The sales team is one of the most important areas of your business – the functionality of your sales team needs to be optimum to enjoy sales and profit margins. If the sales division isn’t functioning properly, you have nothing. 

To build a solid sales team, perhaps you’ll need to be doing some hiring. When you hire you should not be hiring someone with potential, because then you are settling for the possibility of success. This will cause frustration as you wait for them to get results. Instead, you should be hiring someone who has a proven track record, because when you do they are already built for success and they will naturally begin to sell. This might cost you more up front, but it’s certainly worth it. The success of your sales team depends on the people you hire.

You should also evaluate your current team. As hard as it is, you need to be honest about your current team. Is there anyone that’s not holding up their end? Do they have proper leadership and guidance to create a successful client base and sell, sell, sell? Do they know how to align themselves with the goals of the company? You need to determine where you have gaps in your sales force and where it is going strong. If there are gaps now is the time to invest in correct actions to empower your team and at the end of the day, your profits, because increased sales means more profit for you. That’s also why it is so important to actually invest in your sales team. You can survive with many different divisions being ineffective, but if your sales team isn’t working, you are dead in the water. 

Establish a way to track sales so that you know who is selling and who is not. Create an accountability standard and use it. That way your sales team will know what is expected of them. At the most basic level, selling is really just a numbers game. How you get there is based on a company policy and individual sales techniques. So you establish what you want them to accomplish, what’s acceptable in meeting those goals, and a method of tracking, then you let your sales team do what they do best – sell. 

Your sales team will build your sales tunnel if they are given the proper tools to do so. Suddenly you will see your volume of sales increase and that’s a win-win for everyone.