by Paul DiModica

Earlier this year, sales management and executive teams launched this year's sales plan and have been attempting to fill open sales job recs to help maximize their potential and hit their annual forecasts.

Yet, many of these sales forecasts will be missed, sales management will be quietly discussing what to do with unproductive salespeople in the back room, and executive teams will be outwardly frustrated.

So how can sales management prevent this from happening?

First, before I give you this elusive magic formula, let's identify the key asset of your firm in order to sell more.

It is not your product or service.

It is not your delivery system.

It is not your marketing.

It is your sales team!

Now, you can believe it and sell more, or debate it and sell less.

Firms are quick to pay out $18,000 headhunter fees to "find" the right sales candidate but once the candidate is hired, it is the last time the management team "invests in this asset."

For greater success in your sales reps, invest ongoingly to help them be more successful.

The question any CFO would ask you is how much and how often do you invest to maximize the return on our assets (salespeople)? To calculate this answer let's look at the lifecycle of a sales rep to see how to maximize the investment.

Lifecycle of a Successful Sales Rep

From the previous BDM News article, we have taken the sales rep success cycle and broken it down further into three distinct quadrants of time and company investment.

• Quadrant A: The timeframe of hiring and probation.
  
  
• Quadrant B: The timeframe for sales training, sales pipeline development and company support.
  
  
• Quadrant C: The timeframe that reflects the success of a sales rep's account closing.

Most accounting departments do not equate investment in sales training as an investment in asset management. But the term "sales training" is a misnomer. In fact, the key phrase is "sales learning."

Sales Learning ROI Graph

As you can see by the Sales Learning ROI Graph, the greatest sales team ROI is when you invest in ongoing training and company support in Quadrant A and B and then continue into Quadrant C. As you move further away from the actual hire date, you will see that the success and level of ROI is determined by the ongoing support provided to the sales rep. So, training intermittently or at the end of a sales rep success cycle will return you the smallest level of ROI.

Sales learning must be consistent or else you are wasting your asset (the sales team).

3 Steps to Maximize a Sales Rep's Success

1. Hire slow. Don't rush to fill open sales job slots just because you need a headcount.
   
   
2. Train often and early. Your asset is your sales team. Invest in them. Provide a strong consistent inside support system and focus most of your training in Quadrant A and B timelines with continued reinforcement in Quadrant C.
   
   
3. Terminate fast. Once a sales rep is in the Quadrant C timeframe and is unproductive, you cannot continue to carry them. As mentioned in last week's email, the average non-productive salesperson costs you at least $85,000 a month while employed.

Invest in your sales team early and often or
risk minimizing your asset's ROI and not hitting
this year's sales quota!

To sell more . . . start protecting your assets by investing!

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