By Dana Phillips.
Increasing productivity in a sales team is golden! You earn more, they make more, and everyone is happy. So what can you do to increase productivity? Here are a couple of thoughts that have worked for many of my clients.
- Use bottom-up goal setting. This one is tough because many of you have been giving numbers to hit or goals to achieve. Big businesses often use top-down goals setting where they will assign you a target. Do your best to resist breaking your goals down into what they “need” to do. Instead, spend time with critical producers asking what they want to achieve. More often than not, their goals are more ambitious than yours.
- Use coaching to develop action steps. In short, find out what they want and what they will do to get it. Ask more questions to design an action plan with them. This works to help them break down the goal into smaller chunks and even bite-size time increments. You might say, “What are you doing this week?” Follow through with “When do you want to do it?” and express your belief that they will make it happen.
- Find out how you can support them. One of the smartest sales leaders I know has said, “Do you want me to push you, pull you, or get out of your way?” Remember, you can always check-in, change the way you follow up with your team. Allowing your team the autonomy of deciding how you follow up with them fosters independence.
THE BIGGIE: Work with the ones who want to grow. Everyone wants your time, and you don’t have enough of it to take care of everyone. Make increasing productivity a win-win process. Learn what is essential to your sellers, and be sure they recognize increasing productivity as a path to achieving the benefits they want. Ask, “What’s in it for the other person to perform well?” and “Why would they care about increasing productivity?” Discuss the benefits openly and seek creative ways to reward desired behaviors. Give those who want to work more of your time.
Do you Want to Know a Secret?
Your most limited resource is you. You can improve your efficiency, delegate, or even try to order people. No matter what you do, you are your biggest bottleneck.
How will you improve your productivity? You know what productivity is: getting more output from every unit of time. The problem is figuring out the “How do I do that?
Along the way, you hit a ton of frustrations:
- Feeling guilty about not spending enough time with people who you KNOW could be good?
- Stressed out because you never have enough time to work with your team?
- Exhausted by “coaching” calls that don’t change a thing?
- Sick of “I want to grow” team members who don’t work?”
When you open and dive into our online course, Direct Sellers Best Kept Secret to Increasing Productivity, you will access:
- One tool you can use every thirty days
- The best one-page worksheet to help you work with the right people every month
- How to deal with “I want to grow” team members who don’t work
- How to inspire those who aren’t working
Did I say it was $10? Yes, that’s it. How much is your productivity worth?
