Sales staff can make or break a business: they are the front end representation of the brand. Are they representing the brand in a way that would make a brand manager proud?
Most often not.. For sure, in the presence of management and directors staff are on their best behavior. Whereas day to day, complacency place a major role in the lack of personal branding and carry through of the corporate identity.
I am sure you may be familiar with the saying:
I work for money if you want loyalty get a dog…
How do we encourage sales staff to become true brand ambassadors?
Here are a few ways of getting the most out of sales staff:
- Be an example by getting your hands dirty too.
- Uncover their day to day issues within the work place and find solutions.
- Be sensitive to their personal and family needs as people generally only work to support themselves and their families.
- Lead with encouragement and not a dictatorial style, it’s the best way to get people to do what you need done.
Sales Staff are either key players in the revenue generation of the business or a dead weight that the top performers drag along day-by-day.
There is nothing more satisfying for a sales manager or business owner to see a team of sales staff actively prospecting, gaining momentum and generating revenue. Besides being a reflection of good leadership and management skills the flow of commission is inspiring too.
Getting your sales staff to work as a team is essential to their overall performance. Once they realize that they are a team that not only competes with external competitors but with each other, leveraging their own ambitions is at the forefront of the motivating factor that will drive them to succeed. This will also weed out the sales staff that are those dead weights. Sounds cruel, but carrying dead weight not only strains sales figures but motivation and reputation too.
Wanting to get the most out of your sales staff?
How do you define success?
Most people, sales people in particular, beat themselves up for constantly being on the brink of failure. Where as their real failure is missing the opportunity to recognize successes in both great and small circumstances.
Earl Nightingale, a pioneer in the audio development space has a simple yet profound description that changes the perception and challenge of ‘pie in the sky success’,to be more practical and realistic in its individual approach.
In his recording ‘The Strangest Secret’, Earl describes success to be the working towards a worthy ideal. Notice how it is the working towards the ideal that determines ones success and not necessarily the achievement of it.
This worthy ideal spans all walks of life and is driven by the passion you may have towards a particular calling, career, task or goal. Earl gives the example of a mother striving to be the best mother possible, the school teacher working to always teach to the best of her ability and the sales person giving their all. The mere fact that a meaningful effort is applied is significant enough to be recognized as a success.
To illustrate this form my point of view, here are a few examples of my successes:
- I succeed at being ethical in my work.
- I work hard to meet targets
- I finish major canoe races like The Duzi Canoe Marathon
- I work hard at making my marriage happy and life giving.
Notice how most of these success examples seem infinite, and that’s because they are.
You see, my successes are driven by my goals and I succeed by constantly working towards them. There are always ups and downs in the pursuit of a worthy ideal but the real success is in not giving up or letting go.
What is your success?
List all the areas in your live where you are working towards a worthy ideal.
If you have none let the establishment of a worthy ideal be your first success.
Recognizing successes, great and small is the starting point for achieving great goals in life.