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Sales Contest That Keep The Whole Team Motivated

In a world where revenue is king, it’s natural to design your sales incentives programs to reward those with the highest sales. While this method make sense, it’s flawed. It keeps top performers motivated but doesn’t engage the rest of the team who can’t see themselves in that top spot.

Sales contests are a great way to motivate the whole team. Beyond rewarding sales and revenue, they offer the ability to reward many different types of increased action that align with your organization’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Rewarding different types of KPIs will increase rep confidence in their ability to compete and will allow them to reassess their potential impact on the outcome of the game.

This positive setting will lead to greater results in the contest and healthier competition that boosts the morale of the whole team and not just the usual top reps and reminds the team that there are many ways to make an impact. This is important because while sales reps are typically tracked and rewarded for their individual sales, the main goal of the sales team is to improve the sales for the entire organization.

Benefits of Sales Contests

By nature, humans are very competitive beings. It has come from millennia of competing for resources and status. For those two reasons we compete with each other on almost every level and in almost every way possible whether it has to do with school, sports, work, or even the greenness of your lawn. Competition gives people a sense of pride and purpose.

With that in mind, sales managers and leadership can capitalize on human tendency through sales competitions. The main goals of sales competitions should be to increase individual performance, elevate team activity, and boost overall morale.

Tips for Planning Sales Contests

The best way to get everyone excited about a new sales contest is to ensure that no individual has an upper hand from the start. In order for a sales competition to guarantee a level the playing field between top and bottom performing reps, implement rules or mechanisms of:

1. Chance

2. Measurement of activity

With mechanisms of chance, the winners of the sales games are less likely to always be dominated by top reps because their normal strategies of making sales become irrelevant. Along those same lines, the outcomes based on measurable amounts of activity also inhibits the top sellers from dominating the games if they are unwilling to put in the effort that the bottom reps are able and willing to do.

The reason for applying these two characteristics to the sales games is that it makes every rep equal from the start and encourages healthy competition. Let’s face it, nobody is thrilled to compete in or win a game when the outcome is practically predetermined.

25 Sales Contest Ideas to Motivate Your Team

Below you will find a list of 25 sales contest ideas managers can use to motivate reps and increase performance. You’ll see the goal for each one, as well as how they work.

1 | Daily Prize

It may seem that holding a daily contest makes the competition trivial because many of the prizes are small and not of great value. The key to this strategy is that it keeps the reps constantly engaged.

Since the prizes are given daily, the lead or sales tracker is reset each day so that there will be a wider range of possible winners.

2 | Raffle

A raffle is a good way to incentivize reps to achieve short-term goals while being able to win a larger and more lucrative prize. Raffle tickets are given to reps when they reach specific sales goals and the prize is generally only drawn after a long-term sales period has passed.

The secret to holding a good raffle is ensuring that every participant has a measurable and achievable goal that can earn them a chance to get a raffle ticket and enter the drawing.

3 | Customer Reviews

A customer review contest requires a little bit of front-end work from the standpoint that there needs to be an easy way for the reps to obtain a review whether it is good or bad. The easiest way to go about this is to set up a customer survey or take advantage of an already existing survey process.

Besides receiving the always nice pat-on-the-back from a satisfied customer and the public recognition from upper management, this contest encourages reps to not just be good at selling a product but also be ready to get a review of their service for better or for worse.

4 | Salesperson of the Month

This one is a classic and is often ran as one. The winner is generally the sales rep with the most revenue in sales. But just because this contest carries the classic title doesn’t mean the item being measured has to be classic as well.

Get creative and aim for something unique such as the most individual sales, the most “Nos”, the most reviews good or bad, or the most helpful with coaching other sales reps. Either way you measure it and reward it, the winning sales rep will always enjoy having everyone else see their name and photo on the office wall for an entire month.

5 | Winner’s Choice

A winner’s choice is where the winner gets to decide what the prize will be for either themselves or the next month’s winner, with obvious monetary limits or choices set by management beforehand. It’s a simple way to not have to get too creative and the benefit is you’re less likely to have someone complain about the prize.

