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To double your business in the next 3-5 years, who are the players to help you carry that medicine ball briskly and enthusiastically up that mountain?
I’m going to challenge you to think way beyond your current sales team. The reality is, additional resources can help you grow your business – ones you might not have thought of!
Let me introduce you to the Wheel of Choice – one of my favourite go-to coaching tools to get sales leaders & teams thinking outside the box, or should we say outside or inside the circle.
You can do this innovative thinking outside your office or typical meeting room.
I’m doing this on the dock at the cottage – yes, the neighbours look at us sideways when we bring the flipchart to the dock and wonder what we are up to!
In this circle, create 8 slices (just like a pie) that represent 8 different options to grow your business outside your current sales team.
Let me get you started with a few options.
It’s easy to come up with at least 2-3 options, but the best ideas are usually your 6th to 8th ideas. This wheel of choice will force you to think beyond just a few good ideas.
- Customer Service/Inside Sales Team
- Product Managers to innovate new products
- Expanding your Sales Team members with different skill sets & experience or even recent college/university grads
- E-commerce online
- Your operations team – how can they help you increase capacity, shipments, efficiency
- Channel Partners
Now, go back to your Wheel of Choice and rate each option on a scale of 1-10 that will help you double your business. 1 represents the least likely to have an effect and 10 is maximum effect. You are rating them, not ranking them, so you may have a few 5, 8, 9 and hopefully one or two 10s.
It’s the 9 and 10 rating options that will help you build on these strategies and put them into action.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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74% of Canadian companies want to achieve high growth, according to the Canadian Sales Growth Report from CPSA. High growth is classified as growing by more than 6.7% per year. In my experience, this is not high sales growth. When we work with sales teams, we want to see at least 25% sales growth.
If you really want to be better than the other 74% of Canadian companies, you’ll have to kick up your game and your team! Here’s the reality – if you want to double your sales in the next 3-5 years here’s what it will take:
Consistently grow your business by 26%:
|
|
Individual Rep |
Company |
|
|
Based on $1,000,000 |
Based on $50,0000,000 |
| Year 1 |
26% increase |
$1,260,000 |
$63,000,000 |
| Year 2 |
26% increase |
$1,587,600 |
$79,380,000 |
| Year 3 |
26% increase |
$2,000,376 |
$100,018,800 |
If that is too aggressive, let’s map out a 5-year plan, based on a +15% increase:
|
|
Individual Rep |
Company |
|
|
Based on $1,000,000 |
based on $50,0000,000 |
| Year 1 |
15% increase |
$1,150,000 |
$57,500,000 |
| Year 2 |
15% increase |
$1,322,500 |
$66,125,000 |
| Year 3 |
15% increase |
$1,520,875 |
$76,043,750 |
| Year 4 |
15% increase |
$1,749,006 |
$87,450,312 |
| Year 5 |
15% increase |
$2,011,357 |
$100,567,859 |
The other staggering statistic is that 40% of Canadian organizations do not have a strategic plan to increase their sales and revenue.
You’ve heard me say this before and I’ll say it again: If you fail to plan you plan to fail.
Use these additional sales stats to your advantage – use them to build a strategic plan to grow your sales and sales team:
- 2 million in the Canadian workforce are sales professionals, representing 6.6% of the Canadian workforce. Only 16% are selling B2B to other businesses.
- Professional sales is ranked as one of Canada’s 7 most in-demand positions.
- 75% of companies are having difficulty finding good sales professionals to add to their team.
- 38% of companies don’t sponsor any formal sales training to their team.
- 32% of Sales Managers said they would spend more time coaching their sales team.
What is your strategy to become a high growth company?
Here are a few strategies to become a high growth company and double your sales in the next 3-5 years:
- Focus your sales on your ideal profitable type customers and double sales with your existing clients
- Double your sales team
- Expand your sales team through your customer service and inside sales team
- Mergers & acquisition – buy your competition or smaller players in your marketplace
- Expand your products & services to be selling more consultative selling solutions to offer long term contracts with your customer base
If you want to double your sales, contact me at lisa@teneoresults.com.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
There are 1.2 million sales professionals in Canada today – that’s 6.6% of the total Canadian workforce.
With so many Canadians working in sales, it’s a wonder that this significant portion of the economy is often overlooked – but not anymore.
The Canadian Government wants to double the number of high-growth organizations in Canada by 2025 – this will require strong, knowledgeable sales professionals, equipped with the necessary tools to lead them on the path to growth. The lofty goals for growth sparked a focus on understanding the ways that investment in the sales profession can support a high-growth economy in Canada. The CPSA Labour Market Research Committee shared their findings on this in the 2019 Sales Growth Report.
