There are a few signs that you should pay attention to spot if your sales team needs training and coaching
1. Stuck emotional states & overwhelm
There are a few people in sales who are immune to the team’s moods and mentality.
Most people are not. Any group of people can develop a common attitude and common behaviors without even noticing it. So make sure the team is able to have each member in a positive and confident state.
Any time one of your sales people is telling themselves a negative story about your clients, potential prospects, about the market or even about your own product, address the topic immediately. Make sure one person’s negative perception doesn’t infect the rest of the team. These things are contagious.
One more important thing: When too anxious and stressed about numbers –
If your leaders only push numbers rather than empowering the people in your team your sales crew might feel very pressured. That can and will lead to behaviours which radiate stress and tension into all forms of communication. And who as a client would feel comfortable with a sales person that is overstressed?
Remember, the right attitude is the one of wanting to help the client, of wanting to give something! Make sure your sales team feels the same. Make sure your team is a team of givers! Your clients will love you for it.
2. Lack of confidence and certainty
Certainty is everything. When your sales people don’t feel certain they lack the most important ingredient. Coach them to be more confident. Again, certainty is everything.
3. Explanations and excuses
When you get a lot of explanations (at a certain point you might even call them excuses) why the team isn’t performing, listen very closely. Are these constructive ideas to improve or a way to dodge responsibility?
When the sales people have too many reasons then either something needs to be improved immediately or their mindset needs to change now. (see bullet point 1)
4. Lack of skill
Obviously if your team doesn’t have solutions for each step of the sales process that work you need to invest in training. The best thing is to have scripts and a comprehensive sales manual with wordings and solutions for any challenge imaginable.
Teach your team members the skills of how to be extremely effective in sales and driven to results. But also teach them how to be warm and caring.
5. New members of the team feel lost and take too long
That can be a sign, that your processes of training and onboarding of new hires is not
sufficiently developed. You’ll see if new members are acting timid, take a long time to actively seek opportunities to sell, and if they are insecure for too long. Adopt your training to build skill and confidence quicker.
6. You have sales team leaders who aren’t good at selling
This happens more often than you would think. And sales people know when somebody is asking for results but doesn’t know how to create them themselves. Get your leaders fit in sales and in becoming a catalyst for high performance. If your team doesn’t recognize the leader as a leader, the leader needs to grow.
7. Stagnation of results
Clearly if you notice that results aren’t coming in and you’ve tried your best to remedy the situation then try new impulses from outside. Sometimes it’s hard to find solutions when you’re too close to the problem. Finding expert help from outside might be a very time and energy saving thing to do.
About the author:
Andreas Förster has trained and coached companies all over Europe and is specialised in helping startups to successfully build sales teams and sales processes that work. He currently lives in Berlin, Germany. His holistic systematic approach to sales provides solutions that allow you to become effective in sales, to build confidence and to develop your own congruent and natural style of being a master communicator.
Find Andreas on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasfoerster/
