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.