Tool Box
Issue No. 30 - August/September 2006
How to forge a great sales team
by Craig Stubing
Sam, the industry’s wisest sales team leader, was addressing a group of trainees when one of them asked this question.
“What makes a great sales team?”
Sam’s answer was forthright: “There are three ingredients that make great sales teams. They are: right people, right processes and right culture.
“If a Leader wants to have a great team, and enjoy the results that flow from that, they must accept the responsibility of getting these ingredients right. Let me explain...
Right people
The people in the sales team must be ‘right’. There are plenty of salespeople who possess the superficial attributes of good manners and presentation, experience, apparent positive mental attitude and so on.
There are less than plenty who possess the key inner attributes: the
- ability to ask good questions
- patience to listen to customers
- willingness to accept coaching
- preparedness to play by the team rules.
These inner attributes are critical.
The ability to ask questions regarding the customer’s needs, wants, preferences and prejudices is central to great selling. So is the patience to listen to the answers.
There is no trickery in this; in their answers the customer will tell the salesperson what they want. If the salesperson is an impatient listener or too busy talking they will miss these buying signals — and miss the sale.
A salesperson who won’t accept coaching and insists on doing things ‘their’ way will always be more trouble than they are worth; they are disruptive and can bring about the disintegration of the team.
Also, it is impossible to help them if they get into a sales slump, because only they know what they are trying to do (and how they are trying to do it).
There is no room for mavericks in sales teams – they should be moved on.
Aspiring sporting teams have te...