In this blog, I’ll be sharing a few need-to-know facts regarding Canada’s thirst for growth in the sales sector.
1. The Sales & Marketing professions have been among the top 5 most in-demand over the last 10 years.
According to the Conference Board of Canada, the future of Canadian sales professionals and the future of Canada’s economy closely correlate.
2. Over 74% of Canadian companies are trying to achieve high growth (+6.7% growth per year).
Are you among this 74% of the high growth companies?
3. Of the 74% of companies aiming for high-growth, 40% don’t have a strategic plan to achieve it.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Strategic planning plays a highly important role in the success of turning goals into reality. Your plan is your roadmap to success, keeping you on track and making sure you aren’t lost.
Plans to achieve these high-growth goals consist of:
- Upselling to current clients
- Expanding territories
- Utilizing more marketing, communication, and analytical tools
Entering new industry segments
The Canadian government has chosen to invest significantly in the colleges and universities to create more accredited programs to create more interest and demand for sales professionals who are graduating and entering the workforce. 
What is your plan to become a high-growth company?
Here are 5 strategies to create a high growth company:
- Leadership Team – Are you poised for high growth?
- Existing Clients – The best and most effective way to grow your business is with your existing clients.
- Acquire New Business – Create a prospecting blitz with your sales team to find net new clients.
- Strengthen Your Sales Team – Invest in your team, even your seasoned veterans, to have more purposeful business conversations with your customers rather than product & price conversations. Begin developing a farm team with new college & university grads.
- Customer Service Team – They are talking to your customers every day and can be instrumental in growing your business.
Helping your customers to grow their business, will grow your business as well.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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2020 is to be the year of changing sales and buying demographics.
Why?
Retiring baby boomers.
Approximately fifty percent of the workforce will be comprised of millennials by the year 2020.
Because many sales teams are composed largely of sales professionals aged 55 or over, this presents a major challenge. Some baby boomers have already started to retire and that means jobs need to be filled.
Many of these positions have been held by experienced sales professionals for many years. These boomers have extensive product and industry knowledge and great customer relationships – all things that could potentially be lost when they go.
How can you ensure these opening positions are filled with skilled and qualified sales professionals?
Start planning now.
Here are 7 simple strategies to help you begin your succession plan:
- Have a coaching conversation with your senior reps. You can no longer force retirement at age 65 according to the Canadian Human Rights Code. This means some boomers may choose not to retire until later. Even though you can’t force retirement, you can ask coach-like questions to identify their goals toward retirement and to make succession planning smooth. Both parties should openly communicate their expectations moving forward, to ensure the continued success of the company.
- Offer flexible working schedules to accommodate the boomers who may want to phase out of their position gradually. Some boomers reaching retirement age may want to continue to work, but only on a part-time basis. By offering a flexible work schedule you can make this transition smoother for all parties involved.
- Create a farm team of upcoming sales professionals to step into the roles as boomers leave. Having a trained and prepared sales professional ready to step into the role will avoid the awkward and clunky transition from a seasoned sales professional to a new hire or transitioning worker.
- Hire millennials into entry-level sales and marketing positions and provide them with a career pathway. By hiring millennials into your business you can help ensure the future success of your company, while ensuring the success of the next generation.
- Mentorship is a great way to help transition sales professionals into senior roles―whether it be new hires or existing workers. Mentoring creates a support system for both incoming employees and for
outgoing boomers, and it ensures company knowledge and existing customer relationships are passed along to the incoming employee.
- Special projects/assignments are a good way to help keep boomers involved in a transition role. These special projects could include customer relationship management, product training programs, customer service roles, or marketing or inside sales.
- Be sure the candidate taking over has the correct temperament for the position. If you are promoting from within, be sure that the position change is welcomed by them, and that their temperament is suited for the job in need of filling. Often, the top-salespeople are promoted to managerial positions, but they are not suited for office work and find it stifling.
Remember this: Soon-to-retire boomers still want to retain a sense of importance within the company while training another sales professional to occupy the soon-to-be-vacant position.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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Are you frustrated by writing sales emails that don’t get a good response? Either you’re not getting many replies (cue the crickets) or your emails don’t move the sales process forward much. (Cue the snails!) Well, there’s good news – there are strategies that can help. In a recent webinar I hosted called “How to Write Sales Emails that Really, Really Work”, I talked with Steve Slaunwhite, professional copywriter, who shared his best techniques and strategies that will boost your sales email success rates by 35% or more. These are step-by-step techniques you’ll be able to use right away to craft emails that get noticed, get opened and — most importantly — get actions.
