Latest / Sales Trajectory Podcast / Your salespeople are busy. But are they actually selling?

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Your salespeople are busy. But are they actually selling? · Sales Trajectory Podcast

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Sales Trajectory Podcast, where innovation meets execution in sales.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jason Howes, your host, a 35-year sales veteran and lifelong student of the game.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is for leaders and sales professionals with a growth mindset.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You'll hear real sales stories about new products, motivating teams to prospect, and boost productivity.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: We dive deep into sales process, cutting edge tech, and recruiting top sales performers.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Sales Trajectory Podcast.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jason Howes, your host.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Today is the 26th of October.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: What a year so far.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Probably one of the most challenging in my career.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of pressure on companies to achieve targets.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Those targets have been reflective of current market conditions.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest things we're seeing right now are salespeople spending enough time doing the work we actually hired them to do, or are they caught up in reactive tasks?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a big focus in recent times has been to do more with less salespeople.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're working with companies that are restructuring teams, that are making sure the people they've got are the right people, they're in the right role, and they have a clear pathway to success.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Training and coaching we've been doing lately has been really inspiring to see teams embracing change and also looking at new ways that they can increase sales and improve productivity.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not easy.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: The companies that are investing in their team development and are pushing the limits will be the ones that succeed.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting back right now and you have reduced headcount and you're expecting your current team to do more, but you're not looking at ways to be able to save them time and to be more effective into doing the job they're supposed to be doing instead of managing two or three different roles, next year could be a challenge.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: This episode is about where is the time going.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we were to map somebody's workflow, if we were to be with them for a week, how do you distinguish between work that's genuinely necessary and work that has just become habit?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we're working with teams, it's very easy for a person can be extremely busy without necessarily moving revenue forward.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: But importantly, don't blame the salesperson alone.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: It takes two to tango.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: You need to put yourself in their position.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And to do that, you need to understand what they're doing on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Here are a few key areas you can start.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Observe the actual workflow.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Identify duplication.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Find the bottlenecks in what's happening.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Identify unnecessary steps.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy to do what you've always done.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Look at where information is difficult to access, creating from administration.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you followed your salespeople around for a week, would you see selling or just simple activity?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: If we break down everything a salesperson does, what actually needs the salesperson?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Understanding problems, prospecting, developing accounts, negotiating, influencing, identifying opportunities, having difficult conversations, following through.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Here are some key areas of work that can be supported.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Research, meeting preparation, information gathering, reporting.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: If it's always been done the same way, how can it change?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's no use your team inputting all the information about the reporting if it's not been looked at by the leader.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: What needs to be reported on?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: New ways you can look to save your salespeople time to be able to focus on the key selling that is required to grow revenue.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can look at better workflows, automation, integrated technology, templates, existing CRM capability.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Is it working?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are your team using it?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Or are they not?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is it saving them time or is it actually costing them time?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: These are the key areas that you can look at.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: This leads me to the next question.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do with the time we save?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't get soaked up into customer service.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't get sucked up into reactive mode.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say through better process, systems automation or AI, we give your salespeople five hours back each week.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is the money question, because time saved isn't automatically valuable.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It should become more prospecting, more customer conversations, more strategic account planning, more dormant account reactivation, more coaching, better meeting preparation, new market development.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because saving time isn't a commercial outcome unless we intentionally reinvest that time in the right areas.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Should leaders actually be defining where some of the freed-up capacity goes or simply expecting salespeople to be more productive?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: This creates some interesting tension around autonomy and structure.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: We see it a lot now.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Companies are looking for the unicorn.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're looking to recruit a salesperson who is going to fix all their problems.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to happen unless you are very, very lucky.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if it does, how long will it last?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very important if you're going to market and you're looking to recruit, you have a very clear path and understanding of the type of salesperson you're looking for, and what is the expectation for them to succeed.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Every business is different.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Every market is different.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you are caught up in a business environment or culture that has you spread across so many different layers and you're really not sure which way to go, reach out.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear from you.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to create more high-performance sales teams to be able to make a difference, to be able to provide a return on investment, to enjoy the job you're doing.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen so many times where the expectation on the unicorn or the miracle to happen within a business, if you're here right now and things aren't changing, what are you doing now that could change and make a big impact on your business or your sales results?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're here to share value for our listeners.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: If there's someone in your network, whether it's your boss or a colleague or someone else you know that's under the pump at the moment for sales growth, please share or comment about our podcast.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we grow.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Share our podcast episode with somebody.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're here to support sales professionals and companies to be able to lead with value and win more new sales.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Got a product that's struggling or launching something new?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're inviting guests who want to make a real impact.