to attend a two-day programme on coaching skills and demonstrate I could apply the principles prior to being allowed to coach others. I was then required to attend a second two-day programme on how to organise, implement, document and follow-up field-based coaching days and, again, I had to demonstrate I could implement these principles before I was allowed to conduct field-based coaching. It was an excellent discipline that many companies would do well to emulate.
Ø Increase the amount of time invested in coaching activities. For first-line sales managers this means dropping other less profitable investments of time, and for sales leaders within the business (those managing the sales managers) it means measuring how much coaching the sales managers do, and how well they do it. We know from objective studies of sales organisations in the UK that the quality and quantity of coaching activity by the sales manager is a key driver of success.
Ceasing to train, develop and grow your salesforce in a recession is as nonsensical as an army ceasing to train and prepare its troops prior to going into battle. If budgets are limited, the question should not be whether to develop and grow the team, but how to do it cost-effectively.
Contributor: Tim Royds is director of highclere sales training and consultancy
www.highclere-salestraining.com
Source: Winning Edge March/April 2009