How to Effectively Evaluate Your Salespeople and Help Them Get Better Results

As a sales manager, you are always searching for new ways to improve your team’s performance.

Chances are you have tried multiple methods in the past. But if you still are not seeing the results you want, it might be time to step back for a moment, evaluate your team and try something different to help them get better sales results.

Ready to learn how?                                                                                               

We have outlined multiple ways to evaluate your salespeople so you can use what you learn to help them reach their goals.

How to Evaluate Your Sales Team

Regularly analyze the sales process your salespeople use.

While it is true that sales is largely results-driven, you must also take the sales process into account when evaluating your team. After all, that process is directly related to your team’s results – if they are not getting good results, they may be suffering from a process that does not work.

To combat this issue, analyze the way your salespeople execute each step of the sales process from start to finish. From there, you can pinpoint the steps that they struggle with the most and offer coaching on how to improve their performance during those steps.

Use a CRM tool.

If you are using a CRM tool right now in your sales department, you should have access to a range of information that will help you understand your team, including their sales goals and sales results. Analyze this data to determine which areas your team might need to improve in and which of your salespeople may require extra coaching.

When evaluating your salespeople this way, try not to get too caught up in the numbers. As previously mentioned, it is important to communicate with them regularly too so you can discover the process they use to achieve their results.

Use a sales personality test.

You should not just evaluate your current salespeople – for best results, you need to evaluate each salesperson you consider hiring as well. By doing so effectively, you can feel confident knowing that every salesperson you hire possesses the personality traits necessary to achieve high sales results.

One of the best ways to do this is with a sales personality test like The DriveTest™. The questions in this assessment will allow you to determine whether or not a candidate has these 3 non-teachable personality traits:

• Need for Achievement
• Competitiveness
• Optimism

If the candidate does score high for these traits, it means that he is Driven and there is a very good chance that he will succeed as a “hunter” salesperson on your team. From there, you can interview him to make sure he is a good cultural fit and make an informed decision about hiring him.

How to Help Your Team Improve Their Sales Results After Evaluating Them

Give constructive feedback often.

Your salespeople cannot be expected to improve if they are not aware of what they are doing wrong. For this reason, it is important for you to check in with them on a regular basis to let them know how they are performing.

When you do this, make sure you provide your salespeople with both negative and positive feedback. That way, they understand their weak areas as well as their strengths.

However, only provide negative feedback in one-on-one meetings. If you criticize a salesperson in front of his peers, he may become resentful of you and begin to dislike his job and having your as his manager. When this happens too often, high employee turnover is sure to follow, which can cost your company a lot of money.

Provide your team with the tools and resources they need to succeed.

Once you have effectively evaluated your salespeople, you should have a good idea of the areas where they are struggling.

Use that knowledge to determine which tools and resources you can equip your salespeople with to help them overcome the challenges they are facing at work.

For example, if they are unable to work productively because they are struggling with scheduling sales calls, you can research online to find the right scheduling program for your team.

Or, if your salespeople are struggling with productivity in general, you might want to analyze their process to determine which tasks can be automated. From there, you can start incorporating automation so that they can spend more time selling and less time on non-sales tasks.

These are just a couple ways you might help your team, but keep in mind that every sales team is different and has unique needs. Talk to your team and analyze the specific challenges they face every day to determine how you can best help them achieve better sales results.

Provide your team with a list of proven sales techniques and best practices.

Some salespeople might struggle to sell in general, especially if they are new to sales. If you suspect that any of your sales team members fall into that category, try empowering them to perform better at work by giving them a list of techniques that they can use every day.

Once they have your list, they can keep it at their desk and reference it when they face a challenging situation while talking to a customer. Then, they should be able to navigate those situations with ease and sell more as a result.

Use gamification as a motivator.

If you have evaluated your team and determined that many of them are unmotivated, you need to act fast. After all, unmotivated salespeople will not achieve good sales results.

Since salespeople are naturally competitive, you should be able to motivate them easily by creating a competition within your sales department. Take a quick survey to determine what kind of reward (money, movie tickets, extra time off work, etc.) your salespeople are most interested in, and offer that reward to whoever wins the competition.

Keep in mind that the winner does not necessarily need to be the person who produces top sales results in a given time period – you can also reward your salespeople for other things, like being chosen to direct team meetings or getting a new lead.

If you are constantly communicating with your team, helping them however you can, and remaining open to new ways of doing things in the sales department, you should have no problem helping your sales team get better results. Being an effective sales manager will inspire your team to perform better, so be patient and keep working hard to help them improve. If you use the tips outlined in this post, your efforts are sure to pay off.