Anyone who has ever managed a salesforce knows what a lousy deal is and how it can be very detrimental to your business. The stereotypical deal-gone-wrong is usually the result of overzealous salespeople saying whatever they have to say to get the ink dry on the contract – without regard for the company or the integrity of the business being transacted.
These situations are not unique to white label reselling, and, if anything, we suffer from these kinds of problems less often than most, but they can and do occur.
The remedy to all this is simple – manage your salesforce. At Rocket Driver, we provide all of our resellers (white label partners) with a robust CRM that has unlimited seats so that every lead they get that is issued to a salesperson can be tracked and managed from prospect to customer support and everywhere in between.
You may or may not be a partner of ours, but if you are a businessperson of any kind, then you know how essential software is for your business. Even the best management is powerless if their job is relegated to hounding salespeople on the phone, via email, or over a chat application. In the modern world, working under one roof is less often the norm than ever. As this trend progresses, practical strategies for the use of software combined with management techniques that preempt problems before they occur will become more and more the norm.
Here are some essential strategies for the setup, maintenance, and management of the typical remote salesforce.
Hire Properly
Many who are new to reselling have never hired a salesperson of any kind before; to them, it’s sometimes a clinical process or a math equation, and this is wrong. Hiring a salesperson is not a matter of looking at a resume and deciding if it adds up to hire or not. All the education in the world cannot guarantee effectiveness on the phone, and some of the best salespeople got their training in the hard knocks world of sales itself – you can’t judge a book by its cover. It’s critical that you get in touch with each application, talk to them on the phone, and get a sense of who that person is.
Ask probing questions, see what their background has been, ask about their time management skills, see if they have the correct answers to various items – use your gut.
You won’t get it right every time, but by vetting applications through speaking with them, you will lay the groundwork for future success as you build up experience in an organic way.
Train Well
At Rocket Driver, we know how necessary training is, do you? A salesforce that is not properly trained in the products and services expected to sell is a ticking time bomb.
The typical scenario is that without training, salespeople will flounder, they will burn leads. Still, worst of all, they will inject incorrect information into their deals, and this can wreak all manner of chaos down the line.
Proper training takes many forms; it can take the form of hands-on training, allowing a salesperson to attend your demonstrations and teaching step by step – although this is very time-consuming. It can take a course where salespeople are expected to go through materials step by step and take tests – this is very expensive to develop.
Good training can also take the form that we opted to develop – video-based and non-linear. We give salespeople all of the materials in video format to watch at their own pace, giving our partners (resellers) the ability to direct what materials matter and what doesn’t – resellers decide what materials to watch.
Whatever way you decide to train, training is not a process that is every complete. You have to look at exercise as an ongoing process. We strongly suggest that our partners meet with salespeople on an ongoing basis in a live format to discuss issues. Re-train on core subjects and get valuable feedback because this is that crucial.
Keep Tabs – Not Tags
Those new to running a salesforce may find themselves inadvertently behaving as a micro-manager; it’s pretty easy to do. This is inefficient and can also scare top talent away by making them feel put upon and smothered.
The key to avoiding this is to keep tabs on your salespeople by meeting regularly but not injecting yourself into every minor decision that needs to be made. The way we’ve found most helpful is to schedule regular meetings and hold salespeople accountable for outcomes – but not to analyze every minor decision that they need to make.
It’s important to note that there is a wide variety of variables that require on-the-fly judgment calls in every dynamic sales situation. In hindsight, everything is 20/20, but when things are going on, no one has this luxury. When you contract a salesperson to work on commission, you are, in effect, placing your trust in their ability to make the right judgment calls. If you aren’t, then you are doing something wrong.
Look for Signs
Signs a salesperson is revoking and/or doing something wrong will inevitably emerge if it’s true. Missed meetings, long periods of missing time, lack of communication – all of these, and so much more will present themselves. As a manager, you must read the tea leaves and sense if something is wrong with one of your people.
If you have a suspicion that something is wrong, the best way to handle it is to get in touch with them (if you can) and talk to them about it. It’s not about accusing this person of doing something wrong; it’s about listening to their responses and sensing if they are true or not. You are under no obligation to keep someone on the team that wants to leave, and they are under no obligation to stay. If it’s not working out, it’s time to move on.
Trust – But Verify
The assumption here is that you are running a remote salesforce or at least a telecommuted salesforce. If this is the case, you absolutely must verify the integrity of every sale that comes through them.
It’s not that you will always face lies, but omissions and misrepresentations are extremely common in our industry. It’s effortless in the sales process for communication to break down and for prospects and clients to hear what they want to hear – only to hold your business accountable later on. This commonly takes the form of them claiming they were promised X Y or Z features, which either don’t exist or cannot possibly be included at the given price point agreed upon. It is mission-critical that every sale made by every salesperson on your team be called and verified. This is very simple to do.
All you have to do is call up the new client and go over – precisely – what they bought and ensure that they are on the same page as you.
With Rocket Driver, we have managed services whereby we contact the end-client in a white-label manner, go over the service, and ready it for setup and implementation. If something is wrong, the service or overall situation, we will correct it then and there. This is one more way we are different than the rest. If you are a partner of ours, you don’t have to worry. If you aren’t, make sure you always verify the deals your reps bring you.
Never Be Afraid to Fire
Many people who are new to business face fears surrounding the confrontation with a salesperson they know needs to go. Confrontation can be scary, it’s never pleasant, but it is necessary. You must never allow yourself to develop a phobia of firing. Letting people go is as much a part of running a business as is hiring people.
In Conclusion
Clean deals come from a well-run salesforce, which is as accurate in our industry as any other. If you want to build a business and utilize modern technologies to run efficiently, you still have to be ready to handle the old-fashioned job of management. At Rocket Driver, we provide our resellers with the tools, resources, systems, and training they need to be successful. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit our leading site and check out what we can do for you.
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