7 best practices of best sales teams

Nike founder Phil Knight has a great phrase: “You must act world class before you are world class.”

Many people think top sales organizations exist only at the Fortune 100 or Fortune 500 level. Not so. You don’t have to wait until you are large to start implementing best practices that will help you win business. No need to reinvent the sales-management wheel. Just duplicate and install these proven seven best practices into your sales organization:

Hire a sales manager’s sales manager with lots of friends. Hire a sales manager that is comfortable with the title of boss and doesn’t have to be a salesperson’s new best friend. The title of sales manager brings the responsibility of accountability, managing results and not excuses, and being the official bar raiser at the company.

Here’s the reality: A good sales manager cares about his team – and because he cares, he is also willing to show some ‘tough love’ and hold salespeople accountable to a specific set of metrics for sales activity, pipeline and results. The salesperson may not like this ‘tough love’ in the beginning – but she loves it in the end when she is hitting quota and making money.

Create a defined business development plan. Ask members of a top sales team about their sales activity plan and you will hear a specific set of numbers linked to a specific activity instead of vague statements such as, “We do some of this and some of that.” These sales organizations also know that sales activity isn’t enough. They provide skills training as it relates to the sales activity. (Ever met a sales stalker at a networking event or received a ‘put you to sleep’ prospecting email?) Activity combined with skill training is the winning formula.

Create a sales playbook. Here’s a common mistake made by companies: “We hire veterans so we don’t need to give them training.” The translation: “We hire old sales dogs who are not willing to learn new tricks.”

Just turn on the television set and watch the NFL. They recruit players that have been playing ball for years – and yet, each team has a playbook and shows up to practice every week. Athletic teams don’t allow each athlete to run his or her own practice or playbook and neither do effective sales organizations. The smart sales manager knows she can’t even read 15 different playbooks, much less coach them.

Get crystal clear about your target clients. I learned this early on in the sales training business from a good mentor. He helped me eliminate writing a lot of practice proposals by helping me identify who would value my services. Two key criteria came from his coaching. I needed to find organizations that valued education and outside counsel.

Look at your business. You might find that you work best with rapidly growing companies because they don’t have time to install systems and processes. Perhaps your best customer is increasingly burdened by government regulations. As the old saying goes, “Fish where the fish are.”

Recognize and reward. Top sales organizations have a tangible and intangible award system. These organizations are excellent at sharing daily success stories. Purchase that bell and sound it off after a sale. Send a note home to a spouse bragging about the salesperson’s expertise. Plan a year-end dinner to recap the victories. No one has ever complained about being over-recognized.

Manage results, not excuses. Let’s face it. There will always be plenty of excuses for not hitting quota: the economy, marketing collateral and bigger competitors. Develop a mindset that all of the above can provide opportunity. A bad economy means weak competitors go away. Lack of marketing collateral means the salesperson gets to be the walking brochure. A small company can move and adjust to client demands without having to get approval from 15 decision makers. Turn excuses into results.

Create emotionally intelligent sales cultures. Recognize that it takes a sales village to win in today’s competitive business environment. Hire competitive and collaborative salespeople. These folks show up to sales meetings willing to share information that helps everyone on the team win. They are smart enough to recognize that the competitor is outside the meeting room, not in the meeting room.

As basketball legend Michael Jordan said, “There is no ‘I’ in team but there is in win.” One of the most competitive athletes in the game recognized that he couldn’t win a championship without the help of his peers.

There you have it. Count to seven and go!

Colleen Stanley is president of SalesLeadership Inc., a sales consulting firm specializing in emotional intelligence and sales and sales management training. She is author of “Emotional Intelligence For Sales Success and Growing Great Sales Teams.” Contact her at salesleadershipdevelopment.com or 303-708-1128.

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