Comprised of articles, videos and podcasts, there should be enough here to keep you chewing for a while (am I carrying the pie metaphor too far?!). Enjoy.

Think about the life of a salesperson new to your organisation; put yourself in their shoes. They may be experienced sales professionals who are new to the industry or at the very least new to your product-set. Chances are that they have moved from another organisation where they had built a solid pipeline and formed an established support structure around them. Will they have this when they arrive at your Company? Probably not to begin with.

What are the risks for your business?

Leaving new sales recruits to fend for themselves results in:

• De-motivation and subsequent loss of talent
• Underperformance, costing you valuable business
• Poor return on investment in recruitment
• Poor return on the time that you have invested in recruitment
• The de-motivation of your existing sales team, again costing valuable business

How do I keep the salespeople that my business needs?

• Firstly and most importantly, don’t overpromise. If you know it will take six months for a new salesperson to start bringing in deals, tell them that. Misinformation breeds resentment and de-motivation, especially when it’s linked to income. Use an agency that is staffed by experienced industry professionals who will take a responsible attitude to recruitment.
• Give them a warm pipeline to start out with. Nothing will bring a new salesperson up to speed faster than direct exposure to potential customers. Don’t leave them clawing their way up from nothing. Build their ability, confidence and motivation by giving them a warm pool to explore. Not your best clients, because new people are still an unknown quantity, but a list of good potentials. Use a telemarketing consultancy to help them gain some quick wins.
• Train them. Don’t leave them to learn for themselves. Internal product training is great, but make sure it is linked to customer needs. Sales theory changes and there are always new ways of doing things. Think of training as an ongoing investment, because if you are not capitalising on new techniques, you can guarantee your competitors are.
• Use an independent mentor. Bad habits spread like a virus from existing to new personnel. Don’t leave it solely to existing staff to coach your new people. You have a vision of where you want your Company to go. An experienced external mentor can analyse your position in the marketplace, translate this into an effective sales strategy and help your new salesperson to drive your vision from the outset.

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Always keen on free resources, it didn’t take long for us to spot that the Aberdeen Group have released a comprehensive report comparing data on key sales metrics such as win ratios, sales cycle length, deal value and profitability of sales teams that are process-centric and use social media for selling vs sales teams that continue to sell without adopting these new approaches.

Like it or not, Sales 2.0 is here to stay, and we’re all going to have to get with the programme. Check out the report to see what all the fuss is about.

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If you’re not at one with GTD, I suggest that you check it out forthwith. Sample these excerpts from David’s newest book, ‘Making it all Work’ as a free taster.

And if that’s whet your whistle, here is a video of David talking to the boffins at Google. It’s quite long, but very informative, and of great use to us Productive Sellers.

I’ve used GTD principles as part of my personal productivity system for years. Where the challenge comes is in adapting the framework of GTD to meet your individual needs and to work with the technology that you have available. I’ll post shortly with some free on-line resources to help you manage everything, but for now here is a technologically agnostic tutorial from GTD Times to get you started on GTD for salespeople.

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So what can you do to be sure that you run productive sales meetings:

1. Define a Clear Purpose

If you don’t know what the meeting is for, how can anyone else. Have a clear, detailed agenda that focuses on the SSS principle:

- Solving: with everyone in one place you have a tremendous opportunity to use combined experience and intellect to solve problems. Don’t take over; there’s nothing worse than a meeting where one person monopolises the conversation – it’s ineffective, irritating and will alienate your team.

- Sharing: ultimately, you want each salesperson to perform as well as they can. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is knowledge and resource sharing. It is part of fostering a team culture that will ultimately increase the success of your organisation.

Create space for people to talk about their successes and failures in an open, encouraging environment. Remember, failure is as valid as success in this arena – don’t admonish salespeople who’ve made mistakes. Being able to share these mistakes openly helps your organisation to avoid them in the future and ultimately drives achievement.

- Skills: Again, it’s all about collaboration and shared experience. Use role-play and discussion to address known areas of difficulty or weakness; you can use the same approach to help salespeople feel comfortable with new products or markets too. Don’t admonish or embarrass – avoid focusing on particular individuals – or your efforts at development will seem punitive.

