Sales tips and growing a consultancy
Another solopreneur business to profile this week since the one last week went so well, plus sales tips!
Got some good feedback from the business profile I sent last week so trying another one this week.
It’s a short 6 question interview highlighting a really cool consultancy that anyone could start and/or may help you improve your sales as a business owner too (one of the more important skills imo). Maybe you want to try it yourself, or maybe you can learn some key lessons to apply to your own biz.
Let’s dive in:
Who are you and what are you working on?
I’m Simon Carstens, CEO and Founder of Elevate Sales, a New Zealand based B2B sales consultancy specializing in transforming small to mid-sized sales teams, offering sales training, coaching, fractional sales leadership, team diagnostics, coaching plans, and sales technology integrations.
I use my 29 years of sales and sales leadership experience to help sales teams unlock their full potential.
What percentage of sales training is forgotten within a month, and how does Elevate combat this statistic?
Roughly 50% is forgotten within a month and 80+ percent by 3 months, although it’s more complex than just statistics. Training courses similar to those we offer (Sandler) are usually quite different to the norm and require a deep understanding of the methodologies and how to apply them. Salespeople often need to unwind their previous learning and create ‘muscle memory’ with the new learnings. We almost always provide sales training in combination with sales coaching. We create learning paths tailored for each client so that the training can be adapted and embedded specific to their role, company, and industry. Clients who are just putting their team through a ‘training course’ rarely have a vested interest in seeing results from it and I’m yet to see any vast sales improvements from a training course alone.
With so many sales teams underperforming, what’s one unconventional strategy Elevate uses to turn this around?
Unfortunately one single 'magic bullet' isn't enough to address the complexity of sales team performance. One trend I’m seeing in this challenging market is salespeople throwing themselves at prospects in an almost desperate way hoping someone will buy what they’re offering. I suggest they take the time to understand their prospects and how they might align their offerings with real pain points of their target prospects, then refine their sales processes for an optimal outcome. There is nearly always low hanging fruit making vast improvements to the way salespeople find prospects, engage with them, qualify and progress opportunities, and how they deal with objections and close deals.
Can you share a case where your sales process overhaul led to a measurable % increase in sales effectiveness?
Almost every client I’ve worked with has seen improvements in sales effectiveness from improving their sales process. By auditing each step in the sales process and optimizing them, each incremental improvement along the way leads to compound results at the end. The best example I have is a client who sells psychometric testing to corporations and he was able to double his revenue in less than a year. We were able to increase the number of new leads he received through broadening his reach and asking existing clients for referrals, then better qualifying the leads to only spend time on opportunities that were high probability, then ensuring he was dealing with the right decision maker, asking questions using advanced techniques to uncover true reasons for doing business, understanding the decision making process, building compelling business cases for change, pitching his proposals better, handling objections brilliantly, and as a result closing twice the volume of deals.
How do you quantify the ROI of sales coaching for clients looking to improve their hiring strategies?
Sales coaching is just one of the tools at my disposal. Most clients see roughly 15-40% improvements in sales results depending on their individual circumstances. I start with a full assessment of the people, processes, systems, and technology. That way it’s possible to look for the best return on investment holistically. Once I’ve determined the potential of the individuals from the assessments it’s easier to gauge what improvements are possible. Much of that comes down to how the salespeople apply themselves to learning and development.
What’s the average impact of sales incentives on team performance, and how do you tailor these for your clients?
I’ve had a lot of experience with sales incentive schemes and no two are the same. Statistics that I’ve found indicate that well-structured incentive plans can see sales performance improve by up to 30%. Plans help with motivation, staff retention, and team alignment. Not all Plans are cash related. More modern schemes provide flexibility on rewards from earnings through to increased annual leave, holidays etc. I always start with the company’s goals to ensure any scheme is completely aligned, assess the culture of the organization to ascertain what would be suitable, sales cycle length, types of behaviors needing reinforcing, level of base salary to incentive split, ability for a company to measure, report and manage the plan, level of complexity required, budgets, and a host of other considerations. Designing an incentive plan is no easy task, but when done well it can yield great sales results.
Thanks so much for doing this, where can people find you to learn more?
It was my pleasure, you can learn more about my company and I here: www.elevatesales.co.nz
Lots of great stuff in there and a big thanks to Simon for taking the time.
Did you find it interesting? Helpful?
And don’t forget, for the next 2 weeks only I opened up my calendar for some free business coaching. If you need any help related to your business, motivation, or just want to bounce some business ideas around, book in with me here before they’re all gone.
Have a great day,
- Josh Schachnow
Canadian immigration lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai