Richard Brock

May 29 2020

What are the Qualities of a Good Sales Team Leader?

The best sales teams will always be led by quality sales leaders. All good sales reps know that their success would be held back by a lack of leadership and, by the same token, enhanced by great leadership. As a sales leader, it’s important to take on certain qualities to truly lead your team towards success. The sales leaders who simply sit back and watch the revenue come in are probably going to be waiting longer than they’d like to fully realize the fruit of their labor, or lack thereof. Staying involved in the sales machine and playing an active role in the process is going to go a long way in increasing the production of your team.

Roles of a sales team leader

A great leader should take on certain responsibilities and fill certain roles that help support the individuals that make up the rest of the team. It’s important for your sales reps to know that you are there as a leader to fall back and lean on when needed. It’s also vital for a team to have a leader where less experience reps can learn and grow from.

Here are some roles that every sales leader should be taking on in order to ensure a successful approach.

Coach:

As the leader of your team, you need to be there to help your individual sales reps improve. This can come in the form of strategies or techniques they use on a sales call or maybe just adapting their voice to fit the product they are selling. Regardless, any sales leader needs to be ready to jump in and coach up their reps. The ability and willingness to coach your reps in real-time is a huge factor in your success at the helm.

Motivator (Creating Goals):

Every great leader has one thing in common. They are able to motivate their team to victory. This is no different in sales. Creating relevant goals that will motivate not only each individual rep, but also the whole sales team, is going to put your team in a position to want to succeed. If your sales reps aren’t pushed to be great, chances are they won’t produce the results you’re looking for.

Evaluator:

Overseeing your sales team means seeing each rep’s strengths and weaknesses. As an evaluator you need to be able to recognize this and act accordingly. Whether you need to coach that rep up in a particular area, or determine where a rep will fit best within a team, you will have to be able to properly evaluate the situation.

Arbitrator:

There are times that members of your team won’t always see eye to eye. Maybe one rep “stole” a sale from another. You need to be ready to step in and become the arbitrator in these situations. Remaining calm and neutral, always hearing both sides out, will help you succeed in this role.

Qualities of a great sales team leader

Just like the top-tier sales reps have certain traits to look out for, sales leaders need to possess certain qualities in order to be truly successful in the sales world. A lot of times, these qualities come second nature to sales leaders. Other times, the traits are learned with experience. Regardless, it’s important to remember these qualities when going through your own development process as a sales leader.

Ability to identify and hire the right people:

The importance of identifying the right people for your sales team cannot be understated. Knowing which personalities will work for your specific process and being able to weed out those who don’t fit the mold you’ve carved out for your team is a skill that will improve with experience.

Communication Skills:

Every great leader, really in any realm, needs to have effective communication skills in order to bring a team together. You need to be able to provide feedback the right way so that it is absorbed by that particular rep. Also, you don’t want to leave your sales reps in the dark in any facet of the sales process. Always keeping your team in the loop is going to make you a better leader in the long run.

Sales Intuition:

Having that institutional knowledge will always put you ahead of the game. This quality will only develop over time, of course. The ball is in your court however, with how you take your experiences in the sales world and target trends that can help your team improve..

Adaptability:

Speaking of trends, the sales landscape is full of change. Trends come and go, and as a sales leader you need to be able to adapt your strategies to support these changes. If you are one of those people who remain stuck in their ways, without the willingness to change it up, you may see a plateau effect with your results.

SalesTalk can help you become a great sales team leader

Taking the next steps in your progression of a sales team leader can be difficult. Having the right information is one aspect of this, but having the right tools in order to implement your leadership is what will separate you from the pack. At SalesTalk Technologies, we provide our clients with a toolset to allow them to elevate their sales process to the next level. Our sales enablement modules give you the ability to really empower your team to generate more leads and convert those leads into customers with higher consistency. If you’re ready to take the next steps as a sales leader, contact our team to request a free trial of our software.

May 22 2020

How to Build a Sales Team with Top-Tier Sales Members

The most important aspect of building a successful business, one that is ready to scale at an acceptable rate and maintain that success, is building out your sales machine. This process relies on a foundation of great sales reps to lead the charge of selling your product and keeping your customers happy. To build a successful team, you need top-tier sales members contributing to your process.

What characterizes someone as a “top-tier” sales rep? How can you successfully build your team with these top-tier performers?

In this blog we will discuss the answers to these questions and get you on track to building the sales machine your business deserves.

