My wife is a workout instructor, specifically a Class called Core De Force – MMA style fighting workout. It’s fun. You pretend you are kicking and hitting an adversary. (or at least I do – she says sometimes I get too into it)
Having a Salesperson on your team and getting them Ramped UP is a lot like being a Workout Instructor. [So the short version is be a great Sales Manager not a harried Owner with no time if you hire salespeople]
Katherine is an awesome self-motivated practitioner of this workout and quite a few others. She is very good at DOING the fitness thing.
I have attended some of the classes she teaches and she has done quite well, but her Retention rate of students has not been stellar and she has said to me that is not able to see what they are doing while working out and so she doesn’t really know how well a lot of her students are doing. Katherine said that many other instructors on her Facebook group say the same thing – horrible Retention, low class numbers, not sure if people are really “getting it”.
Katherine said to me… I wish I could spend more time coaching the people in the class and seeing what they are doing, but then I won’t get a workout. AH HA moment! Right. It doesn’t really matter how great you are as a student of a workout, it is TOTALLY different when you become the instructor. You need to stop working out….slow down to show the moves to new people SHOW THEM… then go Coach the people in the class to make corrections COACH THEM…. And it is very helpful to be able to walk around and shout and encourage and say YOU CAN DO THIS. It is then very useful to send people home with a DVD of basic moves and say try this, learn this, come back I’ll check your progress.
I didn’t come up with all this exactly, just asked questions and thought about it with her during our morning coffee together in front of the fire. (yeah, we do that some mornings) Last night I went to her class. She moved around the room, she stopped working out and went to people and encouraged them. She told the new person before class that it would be hard and difficult and don’t feel bad….because nobody is watching you. She is Transitioning from just being an awesome workout person to being an awesome Instructor/Coach/Motivator
When I work with Business Owners who are frustrated with their current salespeople or when they have Been frustrated and turned over several salespeople, the situation is often the same. These Business owners are not taking the time to Pay attention, Coach, Motivate, Teach a bit / check on them a bit, send them off with homework and then check their proficiency when the student returns.
Is that you – have you hired but the people aren’t “working out”? – Pun intended….
You need to stop and Spend time. The time needs to be very intentional because I’m guessing that you don’t have a lot of time. I’m guessing you are wearing a lot of hats and feel like you just want a Sales Savior to “Handle this” – after all – isn’t that what salespeople do? Come in and take the reins and make stuff happen? BAD NEWS – NO. They don’t. First of all, you are likely hiring the wrong people with poor chances of success. Second – even the good ones need help and coaching to get started in your sales environment and using your sales process and selling your product while working for you.
Sometimes it is worse… and don’t feel guilty if it is. Sometimes Business Owners either do not know how to sell effectively themselves, and sometimes there is no Formal Structured Sales Process, No Sales Pipeline, No training program, no way to measure step-wise progress. If you are hiring salespeople or have salespeople you need to fix these first or fix them now if you already have salespeople. It is hard to do a great job when it isn’t clear what is wanted.
The Great news is that you do NOT need to be an Amazing salesperson in the way that my wife is an amazing workout person. You just need to Know and Understand the Basics. You need to have thought through what the steps are in your sales process in the context of a Sales System like we use here at Herring Coach. You can be a great Coach and Trainer and Motivator – a Sales Manager – without being the greatest salesperson in the world.
So what is the next smallest step you can do?
Probably just schedule time in your Calendar (BLOCK it out) to work with your salesperson or Team or to get ready for the one you are planning to hire. Start with the time. Turn around like Katherine did during class and REALLY see what people are doing. (or not doing). Make some notes. Write down 3 things that are priorities to improve or fix. Let me know if you want to chat about it and help set some priorities.
Have a great weekend! (working out is good too – amazing how much better you will feel and how your effectiveness goes up as you work on Body / Mind / Spirit fitness!
And… The other day I did “Run from the Bull” exercise with a client’s team. 3 People – 30 minutes…. 70 Dials completed to prospects ….. 12 conversations….. 36 Voicemails…. 3 Appointments booked. The Owner looked at me and said – “I’m not sure that we’ve ever made that many phone calls in a day”… the next day they followed up with emails… the text I received last night… “Dude, this shit works. We are getting responses to our emails now!” – Yep – blended prospecting, focus time with your team. I wrote about it on this post: https://www.facebook.com/wayneherringcoach/photos/a.1584513101797439/1989847911263954/?type=3&theater