Repeatedly pitching a product or service, facing rejection, and working with strangers is all part of the sales job—but it’s not easy. It takes a certain caliber of person to take on this challenging role at any organization. There are good days, and then there are days where you realize you won’t be able to meet your quota, big accounts have churned, or the large deal you were counting on closing prior to the end of the quarter collapses prior to final signatures.
These situations would cause anyone to have a down day, but when you’re in sales, it can throw you into a “sales slump.” In the best-case scenarios, the manager should be able to spot the changing tides of the sales team. When caught early, the manager can dig in on motivating the team and helping to boost morale. But this isn’t always how it works out.
Maybe nothing has changed in the sales process, but you have team members who are taking longer than necessary to work through a deal. Or maybe your number one salesperson has started to miss their target quota. These are good warning signs to be aware of and an indication of when you should start to lean a little further in with your team.
Once you notice your sales team has hit the slump, you can try a few of these tactics to help pull them out!
- Take the team “back to basics” by working to get everyone in the right frame of mind. Renew focus on production and skills to help achieve results.
- Encourage self-coaching by providing your team with the tools and resources necessary to record their calls or web meetings. Each salesperson should listen to and analyze their own calls. Then, review the calls together. Listen to what the salespersons self-critiques are and see if there is anything you can add that is beneficial to their performance and sales process improvement.
- Allow each salesperson to take the time to reset. Lower or reset their goals and give them time to ramp up again. This stops the salesperson from feeling like they are trying to dig out of a hole that you (unintentionally) created. Pull them out and start the month or quarter fresh with less pressure and a positive attitude.
Spend time with your salespeople to learn the ins and outs of their individual processes, which helps keep them motivated and focused, and how can you better keep their progress and success in perspective. Work with your sales team to help them understand when they are starting to get into a slump and how they can identify the situation and start to pull themselves out. Contact Insured Solutions to learn more.