FEATURE SALES FIVE WAYS TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL SALES CULTURE By Paul Black, CEO, sales-i Eleven per cent of those surveyed said that having to complete general administrative tasks, such as compiling sales reports and preparing for meetings, took valuable time away from new business activities. A lack of transparency within teams was highlighted by 17 per cent of salespeople as a significant issue. Without visibility into colleagues’ activities across the business, salespeople can’t always access the important customer or prospect data that 24 DECEMBER / JANUARY 2017 CLEANING HYGIENE TODAY could inform an upselling or new business opportunity. Further IT issues which prevent salespeople from working smarter and achieving better results include the use of Excel for manual data entry, reporting and analysis, the inability to access key company and customer information from anywhere at any time, and the storage of data across too many different systems. Half of respondents said that their main problem was an inability to identify new opportunities, or see which existing customer accounts were falling in sales before it was too late. So, how can sales managers in the cleaning industry empower their teams to overcome these challenges and boost their numbers? A successful sales culture is one which encourages proactivity and efficiency through the following five initiatives. Even the most successful sales pitch gets worn out with repeat use. A lack of innovation and motivation prevents good salespeople from becoming great. Instead, they rely on routine orders from existing customers and stop looking for new opportunities. They use the same old processes to bring in predictable results and lack any real purpose to try harder. Eager to gain a deeper understanding, we recently surveyed over 280 salespeople from a range of industries (including cleaning supplies) about their biggest daily challenges – those which hold them back from being more proactive, and thus successful, in their roles. Without visibility into colleagues’ activities across the business, salespeople can’t always access the important customer or prospect data that could inform an upselling or new business opportunity.”
Cleaning Hygiene Today December/January 2017
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