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The 7 Principles that underpin a successful high performing sales team!

The 7 Principles that underpin a successful high performing sales team!

In my experience there are 7 principles that underpin a successful high performing sales team.

They are often missing when I start to work with an underperforming sales team and my mission is ensure they are firmly in place by the end of my training programmes.

I’m going to give you an overview of each one today then dive deeper into each one in later blogs.

Ready? Here we go…

1. Care about each of your sales people as individuals
The most successful Sales Leaders realise that you must take a holistic view with sales people. Each one is different and needs a different approach that suits them. Research by Harvard shows that happier sales people generate 37% more sales. Giving your sales team the sales skills they need simply isn’t enough anymore. You have to care about them as a human being too!

2. Value and nurture what they already do well
Acknowledging their positive traits and allowing them to do more of what they do best increases their confidence, happiness and sales performance. The positive psychological impact of firstly, you noticing…and secondly, personally acknowledging them pays huge dividends.

3. Coaching your sales team increases their skills and mindset
Your sales people may need your help identifying gaps in their performance. Coaching is the No.1 way to develop a high performing sales team. Telling them how to fix something or suggesting what they should do next time kills their ability to find solution for themselves. A TELLING culture is one of the biggest barriers to sales success….and please note that suggesting is still telling!

4. Build their self-belief and confidence
Without self-belief and confidence, the best sales skills trainer in the world will fail to deliver what you want. It’s all very well knowing HOW to do something…if you don’t believe you can do it…you WON’T! How many of your sales people are not doing activities they know how to do? The evidence is in every sales team. Sales success is less about sales skills and more about Sales Mindset! A less skilled sales person with a great attitude will always outperform a very skilled sales person with a poor mindset.

5. Cultivate pride in their role and the value they deliver to their customers
Sales hasn’t got the same level of prestige as many other skilled professions. Sad but true. Thankfully that’s changing but I still come across sales professionals that when asked what they do by friends will give them a fancy title that doesn’t make it clear they are in sales!
Focusing your sales team on the positive impact of what they do in the world increases their pride…and their sales. If you can link these to personal values, it’s even more powerful.

6. Taking responsibility for their results
Sales people are very good at coming up with reasons and excuses for poor performance. Playing the BLAME game makes THEM and sometimes YOU too feel better about WHY. Creating a culture where sales people learn from situations that don’t go their way…and improve their performance based on these learnings get’s rid of a blame culture. My favourite question when I get a reason or an excuse for lack of sales is…So what are you going to do about that?

7. Make it FUN
We spend so much time working so the more enjoyable you make it the more your sales team will bond, support each other, go the extra mile and exceed their sales targets.

So how are you doing on these 7 principles?

Celebrate the ones that you already have in place…and commit to improving the weak or absent ones.

Until next time,

Leigh

About the author

Hi I’m Leigh Ashton of The Sales Consultancy

Whether you’re a small business or a leading brand, an area manager or a Chief Executive, whether you’re new to sales or an experienced sales professional. Even if you’re not in sales at all but want to understand it, you’ve come to the right place.

The World of Sales is changing.

Today’s conventional sales training doesn’t address the psychological barriers that get in their way.

My approach takes your sales team through a process that:

* Helps them identify their psychological barriers and gives them the tools to overcome them
* Teaches them how the mind works so they can keep motivated and stay focused
* Gives them the ability to identify the psychological patterns of their clients and prospects so they connect with them at a deeper level and close more sales

And at a higher level…

* It creates more success in other areas of their lives so they are happier generally…and happier sales people generate more sales

Wherever you are on your personal sales journey what’s the best course of action for YOU.

– Sales Training – that actually gets results
– Leadership and Management
– Personal Coaching and Mentoring
– Sales Mentoring Programme
– NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and how it can help you accelerate your success
– Keynote Speaking