Characteristics of highly successful salespeople

Not all successful sales reps possess the same qualities; some thrive on competition, others rely on collaboration. There are however, some general characteristics that you can look out for when determining whether or not a candidate would be capable of helping your sales process really take off. The best sales reps will generally have these traits and it would be beneficial for you to keep these in mind when going about building out your sales team.

The “Hunter’s Mentality”

When deciding between candidates to bring into your sale operation, you want to find those reps with the “hunter’s mentality.” Meaning you want the reps who are always hungry to land the big deal. They will do anything and everything it takes to accomplish this. They won’t take any issue with doing the legwork to get a deal finalized and convert all of their leads into customers.

The reps who don’t take no for an answer and won’t accept failure are the ones who will drive your team to success. A sales rep with a hunter’s mentality will finish off one sale and immediately be looking towards their next. A constant flow of wins is what your team needs to be truly successful, the hunter’s mentality rep will help build that culture.

Personality and Charisma

The stereotypical sales rep has this extremely outgoing personality, one that will catch the attention of anyone they talk to. The fact is, a sales rep’s personality and charisma does not need to hinge on the overly extroverted approach. Top tier reps can take many forms when it comes to their personality. Cool, calm and collected can work just as well as the overly excited and enthusiastic approach.

The one common denominator with both of these however is the ability to have the customer hanging on every word. The rep should be engaging enough and interesting enough to keep the attention of anyone who is one the other end of the conversation. If the leads or customers don’t particularly like the personality they are dealing with, it will be hard for that rep to make a sale.

Resilience

The ability for a sales rep to bounce back quickly after a loss is one of the most important traits a salesperson can have. Rejection is a harsh reality that can accompany any given sales interaction. The fact is, more often than not, the lead on the other end of the conversation will not give a rep the time of day to make their pitch.

A top-tier rep will have the ability to see the big picture with these rejections, realizing that every interaction presents an opportunity and that when one lead doesn’t necessarily work out, there are others waiting to be converted. You don’t want a team made up of reps who reflect on the losses, you want those that take the loss and use it to fuel the next win.

How to build a sales team with top-tier performers

Once you have the right sales reps in place, those with the top-tier qualities we all look for, how can you build towards success? Once assembled your team needs tools, direction, and a common voice that they can all fall back on in order to really drive the process forward. Part of establishing all of this means doing your part as the sales leader to train and motivate while also knowing which tools will help each individual rep do their job effectively.

Training

Even the greatest sales reps out there need to have a proper onboarding and training process to get them up to speed with your particular product and culture. The most effective sales teams will have a repeatable, digestible system in place for bringing on new reps. Too many businesses take their entire “handbook” and throw it at their new reps expecting them to read and learn every aspect of the sales process in a short period of time. This just isn’t realistic for any rep. It’s more beneficial for your team if you provide smaller, bite-sized pieces of information throughout a period of time. Pairing this with real-time coaching and ongoing training is much more effective for bringing your reps up to speed.

Goal setting and motivation

It’s not enough to just assemble the team and sit back to let them do what they do. To an extent, the hands off approach will be beneficial to your reps, but they will need some reason to sell. This is where setting the right goals to keep your team motivated will come into play. Goals should be developed both with the individual rep in mind, as well as the sales team as a whole.

Sales reps are prideful people. They like to know that they are always driving towards and accomplishing something. Being strategic with your goals will keep your reps and your entire team moving forward and motivated to keep selling for your business.

Providing reps with the right tools

Even the best sales reps can be pushed that much farther with the right tools at their disposal. In today’s selling environment, sales enablement tools are becoming the norm. In actuality, they are even becoming a necessity for sales teams. The convenience and efficiency these tools offer your team is second to none and will keep your team moving forward instead of staying stagnant. The ability to have access to the right content for each individual contact, at the exact right time, is an invaluable luxury to have. You want your reps to always be confident in what they pitch. Giving them access to sales enablement tools empowers your team to generate and convert more leads.

Empower your top-tier reps with SalesTalk

At SalesTalk Technologies, we give sales teams access to an entire suite of tools that help every step of the sales process. From onboarding, to training, to live coaching, your team will be prepared and on the same page with the ultimate sales operation. We also provide you with modules that keep track, organize, and present your sales content with the relevance you need to generate those leads into customers. If you think your reps are ready to progress to the next tier of sales, contact our team to request a free trial of our suite of sales enablement tools.