6 | I OWE U! (from the boss)

An I OWE U from a superior is always a fun sales contest and cause for excitement on the sales team. It’s best to set a structured timeline and goal well in advance. Since it will most likely be you or someone near you fulfilling the debt, it is best to make clear the prize or selection of prizes.

If you want to get a solid gauge as to what type of debt your sales reps are looking for, then have them submit their requests ahead of the contest and you can select one of the prizes as long as they are not too outrageous.

Common prizes for the winner may include eating/cooking lunch together, giving professional coaching sessions, washing and cleaning their car, or even more humorous things such as performing karaoke to their favorite song in front of the whole team.

7 | On a Boat (Boss for the day)

It is a pretty simple prize for whatever the contest may be. The winner gets to be boss for a day or some variation of it. You could let them take your position for the day, sit at your desk, pick the location for the next company lunch, or run a meeting. Either way the winner will be happy to hear all day long those two sweet words come out of your mouth, “Yes Boss!”.

8 | Sales Poker

This is another fun sales contest that requires each participant to acquire 5 cards out of a 52-card deck. Each card is earned by achieving an established goal. At the end of the sales period, the sales rep with the best hand wins the prize. It is an easy game that allows all participating sales reps a chance to win, even if they weren’t necessarily the best performing sales rep for that period.

9 | Lead Conversion

The premise of this sales competition is that leads are handed out randomly and evenly to the sales reps and the one person or group to convert the most leads into sales during a specific timeframe wins the prize. This sales game allows for a winner by chance since some reps might get more quality leads than others.

10 | The Whopper (or Top This)

What’s a whopper without its lettuce and tomato? The trick to winning this contest is to be the one to upsell the customer the most. The length of the sales period can vary and the prize along with it.

11 | Most Wanted

This is similar to the “Whopper” contest but differs in what types of leads are handed out. In this sales competition the manager identifies and hands out leads of the biggest leaders in the industry. No small fish here nor any random ones either. These leads are highly desirable targets and the sales rep or team that lands the biggest single sale wins.

12 | Upsell Contest

This sales game is designed to reward sales reps for upselling and increasing revenue from existing partners. Some options for measuring the upsell progress and determining a winner is to select either the largest upsell dollar amount earned, the largest upsell percentage earned relative to the client’s prior account history, or the highest amount of client’s that are upsold.

13 | Sales Bingo

Bingo is always a good time. Turn it into a sales contest by making the squares represent different sales goals. What makes this sales game fun is that it requires skill and luck. The skill to make the goal on each square and the luck to get them in the correct sequence.

14 | Most No’s (in a single week)

The Most No’s game is a fun and creative sales contest idea used to stir the sales team pot. The reason is because it seems so counterintuitive to be wanting more rejection. In reality, it drives an increase in sales activity and the likelihood of a rep getting a “Yes”.

The goal of the game is to see who can get the most No’s/rejections within a sales period whether it is a day, a week, or a month. Generally, the game shouldn’t last longer than a week since the longer the game continues, the less competitive it becomes. The gap between the lowest and the highest “No’s” counts gets wider.

15 | The Loser

It never pays to be the loser but sometimes the loser does pay. Simply put, the loser of the sales contest pays an amount towards a company party or something fun that in the end everyone will get to enjoy.

Be sure to make the amount somewhat insignificant, like $20, so that the loser won’t be too upset when they have to pay up. Some good ideas for where the money go are holiday parties, company picnics, team lunches, happy hour events, or even have a charity chosen by the team.

16 | Retention-Based Sales Contest

In most industries, the companies that are the most profitable aren’t usually making one-time sales but are instead focused on creating repeat sales with the same clients. Sales reps will often get focused on landing new clients instead of catering to the known clients that have already given them their business.

To create a more loyal client base, it’s recommended to have some sales contest ideas fixated on encouraging sales reps to garner loyal and repeat business. One way to do this is to hang up in the office a repeat business whiteboard. The goal of displaying their individual progress is to help them visualize their individual contribution to the company’s loyal client base.

