In sales, it is always a good idea to look to hone your skills and work at eliminating bad habits. In an article posted on www.recruiter.co.uk, John R Treace explains what he calls, “5 common afflictions of sales teams.”
In his article, he sites these afflictions as a cause of dropping morale and a dip in sales performance. Although some of these afflictions can be minor and not cause noticeable damage, they can escalate to severely damage your company’s profits.
He cites the following afflictions:
- Wasting sales representatives’ time
- Poor sales meetings
- Poor strategy
- Capping or reducing income
- Favouritism
1. Wasting your sales reps’ time
Delegating non-sales tasks to your sales teams means they are spending less time selling. If possible try to delegate tasks such as managing product recalls and filling out reports to other people outside of the sales team. This will maximise the productivity of your salespeople.
2. Unnecessary sales meetings
The sole purpose of a sales meeting should be to increase sales. If you are having routine meetings just for the sake of it, you will be wasting your sales teams’ time. A good sales rep will know when time is being wasted and this will not inspire confidence in management. So make sure that meetings are clearly purposeful.
3. Bad strategy
It does not take a rocket scientist to realise that a poorly planned marketing or sales strategy will have a negative impact on sales. Invest in experts to come up with good sound strategies. Putting on special promotions as an attempt to place a band-aid on poor performance due to a lacklustre strategy is not a sustainable solution. This being said, special promotions can be an effective tool to boost sales when done in the right way.
4. Capping or reducing sales team income
Managers resentful of their sales team’s earnings may be tempted to try to cap their earnings in various ways. This is very dangerous as it damages morale and can cause good salespeople to jump ship. If it is absolutely necessary to reduce commission or other income sources, this should be done in a sensitive manner.
5. Favouritism
It almost goes without saying that special treatment of individuals will cause unsettlement within the team, and ultimately breed resentment. You need to work towards building a cohesive team spirit as a manager, and by showing favouritism you are damaging the team.
Sales teams that are managed well will perform better, so it is worth making sure that your management strategy and techniques are up to scratch.
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