On average 57% of salespeople do not achieve their targets. Your team might be different and there is a high chance that there is room for improvement. Improving overall success cannot be assigned to one magic thing. It all starts with the mindset and know-how. How do your salespeople score on those topics?
They want to do something else
According to a survey by Gallup, 66% of employees worldwide lack passion for their jobs. The costs involved are enormous. The majority of people are fulfilling a job that they don’t like, but continue doing. But, why are you continuing something that you do not want to do?
I’ve done myself small research on why people are choosing a job that does not give them that positive energy, which is so powerful. An important reason is the amount of money involved. Money is quite often a driver to switch jobs when they hear in the recruiting process that they can earn a higher base salary and the commissions are uncapped. Sounds like a dream and if the leap is that big, why should you leave that money on the side?
Money is not everything, that is already proven in a study from Dan Ariely a couple of years ago. In that study, he proved that pizza is a better motivator than a cash bonus in the long run. Enjoying the activities and responsibilities of the job is important to stay happy with your position. Besides, the culture has to fit you as well otherwise you will be filled soon with negative energy.
Imagine that you are joining a company based on 1 or 2 interviews of 60 minutes each and your focus is purely on the monetized incentives. I can understand that you get energized by a couple of first payments, but I am sure it will be less motivating from time to time. The new salary becomes your standard and you lack the passion for your job. Soon or later it becomes more difficult to find the motivation to do all the activities that you do not like. Unfortunately, the moment of realization and switching jobs are far spread from each other. The period in between is tiresome, slurps energy, and kills happiness. Obviously, due to the lack of motivation, the results will fall as well.
They need support
From my own experiences, a state of the art onboarding program is vital in employee happiness, retention, and success. It already starts before day one and should take longer than just one week. 5 days is too short to complete the mandatory activities and understand everything that you have to know. In a study of Sapling, a people operations platform, a great onboarding includes 54 activities and can take up a full quarter or even a year. Those activities include signing documents, understanding the company culture, role, personal goals, processes, and training to get the right knowledge and skills. In the end, every employee should understand the why of the company, why their job exists, what they have to do, and how to fulfill it.
One of my favorite parts of the onboarding is the buddy program, which I recommend all organizations to adopt. Such a program brings the new hire faster up to speed, knows whom to ask for questions, and sure a softer landing. The buddy program includes frequent chats (every week and adjust to fortnightly when suitable), introduction to other colleagues, and showing around the office.
When onboarding is pressed in just a few days, you will notice that important information or knowledge is not well received. The results of that are confused and uncertain employees who have a ton of questions. Their performance will be impacted by a weak start and you cannot blame them. Providing both new hires and existing employees with the right training to bring their skills and knowledge on the level to perform as expected is fundamental. Learning and development do not stop after onboarding, that is just the start.
They need clarification
Understanding the rules and goals sounds simple but is not a given for all employees. Most of the salespeople do have an individual or team objective to achieve within a specific time frame. It might surprise you, but not all salespeople do know their sales objectives by heart. If you do not understand your goal, how do you know if you run in the right direction?
When the goal is clearly communicated, which is step 1, the required effort to get there is step 2. Think about the number of deals in a given period, overall pipeline, and if you want you can drill down to the number of meaningful meetings and required activity level (based on available data).
How to take the leap?
If you want a team that performs on its best, you need to start with a rock-solid foundation. This includes having the people on board that, have a passion for what they do, receive the support they need, and understand what they have to do. Sounds logical, but in many situations, I have seen it is not the reality.
The article was written for www.leapy.io
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-salespeople-perform-richard-b-t-harsevoort-/