Four Actionable Tips to Transition from a Sales TEAM to a SalesFORCE

Business executives often use the expressions "sales team” and "salesforce” synonymously. Top performing companies don’t share that perspective. They see a distinct difference between the two. Want to transition your sales team into salesforce? Here are four actionable tips.

1. Don’t search for great salespeople. Find the right ones with the potential to be great on your sales team. Selling successfully in your company takes more than just skills. It’s the overall match to role requirements. This starts by developing your ideal salesperson profile and contrasting prospective candidates against it.

2. Position salespeople for success. Don’t assume that salespeople arrive in your company ready to sell. Create onboarding programs designed to quickly get them up to speed. The programs should to connect their sales skills with proficiency in a specific sales role in your company. Onboarding should conclude with a written exam and sales call practical giving the salespeople the opportunity to show their stuff.

3. Identify the metrics that are meaningful, measurable, goal-oriented and trainable. Top companies recognize that revenue is not a metric. It’s a result of the right metrics being delivered-upon by salespeople at the desired frequency. You can’t affect revenue, but you can drive the behaviors that lead to it. By the way, without a well-defined sales process, there are no meaningful metrics.

4. Compensate to motivate! Effective sales compensation plans align with corporate objectives. You may give your salespeople a job description, but nothing drives sales behavior more than how they get paid. Top companies recognize that sales compensation plans should drive salespeople to get the next sale, not just reward for yesterday’s news.

Put these 4 tips into practice and you are well on your way to building a world-class salesforce.

See you next time on the Sales Management Minute.