Recession Proof Your Sales Team in the Next 90 Days! Part 4

Completing the "Week that Was" debrief

As the sales leader you need to encourage candid dialogue. You need to actively listen not just to what is said by the salesperson, but you must also read between the lines as to what is not being said. One of the goals of the "Week just gone by" debrief is to; where possible, have the salesperson self discover the answers for how to move each of their sales opportunities forward.

At the end of the "Week just gone by" debrief three outcomes should have occurred.

• The salesperson should have an action list of items that they need to execute to move any outstanding activities forward. Who needs to do what, by when, how and with what recourses?
• The salesperson should have been provided with the skills, tools or support to move the action forward.
• The Sales Performance Coach must have an accurate idea of the progress on all the current sales opportunities the salesperson is involved with. This will greatly assist them when it comes to planning and forecasting.

There will be times because of time restraints that you will be unable to debrief every single sales activity. When this is the case, choose specific issues where you can either help the salesperson to pick up on any "low hanging fruit," or reflect on specific issues where you feel the salesperson requires skill coaching.

Once you have completed the debrief of the "Week just gone", you need to focus your attention onto planning in detail the week coming up. Together with the salesperson you will need to develop strategies and tactics to ensure the week to coming up is a deliberate success.

Planning, In Detail, The week Coming Up

Take a good look around you. Everything, and I mean everything, you see was at one point just an idea in someone's mind. From the concept came the blueprint or plan and from that, the item was created. With this in mind, your challenge as the sales manager is to strategize a successful sales week on paper with the salesperson and then allow it to purposefully unfold as planned.

Just as you did with the "Week gone by", debrief, so now you need to begin the process of strategizing and planning the salesperson's "Week ahead".

Here you will need to review each planned sales activity, in depth, to understand;

• What is the result/goal they are hoping to achieve from the activity?
• What is the current status of the activity?
• What are the strategies and tactics that need to be employed to achieve the goal?
• What support do they require to help them accomplish the goal?

As you listen to the salesperson explain how they intend to make their up and coming week a reality, you will uncover the various gaps in their selling strategy, tactics and skills.

Your role as the sales leader is then to tender appropriate advice and training using 'what if' scenarios where suitable. The salesperson must leave the planning session with a new vision or approach. They must have an effective and tactical approach to implement.

By the end of the "Week Ahead" strategy planning session, the following three outcomes should have occurred.

1. The salesperson should have an action list of items that they need to execute their strategies for the "Week Ahead". Who needs to do what, by when, how and with what recourses?
2. The salesperson should have been given the skills, tactics and support required to execute the week ahead.
3. The Sales Performance Coach must have an accurate idea of all the current sales opportunities the salesperson is involved with.

How long does the weekly coaching session take?

Whilst sales leaders can see the value in conducting weekly sessions, they tend to be somewhat reluctant because of the amount of time they perceive the sessions will take. When you first begin the process, the average session will take about forty-five minutes to an hour. As time goes by, these power-packed sessions tend to contract to around thirty minutes.

What you will discover is that, instead of debriefing each and every activity in the diary, you will choose one or two specific issues and use them to debrief and coach on.

I caution you not to get lazy with your weekly sessions.

Remember, the purpose of conducting them is more than simply for reporting purposes. These weekly sessions are as much a "touching base" opportunity for the salesperson to communicate one on one with you as they are a forum for updating you and an opportunity for you to conduct training and coaching.

Keeping it simple

As discussed earlier, the above process is really pretty simple. PLEASE DON'T DISMISS this very practical tool because of its simplicity.

Consider the UNIX model. Their philosophy is simple, "we'll give you a few tools and allow you to use them together well". Look at the success of Google - How simple is the front face of their search engine? We have been taught that the answers to the big business questions lie in complexity. Whereas the opposite in most cases is true. The twenty three word bullet proof formula is simple and is also relatively easy to do. It's also just as easy NOT TO DO!!

Last notes

My objective in writing this report wasn't to provide you with a highly structured and complex sales management process. Rather it was to cut through the clutter of complexity and ultimately give you one powerful, easy to use and easy to apply concept that you can implement immediately to increase both the productivity of your sales people and your own individual relationship with each of them. Try it once a week for 1 month. What could be more important than growing your salespeople to grow their sales?

The Challenge

The turbulent economic market means that even the best sales leaders will be challenged to find ways to improve their sales efficiencies. There is every chance that you will be called upon to achieve more sales from fewer numbers of salespeople. In this pressurized environment, inspiring the sales team becomes far more difficult as one's resources for keeping them motivated are dramatically reduced. To drive each individual sales performance to achieve their best and even thrive during rough times, sales leaders will need to be beyond the traditional fluff and puff of empty motivation methods. Building a highly motivated sales team begins by working collaboratively with each of your salespeople individually, to forge an effective tactical sales plan for the week ahead and help them to learn from their previous week's errors and successes. This powerful and simple one-on-one coaching methodology will prove to be your best armour for managing through this crisis and weathering the tough times ahead.