Does Your Sales Force Have the Right DNA to Grow Your Business? Restructure Series
In today’s ever-shifting market, it’s only natural that our business strategies must evolve and expand. That’s how we stay ahead of our competitors. When we change our sales process or strategy, we often have to restructure our sales force.
I often hear this from business owners, presidents, and CEOs: “I want to keep all my salespeople, but I want to put them in new roles. However, I’m not certain they can handle a different sales strategy. I can’t afford to make a mistake. What should I do?”
In my recent Forbes article, How to Fix Disappointing Sales Results Through Restructuring, and the 4 articles in this series, I focus on three areas of restructuring a sales force. Start reading the series here.
Identify sales mindsets to fast-track increased sales results
Let’s shift our microscope to study the sales mindsets needed to fast track sales success. You will learn how this step can support your restructuring process and save you heaps of money.
When you identify the different sales mindsets that your salespeople already possess, you will be able to match them to the role where they can consistently execute the required sales strategies. They will be most effective in these positions, creating a win-win as sales results increase.
Regardless of the selling role or position, to fast track sales results, your new generation of sales leaders and BDR’s need a robust Will to Sell.
Our research shows that they also need a strong Sales DNA, and specific Sales Core Competencies, that matches the difficulty of the sales strategies and sales process of the respective roles they are in.
While there is much more to sales and selling than skills – strategies and tactics – they do represent 50% of the equation. The other 50% is represented by Sales DNA that must support the use of those skills. Salespeople with the right Sales DNA, but few skills, will always outperform salespeople with good skills but less than desirable Sales DNA. Why? Because skills can be learned at a sales training event. Sales DNA is about how you “think” about sales.
Here are some examples of the important Sales DNA competencies we objectively look at during our Sales Audit process:
- Are they afraid to ask tough business-appropriate questions, not able to dig deep and get to the heart of a business decision? (If they can’t, they might suffer from a high Need for Approval)
- Are they able to talk about money, and able to uncover the actual cost of the problem? Our research shows that 66% of all salespeople are NOT comfortable discussing finances.)
- Do they have difficulty handling stalls and objections? Their pipelines look great, but nothing gets all the way through. Our research shows that 70% of salespeople have trouble in this area)
We can help you identify more areas that might indicate you are not using your salespeople in the roles for which they are best suited.
Restructuring your sales force is an opportunity to take your business to the next level. Resolve to get the right people in the right seats to execute on your sales strategy.
Here are the articles in this series:
How to Profitably Restructure your Millennial Sales Team for Growth
Are Your Sales People Successfully Executing Your Sales Growth Strategies? Restructure Series
How to Restructure your Sales Processes to Improve your Bottom Line Results
How to Restructure Your Business for Maximum Sales Growth
Leadership Lesson: Learning more about sales mindsets will support your restructuring process and save you time and money.
Leadership Question: What are you doing to see which of your salespeople are aligned to execute on the sales strategy of your business?
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