Looking for ways to help your team close more sales calls? It takes time, effort, and a comprehensive set of skill-building techniques to create a winning sales team.
But managers who put the effort into team-building instead of team-berating enjoy long-term success. Here are some of the strategies they use.
Product knowledge — demos, not memos
Few things kill a deal faster than a salesperson who doesn’t know basic product details. On sales calls with skeptical clients, it takes two things to win them over: a superior product, and strong knowledge of all the specific ways that your product is superior.
Successful sales teams undergo regular product training that is hands-on whenever possible. This is about more than simply emailing a memo to your team. It’s about grouping up for demos, reviewing and discussing industry data together, and even group interviewing members from other departments like production, marketing, or engineering.
The group setting is best for two reasons; first, more questions and thus, more answers are likely to come from a larger group of people. Second, consistency is key, and your team is more likely to retain information if you’ve all taken it in together. People can remind each other and have further topical discussions.
If your team member is able to impress a caller with their product and industry knowledge, that sets your company up as an authoritative and potentially trustworthy vendor in the client’s mind, so take the time to thoroughly educate your team on a weekly or even daily basis.
Client knowledge
Review customer complaints and testimonials with your sales team and discuss ways to maximize the customer experience. This pairs with product knowledge, as your team needs a wealth of information to quickly provide options and alternatives depending on your customer’s needs.
Your team needs to understand the ideal client’s point of view, interests, and concerns. They also need to accurately understand the customer process from start to finish, so they can manage expectations and avoid any potential pitfalls as the conversation unfolds.
Efficiency
One of the most important roles a manager must take to heart is making sure the team has the tools and resources they need to operate efficiently.
This is less about investigating which employees are time-wasters, and more about investigating processes and procedures to make sure your system is designed not to waste employee’s time. This allows them to focus on selling rather than busy work or logistics. Once you maximize your process, you can place the focus squarely back on your team.
For call centers, automation of repetitive tasks is as crucial as using a comprehensive CRM manager. Using any number of predictive dialers services will dramatically reduce downtime. Ensure your internal procedures are streamlined with automation or templates, requiring minimal effort or time so that your team can focus on activities that move the bottom-line forward.
Mixed incentives
Incentives work best when there is a broad mix to provide constant positive reinforcement. Your team should have a few small, easily attainable goals in addition to major, difficult-to-complete goals so you cultivate a culture of achieving. Having a mix of individual and team goals can help instill a sense of fairness to the process.
Morale and coaching
Winning sales teams start at the top; show your sales team they matter by taking the time to coach them regularly on expectations, procedures, objection handling, and even self-confidence. Watch morale carefully to identify and resolve emerging issues before they drive your team apart.
Increasing your call closing ratios is a bit like being the captain of a cruise ship: you must keep all systems in perfect working order to keep your customers satisfied and coming back.