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Like a vehicle, sales engines can stall. Suddenly, “sure-thing” or 90% deals flounder or drift, a competitor steals one of your best closing opportunities, pipelines suddenly empty as all the 70% and above deals become 25% deals, and a salesperson tells you that, “there are just no deals out there”. It’s mid-quarter and you need a push start to get going again without undertaking a major overhaul.
Push starting, also known as “bump starting”, a car or motorcycle is a way of getting the vehicle started when either your starter, motor or battery have given up the ghost. It basically consists of setting a vehicle into: 1) its running mode, 2) pushing it to get some momentum going, and 3) engaging the manual transmission to start the engine. Easy!
What happens when your sales organization’s engine has stalled? How easy is it to “push start” so that it’s firing on all cylinders again quickly?
Just like there are three steps in getting the vehicle engine going, there are also three steps for getting the sales process going again.
- Turn the ignition on. Ask yourself truthfully – are the sales targets and quotas well defined, does everyone on the sales team know and understand what their targets are, and is everyone being held accountable to those targets? It’s no good if two out of your eight sales people are performing; you need all those “eight sales cylinders” firing to achieve quotas on a consistent basis. Before you’ve run out of time and the end of the quarter is upon you, make sure everyone on the team knows what they have to do, set the team up to close business and make sure they know what’s expected of them. Don’t forget, stress team and individual accountability and, above all, be positive!
- Push. Ok, so everyone on the team now knows what to do. You now have to give them all a big push to get going! How about a juicy sales incentive/reward to get things moving? Perhaps a sales competition based around vertical teams or individuals, but whatever the incentive, make sure it’s based on over-achievement and not just “hitting the number”. The tricky thing is to keep the momentum going. You don’t want to run out of energy so begin thinking about your overall long-term strategy – is your sales model working, are the best processes in place and, moreover, does everyone possess the right attitude?
- Engage the transmission. You’re off! All those extra tweaks you made are working, enough momentum was created, and now the engine is firing on all cylinders, albeit a couple of cylinders misfire occasionally, but you are now back on the road to quota attainment! Well done, enjoy the ride but the next time you stop to refuel the sales vehicle, consider what it took to get you back on target. Now comes the required preventative maintenance!
The push-start got you going again but the fact that you had to do one in the first place meant that there was something wrong with the sales engine or process. Now is the time to re-examine and take a look at what was holding you back and what you must do to ensure it doesn’t happen again. It’s a time for tough decisions and to go on the offensive. You’ll need to consider removing or replacing anything that wasn’t performing, whether they’re products in your portfolio, services or people, and instead invest in developing new markets, adapting your strategy and building sustainable revenue growth models.
By Gareth Wade, OneAccord Principal