The difficult conversations that create a great sales team!

Sales Training

Sales management, people management

The difficult conversations that create a great sales team!

Are you having the difficult conversations required that create and maintain a great sales team? It’s easy to be a great sales leader when things are going well. It’s much harder to turn a sales person or sales team around once the rot has set in.

That doesn’t mean that when a sales person isn’t doing well you get rid of them as soon as possible.

Noticing a decline in sales activity and performance early enough…and having that difficult conversation immediately is often all it takes to get a sales person back on track.

The issue is that many sales leaders don’t handle that difficult conversation well enough and can often cause the speeding up of a sales person’s decline in motivation, activity and sales.

Hoping they will sort it out themselves because you are uncomfortable with having the conversation is deluded…and dangerous!

So how do you do it well?

1. Describe the issue, situation, behaviour as you see it. Leave out your emotions and stick to the facts. Focus only on what you have observed yourself.

2. Take responsibility for your contribution to the situation. Share your desire to resolve the issue.

3. Invite your sales person to share their views and perspectives…uninterrupted.

4. Using your coaching skills explore the options going forward to resolve the issue.

5. Help them create a plan of action going forward…and share what you will do too. Agree timescales.

6. Agree when you will review the situation again

DO NOT TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK THEY SHOULD BE DOING!!!

Going Forward

It’s important to casually check in with your sales person especially in the early days to show support and boost them when they are struggling.

If you have these conversations early enough, you’ll resolve little issues before they become rotten sales draining situations.

Not only that…these conversations are a training in themselves and show your sales people how to resolve their own small issues going forward before it becomes a big problem.

Now it’s time to schedule your first conversation 😉

Until next time,

Leigh 🙂

PS If you need help with your difficult sales leadership conversation then please do get it touch.

About the author

Leigh Ashton

Hi I’m Leigh Ashton of The Sales Consultancy

Whether you’re a small business or a leading brand, an area manager or a Chief Executive, whether you’re new to sales or an experienced sales professional. Even if you’re not in sales at all but want to understand it, you’ve come to the right place.

The World of Sales is changing.

Today’s conventional sales training doesn’t address the psychological barriers that get in their way.

My approach takes your sales team through a process that:

* Helps them identify their psychological barriers and gives them the tools to overcome them
* Teaches them how the mind works so they can keep motivated and stay focused
* Gives them the ability to identify the psychological patterns of their clients and prospects so they connect with them at a deeper level and close more sales

And at a higher level…

* It creates more success in other areas of their lives so they are happier generally…and happier sales people generate more sales

Wherever you are on your personal sales journey what’s the best course of action for YOU.

– Sales Training – that actually gets results
– Leadership and Management
– Personal Coaching and Mentoring
– Sales Mentoring Programme
– NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and how it can help you accelerate your success
– Keynote Speaking