May 15 2020

How to Retain Sales Employees

You’ve assembled a dream team of sales representatives. This group is ready to embrace and take on your company voice, learn your product inside and out, and challenge themselves to constantly improve. So how can you be sure to keep these reps by your side for the long haul? Inevitably, sales reps start looking for different opportunities where they can progress their own careers. It certainly is a challenge for any sales leader to retain their top employees in this landscape. It’s important to fully understand how to retain sales employees. With this knowledge, you will be better equipped to appease your reps and keep that dream team assembled and ready to sell.

Challenges in attracting and retaining employees

Attracting the right sales reps for your company is a hard enough skill to master. But the challenge doesn’t end with simply attracting those reps and hiring them. Keeping them motivated to stay on your team creates a whole new set of challenges for today’s business owners.

According to a recent study, the average sales rep’s tenure with one company sits at around 18 months. When you take into account the time it takes to get a rep fully up to speed with your company’s workflow and ready to sell at their full potential, this isn’t a large amount of time to reap the benefits of a talented sales rep. So what are the factors that contribute to these challenges in retaining sales employees?

New opportunities

Today’s generation values the ability to take advantage of new opportunities, especially in the workplace. The reality is, job hopping can lead to career advancement for a lot of the younger sales reps. Getting experience in one sector of sales means they can take that and advertise it to new job opportunities, giving them the ammunition to prove they are seasoned and ready for new heights.

The fact is, sales reps know that they can be replaced at any given moment. This leads to more of a “free agent” mentality rather than becoming loyal to one entity that they believe can and will turn on them at a moment’s notice.

Stale work environments

In relation to job hopping, sales reps tend to see new opportunities as more exciting than their current work environment. Going through the same routines, day after day and selling the same products on a daily basis can become tiring for a lot of reps. When this happens, it’s natural for them to look elsewhere for fulfillment. A new company presents new challenges, new content, new products to sell, and new routines.

The younger generation of sales reps are less likely to look for that stability in order to “settle down” and instead will look to fulfill their work lives. This means they are more likely to move on from one place to another, constantly searching to keep their work fresh and exciting.

Opportunity for growth

Too many sales leaders miss the mark on what the best sales reps are looking for. They think that money will buy everything, keeping their best reps happy. While proper compensation is obviously a need for employees, the best reps are looking for more than that. They want to feel as if they have the opportunity for career growth. If they start to see the writing on the wall that they don’t have the ability for advancement where they’re currently at, they’re going to quickly look elsewhere. Sales reps are proud people and they won’t be happy if they feel as if they aren’t given the opportunity to show what they can do with newer, bigger opportunities.

Employee retention in sales

As a business owner, you want to provide your employees with reasons to stay loyal to your company. Sales rep turnover is an expensive reality for sales leaders, but it’s one that can be curbed to an extent. As we mentioned, it’s an inevitability that sales reps look for other opportunities as it’s the nature of the business. But for the best reps, you’ll want to give them reasons to start declining those opportunities instead of jumping on them.

Build a sense of camaraderie within your team

You want a positive workplace environment, that should go without saying. The happiest reps are the ones who enjoy coming into the office and working alongside their colleagues. Promoting a friendly atmosphere and that sense of camaraderie will go a long way in keeping your reps happy and loyal to your company.

This goes with creating a culture that your business takes on. You want to create as little stress as possible in the workplace and creating a team environment is one way to reduce this. Even introducing and encouraging friendly competition between sales team members is good for morale and relationship building. Keep your team feeding off each other and growing their relationships.

Keep challenges and goals fresh for your reps

You don’t want your reps’ day to day to get stale. If this happens, your reps get antsy and start looking for new ways to fulfill themselves through their workday. You want to be constantly developing goals for your team to accomplish and work towards. This should come both for the entire team as a whole, and for your individual reps. If they feel that they are constantly being pushed, they will see that you think of them as worthy for the challenge.

Giving them the same goals all the time will get them thinking that there may not be much of an opportunity to advance. Create that sense of accomplishment for your reps and allow them to progress with your company.

Build smarter bonus structures

Your bonus structures are an important piece of employee retention. If you have a bonus structure based around quarterly or annual payouts, chances are your reps will stick with your company just long enough to achieve that bonus before moving on. Instead you should look into larger retention bonuses that you can pay out at 1, 2, 4, and 5 years, giving reps more motivation to stay for the long haul.

Providing shares in the company that vest after 12 months is another way to ensure longevity with your reps. Take the time to really think about the way you hand out bonuses for your sales team so that you keep their attention away from the next opportunity.

