The Sales Archaeologist

Like many of you I am always skeptical of lists and especially when they talk about the top "few" things someone should do - when we know there are many. This list is no exception, however it is a result of several conversations with "C" level people over the past few weeks - the same issues were brought up by all of them. Additionally after evaluating thousands of sales teams the data points backed up the concerns that these executives shared with me. In that sense and from that perspective I bring you 3 vital concerns - in fact if sales managers were to focus on these three topics with their sales people over the next few weeks, good things would happen. These might sound obvious but time and again we find that even high level veteran sales professionals struggle with these simple points.

Sales people need to listen more and talk less- what does it take to listen? First of all the questions need to be better, questions that require a simple yes or no still result in a conversation where the prospect is only talking 10% of the time. The sales people also need to have an understanding of their weaknesses and realize that being emotionally involved will affect a reps ability to listen. As a manager pay attention to how they listen to you - "is this how you deal with prospects?" might be an appropriate question.

Sales people need to focus on the why and less on the how and what - A truly consultative sale begins with big picture and strategic dialog and then funnels its way down to a more tactical discussion. Many sales reps skip the first part and end up presenting and focusing on the product, service, company or solution before they have a clear understanding of the why. Pre call strategy and post call debriefing questions should focus on "why" are they talking to us at all?

Sales people need to have more in their pipeline - very few sales people actually have the ability to hunt for business and even fewer have a desire or willingness to hunt - understanding the difference and who succumbs to which will help you manage that. Great managers inspire their people to have a hunter mentality and to overcome the weaknesses that might be holding them back. They also realize that sometimes even experienced reps don't hunt because they don't know how - or they have just become lazy.