Top 10 Ideas for Improving Sales Performance

From http://www.saleseffectiveness.com/

1.            Selection - Recruiting and selecting the right talent needed for each sales position is the single most important skill of sales management.

2.            Raising the Bar- Sales and service improvement is an outcome of deliberate, planned actions over time, at all levels. "Raising the bar" must be the primary objective of sales and service leadership.

3.            Sales Process - Documenting your sales methodology and Best Practices both for salespeople and sales managers provides a “Framework of Excellence” for improving your selling system. Once documented, the sales process drives hiring, coaching, training, and marketing support efforts.

4.            Change - People change behaviors because they want to, because the value of change is compelling, and because it benefits them significantly as individuals. If you want to change selling behaviors, actively engage your people in the solution. It is their ownership that ensures long-lasting change.

5.            Measurement is the essential ingredient of process improvement. Without clear expectations for activity and performance, sales improvement efforts seldom hit the mark.

6.            Support Systems including activity scorecards, technology, pipeline forecasting, territory plans, lead generation and strategy worksheets provide the tools to implement change. Tool development is not a one-time effort, but a continuous process of enhancing the tools, modifying them, and applying them to the business.

7.            Focus Coaching sustains excellence and builds employee loyalty. Coaches are the catalysts of team and individual effectiveness. Their ability to tap and stretch the capacity of each individual generates power and momentum. 

8.            Training is the #1 intervention to communicate expectations, to stimulate growth, to lift individual performance. It must be a core practice, consistently applied and customized to fit your organization.

9.            Compensation and recognition practices must be aligned to strategy.  Alignment creates leverage and increases the potential to maximize revenues.

10.        Customer Retention is the ultimate barometer of success. Its focus is indispensable, and everyone in the organization must take ownership for their role in adding value and enhancing the customer experience.

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