Why is my new sales person not living up to my expectations?

So you have made the great leap and taken on a sales person. At last someone else will get up early to go networking and follow up on enquiries and proposals. Even better, they can generate loads of new leads and then go out and sell to them. Happy days right?

So why is it that I so often hear people complain about their sales people and their efficiency? Why is it that employing a sales person is considered one of the biggest challenges an SME owner faces?

Well the answer is obvious, they are all lazy and will not get out of bed for less than £500 commission…

Joking aside, being a sales person myself I wanted to try and explain why this happens and offer some potential solutions.

Cast your mind back to the time your sales person first came on board. Did you:

  1. Have their targets, KPIs and an action plan ready?
  2. Lay out a clearly defined sales process?
  3. Define your target markets?
  4. Have a marketing database ready?
  5. Sort out your brochures, case studies and other marketing literature?

I bet you did nothing of the above, did you? If you are particularly organised, you may have worked out their targets and KPI’s. Sorry to break it to you but sales people, like any trades people, need their tools to be able to work. So, if they have not got them, they will spend time creating them first of all which takes time and costs you money.

What can you do to remedy this and avoid being disappointed? Simples;

  • Make sure your sales person has their tools so they can hit the ground running
  • Make sure your expectations are realistic – business development takes time!
  • Spend time with them and give them some training and support – sales people are delicate creatures…
  • Create some easy opportunities for them to cut their teeth on while they are learning to boost their confidence – you can moan at them later when they become part of the furniture…

Now that we identified how to remedy the situation and save you money and frustration…Hand on heart, have you got the skills to set this up yourself? Is so then I hope this helped you get organised. If not, then bring someone in to help you, before your new sales person joins!

I am happy to help you with creating your sales person tools. Give me a call to discuss or e-mail me to request an information sheet.

Superhearo cape

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

code