The 5 keys to creating a high-performance sales team have more to do with effectiveness and consistency in execution than any specific kind of sales enablement or CRM tool that supports selling. Successful sales leaders and managers rely on critical data because they realize that it can and will provide them with real-time information. This real-time sales data can identify trends, effort and execution issues, and areas for coaching. However, technology and data are useless unless a leader has these 5 keys on their sales management "key ring":
- Performance Management
- Coaching for Success
- Motivation That Works
- Upgrading & Hiring Better Salespeople
- Coaching an Effective Selling System
1.) Performance Management –Performance management should not occupy a lot of time, but must be the base of everything else that a sales leader does and is the dashboard for creating a high-performance sales team.
Performance management is a process of making sure that a sales leader:
- Establishes consistent metrics to determine success
- Conducts 1-on-1 meetings where people self-determine what defines success and failure
- Utilizes a coaching process and methodology
- Gathers real-time information via Huddles
- Reviews, analyzes, and shares the findings of the data
- Identifies and coaches people early when they are not performing to the level they committed to
2.) Coaching for Success – Assuming an effective goal setting process and established Success Formulas for each salesperson, leaders should collect data and uncover opportunities for coaching via Huddles. Huddles include individuals reporting pre-determined critical data on a team meeting. They are an essential component for creating a high-performance sales team. Ideally, these huddles should include and lead to:
- Comparing actual performance against the agreed-to goals
- Identifying choke points in the sales process
- Determining if outcomes are a result of effort or execution
- Conducting 1-on-1 coaching sessions to help change behavior or improve skill
3.) Motivation that Works – Salespeople are motivated in various ways and it is every leader’s job to uncover if their people are intrinsically, extrinsically, or altruistically motivated. How can a leader possibly motivate someone if they don’t know what motivates them or how they are motivated to be successful? True motivators:
- Know what motivates people
- Have a strong self image
- Give recognition
- Do not accept mediocrity
4.) Upgrading & Hiring Better Salespeople – There is a big difference between talent that can succeed and talent that will succeed in selling. If a company is dependent on organic growth, then the organization needs to have data that will identify:
- If their current team has what it takes to reach current goals and grow to the next level
- If more horsepower is needed, then leaders must make sure that their new hires have the Will to Sell, Sales DNA, and appropriate Sales Competencies. Learn more with our free ebook about the 21 Core Sales Competencies - download here.
5.) Coaching an Effective Selling System – Having a staged-based selling system with milestones is one of the essential keys for creating a high-performance sales team. Too often, companies use a CRM system to gain a numeric value of the pipeline but have little other information that would provide insight into the quality of the pipeline, likelihood of closing, length of sales process, etc. Additionally, it is by analyzing this data that leaders will gain insight into the effectiveness of the individuals on their sales team.
There is no easy route to these 5 keys to creating a high-performance sales team, but diving deeper into each component, implementing the necessary systems and processes, evaluating the data and performance activities, and regularly coaching the sales team are essential for team success.
