Every Friday morning I would take the time to connect with each member of my sales team. I wanted to connect with each rep for two reasons: 1. To thank them for working their tails off during the week. Appreciation goes a long way coming from the boss, and 2. To recap the progress that they made on their goals that they had set out to accomplish for the week. This is important. Setting a goal for the week is one thing, but if there is no measure of performance towards that goal, usually the goal fades away leading to lackluster performance.
Let’s discuss the first briefly. Far too many bosses do not take the time to give a sincere thanks and show appreciation as often as they should. I knew that every week my team was travelling all over the country, catching flights, coming home late at nights, working through obstacles on deals, dealing with internal issues, and battling for success every single day. Come Friday, that salesperson NEEDS a sincere, heartfelt thank you. By doing this it shows that you as the boss really do care and appreciate everything that they do.
As far as the second point, setting goals is a must. Goals for the year, goals for the quarter, goals for the month, and goals for the week. I am always a fan of taking higher-level goals (i.e., “I want to sell $1M in software this year”) and breaking that goal down to a weekly and daily level. Having the goal and the vision of selling $1M is a great target. We just need to build a path to get there and that starts with breaking it down into smaller goals.
For example, each Monday morning, I would ask or assign a goal for the day and for the week to each salesperson. I would set their sights on something such as, “Do you think you can get three demonstrations done this week and get those two big quotes out the door by Thursday?” Or something such as this, “I would like to see you hit 20 calls for the day and send out 10-15 prospecting emails.” For the latter, I usually did not have to do this with a seasoned experienced team, but it did work well with new hires or employees ramping up.
The above goal setting for the day and week is great, but as a leader, you must take the time to follow up on those goals set. So if the goal was for the day, take the time to follow up at the end of the day, or the very next morning to measure the salesperson’s progress towards that goal. This is also a great opportunity to gain further insight into performance concerns if goals are not being met. If the goal set was for the week, then come Friday morning, I would always make the time as a sales leader to connect with the rep and see how they stacked up against the goal that they set out to accomplish.
Here is what I found: My “A” players had lots of goals and usually always blew them away and overachieved. They wanted success and wanted it badly. They wanted to win. They wanted to blow up their quotas. The “A” players are top performers and make up about 10% of a salesforce yet achieve a lion’s share of the sales revenue being closed. As a leader, you just know when you have an “A” player. There is no wondering. “A” players will usually make their own goals and will often make them more challenging on their own.
Next, you will most likely find that you have a lot of “B” players. “B” players are good performing reps that do the job and are professional but they just don’t have the insane drive to be wildly successful like the “A” players. Here is what you can do here: Get to understand their “why.” What do they really want? What do they really want to accomplish? Understand what makes them tick and see if you can transmute their why into a sharp focus on becoming an “A” player. Sometimes this can’t be done. So be it. “B” players are often good to buffer with “A” players which will help to get you to the team’s overall sales target.
Lastly, you will also have your “C” players. Here is what I find with “C” players: they usually fall short of their goals and targets and typically have excuses for missing them. They will commonly say things such as, “I just don’t have enough time” Or, “If only we didn’t have so many internal meetings.” Or, “I tried but I just couldn’t get anyone on the phone. Or how about this one: “It’s just that time of year where no one is even around.” Do any of these sound familiar? They sure do!!! With “C” players I would closely examine what they do and why they do it. I would then work with them on cutting through any of the excuses and I would amp up my one-on-ones with them. I would either get them to where they need to be to excel (if they had the drive and the will to succeed), or, I would determine that they really don’t want to do what they are doing and would be better doing something else.
The “C” players can really hurt the team’s performance and they typically cause you, the sales leader, the most stress and grief. What seems like common sense just isn’t there. (Sound familiar again?). And when you feel like you have been beyond patient and that you have done everything you can, listen to your gut. Listen to your intuition. It is always right. Make the decision early on that they will either get their stuff together and improve, or they need to leave. Don’t let them bog you down!
In sum, setting goals is a must but do understand that it is equally important to take higher-level goals and break them down. Get granular with them so that you know on a day-to-day basis what you need to do in order to stay on track with achieving the overarching goal. As important as these two points are, consistently measuring the goals on a weekly basis is always a must. This will prevent losing sight of the higher-level goal and what it takes to get to it. Lastly, the consistent measurement of performance towards those goals will allow you, as the leader, an opportunity to rank your team into “A, B, and C” players. Now you are in a position to further make adjustments and maximize your team’s performance.
Finally, understand that this does take time. To become really embedded with your team, their goals, what level player that each member is, and what makes them tick, and what can be done to get them to the next level, takes months, often years. But it is so rewarding because when you have it all dialed in, your team will be the best performing team. They will hands-down outsell every other team in the company. That’s a fact! 🙂
-Happy Selling!