In business, things change!
And they can change quickly. Especially your products, services, or offerings. But when you’ve got a sales team who are already loaded with services, how do you get them to even consider getting their heads around something else to sell?!
It’s a lot to expect to be able to pick up and start selling at the drop of the hat, but a good salesperson will often be up for the challenge – after all, that’s why they’re in sales! There is, however, a fine line between doing too much and overworking your teams and pushing them to be the best they can in their jobs.
So, if you’ve got a vision and a plan to sell more services to your existing client base, there are a few ways I recommend getting everyone on board without adding extra lines on that ever-growing to-do list.
Review and Streamline
Before you do anything, you should always review where you’re already at. There’s no point making changes if you’re not sure what needs to change!
Assess how your team are doing. Chances are if they’re in a sales environment then they’re always in action mode, BUT are they busy doing too much?
Do they overlap in some tasks?
Have you ever posed this question to them?
How can you monitor if that’s the case?
To start, having crystal clear job profiles and responsibilities is so incredibly important for both you and them.
Knowing what is expected of you will always enable you to be more productive and make better decisions on where to focus your energy, so make sure it’s the same for your teams. Let them know what you expect and be an open ear if they struggle or find something difficult.
Everyone works at a different pace and has different needs, so be mindful of that and take into consideration that what works for one person won’t always work for the next. Where one person might be able to pick up another three products or services relatively quickly without little help, another might need more prompting and time to understand the ins and outs.
Decide who is best for what and make your decisions according to strengths.
Check your processes
When you look at all the systems you use, including excel spreadsheets that you’ve created over the years (we know there will be a lot!) as well as your CRM system, is there repetition?
Could you take out some of the processes to make it quicker and easier?
Sometimes we add in extra steps for the sake of it and we don’t even really realise we’re doing it. It might make sense, but is it necessary? Probably not!
In fact, go one step further and think when was the last time you went through an exercise where you documented the processes?
Have you ever been through it yourself?
It can be useful to keep yourself updated every now and then with what everyone else needs to do, because with a fresh pair of eyes the repetition becomes apparent, and you can see what can be dropped or simplified. When you do something day in and out, you become a little blind to the details.
This can also be a great way to help with streamlining and creating scale in your business – and who doesn’t love a two in one benefit to an exercise!?
Look at additional automation
Now you’ve covered at your team’s job profiles and you’ve streamlined your existing system, is there anything else that your existing systems can do to take some of the load of the team?
We automate so much of our life; we might as well put it to good use in the workplace!
What else do you think there is that could be easily automated?
Think about your sales cycle and account management cycles. What else could be sent out automatically and pre-scheduled to save time in the day to day for the people on the floor.
I frequently tell my clients to look at their regular touchpoints. With some interesting and entertaining content going out, whether it’s in a newsletter or a video blog, keeping your customers updated in other means than just your sales team will take the edge off how much they need to relay.
And one that seems so obvious but so many people overlook, if you haven’t done so already, could an invoice be generated as soon as a contract with you has been signed?
What software would work for you and start taking some of those trivial, repetitive tasks away from your teams and free up some time to work on their product knowledge and those new services you want to push?
I always have new ideas as well as tried and tested methods to help sales teams get the most out of their days and do so without burning out, so please feel free to get in touch with me however is easiest if you’re struggling to keep up.
