Myth #2
Just because your salespeople make presentations to prospects on a daily basis, it is best to leave the design of your sales presentation to them.
Singers are not necessarily songwriters and actors are not necessarily screenwriters. It is management’s responsibility to provide a compelling value proposition for their salespeople to present and to make that value proposition easy for the client to understand and ultimately to make a purchasing decision.
Most customers do not know how to buy your product or service. The fact is, most of your clients, once you win them, will stay with you for years. So prospects fall into one of two categories:
- those with very little experience buying print, or
- those with lots of experience buying from their current supplier.
If I asked you what coffee you were going to buy this morning, you’d know immediately. Conversely, if I asked the address of your next home, you’d have to think about it.
The same is true when it comes to buying print. If a customer regularly buys it from someone, they will automatically think of them. To break that thinking pattern you have to provide a compelling value proposition. For example, if the customer has little or no experience buying print, they will need to go through a buying process so they can make the best purchasing decision.
Building a better presentation includes four criteria:
- Lowering your customer’s risk.
- Making it easier for them to do business with you, i.e. showing them how you’ll take more responsibility to get the job done.
- Lowering their total cost, which does not necessarily mean lowest price.
- Providing them with a competitive advantage that they only receive by doing business with you.
Myth #3
If you just pay your sales staff more, or give them more incentives, they will work longer and harder.
Unfortunately, experience says otherwise. While proper compensation is critical to building and maintaining a sales team, take note: money is the number four reason people choose to leave or join a company. Using money to motivate is like eating sugar to gain energy; it works in the short term but the results are very short lived and done regularly, it can ruin your health.
So why do sales staff seldom reach their potential? The two things that top the list are a lack of recognition and lack of a clear job description.
If you’re like most business owners, you make this mistake with salespeople because erroneously you believe that the job of salespeople is to “go out and sell.”
Unfortunately, “going out to sell” is a desired outcome rather than a job description. It is a safe bet that your other staff – from reception to operations – has specific tasks that they are expected to complete on a daily basis. The same needs to be true of your sales staff.
What is the solution? Instead of paying out a draw or base and hoping for a return on investment, invest in the completion of sales activity. Having dealt with this on several occasions, the formula is simple: pay the sales rep whatever realistically makes sense. This means calculating the revenue you will need to earn that amount, divide it by the number of orders they need to sell and then multiply to calculate how many appointments you need to achieve that number of sales.
The draw is paid at the end of the month conditional upon the completion of the appointments. Managed properly, the closing ratio will make certain that the sales person not only covers their expense but they actually hit targets and earn bonuses.
Debunk the myths in your organization and enjoy the benefits of superior sales results!
