“It Really Is All About Your People”
Friday, October 30th, 2009It is a tough climate today for many businesses in many industries. But, when asked this week how his sales team was doing, Bob Martellio, VP Sales for Northeast Copier Systems, (NCS) reported, “We are at 117% of this year’s sales plan in total team production, despite this economy and longer sales cycles.”
Even though the office equipment industry is very competitive with rivals undercutting prices every day, NCS is one of the few businesses today reporting strong growth. Asked to explain he said, “We know exactly who fits well into our system. We rely on the same system we put into place several years ago, and September was our best month EVER!”
Last year they didn’t have the right mix. They ‘took a chance’ on a couple candidates they thought would be successful, but didn’t work out in the end. “They just didn’t fit in.”
“We also realize that there is not one system that fits all companies”, he continued. “We’ve made ours our own, and made changes when we’ve needed.” When asked to boil it all down to the most important reason for this year’s growth, he said,” We invest in our people.”
How do you know you have the right people in the right roles today? Without a clear understanding of the right person to fit into the organization, sales managers and business owners take chances every day when hiring new candidates and managing existing sales people.
Kevin Shea, National Sales Manager for W.J. Deutsch & Sons is, ”Having our best year yet!” We know who we need on our team, so it’s so important to find the right fit. I work them all pretty hard but they know exactly what is expected of them, and I help them get there. He explained, “Every one is helping each other because we need to work together to achieve our goals and outperform the competition.”
Instead of ‘hoping for the best’ , using a comprehensive assessment provides a coaching guide to be explained and shared between management and the employee. It creates a brand new dynamic that increases productivity and personal fulfillment which drives higher retention.
Sales can’t grow without a cohesive team who are motivated and supported to grow as individuals. Sustained growth is elusive these days for many businesses, and it REALLY is all about your people. And, when they’re all pulling in the same direction, every one wins.
Auditing your current sales team is the best and fastest way to understand how to get better sales with your current people. Discover how coach them to better performance by tapping into their the natural styles and see how their individual ambitions their actions. Experience the accuracy and quality of our comprehensive free assessment here.
I will be sharing many of the tools Bob has used to achieve consistent growth over many years in my next workshop, “Making Sales People More Productive in 90 Days or Less,” which takes place on December 4th. Click here for an explanation of the best practices all attendees will receive as part of the Sales Management’s Best Friend Starter Kit in this hands-on workshop.
