Learn to speak the sales language and boost your results

Salespeople everywhere are overwhelmed, under-resourced, and struggling to succeed. RYAN ESTIS emphasises that business owners must support their staff to unlock potential.

According to statistics, 43 per cent of salespeople are actively looking for a new job. If that’s not big enough news, then consider that a large portion of those are looking to get out of sales completely!

I discussed this topic with one sales professional who explained the current state of affairs inside her organisation, describing it as “abysmal”.

The business was losing market share, facing new, disruptive competition and struggling to keep up with a shift in customer expectations.

The organisation was cost-cutting, which meant not investing in the future and responding quickly to reality. She was starting to succumb to a very challenging, uncertain situation.

The unfortunate outcome was her shaken self-confidence. She was going to miss her performance target for the first time and was questioning if she was cut out for the future of professional selling.

She was wrong. It’s not the salesperson who is failing; it’s the organisation and its leadership because they aren’t putting their people in a position to compete and win.

Selling is a game of confidence, and sales staff must believe they can win.

Salespeople wanting out“Selling is a game of confidence, and sales staff must believe they can win.”

More than 80 per cent of salespeople would consider leaving sales altogether if they could make the same amount of money in another role. That sentiment eventually has a significant impact on performance.

To help business owners and sales managers respond, my organisation published our research results in an e-book. The research uncovered some surprising and informative findings.

Secrets of employee engagement

Salespeople are more engaged than non-sales-orientated employees.

• 17 per cent of salespeople are fully engaged; 46 per cent are disengaged or under-engaged.
• 13 per cent of non-sales employees are fully engaged; 57 per cent are disengaged or under-engaged.
• Salespeople are also more likely to leave, with 46 per cent of salespeople actively looking for a new job, compared to just  26 per cent of non-sales employees.

There are eight key drivers of employee engagement. Engaged employees say:

• I have confidence in my organisation’s senior management
• Employees at my organisation have good career advancement opportunities
• I have confidence in the future of my organisation
• Our values guide how people at my  organisation behave
• My work gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment
• My organisation treats employees well
• Senior management shows a sincere interest in employee well-being
• In my work group, we work well together as a team

For salespeople, money also matters. When salespeople are compensated based on their performance with commissions or bonuses, they are much more engaged. Indeed, 63 per cent of commission-based salespeople are fully or moderately engaged.

Training also has a direct effect on engagement. Salespeople who receive the training they need to do their jobs well are 10 times more likely to be fully engaged.

Start preparing for success

In the future, winning organisations will be the ones that are the most prepared.

Here are five ways to prepare your sales staff for success in the future.

Go first: Before managers ask their teams to commit to performance goals, they need to tell those teams what will be done to help them meet those goals.

Promote continuous learning: Build a culture of continuing education. Assign teaching topics that challenge salespeople to stretch and grow and share case studies from outside of the organisation.

Leverage the power of storytelling: Include customer case studies in every sales meeting.

Focus on customer outcomes and reinforce the business’ compelling value proposition.

Check-in: Provide feedback and have 'future direction' conversations every 30 days.

Salespeople require a consistent feedback loop and expect to be given the opportunity to contribute thinking and feedback to help businesses improve.

Drive performance: This is done by focusing on performance targets and customer outcomes. Recruit and develop the best sales talent.

Remove barriers and provide the resources and coaching that salespeople need to not only compete, but also to win.