How long does it take to improve sales performance?
By the time a business owner asks the question : ‘How long does it take to improve sales performance?’, what they really mean is: When will the headache go away?
The problem has grown big enough – or dragged on long enough – for them to feel the pain of a below-par sales performance. The implications are usually clear: not paying yourself enough this month, or worse, worrying about meeting payroll.
How long it takes to fix is a tough question to answer without referring back to the old adage about the length of a piece of string.
You can make quick changes that improve performance within a few weeks. When that delivers better sales results depends on many factors.
The best comparison is to think of the impact a new team manager has on a football club.
How quickly do you need improved sales performance?
More often than not, a new football manager has a quick impact on results. Things might be better as soon as this Saturday!
Same players. Same pitch. Same strip. Yet something about the new appointment acts as a catalyst for change.
It’s much harder to prove the impact this has over the long term. All too often the new manager bounce doesn’t translate into a stronger season.
This is a really important consideration if you’re thinking about the performance of a sales team. You’re really asking two different questions
– What quick wins can I get that improve sales performance?
– How do I build a sales capability that consistently improves over time?
Which question you choose to focus on might be determined by the financials of your business. You’ll typically get a better return on your efforts by building for the long term.
Short term focus will be determined by how tight your cash position is. Although we’re sales consultants we’re always honest with business owners: if you’re struggling for cash it might be best to speak to a good accountant rather than cross your fingers and hope your sales pipeline suddenly improves.
A fatter sales funnel doesn’t fix a cashflow crisis. Get the fundamentals right first.
How do you drive sales performance in the short term?
The football manager is a helpful illustration. They inherit the same players but they likely bring new tactics and formations. Subtle tweaks to how players turn up on matchday changes the result.
Importantly, they change the mood of the team. They might change training routines, give the players better belief in themselves, or just give simpler focus on the job in hand.
You’ll need the same things to quickly improve sales performance: Better tactics, clearer focus and a positive energy.
What’s more challenging with a sales team is that in most cases you’re not replacing the team manager.
If you really need a major reset then you can appoint someone on a part-time basis to act as the catalyst. Otherwise it’s down to you and your existing team to change tactics, formations and to lift the mood.
Often what’s missing in smaller businesses is the reporting routine that a sales manager would bring. Putting in place a consistent meeting structure that enables you to monitor sales pipeline and forecasts can make a big difference. Especially if you stick to it!
If this hasn’t been happening consistently then the first place to look for improvement in sales performance will be what’s in your sales pipeline and how you can accelerate those deals.
Once that’s done then a good clean up of stalled deals and an exercise to renew contact with the people already sitting in your CRM will likely give you a medium-term uplift.
What’s needed to improve sales performance in the long term?
If you have the time and space to build for the future then you can take a more strategic approach. These improvements might deliver benefit in weeks – but mainly they are focused on making you better this season and into next year.
The choice of improvement actions is too long to list, but you can cluster things under three headings:
1. Customer strategy. How do you identify your key customer types and free up your sales team to spend more time with them? That necessarily involves making tough decisions about other customers receiving less of your investment. In turn this requires you to understand the profitability and growth potential of your customers. Your ten biggest clients now might not guarantee your success in future
2. Sales team. Even if your sales team is just you or a couple of people then you still deserve investment. Your sales people are the face of your business and having skilled and capable people gives your customers confidence in your proposition. Sales teams that are invested in tend to stay longer, reducing your cost of recruitment and training. Needless to say, the best sales teams tend to close bigger deals, more often and faster
3. Sales tools. This is everything from the AI agents you set up to remove admin from your sales team, right through to your CRM system and the laptops and devices your team work from. You don’t need the shiny, new version of everything, but your team will be more effective if they have clear information and systems that don’t distract them from serving customers
What common mistakes are made in trying to improve sales performance?
This is another question which has many answers, so let’s focus on just three:
– Push the team harder. You might have inherited a lazy sales team where getting them to work the full week you pay them for will result in more sales conversations. That’s rarely the case. If your team are trying then pushing harder just creates tension and false promises in your sales forecast. It’s the sort of tactic that sees the new football manager embark on a run of four victories – followed by relegation at the end of the season. Just pushing harder isn’t sustainable
– Too much focus on conversion rates. It’s arithmetically true that increasing your conversion rate by 10% has a proportionate impact on revenue. The fundamental flaw is that it assumes everything else stays the same. In reality, new channels and customers often mean seeking out smaller opportunities that are harder to convert. Driving new business can naturally reduce your conversion rate. Better training can improve conversion, but it carries a cost in management time. Everything else doesn’t stay the same
– New channels and customers. Most business leaders can eloquently explain the competitive challenges facing them in their home market. New channels and customers look appealing. The reality is that every sector has its own problems and they’re often not visible from outside. Our rule of thumb? New sectors usually end up taking twice as long to crack as you think, and at twice the price. Referrals and repeats aren’t as sexy, but they are often better value
So how soon can I expect to see improvements in sales performance?
If you commit time and expertise (and you might not have either of these in the business) then looking closely at your customer experience will highlight some quick wins. You should be able to implement these within 2 to 8 weeks. It’s the equivalent of the new football manager bounce.
How quickly these changes flow through into increased revenue depends on the length of your sales cycle of course. If your sales process takes six months to progress from first contact to signed contract then you’ll have to be patient.
Understanding your sales operation is crucial.
Car dealerships increase sales of vehicles at the end of each quarter when they want to clear stock from the forecourt. It’s possible to increase sales of even a big purchase like this if you offer the right incentive.
Yet the reason this works is that at any point in time there are millions of people thinking about changing their car. Most are in no rush, so if they see a one-off deal closing on 31st of that month they might take the plunge.
It’s good for your sales results, though most likely pulling forward a transaction from next quarter.
If you’re not sure your sales performance is where it should be then why not take our sales scorecard. It will take you no more than 3 minutes and will give you a quick snapshot of what’s working well – or not so well – in your current sales operation.
FAQs
What is the quickest way to improve sales performance?
In many cases the quickest way of improving sales performance is to carry out a forensic assessment of your sales funnel. What lapsed deals can be reignited? What are the big opportunities in your pipeline and how do you accelerate them?
Why isn’t my sales team hitting its targets?
Firstly, ask yourself how those targets were set. Did your sales team agree them or were they imposed from the top? If they are falling short of their own goals then what’s changed?
Before you conclude the people aren’t good enough, take a look at your business strategy, the clients they are targeting, your sales management and support tools
Can sales performance improve without hiring more salespeople?
Yes it can, and you should probably look to extract the best from your existing team before bringing in more people. Not by driving them harder, but by ensuring your business strategy and sales goals are joined up. Are they calling on the right customers, with the right skills and sales materials? None of these questions are answered by simply recruiting more people.