Devising Overall Strategy Helps Sales Reps Get Results.

TAKE a moment to quickly evaluate your sales staff. Do some people consistently bring in a high volume of good margin sales?

Statistics show that 20 percent of salespeople make 80 percent of sales, so not everyone on your staff will be a superstar. However, you can create standards and procedures to raise the overall productivity of your department and the profitability of your company.

First take note that success in sales requires three key ingredients: aptitude, numbers and tactics. For instance, if a person struggles with forming relationships, doesn't have adequate customer contacts, clings to routine, and has no tolerance for failure, that person probably doesn't belong in a sales career.

To avoid those people and to spot the most promising candidates, you can use a number of aptitude tests during the hiring process. There also are adjustments you can make in the sales process that will help all your salespeople use their abilities to the fullest and allow you to get the most benefit from sales activities.

* Determine the right prospects. Your company has a responsibility to provide sales reps with some marketing assistance to generate leads. You should already have a profile of ideal clients for your products or services. Creating a universe of customers likely to benefit from your offerings adds focus to the efforts of your salespeople.

* Require reps to make appointments. Whether a prospect responded to an ad or is being targeted for cold calling, making an appointment clears the way for the salesperson to get to the decision-maker and to generate interest in your product's value.

* Keep records. There will always be some degree of record-keeping associated with sales. Because your salespeople interact with so many potential customers, they must keep track of what was said or promised at each part of the sales cycle.

Fortunately, many good contact management systems are on the market to help streamline this activity. Such a system helps effective performers spend most of their time calling or meeting with customers. They carry out the administrative parts of their job either early or late in the day, and don't use paperwork as an excuse to avoid speaking with people.

* Be consistent. Top salespeople perform the same basic process over and over again, fine-tuning their tactics to achieve greater results. Lagging sales are usually the result of deficiencies in the sales process, such as inconsistency in essential activities.

* Build relationships. Customers buy from people they like and trust, and who can deliver what they promise. Your salespeople need to develop relationships with those clients they service, whether in long-term sales or in quick transactional business.

Effectively doing the little things for clients separates those at the top of the sales profession from everyone else and helps build strong, lasting relations hips with customers.

* Ask the right questions. Your sales staff must learn the prospect's motivation for needing your company as a vendor. Salespeople who make great presentations but don't ask effective questions are doomed to mediocrity.

In fact, the best salespeople spend 80 percent of their time listening and 20 percent talking. A large portion of this talking time is spent asking intelligent, insightful questions that arise from research done on the account prior to the sales call.

* Identify and overcome objections. The worst scenario for any salesperson is spending a huge amount of time on an opportunity, only to have a surprise issue emerge at the last moment and kill the entire deal.

Many successful salespeople proactively identify and address objections during meetings with prospects, thus eliminating any unpleasant surprises at closing. They view objections merely as requests for more information that -- if handled correctly -- will educate the prospect and build a stronger relationship with the salesperson.

* Present a solution. The most eloquent sales presentation is useless if it doesn't satisfy a perceived need. Your product must fix a problem or help accomplish a goal. Without that, what motivation does a prospect have to spend money? Before you begin presenting, understand what someone needs to buy.

* Ask for the order. After good salespeople build rapport with their prospects, ask the right questions, overcome objections and present a solution, it's easy for them to treat closing as a natural step in the process.

Since the fine points of all these steps vary from firm to firm, it's important to document just what characterizes a strong sales performance within your particular company. As part of this process, create a training program for your sales staff and put ongoing coaching mechanisms in place.

If a salesperson follows the process but misses a key step, opportunities are lost. So create sales procedures with incentives and training to keep salespeople on track, and your sales will consistently roll in.

Charles L. Hamilton is the general director at SLGG Consulting Group located in Westwood.