Do Your Sales People Act Like Mercenaries and Prima Donnas?

By Charles W. Terry, CWT Group

As CEO, do you believe your sales people are overpaid, underperforming and behaving like mercenaries? If so, they are probably also creating havoc throughout your company and the root of the problem will surprise you.

Does the rest of the company share your belief? Do you envy your peers’ companies that seem to have a well-oiled sales machine that has great respect in the marketplace? What’s the difference? The difference is you, the tone you set towards sales and the culture you foster.

For any sales team to be successful, the company’s culture must support and equip them so that they are competent ambassadors to your customers. In addition, they must be treated like the army that brings home the revenue growth. Revenue growth, after all, validates your vision, creates a future for your company and allows you to keep your job!

As CEO, you must decide that the sales team should indeed be ambassadors to your markets and not just the necessary evil that too many CEOs feel. To create this sales-positive culture, you have three fronts to deal with:

· externally to the customers,

· internally within your company, and

· internally within the sales department.

The sales organization, for this discussion, can include all those who have contact with the customers: telemarketers, sales reps, executives, support reps, and customer support.

On the customer front, to be ambassadors to, and partners with, your customers, the sales organization must be prepared to add value to the customer with each interaction and at every step in the sales cycle. If the interactions are only “Ready to buy yet?” discussions, the customer’s view will be “A mercenary is calling on me.” To ensure against this customer interpretation, the sales team must be:

· trained in the products’ capabilities and limitations, as well as how the customers will benefit from its use;

· trained in solution-selling methodologies (even commodities are solutions to someone’s problem); and,

· empowered to rally and coordinate internal resources to assist the customers in making buying decisions, solving problems and implementing solutions.

Inside your company, the culture must be customer-focused. Obvious! However, if your sales team is truly partnering with your customers, being customer-focused also means everyone must be focused on making the sales department successful.

Why is this so important? Customer expectations are set by sales. Sales communicates marketing’s messages first-hand. The credibility of your company is directly related to how empowered, trained and competent each and every sales rep is. Don’t believe it? Ask yourself how you feel when an unprepared sales rep calls on you, and wastes your time. What’s your image of that rep’s company?

How do you create the culture and set the standards to assure your sales organization is able to represent your company at the level you need?

· Have regularly scheduled open, honest and transparent communications amongst the sales department, the executives, customer support, installation teams and all others who touch the customers. A fully utilized CRM system by all constituents is a must. However, make sure it is used as a communication and problem-solving tool, not a “toss the problem to another department” weapon.

· Make sure the sales team is included in the product planning process. Their role should be as champions for the customers. Product management’s role is then to balance the needs of the current customers with longer-term needs of the market, product plan and vision. Be careful what gets promised, because it will also be promised to the customers. Hold product management and development accountable, just as tightly as you hold the sales team accountable.

· Require regular sales and product training for the sales team and anyone who touches the customer. It strengthens the basic sales and problem solving skills and it is also an opportunity to make sure Marketing’s messages are integrated into the customer pitches and conversations. Imagine, having the CEO, sales reps, tech reps, customer support reps and marketing all using the same messaging!

Inside the Sales Department, sales management, now with the support of the organization as discussed above, must drive the reps to produce financial results for the company. Specifically, sales management must:

· Hire only the best. Continually recruit.

· Hold the reps accountable not only to revenue results but also to pipeline metrics: number of dials, weekly contacts, proposals and the number of prospects in each stage of the sales cycle, etc. Without performance standards and tracking at each stage of the pipeline and sales process, your manager will only be measuring and not managing the reps.

· Implement a compensation plan that: pays for contribution, motivates and rewards. These are three separate and distinct elements.

o Pay for contribution means: pay the most for the hard things and the results that most help the company achieve its goals. If they make their numbers, the CEO should too.

o A plan that motivates is one that is clear, concise, and fair. If the plan is too complicated, has many exceptions or legalese addressing how the rep will and won’t earn commission, it will not motivate.

o Reward is what it’s all about. The more the reps beat the plan, the more they make (even it is more than the manager or the CEO). The total compensation needs to match the industry and the targets need to be realistic given the market, products and the support they have from the company culture. No hope for reward equals no revenue production.

· Build a tight team. Set high standards. Make it fun. Regardless how good the culture is, when revenue goals aren’t met, the sales team takes it on the chin. When revenue is going great, reward them emotionally as well as financially.

To summarize, sales is a difficult job. Customers put their jobs on the line to buy from a salesperson. A sales persons’ productivity is easily measured and they regularly get fired based on those measurements…that does not happen in any other department.

The sales department needs everyone’s support, especially the CEO’s. Set them up for success by creating a customer-focused culture that includes loving the sales team and you will have a better chance of making your numbers!

And finally, go on lots of sales calls and give the rep the credit and the commission!

Charles Terry of CWT Group (http://www.cwtgroup.net/) offers interim CXO services including: strategic planning, product management and "go to market" design and execution. Most recently Terry was CEO of Comtex News Network, a company he grew from $3 million to $16 million. He can be contacted at CWTerry@comcast.net.