The 8 Character that Kill a Sales Team

As a business owner, chances are you are used to being the one that gets it done. You drive the sales, you travel the miles, you push harder than anyone in your company – and when payroll comes around, you are one that makes sure that the money is there. No one will be surprised to hear that you bring a bigger passion to the table than anyone else in your firm, but if you are the only true driver you are headed directly into years of frustration and even failure.

It’s a huge step when you a hire sales staff, after all, you are trusting someone to go out there with your baby and trust that they will do the right thing. Now, you are managing everything you were before, while onboarding new sales staff who need deep engagement with and education about your product and brand and managing their numbers, creating a sales culture, ensuring effective collaboration with marketing, and….now you are hiding under your desk. It’s ok….come out….you don’t have to carry this alone.

We see business owners go through a range of emotions when the pipeline needs to grow. See if you recognize any of these characters:

  • The Imposter: You have been making this business happen through sheer force of will and sell well because you know every inch of your business, but that doesn’t mean that you see yourself as a salesperson or leader.
  • The Overwhelmed: If there are 17 hats in your business, you are wearing at least 14 of them. Adding the large time commitment of hiring, onboarding, and managing a salesperson or team could only make the stack topple.
  • The Aggressor: With consistently underperforming sales, you are losing your ability to maintain patience with your sales staff and you are constantly doing mental gymnastics going back and forth between firing the underperforming or just pushing them harder to get the results that you need. The sales staff becomes the pack of kids that are always in trouble, but there isn’t enough time to train or coach them out of it, and hostility is more and more a part of your interactions (or at least inner monologue)
  • The Incredulous: I don’t need accountability, I don’t need hand-holding, training or coaching, why do they?
  • The Blind: With no central tracking system I couldn’t see the sales pipeline if I wanted to, but I have no idea how to pick the right CRM or how to program it to get the information needed to make the proper assessments and plans. And IF I do get it going, how do I not only train the team but keep them engaged with it?!
  • The Rivet Catcher: You know that there are opportunities everywhere, but with BIG sales, current clients, past clients, new markets and new trends you are constantly staring up and hoping to reach out and catch what is falling instead of being able to distribute a plan.
  • The Transformer: You see your industry moving from transactional sales to relationship-based sales but with a team that has been pushing papers for years, do you wipe the sales staff out and start over or teach the old dogs new tricks?
  • The Bootstrapper: If you had a few hundred grand to toss into a new sales program, you might not need to lean so hard on the sales staff anyway. You need to find a financially viable way to get the right people in the right roles to move the sales team forward and start producing results.

Find yourself nodding (or shaking your head in commiseration) with some of the points above? Don’t beat yourself up, every business experiences this growing pain. But, don’t wait for the answer to come find you, reach out and learn about how our Fractional VP of Sales services can support you to create, empower and maintain a successful sales force and give you the keys to keep the sales machine running when you are ready for it.

Call us today at 312.720.1399