Retain your sales reps with sales enablement technology

Nothing can replace the feeling of confidence in a sales rep, or a sales team as a whole for that matter. By empowering your team with the tools they need to sell more and more efficiently than they have before is going to put you in a great position to retain that team you’ve worked so hard to build.

Sales enablement technology can help you accomplish this empowerment. By giving your reps the tools to know what to say to leads and customers, how successful other strategies and techniques are for their colleagues, and just a better way to communicate, you are putting yourself in a unique position. Your reps will want to stay onboard knowing that they are always put in a position to succeed and grow.

By reaching out to our team here at SalesTalk Technologies, we can get you started with a free trial of our groundbreaking sales enablement software. See how our tools can help you retain your quality reps and start scaling your business.

May 08 2020

5 Sales Rep Qualities Your Team Members Should Possess

When building your sales team, it would be simple to just look for the “most qualified” or the one who charms you the most during their interview process. But to really build the most productive sales team for your business, one that is made up of sales reps who will push your company agenda and embrace what it is you’re trying to accomplish, you should be looking for key qualities in your candidates. In this blog, we are going to discuss 5 sales rep qualities your team members should possess.

Sales rep qualities to look for

It’s not enough to look at the way a potential sales rep handles themselves in an interview or the years of experience under his or her belt. While these things are certainly important, they’re not the end all be all of a quality sales rep. Only you know what is truly best for your business and the products you’re selling. But generally speaking, there are some sales rep qualities that we can discuss that will surely help you develop the most effective sales team.

1. They don’t waste time – everything is done with a purpose

In terms of sales, at least effective sales, time is the most important dynamic for a rep. The best reps see time as a resource and won’t take it for granted. Essentially for the best sales reps, time is more of an investment in their efforts than anything else.

What you want your reps to think about when selling your product is whether or not the risk (amount of time) is worth the reward (the result of said time). This goes along with knowing the buyers and which prospects would be a good fit for your product. You don’t want your reps wasting time on prospects and leads that won’t fit as a future customer.

The best reps know the value of automation and how repetitive tasks can be streamlined to make the sales process more efficient. Every minute they spend trying to log information, curating the same emails, and scheduling follow ups is a minute they could have spent on a call, converting more leads.

2. They know the ins and outs of their industry

If your sales team doesn’t fully understand what they’re selling and who they are selling to, how can they be effective in their efforts? This may seem obvious, but industry knowledge should be a highlighted trait in all of your sales reps. Every sales call is going to come with its share of questions from the buyer. Your rep needs to be confident in what they respond with, and also accurate with their information. The last thing you want is a customer base who is being fed misinformation that may not even be relevant to their needs. Your customers want answers, you want reps that can provide those answers.

3. They’re always learning or willing to learn

We’ve all come across those sales reps who think they’ve “seen it all.” They know what to do in every situation, in every sales interaction. That is a quality you’ll want to shy away from when building your sales team. You want reps who are knowledgeable and confident, but also have the humility to admit they can always learn more.

Whether the learning comes from absorbing more information about the product they’re selling, your business, your buyer personas, or just selling strategies in general, you want the reps who are willing to admit they can improve in every area.

4. They’re always striving to reach goals

Hungry sales reps make the best salespeople. They always see an opportunity to be working towards something. You want your reps to always be striving to reach certain goals. Once they reach the goal, you want them to be ambitious enough to develop new goals that they can reach and surpass.

As a sales leader, you are always going to develop goals for your individual reps and your team as a whole. But this shouldn’t be enough for your reps. The best reps will take those goals you’ve provided and add to them with their own personal goals. Ambition cannot be taught in sales, it’s an innate characteristic that will prove to be valuable to your own goals as a business leader.

5. They embrace technology

Let’s face it, technology and its development has defined recent generations. The development of automating tasks and providing relevant information with efficiency has become more the norm than in the past. Your sales reps should be ready and willing to embrace this technology and avoid falling back on their “old school” ways of selling. While these “old school” tactics may work in certain circumstances, it at least needs to be supplemented with today’s technology.

The fact is, your competition is going to be utilizing this technology to get ahead. In order to not fall behind, you need a team of sales reps who are capable and willing to take advantage of the technology that is out there.

Put your reps in a position to succeed

You’ve put your dream sales team together, one that is ready to help you scale your business and drive it to where it needs to be for success. But does that team have the technology on hand in order to empower them to realize their full potential? Just as a sales rep should be ready to embrace technology, you as the sales leader need to be ready to implement that technology.

