Sales is the backbone of a company. Businesses depend on their sales team for growth, survival and sustainability. The sales environment is highly competitive; your team may have some exceptionally qualified sales professionals but still fail to perform because the deciding factor remains behavioural since qualifications do not determine that they can sell. What distinguishes your top sales professionals who stand out from those who don’t is their behaviour. Managing your sales team’s behaviour effectively is fundamental – it helps you to understand the types of salespeople on your team. A consistent structured behavioural management culture that focuses on improving performance, is a great starting point to get the most out of your team.
According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), there are five different types of salespeople namely: Relationship Builders, Hard Workers, Lone Wolves, Reactive Problem Solvers and Challengers. HBR’s research further found that Challengers absolutely dominate as selling gets more complex and, 54% of all star reps in a solution-selling environment are Challengers. Do you know what type of salespeople you have?
Focus On Results Than Sales Behaviour
The main reason why your sales team is not performing is because of the common mistake of prioritising results over sales behaviour. When managing sales, sales managers tend to focus on results and forget about behaviours that influence sales. Technology has presented effective systems such as CRM, and through seamless use, you’re able to observe sales behaviour and measure in real time – that way you know what to address by carefully identifying and focusing on the necessary results you want to monitor, and then determine what behaviours will push those results.
Overall, it is imperative to constantly lookout for obstacles affecting your sales team’s performance by leveraging comprehensive and consistent behavioural management strategies to improve team performance and attaining both personal and organisational goals. Your behavioural management should also focus on producing sales professionals who are Challengers because as per research, they outperform all the other types.
Need Help With You Sales Team’s Performance?
Research available to us at TATC allows us to identify the gaps within your sales teams, providing you insights into developing the skills that Harvard Business Review have identified to take your sales team to the next level. For more information you can contact us here.