Small Business Sales Success

Small businesses don't always have the luxury or resources to build a strong sales team that can outrun competitors. They don't have the resources to treat prospects to sporting events and fancy dinners. But they can get customers to say, "Yes." The Wall Street Journal writes about three small businesses that succeeded in getting to yes.

• Company A: Redesigned its web site that let prospects create a drawing (CAD) of what they want built. After they finish the drawings, they contact the company. The close rate jumped to 80% from 50% and all it took was about three months and less than $40,000.
• Company B: A company that offers database administrator services incorporated cooking. Yes, cooking. Cooking and databases don't go together except this company made it work. Inviting prospective clients and their spouses to the owner's cooking classes provided a way to show "another dimension" of the company. This worked because it let the prospects see a different side of the CEO and build a relationship.
• Company C: The company relies on signed agreements and was having problems with electronic agreements. It adopted an electronic-signature and document management service that sliced processing time from three weeks to two days! Now the company processes 300 agreements whereas two years ago, it processed 75.

What can we learn from these businesses? You can do more than just recruit and train better sales people. Sometimes processes need improving or you need to add something to make your business different (cooking classes).

Sales Processes Still Matter

These three companies also made a change to their sales process. Oh, it's not obvious because it had nothing to do with sales people going out and making the sale. Company A improved their sales process by adding a drawing tool that brought them closer to the sale. Company B added cooking instead of tickets to sporting events to woo its clients. Company C took the pain out of a process and made it better.

If you're looking to hire a sales employee -- then it's not too late for you. A sales person can be wonderful for one company and a disaster for another. You have to find the right people. Plus, they need to have training on closing the deals. One company created a sales and hiring process to help it hire the right people who can handle its long sales process and sell an intangible product.

Even if you already have the sales employees you need -- perhaps, now is a good time to create the sales and hiring process... so next time you need a new employee, you'll get a better match.

Here is a WSJ interview with Jeff Purtell, vice president and recruiting and senior sales manager. He discusses how he trains his sales team.

Good selling!

More News about Sales Team Training

Secret Traits Of Top Salespeople - This point is a fine one, but the strongest salespeople recognize a dog when they see one and move on. If the prospective deal is a loser for them, they go find a new prospect. This ability is difficult to train but crucial to success. ...

How To Avoid Two Critical Sales Mistakes - I understand if qualifying this way may seem foreign to you. Very few sales people sell this way, and very few sales managers and company trainers know how to train people to sell this way. The small minority of sales people who do sell ...

Sales team collaboration - There may be a layer of regional sales people that interact with the distributors in their patch. The regionals support the distys on larger deals and pass leads to the disty of their choice. To tie in the distributors using typical CRM ...

Laser-Sharp Networking - Remember, your goal in the networking process should be to train a sales force, not close a sale. Therefore, each time you have an opportunity, focus on a specific product or service you offer, then train people how to refer you in this ...

Marketing is Geography - As a business exits the hyper-local stage and expands beyond a region, not all geographies are created equal despite cliche’s such as “There is no bad patch, only bad sales people”. Alas, that just isn’t true. ...

What Happens If They Stay? - One of my clients was asked by a competitor why he invested so much in training his salespeople."I want them to be the best" he said. "What happens if you train them and they leave?" his competitor asked. His response... More...

Body Language Employee Training Videos Reveal Profit-Driving ... - for Businesses Employers can now train their managers, hiring teams, and sales people to become ... body language to improve company profitability. Management Skills - How a Manager can improve ... University is a division of HRIT ...