Preparing Your Sales Team for the Recession Rebound

We are all looking forward to it. Most of us have started to see some glimmer of improvement already. The end of the recession will be a welcomed sight to all but especially for those of us who are in the sales field.

Being ready for it, however, is another matter.

Some companies took the time (or were forced) to readjust their marketing game plan, improve their products / services or come up with new creative ways to lower costs while delivering better results.

Others took this time to “fill the potholes” and sharpen their teams phone skills in order to improve the odds of closing what leads they did have.

Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you’ve done both.

But in case your strategy was to “duck and cover” till this thing was over, here are three (3) steps you can take now to get your team ready to run the table when those warm leads come filtering in.

1) Record Sales Calls: What a sales person says and what they “think” they said are often two different things (this comment is null and void for reps who are making quota, BTW)

If you aren’t making quota and your sales manager wants to record your calls and go over them with you, stop what you are doing and ask, “When can we start!?”

Recording sales calls is one of the fastest ways to discover where you need improvement - and we all need improvement… especially the sales guys who say: “I’ve been selling for 30 years” but still can’t seem to make quota.

Your manager isn’t trying to embarrass you, he / she is trying to do their job which is help you become as successful as possible.

In fact, if you’re manager hasn’t come to you yet to record your calls, ask them why not! Let’s get going here people! Time is money.

2) Role-play: Once you’ve recorded your calls, and your eyes are now open to some of the errors of your ways, start role-playing those scenarios back and forth prior to the start of each day. Look at it as batting practice, using this time to improve what you say and how you say it in order to get better results when on live calls.

3) Repeat: This exercise isn’t a “one-and-done” game plan. We’ve got some bad habits that need to be replaced with some new best practices and that is going to take a little time. Make role-playing part of your daily ritual and watch your results start to take off.

Sincerely,

Michael Pedone - CSS: Chief Sales Scientist at SalesBuzz.com (A 2011 Sales Training Company Watch List Award Winner!)