Q – What expertise does your firm have in our Industry?
A – As you can tell, LUCAS CONSULTING GROUP has completed consultancy assignments for companies in a lot of different industries.
Our focus is on improving the performance of sales teams that are selling primarily to other businesses, usually called B2B sales. We’ve learned that the concepts, methodologies and approaches we use, to improve sales performance, have much more in common regardless of the specific industry.
Here’s another view: Do you
want your sales team to look, sound and feel like every other company in your
industry? Or do you want your sales team to differentiate themselves from the
competition? If so, then maybe
LUCAS CONSULTING
GROUP can help your company improve sales
performance.
Q – We have a sales team with a lot of experience and no matter what we’ve tried to do they don’t seem to change the way they do things. How would you get them to change?
A – Changing behavior is the most difficult challenge organizations and individuals ever face. The key to getting people to change is to get the senior management and sales team to “acknowledge they need help” and to “buy in” to the process at the initial stage.
But that approach alone usually won’t be sufficient to stimulate change throughout a process that takes months and even years. LUCAS CONSULTING GROUP also installs “ leading indicator tools”, for senior management, that provide a “trap” to stimulate change.
An example of such tools is training senior management to use a 30, 60 & 90 Day Sales Forecast along with the salesperson’s “Closing Ratio” on a monthly basis to help them “admit” there are not sufficient prospects in their “pipeline.” The result should be that the salesperson realizes they must do more selling activities in order to meet the overall sales goals.
Q – We sell throughout North America. How can your company help with a sales team that is so spread out?
A – After an initial phase of establishing the “tools” and a “common language” for the selling process, the “sales team” has a mutual understanding of the expectations and are “empowered.” Different sales people need different reinforcements at different times.
We believe in a “servant” style of management, which means, the Sales Manager should be focused on “serving” the salesperson by “adding value” to their selling activities. Senior Management’s biggest challenge is identifying which salesperson needs their help, what kind of help they need, how best to get them the help, when and where.
Once the “leading indicator tools” are installed, the weekly “selling activities metrics” are accessible through the Internet whenever and wherever the sales person and senior manager want to access them. By using this “just in time coaching.” process, the Sales Manager and Salesperson can connect when and how they want to.
Q – In the past training and professional development was expensive and took the team out of the field away from our customers and prospects. How can I justify such an investment?
A – As the TV commercial says “that’s the rub.” The sales team needs to be close to your customer to grow business but they also need to continuously improve their selling skills in today’s competitive global markets.
Our clients are companies that have faced this issue and concluded they must take some time out, usually once per quarter to, “sharpen the saw”, otherwise their sales team is not growing its skills.
The combination of an initial skills development along with “just in time coaching” is especially effective with the salesperson of the 21st Century because they don't want management looking over their shoulder every day.
To learn more about our proven concepts to improve your
sales and receive a Free Copy of our award winning paper entitled
"Emergency Treatment for Ailing Sales Teams", CLICK
HERE!