2. Create Ownership and Accountability…Positively

Have a dedicated laptop, with a projector, on which you record agreed objectives throughout the meeting. Everyone can see the list as it develops and you can quickly email it to the delegates or post it on the intranet. Make these objectives the starting point for your next meeting.

By doing this you help to create a culture of continual improvement, with individuals having ownership of objectives, because they helped to define the list, and being accountable to colleagues for actioning list items.

3. Focused, Protected Time

It sounds obvious, but I have sat through so many interrupted sales meetings. On a similar note, I have even seen a sales manager duck out of a personal review session – leaving a member of his team in tears having just announced the loss of a loved one – to take a call from a client!

Sales meeting time is sacred. No mobiles, Blackberry devices, iPhones or anything else. All electronic devices (except your presentation equipment!) turned off; all staff instructed to avoid interruption unless the building is on fire!

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It’s the old sales story. You like selling, you’re good at selling, your company recognises this and wants to clone your approach across the whole sales team. Makes sense doesn’t it. So what do you do now?

1. The first thing that you need to do is set expectations. Successful sales managers are the same as anyone else, they need time to do their jobs – in this case MANAGE.

The organisations with successful sales managers are those that free up their sales managers’ time to coach, inspire, mentor and manage.  If your organisation is pushing you to do your old selling job, while giving you the responsibility of a team – just say no. You can’t do it. No-one can.

You must help the business to understand that a successful sales team needs a dedicated manager. I’ve seen teams where the sales manager still sells and the problems are huge and manifold: the manager has no time to deal with the individuals that comprise the team; no time to provide individual feedback and direction; worst of all, the manager competes with their own team for business – and it’s them assigning the leads! How can that conflict of interest lead to a motivated, productive sales team?

2. Flip this on it’s head for a moment. You organisation can’t be at loggerheads with you about this. They need to support you. Again, this is part of you setting their expectations from the start. If you didn’t do this and you’re already committed, take a step back. Are you being as effective as you could be? Do the issues in point 1 resonate with you? It’s time to draft a management strategy and take it to your boss. Demonstrate to the business that it can have a great salesperson or a great sales manager – it can’t have both in the same person at once.

You may not have much/any management experience. The organisation needs to recognise this and provide a supportive environment.

Great examples include: a mentor from within the existing management team; an external coach to aid your transition to management as well as your ongoing development; some initial management training; books and/or e-learning to supplement and reinforce your other learning and development activities; membership of an official body, again providing access to information and support; a budget to support the learning and development of your team (I have found this to be nigh-on non-existent in SMEs).

3. So what about the actual managing. Well, the fact that you are reading this site means that you are concerned about performing your job well. With management this means not being dictatorial. You are not there to command, you are there to add value to your team, using your experience and knowledge to help individuals iron out their weaknesses and exaggerate their strengths.

They will have strengths that you do not. This is an inaliable fact of life. The best managers employ people better than them and help them to get on with it. Do not (as I did when I started managing) be upset if a team member suggests a strategy etc. that you had not thought of. This will happen and it is a good thing. What you bring is a sounding board to these ideas – use your experience to distill these ideas and combine them with your own and those of the other team members to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Then your team will not just survive, but will thrive.

One additional point on this: never….ever take credit for a suggestion that was made by one of your team members. Always give credit where credit is due – there is nothing wrong with explaining the additional contribution that you have made and demonstrating how you have incorporated this idea into an overall strategy.

Down the other path, darkness lies; you will damage your credibility with your team and your manager. Credibility is one of the foundations of good management.

4. If you do not have a clear vision for where the company is going, you will not be able to translate this into a clear vision for your salespeople.

Gain an in-depth undestanding of your company’s goals and ensure that your manager works with you to create from this a clear sales strategy. Hold this strategy at the core of your management approach and make sure that everything you and your team does is contributing to this.

Communicate it clearly to your team and make it the foundation of reviews and ongoing development.

Only if you do this can you provide a clear demonstration of return on investment for your efforts. At the end of the day, it is return on investment that will measure your contribution to the business, hence the effectiveness of your role.

Good luck!

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