Sales Mgrs: Taking Stock in 2014

Happy New Year…Hoorah!!! Once all the kickoff hype subsides, sales managers are faced with the daunting task of getting their respective sales teams to climb the proverbial mountain of sales targets and revenue quotas for 2014. If you are coming off a good year, congratulations. But, as the old saying goes, “What have you done for me lately?”

Accurately assessing selling skills has always been been a challenge. Is it true that whoever closed the biggest deal in 2013 has the most talent. Of course, not. That’s not to suggest that you don’t have some talented salespeople who consistently hit their sales objectives. But, sales managers have often wondered, “What is the secret sauce that differentiates top performing sellers from the rest of the pack?”

Here are three simple questions that you can ask your salespeople moving forward that will give you a much better idea of where they really stand in terms of their sales acumen:

1.) What (specifically) is your secret for being consistently successful? Note: Don’t accept generic responses like “I build relationships, communicate value, or I differentiate myself.” That’s not the real answer, because your other salespeople are trying to do those same things and they are consistently struggling. Don’t be surprised if most salespeople can’t really tell you why they are successful, which makes it difficult for managers to duplicate the formula for the rest of the team

2.) What’s your strategy for causing prospective customers to “want to” share information with a salesperson they don’t yet know or trust? The answer to this question might hold the key to success in today’s business environment where customers tend to be more cautious, hesitant, reluctant, and standoffish toward salespeople than ever before.

3.) What are you doing to leverage curiosity in the sales process? Curiosity is the genesis of every sales, yet if you ask the typical salesperson what they are doing to leverage it, the typical answer will likely be, “Huh?” Put it this way, if a prospect or customer is not the least bit curious about who you are or what you can do for them, then there’s a slim chance that they will want to spend time with you. On the other hand, as prospects and customers become more interested in what you have to offer, and you can gain credibility with them in a short period of time, people will make all kinds of time for someone who can help them. But they will dismiss the next cold-callers almost immediately. so, what are you doing to leverage curiosity in the sales process?

As a bonus question, you might ask is: “What (specifically) are you going to do differently in 2014 that will give you an advantage over 2013?”