Finance and Business

Great Sales Force Coaching

Since coaching sales reps can be stressful and difficult, let’s take a close loot at what for a great coach, and what constitutes excellent coaching. Successful field coaching of reps requires that sales managers recognize three preconditions.

• First, the manager must set aside time for coaching. Some expert believe that in typical sales management position, 75% of the manager’s time should be spent in the field coaching reps.
• Second, to be truly effective, most coaching must be done individually with reps, in sessions that last from thirty-five to forty-five minutes and take place immediately prior to or following rep activities minutes and take place immediately prior to or following rep activities with customers. This make the coaching more relevant and timely.

Coaching that is delayed or out of sync with applicable situation is not nearly so effective. Although certain amount of coaching of sales reps in a group setting is possible, most coaching of reps should be tailored to the individual to reflect the operating realities of different reps, customer sets, and distributors in a territory.

Third, the benefits of coaching are not truly realized until trust has been established between sales manager and rep. coaching involves confronting problems. Unless trust is present, the rep being coached may not feel the manager has earned the right to be as firm and direct as the situation requires. The manager’s authority is not sufficient in itself to ensure that genuine coaching session will occur.

The sales manager shouldn’t dominate a coaching session. Yet this frequently occurs in the absence of trust. Because trust involves shared values and experiences, developing a relationship takes time. Sales managers must recognize the time-consuming nature of trust building.
A great coach performs several key roles for sales reps :
The instructor-teacher role. Sales managers should help reps integrate what they learned in the classroom about products or selling skills with what their experience is teaching the “in the street.” A sales manager can provide quality instruction to reps, on the spot, before o after sales calls about :
- How to probe for genuine customer needs.
- How to categorize customers by sales potential, in ways that make the rep smarter  in qualifying business prospects or more able to typify the key buying influences in an account. Customer categorization help reps stay organized. They can more readily use their accumulated knowledge of what works for customers.
- How to study and categorize competitors. Sales managers who teach reps to better understand competitors are providing them with information useful in setting sales goals in the midst of changing competition in the local territory. Reps covering key urban territories are often subject to more aggressive and numerous competitive maneuvers than are reps in larger, rural territories.
- How to optimally lay out routing plans for customer call cycles, depeding on various accounts’ sales volumes and territory. The manager can guide reps in defining “A.” “B” or “C” target accounts, then help the rep determine feasible call schedules.
- Sales managers can provide quality instruction on what the rep can do to achieve desirable outcomes. Managers can be dispassionate about which approaches work best and/or how these can be finetuned. This improves a sales rep’s adaptive selling skills. Often a manager accompanying a rep can see ways for the rep to improve his of her handling of customer objections of to improve closing techniques. Teaching reps self-assessment skills is a vital part of a coach’s role.

Tags: marketing, rep coaching, reps, sales, sales force

Selling Online Products in the Offline World

Making online affiliate-based sales is becoming easier every day thanks to the growing sophistication of online sales tracking methods and affiliate marketing support.

It should come as no surprise that a large number of online purchases are for computers, printers and accessories. After all, these are things web surfers use every day.

But nearly every day I field questions from friends, family and colleagues who are getting ready to make their first computer purchase so they can get on the internet. In many cases, these folks have never even seen the web or have spent little time online. This dilemma presents a special challenge and a unique opportunity at the same time.

How does the affiliate make this offline sale?

The answer to this question is a simple three-step process. First, sign up for one of the many computer equipment affiliate programs available on the web. I use a Dell computer and heartily recommend them, so I signed up for the Dell affiliate program through http://linkshare.com

The next step is to create a sales page that you load to your website. If you don’t have a website you can simply sign up for a free site from one of the many free providers. A favorite of mine is at http://hypermart.net

This page doesn’t need to sell your customer; it simply needs to provide the links through which the customer will click (many affiliate programs such as Dell contain hidden codes that require your customer to click from a web page.)

For an example of my Dell sales page visit http://smarthomebusiness.com/dell.htm

You’ll notice that the page isn’t a hard sell; it’s a simple page with affiliate links to the Dell site. When my customer clicks on any of these links I’ll be credited with any purchases he makes.

The third step is to get your customer to your sales page. This is the obstacle, since your customer may not be on the web yet.

If necessary, ask the person over to your house. Give your him a hands-on demonstration of the very product he’s thinking of purchasing. Once you have your customer online, show him around the net.

Let him navigate. Show him some of your favorite hangouts, your website, your favorite discussion boards, favorite game sites and anything that might interest him. After a few short minutes on the web he’ll absolutely NEED that new computer!

Wrap up your presentation by taking him to your sales page. For an extra-special touch, name the page after your customer, such as “Mark.html”

By now he’s thoroughly hooked on the web and thinking about a purchase. Let him do it by clicking from your sales page.

Now the Dell affiliate program pays a very small commission, but what I’ve gained is far more important’a relationship with that customer that he can’t get at an offline computer superstore.

I’ve walked him through the web, shown him all the bells and whistles on my own computer (including some add-ons he might like) and established myself as a valuable source of technical information.

The next time he wants to make an online purchase, who will he ask? When he wants to buy software who will he come to for advice? And most importantly, when he has questions about affiliate programs or starting his own online business, who will he ask? You guessed it!

The value of this customer is far greater than the few dollars I made on this original sale’it’s the lifetime value of the customer.

Keep your eyes and ears open for offline opportunities such as this. When you discover someone with a specific need, create a specific page to provide the solutions. Your new customer will thank you many times over with repeat business.

About the author: Scot Dantzer is a media consultant and entrepreneur in Philadelphia. Download his newest book, “Dimes-2-Dollars: 8-Steps to IMMEDIATE eBay Profits” from http://smarthomebusiness.com/dimes.htm SmartHomeBusiness.com Internet Marketing for “The Technology Challenged.” http://smarthomebusiness.com

Tags: affiliate, online selling, sales

Sales Rep Peformance Appraisals

Sales reps in the 1990s are becoming more professional, more service-oriented toward customers, and more self-managed. Many are specialists, better-trained and more targeted. As such they expect to be appraised on their performance in objective, professional, and constructive ways. And they expect to be active “partners” in this appraisal process -involved in rating themselves and providing their opinions on where they need to improve, alongside those of the manager.  After all, sales people are very much like professional contractors: They work for the customer.

The reps take feedback from customers about what is satisfying their needs and then adapt sales solutions accordingly. The manager becomes less of an “authority” figure than the person working alongside the rep to help him or her develop and do the very best possible job to keep customers happy.

Many formal appraisals rate reps on a series of proficiencies, both quantitative and qualitative. These include skills in such areas as time management, paperwork handling, customer relations, expense control, holding onto customers and avoiding customer turnober, growing new account, and hitting salse forecasts.

These “laundry list” type appraisals fall down on two counts. First, they assume that reps with all of these well-rounded skills will succeed, which is not always the case in an age of narrower rep specialization. And second, they don`t tie ratings specifically enough back to the manager`s stated goals. Rep proficiency levels are only relevant if the are goal-directed.

For instance, if a sales manager`s goals are to grow sales to new accounts, the proficiencies necessary to produce this result among reps differ markedly from those necessary to hold onto and grow sales via “old line” existing accounts. Each goal requires different kinds of training and daily call effort. Each would emphasize different field-level spending priorities in expense budgets. And each requires different skills in sales technique and paperwork handling.

Tags: manager, rep, sales