Top 5 Sales Performance Best Practises Revisited

Sales is one singular vertical that demands the most attention from business leaders, and why not, Afterall sales is what drives the bottom line. Sales is as old as civilization and so are the methods and practices employed to increase sales performance. These methods and practices have evolved and been documented thoroughly over all these centuries. There is no dearth of well documented contemporary sales performance best practices in our times and it is these well documented best practices that we draw on to give you a pragmatic extract of how to be the top gun in your team. In the sections that follow we explore top 5 sales performance best practices.

Sales Performance Best Practices

Every sales rep goes through the sine wave, some terrible lows and some brilliant highs. This is typical of every sales rep new to the job, until they learn the ropes, including understanding various sales cycle stages. There are many factors that contribute to a consistently successful sales performance. Let's explore them. Here are the top 5 sales performance best practices that we think will enable you to truly succeed as a sales rep. ‍

The right mindset, or shall we say “Attitude” They say attitude is everything.

Without the right attitude, you will not get hungry enough to push yourself to over achieve the goals. Without the right attitude you will not want to get back up after a big blow. They say, it is all in the mind, and they are quite right. If you approach your deals with the “I will grab it, no matter what” attitude, you automatically groom yourself to do whatever it takes to get the deal. The right frame of mind, free of all other distractions, will be much better at thinking and coming up with creative ways to crack a deal. It is the constant grinding in your mind that wins the deal eventually. Coaching, mentorship and self motivation contribute immensely to keep you in the perfect frame of mind.

You are what the numbers show

No matter how good you are, in the end it has to reflect on the reports, on the dashboards on your take home. Numbers are what define you in sales, and numbers will help you where you stand. Tracking your performance every day or week, will give you a clear picture of where you stand in relation to your goals, and the team. Reviewing your work will help you identify what worked and what failed for you. Keep a track of your KPIs every day and redefine targets based on your current assessments.

On any significant sale, documenting qualitative aspects that worked well and others that did not, is a great ritual to follow. Documenting your successes no matter how small, not only helps you during your appraisal, but also helps you keep up a positive personal morale. Knowing what is working or not working for you makes it easy to have clear meaningful discussions with managers and mentors. Managers and mentors can guide you in the right direction with the detailed feedback that you give them.

Importance of business acumen

One of the crucial factors that impact closure in sales is the lack of business acumen. You need to know the complete ecosystem of your product. The ecosystem is the environment in which your product is used. The factors that affect the use, upgrade or purchase of your product. The economics that enables purchase of your product, the preferences of decision makers and the features of your product that might appeal to them the most. As one blog on Gartner by its VP Analyst Dave Egloff, rightly states, “Build Buyer Confidence”. When having sales discussions or going through a demo, demonstrating a thorough understanding of the prospect’s business ecosystem will go a long way in building buyer confidence.

Value in being organized

Being organized around and about your work, will make you efficient. Being organized will ensure you stay focused on your prospects and their requirements during your sales discussions. If you are not organized enough, you tend to leave tasks open, in other words, you tend to not close on all related activities, leaving open ends. Utilizing tools like the Kennect sales mix calculator can enhance your organizational efficiency, ensuring you stay focused on your prospects and their requirements during your sales discussions. Do not leave open and loose ends. They have a high tendency to come back at you when you are busy, often when you are with a prospective client. This can possibly affect your frame of mind and loosen your grip on the sale. Allocate adequate time on your calendar for all important tasks related to a prospective sale. Being organized helps build a sense of confidence as well. This confidence eventually can help you close the deal.

Learn and adapt

Sales teams are flooded with tools that help them with their day to day sales activities. It can be chaotic at times if you do not have a good hand at using these tools. The fact is, these tools are there to help you succeed. Learning how to use these tools efficiently to your advantage can many times be the key to your success. Learn to use these tools on your mobile device too. Sometimes you have to quickly come up with an offer or a solution on the run and a good hand at these tools will help you come up with one that might just work out for the prospect. Work with your manager and mentor to chart out a development plan for yourself. Remember, managers and mentors will take interest in your development only when you show you are keen enough to learn and climb up the ladder yourself.

Conclusion

Aside from these sales performance best practices, there are tools that make it that much easier for you to keep a track of your activities relative to your goals. Sales compensation and performance tracking tools are critical to success in sales. We at Kennect understand sales rep metrics like no other and offer you two tech enabled solutions that empower you to quickly cover your ground and over achieve your quota. Sales Performance Management(SPM) and Incentive Compensation Management(ICM) from Kennect, work seamlessly to help you drive sales and earnings.

Talk to your management and have them request a demo  today!

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