Are Your Sales People Successfully Executing Your Sales Growth Strategies? Restructure Series
Did you hear about the star gymnast who was chosen for the Olympic swimming team? Of course not, because it never happened. Gymnasts, even though they are excellent athletes, will be picked for the gymnastics team. Swimmers will be picked for the swimming team. “Well, that’s just how it’s supposed to be,” I hear you say. Yet, isn’t this what often happens in the world of sales?
How many of your salespeople are truly aligned to execute on the sales strategy that is needed to be successful in their business unit? Simply put, do you have the right people in the right seats on the right buses?
Salespeople don’t always perform as expected, especially when they’re not in the role where they belong.
How might a restructure process enable you to get the best possible results from your Millennial salespeople?
In my recent Forbes article, How to Fix Disappointing Sales Results Through Restructuring, and the 4 articles in this series, I focus on four areas of restructuring a sales force.
In the first post in this series, I talk about taking a microscope to examine your Sales Strategies when restructuring your sales effort. In this post, you will learn why it is important to align your sales talent with your sales strategies.
To illustrate what might happen when we don’t have the right people in the right seats, I will tell you what happened to one of my clients.
Align sales talent to sales strategies
Jack’s Story (all names have been changed)
Jack has been the owner of Think Big Co. for the last 16 years. The business has two well-established divisions, each with distinctive selling differences.
About six months before I met Jack, he scheduled an important meeting with his management team. They decided that it was time to step up their game and expand their business ventures to include online sales. Everyone agreed that this was a sensible move, especially the younger members of the team. They know the selling power of digital and technological advances and have been pleading for this move for some time.
Jack and his team did all the usual strategizing, planning, and researching that would be associated with a new venture. They assigned some of their top salespeople to launch this new initiative.
Six months later, I get a panic call from Jack, “Danita, when can we meet? I urgently need your help!”
During our first meeting, Jack told me about his new division and the poor sales results his high-priced salespeople were delivering. He was adamant that the idea to branch out to online sales was a sound business decision. They were selling an excellent product and their price was competitive. Why on earth are his star salespeople delivering such disappointing results?
We started with a full Sales Audit and, as I expected, Jack was surprised by the results.
- Four of the salespeople in the existing divisions possessed the Sales DNA to be successful in the new online division. They are able to grow revenues, accomplishing the strategic objectives for that division. They scored high on the Posturing Index and Entrepreneurial Mindset, which was exactly what he needed for his new venture.
- None of the top salespeople whom they had assigned to launch the new online sales initiative had the Sales DNA and other characteristics to be successful in this new type of sales. Yikes! A wasted six months!
- We identified candidates who would be able to fill the gaps when these salespeople move to the new division. They required some targeted coaching but had the potential to be successful in their new roles.
At the start of this post, I asked, “Do you have the right people in the right seats on the right buses?”
If your salespeople are not performing as expected, they are probably not in the role where they belong. Use proven assessments to identify their strengths and skills to get your salespeople in the right roles where they can be most effective. Send the gymnast back to his teammates and get your swimmers ready to collect gold medals.
Here are the articles in this series:
How to Profitably Restructure your Millennial Sales Team for Growth
Does Your Sales Force Have the Right DNA to Grow Your Business? 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: The right people in the right seats will execute successfully on your sales strategies.
Leadership Question: What are you doing to align your sales talent to your sales strategies?
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