Want to get and keep those elusive ‘A’ Player Salespeople, well you better first find out what they want. So here’s a guide, see how many your organisation can say with confidence you’re providing.
A Sharp Sales Manager: Knowledge, support, leadership- salespeople want all this from their sales manager. The sales manager is there to ignite the flame and keep it burning in their sales team. Salespeople need to know that they can turn to their manager at any time when they become dejected, looking for constant guidance, coaching and motivation.
Recognition and Respect: Acknowledgment of success and value to the company goes a long way. On-going rewards, weekly nominations of achievement or a simple pat on the back, reminds top salespeople that their hard work is not going unnoticed. When an employee is feeling unappreciated, they will most likely lose motivation for their work. It is one of the most frequent reasons why people will leave their current job for a new one.
Pay attention, before it comes to this.
New Product Enablement: Salespeople are more efficient at selling products they are comfortable with. Therefore, it’s essential that before launching a new product, they receive the tools to be successful. How will this new product satisfy their critical buyer’s needs? Top salespeople need to be enabled to win with each new solution.
New Challenges: ‘A’ Players want to be intellectually stimulated. They have a thirst for knowledge and will seek out all opportunities for further training and skill enhancement. Challenge your top performers to be even better, invest in sales training courses. They will thank you for it with loyalty.
Great Company Culture: Work culture aligns a company and its employees, allowing them to thrive. Top salespeople aspire to be involved in a culture that promotes both personal and professional growth. The whole person needs to matter, not just the bottom line. If you want to keep the top salespeople, your culture must be consistent. Any inconsistencies or disingenuous messages and you will lose your top performers.
A healthy company culture creates happy employees.
A Solid Company: Workplace culture is one thing, but if it doesn’t exist in a company that harvests a good reputation and is financially stable, it means nothing. Organisations that have solid business plans, financial strength, strong ethics and invested staff will entice top performers. Top salespeople don’t want to work for a company that cannot meet their client requirements, operate with poor systems and processes, poor quality products/service, poor support, and mediocre leadership.
More Opportunities: Success should lead to advancements of opportunities, [and this is what top performers are looking for]. What constitutes a great opportunity varies from person to person. It could be the chance to earn more money or to have more flexible hours, more responsibility perhaps. When you have identified the motivators of your individual top performers, you can establish an environment that can create these opportunities.
Don’t let anything break your top salesperson stride.
Solid Product Offering: Top salespeople don’t need to have the best product to be successful (that is why they are the top performers). But they do need a product that is reliable and deemed by them worthy of selling. It is, after all, their credibility that is on the line.
No Micro Managing: Top salespeople got to the top through hard work and meticulous improvements to their sales process. The last thing they need is their sales manager standing over them picking apart their efforts and complicating everything. A sales manager’s ability to stay close, yet allow breathing space is what helps them to generate more top performers in their teams.
Avoid.
Independence (and Teamwork): This may sound like a contradiction but to a salesperson they know they need both support from their team and manager and at the same time the chance to be completely independent. Solo efforts are as much a part of working in sales as reconvening and learning with the team. It’s about getting the team together, supporting each other and making each other successful.
Is your organization willing to make the effort to entice and keep top performers?
Originally posted on LinkedIn.
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