Is Your Sales Force Getting the Job Done?

On average your Sales Force is getting the job done for you. On average they are making budget (whatever that number is). On average they are exceeding last year’s sales. And on average they are driving enough business to keep you in business. So, if you are happy to live with “On Average” then there is no reason to keep reading because this piece only deals with people that are working to be Above Average.

Here are some facts: 
• Sales people would rather sell than anything else. They put selling above planning, preparing, ground work, cold calling, paperwork, following up and even final delivery. A good sales person does all of those things, but the one thing they are most passionate about is selling. Don’t ever forget that. 
• Sales people hate cold calling, especially good sales people. They cold call because they realize cold calling is a necessary evil. They would much rather warm call (call someone they know), wait for a prospect to call them, do paperwork, clean the trash, work a trade show (very close to cold calling but they get to go to exotic places and sit around and commiserate with their fellow sales people about cold calling and standing at trade shows) or clean up their Salesforce.com files than cold call. They simply hate cold calling. But, to get leads, they will do it until they are successful and relying on referrals - the sweetest sound a good sales person has ever heard.

So, is the average Sales Company average because they have their best sales people do something they dislike half their day? I think the answer is yes. That also leads me to the conclusion that they are average because they use too many unqualified sales people just to generate enough leads. When you don’t have qualified leads for your good sales staff to talk with, you demand that they actually talk to unqualified leads thinking it is a numbers game. This effort has you hiring junior sales people because they are a bit hungrier than your senior staff. This also requires either you, or one of your best sales people to train the new folks, go on a few appointments with them, shepherd the deal along if it gets close to closing.

Your Sales Force probably gets the job done you ask them to do, but not the job you either hired them for or they are passionate about. Remember - they love to sell, they want to sell and they are good at selling. .

Why do you have someone that can earn you several million dollars a year in revenue making cold calls? It costs you about $7,000 for every good appointment a sales person makes from a cold call (based on one appointment every week and a one in four close ratio) with a travel expense for each of those appointments. But that is only the hard cost. The bigger cost is the cost of morale. When your Sales Force has a bad meeting they blame it on the product, the Power point, anything except that they made an appointment with the wrong person. So how can they avoid a bad appointment in the future?

There is a new solution to this problem and that solution is Axcelora.

Like the show, Would you like to be a Millionaire, we suggest you Phone a Friend. You say you don’t have a friend at the right company that can make decisions? Axcelora does and we are happy to introduce your company to our friends; a proper introduction and appointment at that.

So what can Axcelora do for you?
• Set appointments with our business friends that are decision makers
• Eliminate your need to make useless cold calls
• Improve your close ratio because you are speaking to decision makers
• Eliminate the cost of unproductive sales people
• Make a happy, more productive Sales Force because they are doing what they love all of the time
• Increase sales 
So, if your Sales Force are cold calling for leads, stop them right now and contact Axcelora.

Axcelora will help your Sales Force get the job done you hired them to do…SELL. www.axcelora.com