Sales enablement technology provides tools that put the power in the hands of your sales reps. With these tools, they will have the content they need, at the right time, every time, in order to sell and sell well. At SalesTalk Technologies, we offer an entire suite of sales enablement products to help you with this. If you think you’re ready to embrace today’s technology and really empower your team to sell more, reach out to us at SalesTalk today. We can set you up with a free trial of our tools, and you can see for yourself just how powerful your team can be.

Apr 20 2020

How to Increase Productivity of Sales Teams with Sales Enablement Software

Today, people want what they want faster. If they have a need, they don’t want to wait around for people to accommodate this need, they will simply move on to the next person who can offer more immediacy. This is why learning how to increase the productivity of sales teams with sales enablement software is so important. Your sales reps need to be able to move quickly on a prospect and respond as efficiently and effectively as possible in order to retain their attention.

Increase the productivity of your sales team with efficient sales tools

Too much of a rep’s time is spent not selling. They are wasting time having to sift through information in order to find the right content for their prospect. Sales enablement software eliminates this issue and gives sales reps access to technology that will increase their productivity and improve engagement with prospects. By making these tools accessible to your team, you will inevitably see an increase in lead conversion and revenue.

Create daily goals

The right sales enablement tools will give you insight into your sales pipelines, allowing you to forecast, plan out your strategies, and close more deals. Having access to all of your sales data gives you invaluable insight into your strategies. What is proving to be effective? Which strategies should we bring back to the drawing board? Which reps are performing the best and which ones need improvement? All of these questions are easily answered with the right sales enablement software

At SalesTalk Technologies, we offer our clients modules like Upstream Your Insights and What2Know. These tools give you the ability to gain more insight into pipeline forecasts, access actual ABM metrics and individual contact progress. When you have this information at your fingertips, you can create relevant and realistic goals for your team to accomplish.

You can’t simply pick an arbitrary number and tell your team to hit that number. You need to analyze your data, determine what is realistic for your team to accomplish while also pushing your team to excel. It’s a fine line that you need to walk, but with the right tools you can do it effectively.

Encourage the “single version of the truth”

In order to create a formula for sustainable success, there needs to be consistency. Taking the guesswork out of the equation is going to eliminate a lot of issues that would otherwise show themselves in the future. If reps are having to figure out which piece of data is reliable and which one is not as useful, time spent selling is decreased. Not to mention, your customers and prospects may be getting different pieces of information depending on who they happen to talk to. Eliminate confusion by using sales enablement software that can organize content for reps to reference.

The “single version of truth” practice also makes it easy for decision makers to have access to the right data they need in order to develop business strategies. Having the right tools in place to assist this process gives you the ability to consolidate and analyze the data your team deems appropriate for what you are trying to accomplish. Keeping your team on the same page in this regard will increase productivity.

Inspire collaboration and communication

In any part of business, communication is key. This is no different in sales. Pair this with collaboration and you will see your team’s productivity take off. However, we can’t accomplish this without the right tools. Choosing the right sales enablement software will bring your team together and create a more efficient selling process.

Sales enablement software can help your reps personalize content for each of their prospects and then they are able to see which content is performing the best across the entire team. It can also encourage more collaboration between sales and marketing, where the sales team is able to give immediate feedback to the marketing team. It will allow marketing to adapt their content in order to fit the customer needs and it comes straight from the people interacting with them on a daily basis.

Automate routine tasks

Something as simple as sending a follow up email can take time for a rep to accomplish. How much more productive could your team be if tasks like this were automated? It’s possible to automate tasks like the follow up email while still making it personalized too. You still want to maintain that personal feel to sales interactions, ensuring the prospect that they aren’t talking to a robot and, instead, to an actual human being. Through certain sales enablement software tools, you can accomplish this. Using things like automated email workflows that are personalized based on contact information and their stage in the sales pipeline will cut out some of that time where reps aren’t selling.

You can also automate things like prospecting. It allows you to filter out prospects and assign them according to their relevance to industry, rep, stage in the pipeline, etc. Again, taking extra work off the plate of your sales team just means they will be selling more and converting more leads.

Start improving your sales team efficiency and effectiveness

If you truly want your business to take off, sales enablement software is where you should start. The inevitable increase in productivity it will create for your team is indispensable for those businesses looking to expand. At SalesTalk Technologies, we want to help make this happen for you. Through the variety of modules that we offer, we can improve any number of productivity impediments for your team. Request a demo over at our website and start increasing your sales team’s productivity.