Set Goals – Work with each rep to develop a plan to achieve their goals. Specify clients, products, opportunities, regions or verticals to focus on. Think through strategies and tactics with them. The more specific the plan, the easier it is to execute.

Provide Guidelines for Success  – Discuss average sales cycles, minimum number of calls and meetings, typical pricing structures, the balance of the funnel, which activities and questions happen at each stage of the funnel and other things that will support success.

Clarify Definitions – If you want predictable results, start with your sales process and CRM. If the data in the CRM isn’t consistent, then forecasts won’t be accurate. Clearly define each and how an opportunity moves to the next stage, then map it to your CRM.

Sales Meetings – Have a set agenda for your weekly sales meeting. Include successes, training, a review of the numbers and a team strategy session. Make sure everyone knows how to prepare. Leave individual opportunities or funnel reviews for one-to-one sessions. If the conversation doesn’t include the whole team, it shouldn’t happen at the team sales meeting.

Funnel/Pipeline Reviews – Have a regularly scheduled funnel review with each sales rep. Set the expectation that the opportunities, close dates, next actions, and stages be updated before the session. During each review, assess the shape, check velocity through the sales process, review progress on all opportunities, eliminate dead leads, and select opportunities to strategize.

One-to-Ones – Have an agenda and follow it. Use this time to discuss individual performance issues, including how they are positioned to achieve their goals and what they will need to do to succeed. Discuss individual development plans then coach and train to achieve those.

Strategy Sessions – The reward for a funnel review is a strategy session. That is an opportunity to work together to strategize an account you haven’t looked at recently and to look for threats and opportunities. Follow the same process each time.

Listen – When you are coaching listen carefully to fully understand the situation. Listen for cues to use as triggers for guiding.

Ask – Ask questions to help you understand and to help them understand. Good questions provide aha moments that change immediate performance and future performance.

Guide – Ask what they think they should do, what information they need or what questions they could be asking. Offer suggestions and ask how they think that would work in this situation. Encourage them to try things. Let them know when you think something is a good idea and why.

Strategy Sessions – A great collaboration opportunity is a strategy session. Choose an opportunity to strategize as a team following a specific process. Everyone enjoys strategy sessions, they all feel good about the effort when they are done, and everyone learns in the process.

Key Account Plans – It is no longer sufficient to have one rep be fully responsible for major accounts. Put together a team of people who interact with the account and appoint a leader. Create a Key Account Plan and meet quarterly to ensure the team is on track with the goals around that account.

Brainstorming – Sales reps face the same issues all day long. Having the opportunity to work as a team to find solutions is a great idea. Brainstorm asking good questions, writing value propositions, handling objections, and closing deals. Take time each meeting to brainstorm about one of the topics

Successes —Start each sales meeting by having everyone share a success. It doesn’t matter if it is closing a deal, getting an appointment, or getting a commitment that moves the deal forward. Whatever it is, celebrating successes helps salespeople stay positive.

Close Deals – Every deal is worth celebrating. Share the success at a meeting. Send an email with congratulations and copy the team. Do a happy dance. It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as long as the salesperson gets the opportunity to celebrate with you.

Improvement – Don’t miss the little things. As sales reps are developing, they need encouragement. Make sure to notice that they are getting better at asking good questions, getting in touch with all the buying influences or closing deals when expected. Noticing the little things may make the big things happen more often.

Hitting Goals – Leaders are really good at beating up reps when they don’t hit their goals. Be equally excited when they do hit their goals. Of course, it’s expected, but it’s still worth celebrating.

• What happened in each sector last year?
• What do the experts say about next year?
• Which sectors are expanding, and which contacting?

• Which industries are buying which products?
  
• ​Which products are most profitable
  
• ​Which kinds of companies are buying multiple products
  
• ​Which products are hitting, missing, or exceeding goals?
  
• ​Which products are customers most/least happy with?
• How are we positioned vis-à-vis our competition

• Which sellers are hitting the goal?
• Which sellers are selling which products?
• What is the correlation between seller success and industry or product?
• If you have successful channels figure out why they are successful.
• What resources are required to sell more?
• What training is required?
• Who should go?

• What is the ratio of leads required to close enough deals?
• Where did leads come from?
• What is the ROI on each type of lead
• How much is coming from new companies vs. existing clients?
• How much room for growth is there in existing clients?
• How much can you expect from new businesses?

Before making a WAG, do your research and build a sales and lead generation strategy that supports the goals you think you can hit. This year, instead of WAGging your sales team, set them up for success.

It's more helpful to ask questions that help guide your sellers to success. A great question to start with is, "What did you learn?" That is a valid question regardless of where you are in the sales process. Sellers should always be learning about the company, the buyers, the opportunity they are working on, or the next opportunity. 

