How to Deal with Slacker Sales Reps and Optimize Sales Prospecting
Every sales team seems to have one of 'em, that sales rep with the ability to give marketing, their sales manager and the teleprospecting team a collective headache. It is not that this sales rep isn't adept enough to explain in great detail the benefits of a complex technology; it is that they seem to have difficulty completing some simple tasks that make the sales process more effective.
Marketing, for example, may be wondering why the sales rep can't take the time to tie a forecasted opportunity back to a specific campaign. Sales managers are left scratching their head when a meeting that has been described as "successful" and "moving to the next step" shows up on forecast for a grand total of ZERO dollars. For the teleprospecting team it may simply be that the sales rep forgot to follow up on a scheduled opportunity that was been queued up for them.
I'm not saying that their actions are purposely malicious, but ultimately each of the examples affects the perceived job performance of the other team members in a negative way. Marketing looks like it is wasting its money because it appears that no closed business is tied back to each campaign they are running. Sales Team forecast totals looks much lower (or higher in some cases) than it actually is, leaving sales managers to scramble around trying to get a true picture of the actual number. And finally, most teleprospectors are evaluated and paid on the quality of meetings set, but unfortunately none of the meetings they are setting up are actually happening.
So where can we take it from here?
While there are a variety of avenues we can take to keep our slacker sales rep in-line, here are a few that seem to have worked for my clients.
1) CRM re-training: If they can't attach the right campaign or enter an accurate forecast number, then maybe it's time to re-review how it should be done. If you can simplify the process, from entering conversation notes to enabling quick and easy reporting - do it. Another suggestion would be to make all the fields you need to track required when they are entering lead notes into your system.
2) Team Meetings: Marketing, Sales & the Teleprospecting teams need to meet regularly (ideally once a week) to review all leads passed to the outside sales team. This should help in a few areas:
- Marketing is assured that everything is being tracked accurately in your CRM,
- Sales Managers are aware of all meetings and then can circle back with their reps to assure the meeting occurred and is forecasted accurately,
- Teleprospectors have the peace of mind that each meeting is being followed up on.
3) Give your best sales leads to someone else: If your reps are either forgetting about a scheduled call or just not taking the time to follow-up, then pass them on to someone else on the team who will execute on these opportunities and appreciates the effort that went into getting the meeting. Once the forgetful rep is tasked with doing their own cold calling, they miraculously begin to ask for more leads and will then follow up at the scheduled meeting time.
What are you doing to prevent your sales reps from keeping you up at night?