Simple Tips for Successfully Scaling Sales
Scaling is
essential to the long-term success of a company, yet some business
professionals don’t have a firm grasp on what it means. A sales business that
operates fully at scale has adequate resources and knows how to allocate them
appropriately. This ensures that it can keep up with the current demand and
continue to grow.
Business owners can err in either direction when it comes to scaling. For example, they may hire too many people too soon and go over budget trying to scale the business too fast. At the opposite end is the business owner who won’t make the bold moves necessary for company growth. The key to scaling success is to find a workable balance between these two extremes.
Ensure
That Everyone Contributes as Expected
When only a
small percentage of a sales team consistently meets its goals, it’s a mistake
to keep them on and continually hire more people. Sales managers may think that
additional employees mean an improved opportunity to meet goals, but it can
have the opposite effect.
A larger
sales team means more time spent training and going several months managing a
team that is not yet up to speed with expectations.
A better
solution to this dilemma is to hold the current sales team members accountable
for reaching their quotas. It isn’t fair to expect the high performers to carry
the load for the entire group. A new hire should replace a salesperson whom the
manager had to let go for not being able to achieve goals despite additional
resources and training.
The
Hiring Strategy Should Be Customized for Sales
The successful salesperson possesses a unique combination of skills that would probably not work well in another position. Businesses need to determine their specific selling needs and style before doing any hiring.
This will help the human resources department craft an advertisement requesting skills such as partner management that may be unique to the organization. Job candidates will need to demonstrate knowledge about the company and products sold in addition to more general sales skills and personal attributes.
Overhaul
the Sales Process if Necessary
New sales
representatives won’t be successfully unless they can follow a sales process
that is easy to understand and repeat. Not only is this essential for training,
but an unclear process will be impossible to measure and track. It needs to be
structured in such a way that new salespeople can begin following it
immediately. As far as making the sales process repeatable, sales managers
should consider these steps when creating it:
Determine the company’s most essential KPIsClearly define each stage of the pipelineOutline the requirements for lead qualification according to the various pipeline stagesTell salespeople which activities to complete at every pipeline stage
It’s up to
the sales manager to deliver the most recent copy of the sales process to every
member of his or her team.
Scaling
Can Be a Process of Trial and Error
It’s normal to experience successes and failures while scaling sales. The important thing is to determine why the failures occurred and take steps to avoid them while also making sure the company has the resources to continually repeat successful processes.
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