17 | Enterprise-Level Sales Contests

Keep your team motivated and take away the focus on individual sales. Create a fun sales contest where offices compete against other offices or managers against managers. This is all about boosting team morale, creating a greater team cohesion and losing the emphasis on the individual.

A satisfying reward for the winning team or manager is often just bragging rights.

18 | Time-Reward Sales Contests

A high motivator and fun sales contest idea that gets the competitive juices flowing is a reward of time off. It suggested to use this reward near the end of a sales cycle because sales reps will sometimes hold off on making certain deals so when the next sales period starts, they have a deal ready to go in their pocket.

The rewards can range from leaving early on a Friday, arriving late on a low volume day, or even a paid time off (PTO) day.

19 | Buddy Up

Use the buddy system. Pair your top sales reps with the lower performers and reward the top sales team at the end of the month. The main result of this exercise will be greater team collaboration and the lower performers will have a chance to learn what makes their highly productive counterpart so effective.

20 | Pitch Contest

In this contest, top producers anonymously submit their sales pitch and the team tries to guess who’s each one is. At the end of all the submissions the whole team can vote on whose pitch they liked the most. All participants get to keep a copy of the pitches which they can learn from and use moving forward.

21 | Sales Team Scavenger Hunt

Frequently, a sales team has members that have become specialists in selling specific products or targeting certain clients. The scavenger hunt sales contest encourages your sales reps to team up and utilize their special talents to accomplish an objective.

The objectives can range from reaching a set revenue goal to selling a specific product to accomplishing a certain number of upsells. As the team members work together to fulfill their scavenger hunt objectives, they will naturally increase collaboration, boost morale, and drive sales.

22 | Surprise Salesperson Appreciation

Don’t let a team member go unnoticed even if they aren’t at the top of the charts. Choose a day when the entire team brings in a little gift or letter showing their appreciation for a chosen team member. Sales reps are notorious for being hyper-competitive and will often lose sight of keeping the overall morale high. Show every team member they are important to the success of the business and each other.

23 | Brackets

Much like college basketball’s March Madness, this sales game breaks the team into brackets. Each team member competes against a fellow sales rep and the one that out-sales the other during that week advances in the ranks.

As the weeks go on the competition gets more intense as the winning reps advance. At the end, the winning team member (and potentially the runner-up) gets a prize.

24 | Fantasy Sales Teams

Fantasy football teams have infiltrated the office water cooler, so why not take some of that competitive talk and let it infiltrate the sales team? Break your sales team up and simulate a random draft pick. Points are then awarded to each team’s “player”’ for their sales. The manager or team that earns the most fantasy points in the end wins the competition.

25 | Traveling Trophy (Floating Prize)

Each sales period the sales rep with the highest sales gets awarded a trophy to display on their desk. As long as they stay on top of their game, the trophy stays in their hands. When they are knocked off their highest sales pedestal, the winning rep takes the trophy and displays it at their desk.

As silly as it may seem, the flaunting of a decently sized gleaming trophy at a fellow team member’s desk can spark the competitive edge a manager is looking for in their team. Add a little more emphasis to the sales games and post pictures of each week’s winners in the breakroom.

Common sales contest mistakes to avoid when setting up your contest:

While running sales contests can definitely boost morale, they do come with a risk. Be sure to avoid these common mistakes which can cause the opposite of the intended effect.

1 | Your contest only motivates top salespeople and fails to reach your team as a whole.
2 | It fails to hold your employees’ interest after the first few days.
3 | Improvements in performance do not last once the contest is over.
4 | It creates a competitive environment that hurts collaboration and employee spirit.
5 | Scores are tedious and time-consuming to track.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales automation and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

Sales Technology: Cost or Investment?

Sales technology is vital to understanding the way that your company communicates with its customers and the areas where your teams perform their best. Without the metrics, projections and all-inclusive data-capturing from a good sales platform, every stage of business suffers. From lead nurturing to cold calling, information and communication statistics are critical to making data-driven decisions.

Implementing a SaaS platform to support sales can make or break a business, carrying benefits which far outweigh the cost of software and services. Here’s a closer look at how sales technology should be seen as an investment in the future of your business rather than an expense.

