17 ways to improve your sales
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'For managers,' says Bunis, 'it's very important to be relentless with rewards for excellent execution.' You cannot, he says, reward at the end of the year or even the quarter. Do this and the relationship between good performance and recognition becomes rather nebulous - salespeople are 'immediate satisfaction' personalities. Moreover, he adds, when it comes to incentivisation, there is nothing wrong with a bit of theatre. 'I once went to a meeting in Chicago. One guy there was a salesman who had been doing a particularly brilliant job. We were sitting there and the CEO walked in with two Brinks Mat heavies and dumped $45,000 in cash in front of him. It sat there for the whole meeting and I've never seen a better example of motivation.'
'Many companies such as ours,' says Ross Hugo, MD of holidaylets.net, 'have to keep abreast of the fact that their market is cyclical.' So, in this case it would be ludicrous having the same targets in February and March which as pretty busy as June when most people have already made vacation arrangements. On a more general note, set targets too high and commission based people will be demotivated; set them too low and you'll be paying out stacks of cash. 'Each month,' says Hugo, 'we have to sit down with the team and agree realistic targets based on what both parties think is achievable.'
Salespeople are real people too and, like everyone else in the business, they need to feel wanted and appreciated. 'You've got to keep talking to them,' says Hugo, 'all the time. Give them feedback and take and interest in what they're up to. Just stopping by for a chat is a great uplift.' On a related note, if you have good news or want to recognise someone, for God's sake do it in person, not by email. It means ten times as much if you actually walk the five metres over to their desk.
You should provide the channels for your customers to tell you how they feel about your products or service, whether it be through your website, your salespeople or face to face. But you should be careful about how you interpret this. Bear in mind that happy customers usually don't give you much feedback - the vast majority comes from the dissatisfied. So while you should always respond - especially to those who are unhappy - you should think twice about changing an offering that has a silent satisfied majority. As for positive feedback: well that's great - you should use it as testimonials.
'Make sure your product or service gives them a number of benefits,' says David Horwood, CEO of ihotesk,'and show them the return on investment which must be believable.' It's not rocket science, but you have to make this obvious - and if it isn't you probably need to rework your offering. 'Look at your product or service though your prospect's eyes' says Horwood. He also adds that it's worth getting yourself a focussed database of clients: if you try to cover too many, you'll just wind up with a scattergun approach.
Make sure you approach prospects in a number of different ways. Probably the best is to ask existing prospects for referrals: there is nothing like the dropping of a name known to both parties to break the ice. You may also want to use direct mail, telemarketing or even partner with businesses who are after the same target but with whom there is no conflict of interest. Exhibiting and or sponsoring events that your prospects are likely to attend can work well too.