1. Do your homework on the prospect.
Treat your email as you would a meeting. The more prepared you are, the better that meeting will go. Before sending an email, find out about…
- The professional background of your prospect.
- Actions taken on your website. (Have they downloaded or subscribed to anything?)
- Previous interactions with your company. (Have they sent inquiries previously?)
- News, issues, buzz, etc., in the prospect’s industry.
- Events that might “trigger” an interest in the type of solutions you offer.
- Similarities with other customers you’ve had success with.
Doing your homework on your prospect will provide you with the knowledge to creatively customize an email just for them – which in turn has proven to get a far better response rate.
2. Write conversationally to ONE person (This isn’t mass email marketing!)
- The prospect should feel like it’s an email just for them. (So, make it just for them!)
- Personalize as much as possible (without seeming creepy.)
- Avoid apology-talk. “I know you’re busy, so I’ll only take two minutes of your time…”
- Show you’ve identified an opportunity to help the prospect solve a problem or achieve an objective.
- Write the way you talk. Your email should sound natural when read out loud. (So, read it out loud!)
- There should be twice as many you-words than we-words.
3. Keep it short and easy to scan.
- Ideally, no more than 200 words.
- Write in short paragraphs to make reading easier – looking at large amounts of text without any breaks may seem daunting and discourage your prospect from even reading it.
- If appropriate, use a bullet list.
- Avoid bolds, font colours, etc., that make the email seem like a mass marketing piece.
- No attachments. Some companies have firewalls that will prevent your email from ever being received if it contains attachments.
- What does the prospect need to know to take the action you want them to take?
4. Ask a question that gets the prospect thinking (dreaming) of a solution.
- Is this a challenge you’ve encountered?
- Can you see how might boost ‘pick and pack’ times in your distribution centre?
- Do you happen to be looking for ways to solve this problem?
- Would being able to do [x] make it worth a few minutes to learn more?
5. If possible, drop in some “social proof”.
- Names of customers with similar issues that your product/service has helped.
- Number of satisfied customers.
- Industry ranking, product reviews, publicity (“As featured in…”)
- Customer stories and case studies.
6. Suggest an easy-to-say-yes-to next step.
- Don’t ask for too big of a decision. (Don’t propose marriage on a first date!)
- What is the next easiest action a prospect needs to take to learn more?
- Consider making two calls-to-action. A hard offer and a soft offer.
7. Use a benefit-focused subject line.
- Curiosity-focused subject line:
- Another spill on aisle 10…
- Ask-focused subject line:
- Do you have a moment to chat? Topic: new, safer forklifts
- Benefit-focused subject line:
- Will our safer forklifts lower your insurance costs? Let’s find out…
If you implement these strategies, along with the double-whammy approach of reaching out to prospects through more than one platform (an email followed by a LinkedIn connection, or a telephone call followed by an email) you can increase your response rate by 50%. This really, really works!
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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Consultative selling is an approach that focuses on creating value and trust with your customer and exploring their needs before offering a solution. And this sales team managed to grow their business by 25% by moving from the traditional model of just selling to solving problems.
At a recent client sales conference, the sales team of ReSource Group Canada, who started the journey of being Strategic, Proactive and Brave three years ago by receiving training from us on consultative selling, reflected and gave their insight on the importance of Consultative Conversations and how well it works to grow their business.
Here are their actual insights and comments.
- “Consultative Selling is a Game Changer – it becomes a habit.”
- “I know more about our customer’s business and my customer respects me more.”
- “I care, they care.”
- “I used to be afraid to ask my customers about my competition in their business… Now, I’m no longer afraid to ask those questions.”
- “It’s all about preparing for customer meetings, then partnering with your customers.”
- “Active listening – summarizing and re-affirming what the customer says.”
- “It takes the customer relationship to a different level.”
- “It elevates my confidence.”
- “Purposeful conversations can even be done socially over dinner with a CEO to better understand their business.”
- “If we ask all the right questions, then we will present exactly what the buyer needs and wants – as it [removes] the guess work.”
- “It shows you care and creates trust with your customer.”
- “We didn’t talk about products, price or pitch – it was all about approaching buyers in the right way.”
- “I now look forward to developing an agenda for a customer meeting to explore and discuss more about their business.”
- “Consultative and purposeful conversations always lead to more positive things and outcomes.”
In addition to growing their business by 25%, the ReSource Group Canada sales team was featured in
the Globe and Mail Sales Supplement in recognition of the entire team earning their CSP Designation. Becoming a Certified Sales Professional is now standard at ReSource Group Canada.
Congratulations to this team on their success and their recent 25th Anniversary Celebration.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