Another great question is, "What could get in the way of this sale closing?" If they say, "Nothing," chances are your sellers aren't asking good questions. Or they need to be better informed about all the buyers. There is always something that could stop the sale, even if it's an act of nature. Once you have a signed contract and payment, it's a sure thing, not before that. 

Sales leaders often get distracted doing everything but coaching. A sales leader's primary job is coaching. To coach successfully, you need to find opportunities for conversations that lead to coaching moments. Stop asking questions that will get you a one-word answer and start asking questions that will help your team close more deals. 

Everyone on your team must understand your vision for the company and its goals. When you are a small business, it's easier, but don't overlook this. Be sure everyone on your team understands why your company exists, why that matters to your market, what you sell, and who will buy it. Then they need to understand the sales goals and how you will hit them. When you are the only one selling, it may not seem necessary to explain, but you are laying the foundation for hiring your first salesperson and probably many more after that.  

How do you generate leads now? Will that lead flow to be sufficient when you hire a salesperson? Salespeople don't magically generate sales. It's your job to provide a lead generation process that includes criteria for what type of companies will be most likely to buy. Including size, geography, industry, and other important criteria that will target who you sell to. Provide a list of companies you want to pursue and what products you want to sell. If you don't have a marketing department, you can do it yourself or outsource, but lead generation is a must. If your new salesperson spends time researching and building a list from scratch, it will be a long time before you get a return on your investment. The better marketing can support sales in the lead generation process, the better your results.  

We think that salespeople will know what to say. Well, they don't. And, if you don't tell them, they will make it up. Before you hire a sales rep, you should have a solid understanding of your market position and the message that will attract your target customer. That message is your value proposition, and that message is focused on your customer's problems rather than your products. You will have that message ready, so you can teach it to your new sales rep and practice it before you send the rep out to talk to customers. This way, you can get a quicker return on your investment because your new rep will be prepared to have the kinds of conversations that build relationships and close deals.  

Your sales process must be clear and documented so others can follow it. It may seem to you the path from meeting a prospect to closing the deal is obvious if you have been doing the selling. Document it so you can teach it. Your new sales rep should not be left alone to figure it out. The process may change, but you need to start somewhere. Your company's sales process should reflect your customer's buying process. How do your target customers buy? Map that out, and then be sure the process you want a salesperson to use is a match. Make it easy for your customers to buy, and you will be able to better predict your sales revenue. If you want an accurate forecast, the process is critical.  

You need a way to effectively track sales opportunities. You may have a CRM that builds a pipeline or funnel report, but that may not be effective. Set your CRM up to mirror your sales process and provide reports that help salespeople effectively pursue leads without missing anything. The more complex your sale, the more information and people there are to keep track of, and the longer the sales cycle. Tracking properly becomes critical. As the sales leader, your sales funnel is your lifeline. At any moment in time, you need to have clarity about what will close and when. Your funnel should provide this clarity if you manage it properly. Download our sales funnel graphic here.  

Leading your sales team with sales strategy means understanding what is possible in the market, knowing what your team needs from you and how to coach them to success. To lead sales successfully, you need a detailed plan, compelling messaging, appropriate tools, and consistent coaching.  Here is what a sales team needs from you (their leader) to hit their quota. 

The mission is a simple sentence that tells you what we do and who you do it for. It may include why you do it. If your mission is clear, it is easy to see when you have gone off mission. If your mission is to provide better fencing to pig farmers, then you will quickly know when you are off mission. Sometimes, you will decide that your mission needs to change or expand and so too, may your vision. At least you can explain that and bring the whole team along with you. Salespeople need to be clear on the mission. This guides them to bring in the right types of solutions to the right customers. 

The clearer you are about who you are selling to, the better your results will be. Your product is a good fit for certain people. Your company culture and values narrow that definition. Look at your products and think about who will get the most benefit from them, can afford to pay for them, will close without too many hurdles, will be a satisfied customer and will buy from you again in the future. That will help to narrow down who you should be targeting. The better marketing and sales understand the ideal customer profile, the better they will be at attracting them. 

Leaders often think it is as simple as telling sellers what to sell. But, to truly grow your business and make the right sales, your reps need to understand your company vision. Make sure you explain where the company is going and where the market is going on a regular basis. Provide your sales team with insights regarding how the company intends to capture a new market or leverage technology changes. If you make changes to product availability or services, explain to your sales team why those changes were necessary. Or, better yet, involve your sales team in those decisions! Once reps see the bigger picture and the long-term vision for the company, they can bring their customers with you. 

Your sales team shouldn’t be picking your top priority companies—leadership should be. Once you have defined your ideal customer you can use those criteria to make a list of the companies you want to target. Depending on your capacity, that could be 10 companies or 1,000. Once you select these companies, explain to your reps why these are the top target companies, which will help your sales team understand the bigger picture.