Does Your Sales Team Keep You Up at Night?

Do Something About It

“Nearly 70 million Americans have a sleep disorder.”

 American Sleep Association

Sales often are the source of the greatest pride and the biggest disappointment for a business owner, all at the same time. Many years back, I worked for a founder who was directly involved in most sales hires. And on their first day, the new hire was introduced as the "greatest thing since sliced bread." And they were continuously held in that highest regard … until their first failure to deliver a deal the founder thought was a no-brainer. From that moment forward, they were the target of questions and doubt … until they were ultimately let go.

In most cases, sales is a people business. A sales team is a group of often highly individualistic members selling in turn to a diverse group of decision-makers, people buying from people. B2B is a misnomer. We are selling to people within a business, and people are much more complex and unpredictable than the companies they represent. We need to think about their workplace dynamics, their ambitions, their inherent biases, and so forth.

The role of a sales leader, among others, is to establish structure and process to create some form of order. And at the end, it will never be a scientific process were controlled and measured input creates predictable outcomes every time.

The most promising opportunity with all the right buying signals can suffer an unexpected and sudden death at the whim of a decision makes.

So, its no wonder that many business owners lose sleep over their sales team.

Don’t accept it, do something:

·       Understand the process – the more you understand about your sales process, the better.

·       Be realistic – many founders who have done the initial selling themselves then lose sight of their own failures. In hindsight, they only remember the glories of success.

·       Manage your expectations – especially regarding people. They rarely are either a hero or a failure. Even the best salespeople fail to win deals, and that is built into the sales process.

·       Invest in transparency – CRM may just be the new melatonin. Sales are not scientific, but it is a numbers game. With knowledge of the process, a CRM can deliver you the data that provides peace of mind and the right triggers for your concern and the need for intervention.

·       Build trust – that is the hardest to do. As a leader, you want the team to trust you. Likewise, you need to trust what you put in place: the product you developed, the process you built, the people you hired, …

Contact us to find out how an interim or fractional sales leader can help you to find peace of mind.

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Photo by Anne Gosewehr