Old Pro’s, Green Sales Guys, and New Tricks
So who is this one targeted at the guy who has been a top perfoming sales guy for decades, the new sales person who doesn’t know which way is up or the Sales Manager types? The answer is yes to all of the above.
It all starts with the sales manager. If you’ve been one for a while the measure is the numbers however there are so many sublte nuances you need to account for from keeping the team motivated to keeping the team from killing each other on a regular basis. Great sales people aren’t pacifists but it also doens’t mean that there aren’t a lot of great ones who are more than willing to help.
Share stories told by the team members them selves in sales meetings structre the content but don’t control it completely and let the reps use their words on why they won or why they lost and any other pertinaint customer details. Make it inter active. Once that starts to happen regually then its time to make the next big step in sales training.
So there is an undenaibale benefit of a mentoring program wheter its formal or informal. Call it what ever works but at the end of the day you’re looking for others who are qualified to help to provide ongoing and real world sales training for newer members of the team. Even in grade schools you see kids who have been there for a few years getting kindergarden buddies to look out for and help feel at home. Why should your sales team be any different?
Why would the old pro’s want to help a new guy? They all have their own book or lack of business to worry about? Sure some are just good guys and girls who love what they do and want to share their knoweldge and experience. It can be prestigious, an honor that the leaderships oly picks the top performers who demonstrate the right behavior attitude and work ethic. Self satisfaction is great but the new rep also offers the experienced sale pro womthing just like a customer would fresh eyes, insight, and understanding of what they see.
What makes A Veterna sales guy the right one? Again a great question. First off if you’re not sharing war stories in sales meetings or aren’t doing so in an interactive and positive way. Try to get added to the agenda.
If your sales manager isn’t doing this for you be proactive and take it on your self. Set up an coffee club to get together before business hours over coffee every week or so with other reps of your choosing. Make it a regularly scheduled meeting just like you would with a leads group.
Things to look for are people who like you are focused on the customer’s needs. People who are proactive not reactive and who are looking continue to do better and better. Now you might say that you only want top performers and it could be fine but you need people who are open and interested in helping each other not just themselves. Avoid the ones who are constantly negative. They’ll run you down a rat hole if something is a little off kilter and kill the benefit of meeting.
What you stand to gain here is additional perspective, plus the benefit of a sense of camaraderie which after a hard day of selling it’s nice to know there are others out there with you.
A lot has been written about peer groups and mentoring and each has their own set of merits. For our purposes this is the one place you want to be able to go to and search out why you won, or why you lost. Both are important but difficult to truly understand. Look deep in this area and get to the real reasons not just the easy one on the surface. Unless you know there is no way to us what you learned to repeat or improve the result. The ability to understand what is working for others and in what segments is vital to making your pitch, offer and efforts as strong and compelling as possible. Remember you are responsible for the amount of business that’s produced from you account or territory but you’re not alone.