Tech Stack’s Many Financial Benefits

Every growing enterprise needs a flexible sales platform which empowers reps and managers with all the information that they need to optimize marketing and conversions. Integrating a trusted solution such as SPOTIO improves service delivery and internal organization within an enterprise on numerous levels.

One could summarize the key savings benefits of an investment in sales technology as:

Unified Communications – Lower Communications Costs
Enhanced Productivity – Increased Profitability
More Profitable Marketing Campaigns
Lowered Cost of Outside Sales
Zero Data Backup Expenditure
Reduced Training Expenses
Faster Onboarding
Lower Labor Costs

Yet, good sales technology brings so much more than a basic increase in revenues and these eight rewards. Let us take you through a concise but comprehensive look at exactly what you can expect in features and value when taking on the cost of new sales technology.

Free and Cheap Software vs Dedicated Sales Technology

Many enterprises start off from meagre roots and end up adopting sales and marketing software gradually. Resorting to freeware packages and low-cost sales solutions may appear to be enough to start with but businesses quickly learn that more powerful software is needed.

What begins as a few customizations perhaps with the help of a technically-minded colleague soon turns into countless support calls, more hours billed and a configuration which involves so many apps that staff struggle to navigate the system. Yet the frustration is but a hallmark of much larger problems that can occur.

Running multiple databases devoted to different departments of sales and marketing can lead to everything from accounting errors to outright corruption of your valuable data.

Implementing dedicated sales technology will let you manage your leads, opportunities, customers and staff from a singular interface and unified database. Offsite data backups alone cost a fortune. When you resort to a SaaS provider, you’re not only reaping the benefits of a comprehensive customer relationship management platform with sales assistance, but you’re also investing in a secure backup for your critical data at no extra cost.

Automation and Your Enterprise

Cutting-edge sales technology supplies a business with expansive automation technology which can handle everything from document management and service queues to email marketing and up-sales.

Investing in sales technology can be seen as an investment in automation rather than an expense. When one looks at automated emails alone, open rates at 70.5% higher and click-throughs are 152% more likely. The dedicated templates, marketing, and email automation delivered by good sales technology gives proven results which are hard to match by any other expenditure.

The best part is that the benefits are forever increasing as you and your staff learn to harness the full scope of your sales system. The best sales software will have a learning curve which makes it easy for staff to adapt.

For example, SPOTIO is so user friendly that your sales reps are up and running and fully familiar within just one to three days after implementation. Within the first week of implementation, your sales technology will be used for everything from accessing prospect data on the move to sharing a collaborative calendar with the rest of the workforce. Real-time chat with managers and other staff ensures that everyone is in the loop while workflow automation and advanced queue management keep all processes as efficient as possible. Even field agents will be able to fit more in their day with optimized route planning and time tracking.

The benefits of sales automation are all-encompassing and vastly offset the cost of software.

Sales Tech and Lead Nurturing

Another key benefit of sales technology is the way that it supports your sales and marketing teams at every step of the sales process. Lead nurturing is integral to increasing your sales and conversions. After all, nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than prospects which have not undergone lead nurturing.

Lead nurturing is so much more than just a string of emails, transferring a clear idea of the buyer intent in an attempt to secure their business.

Good sales technology will give you intelligent reports which reveal the interests of prospective buyers and their behaviors, as well as logical groupings. With this leverage, your sales teams will begin to truly customize communication with leads and prospects. Managers are given a clear overview of the prospect as well as their place within the buying cycle. Good lead management is critical to success. Without this vantage, customizing emails and other marketing efforts is limited while estimations of any sales probability are nothing more than blind speculation.

Any lead nurturing campaign which hasn’t clearly identified a perspective to educate, individualize, and inform your prospect will most likely be time and money wasted.

Sales technology may require an initial expenditure, but complete profiles with a full buyer history and crystal-clear reports covering the whole sales cycle is invaluable.

HR, Team Optimization and Performance Metrics

When one compares the cost of sales technology to the cost of incorrectly placed sales reps, teams or managers, one will soon see just how valuable platform insights truly are.

