How to Get Your Sales Team to Implement a New Strategy

How to Get Your Sales Team to Implement a New StrategyHow to Get Your Sales Team to Implement a New StrategyA big part of the sale managers job is getting her sales gruppe to fall in line with company sales initiatives and overarching strategies. It is easier said than done, as salespeople - especially the great ones - tend to be very independent, tough-minded folks. So how do you get them to sign on to and execute a new sales strategy thats been imposed on them from high? Explain the New Plan of Action Just telling the sales gruppe what the new plan of action isnt enough. Remember, salespeople, are often independent and contrary. If youre asking them to change their whole way of doing business, you must explain why the new strategy is important to the company and why you think it will work better than the old strategy. If you dont know the answers to these questions yourself, pester upper management until they tell you. Motivate the Sales Team to Implement the Plan Once yo uve explained what the strategy is about and why it matters to the company, the next step is to explain why it matters to your sales team. In essence, youre selling your team on this new plan, so you need to approach it in the same way that youd approach a sale to a prospect. In other words, youd better have some powerful benefits to share with the sales team. Without benefits, why would the team bother to make more than the minimum effort to adhere to the new strategy? Measure Sales Metrics and Discover New Goals You wont know if the strategy is working unless you can collect some actual data. As part of the new strategy, you should set up some new goals and ask your team to keep track of their relevant sales metrics. This information will allow you to compare the results of your teams new approach with their old strategy, allowing you to hopefully prove to them that the new approach is, in fact, helping them to sell better. Examples of metrics to track would be thenumber of co ld calls made, thenumber of appointments set, thenumber of referrals collected, etc. Depending on the nature of your strategy change, you may wish to track other activities as well. Train the Sales Team to Learn New Skills If your new strategy involves using social media and no one on your sales team so much as has a Twitter account, you are going to need to get them some serious training before you proceed. Otherwise, even the most enthusiastic salesperson will struggle to close sales under the new regime. Whatever tasks or sales skills your new approach emphasizes are the ones that your salespeople will need to master before they can succeed. If youre not sure how strong your team is in these areas, either meet with them one-on-one and ask about their experience with those tasks or schedule a time to go with them on appointments so that you can see for yourself. Reward the Team When the New Sales Plan Is Implemented Implementing a whole new sales approach is no minor task. Your sales team needs to know that you appreciate how hard theyre working even if their efforts arent met with instant success. One approach is to set milestone goals for which you provide a small reward (for example, giving each salesperson a $20 gift card after theyve made 200 cold calls with the new script). Some generous verbal praise can also make a big difference in morale. And when sales do start to take off, you should certainly praise and reward your team publicly. On the other hand, if your team starts to slip and goes back to their old sales strategies, you must hold them accountable. If you simply overlook backsliders, your team isnt likely to maintain a change in strategy for long.