I was working with a sales manager recently on coaching her salespeople; let’s call her Sarah to protect the guilty. Sarah was working with a salesperson who cannot close sales despite consistently advancing opportunities to the proposal stage of the sales process.
Many of Sarah’s salespeople had this problem.
Sarah was convinced the salespeople did not know how to close and wanted my help with closing techniques. She even wanted to invest precious resources on a workshop with her team to be better “closers.” I was skeptical and recommended 30-minutes we could do together to address what I suspected was the underlying problem, and it was not closing.
Sarah and I reviewed two failed opportunities for each of the struggling salespeople. We also considered two opportunities that were approaching the proposal stage for each of the salespeople, i.e. opportunities that she could impact.
Salespeople who follow a sales process and fully qualify prospects always have a much better win rate.
My objectives were:
- Show Sarah a way to increase her entire team’s win rates.
- Elevate her as a sales manager by showing her opportunities to coach her team.
We found the salespeople missed key steps in the process when deals did not close. Each salesperson consistently missed the same steps each time.
- They did not help the prospect understand the full cost of the problem. In other words, they did not monetize the problem in time, money, or risk. It is very difficult to create urgency when the problem we can solve does not have value associated with it.
- Both consistently sent out proposals too early and without full discovery. The salespeople did not ask about the budget or differentiate themselves and their company.
After the analysis, not only did Sarah understand the reason for the missed opportunities, she also saw how to correct the underlying weaknesses. This is how you elevate sales managers!
Plus, we made a key discovery: the salespeople had Sales DNA weaknesses.
What Are Sales DNA Weaknesses?
Salespeople get in their own way with what they believe or were taught growing up.
“Don’t talk to strangers.”
“It is rude to talk about money.”
“You should not ask a lot of questions.”
“It is prudent to shop around for the best price.”
If salespeople believe it is okay to shop around for their own purchases, they are much more likely to accept that from the prospects. This makes it easy for the salesperson to accept the notion that “three quotes” are normal and acceptable.
Specifically, the salespeople had two weaknesses.
Sarah needed to coach her team on the Sales DNA weaknesses. She now knows where to look in their sales process to coach the salespeople to help them ask enough of the right questions to qualify prospects.
Why is a sales process needed?
The sales process is the context for great discovery and consistent coaching of salespeople. When sales managers elevate their understanding and coach around a proper sales process, they add value to their team and their customers.
Sales managers can help close more business by coaching salespeople to improve. The results? The entire relationship between the salesperson and the sales manager is elevated and sales soar.
Sales Process and Sales Methodology = Baseline Selling
Here is a short video introduction of Baseline Selling a sales process & methodology.
Call us when you want to evaluate your sales process or elevate your sales manager’s abilities. It’s easy and painless-usually.
At Helix, we only engage with growth-minded, mid-market CEOs who have the desire & commitment to building a performance-based sales culture. The journey is challenging; the results transformative: repeatable revenue growth with margin integrity.
