"Why won't my salespeople prospect? All they ever do is complain that they don't have enough leads."
It is well known that people will do what you pay them to do.
That is why as managers we must be very careful to be sure we are asking for the right behaviors.
I was working with a client in San Francisco several years back.
They had sales representatives on the phone prospecting.
The sales manager was puzzled as to why he was not seeing better results.
I asked him several questions and then I went to observe the sales reps.
The sales reps seemed to be on the phone and busy.
As I observed more closely I started to understand the problem.
The measurement for how the sales reps were compensated was by number of dials and entries into the database.
So what they were doing was dialing the phone as many times as they could and not worrying about reaching anyone.
They would enter the info into the database and move on.
What the manager wanted them to do was talk to people and find out if they were interested in the product and get them to make an appointment with the salesperson.
The salespeople were all complaining that they weren't getting any leads.
Seems way too obvious, doesn't it? What was needed was a clear understanding of the desired behavior and a way to measure it.
The sales manager wanted the sales reps to contact people and make appointments.
This did require dialing the phone and entering data, but that was only a small part.
The sales reps needed to be measured based on how many appointments were actually set.
I added one more piece which was the quality of the lead.
If they set an appointment with someone more likely to buy they would be further rewarded with a bonus on any lead that turned into business.
Not only did they start setting many more appointments, they took the time to qualify the prospect.
I worked with the sales management team to put new measures in place.
Then we retrained the sales reps.
This is a very important step.
We made sure that everyone understood how they would be measured.
We monitored very closely for the first week, making sure to be very encouraging.
We praised and rewarded those that quickly changed their behavior.
At the end of the first week we met with all of the sales reps and asked them to tell us what was working and what was not.
Those who had been more successful shared their ideas with the others.
We worked through all the questions and suggestions and then started on the next week with a fun contest that lasted a month.
This helped to motivate those who had not changed their behavior as quickly during the first week.
At the end of the month we evaluated the progress against the measures put into place.
We again checked in with the sales reps to find out what was working and what wasn't.
At that point we asked what additional training they would like and provided that.
After about six months everyone was either on board and doing well or had decided to leave on their own to find a more suitable career .
Another company I worked with wondered why the salespeople were not bringing in more new customers.
It didn't seem to matter how many times this topic came up at sales meetings, nothing changed.
Remember: People will do what you pay them to do.
I interviewed the salespeople and had the manager gather information.
I listened carefully and then took a look at the compensation plan.
There it was in black and white.
The salespeople were being paid a much higher commission to maintain and grow existing customers.
There was not much incentive for them to prospect, on top of the fact that marketing was not generating leads for them.
Prospecting is hard work if you don't know how to make it easy, so the salespeople spent the majority of their time with their existing customers.
I brought this to the attention of the management team and worked with them to create a list of what it was they wanted their salespeople to do.
Then we went down the list and discussed the percent of time that should be allotted and compensation for each.
We then took this draft to the salespeople and asked them for feedback.
They all liked the work we had done but several were very concerned about having to prospect (because they were equating it with cold calling).
We worked through this and discussed ways to prospect without cold calling.
There were two that were still very reluctant so we made a special plan to help them.
One of them finally left the company because he didn't want to prospect.
He only wanted to manage his accounts.
Since this company required both, he decided to leave which was the best for everyone.
Keeping this in mind, it is important to have these lists ready when hiring so that the candidates have a very clear understanding of what the job entails and how they will be compensated.
If salespeople are not directly rewarded for prospecting most of them won't do it.
For most salespeople there is no instant gratification in prospecting like there is with solving a current or prospective customer's problem or closing business.
Remember that it takes an average of six contacts before someone will buy and most salespeople give up after three.
Don't let prospecting be the most neglected part of selling at your organization.
Keep these things in mind:
* Prospecting skills are different than other selling skills.
When managers hire salespeople they often look for someone who has a history of meeting or exceeding quota, a good closer.
After hiring a heavy hitter,many managers scratch their heads wondering why this heavy hitter is sitting around waiting for leads.
* Most salespeople do not like to prospect.
Many equate prospecting with cold calling and associate it with rejection.
This is very unfortunate.
According to my definition cold calling isn't even a type of prospecting.
* Many salespeople do not know how to prospect.
Neither do their managers, especially if prospecting is not synonymous with cold calling.
It is hard to manage something you are not good at yourself.
There are a variety of ways to prospect; remember, cold calling is not one of them.
* Salespeople don't balance their time well.
Since most salespeople like prospecting the least of all their duties, they leave it until last and don't give it the attention it deserves.
Prospecting is not a good thing to do when you are tired, or frustrated, and it is too important to be left for last.
Once salespeople understand how to really prospect they will enjoy it and it will rise to the top of the list.
* People do what you pay them to do so make sure that your salespeople are compensated to for the things you really want them to do.
I would love to hear your stories about prospecting.
Please send stories to stories@aliceheiman.com.
Alice R.
Heiman is president of ARH Consulting LLC, a sales consulting company based in Reno.