Sales technology lets you keep track of individuals and sales teams.

With metrics and reporting available for activities and goals, you’ll always be able to shift your staff to the most productive place within the sales cycle. Certain reps will always be better at handling a particular demographic or a specific stage of your sales campaign. Businesses that forgo the cost of dedicated sales technology have no accurate way of assessing the performance of their teams, reps, and campaigns. One could see the minimal savings of going without sales software as money wasted rather than money saved.

Productivity is at the heart of profitability and without refining your management and internal optimization, a business is pouring valuable time and money into wasteful prospects and inefficient strategies. Efficient staff management which relies upon hard performance data brings improvement to the productivity of the entire workforce. With staff spending less time putting together information and formulating an approach, studies show that customer service labor costs drop by up to 40%.

Enriching Online Content

Regardless of whether you’re utilizing field or outside sales, inside sales, or a combination of both, sales technology enables strategic management decisions and effective internal communication. The cost of sales technology is minimal when you consider that it supports remote sales, in-store sales, and it helps you enrich your online content. Sales is a segment of business which requires devoted resources in every industry. But the truth of the matter is that almost 80% of all buyers research your product and read reviews online creating a firm bias for their purchase before they interact with any member of your sales team.

The enriched reporting and data available concerning your buyer’s habits, preferences and the way that they interact with your website and online services is invaluable to any enterprise. Good software will give you the information needed to shape the best experience for your customers while delivering key insights as to how you need to improve your brand presence and marketing automation.

Website upgrades, feature improvements and extended functionality is wasted expenditure unless you have factual data indicating the efficacy of the upgrade. Leading platforms let you know exactly what needs to change to meet the needs of your customer. Field CRM software and current sales technology like SPOTIO makes your business more accessible online. It gives you the information that you need to customize the user-experience in the most lucrative ways to lead viable prospects to your sales teams.

Invest in Sales Software & Invest in Sales Prospects

Sales prospecting and the identification of potential new leads is the most challenging part of the sales process. Most salespeople find closing the next most difficult, followed by lead qualification itself. The sheer difficulty of assessing the viability of a new prospect has lowered over the years thanks to SaaS solutions.

When you give your staff the tools they need to successfully prospect a new sale or sales demographic, the challenge is transformed from a painstaking process into a profitable, exciting chase to exceed quota. Reaching out to leads in an effort to spark a conversation inspiring a sale is made much easier when you have access to a database which incorporates a full history of all prior customer communications, preferences and habits.

Profiling the most viable socio-economic demographic becomes a matter of analyzing hard facts, easy to read graphs, and in-depth comparative reports. 96% of all buyers will schedule a meeting5 with your staff if you focus exclusively upon the value delivered to them.

Sales technology lets you see where your customers perceive value in your product or service so that your teams know exactly how to formulate their approach.

Sales Technology and Effective Collaboration

The cost of sales technology can be equated to an investment in smart selling. There’s no better way to improve synergy between different sales teams. Cross-collaboration is up to 25% more productive on average while 73% of all sales teams find sales technology essential to collaboration across different departments of an enterprise.

Good sales software will not only streamline internal processes and personalize marketing and sales, but it will also facilitate clear communication across all channels and all departments. The vast majority of sales reps recognize that their capabilities to gain a single overview of all-important aspects of a customer is severely hindered without the aid of proven sales technology. Only 17% of all teams are happy with their unified customer profiles. The importance of aggregated data should never be underestimated.

Without efficiently integrated data from departments like marketing or service deployment, sales have a hard time delivering the best customer experience across the most effective channels. Inter-department communication puts the customer in the most capable hands at any point of your sales pipeline. Critical information arrives immediately which improves the favorable image of your company and frees up pressure on internal workflows. Siloed departmental systems are simply not efficient enough to give sales the edge that they need to stay competitive in today’s markets.

Forgo sales technology and you could be throwing away valuable customers, conversions, and sales.

The Importance of Proper Territory Management

Opting for a dedicated outside sales solution such as SPOTIO enables sales reps to optimize every area of business. From route optimization to territory management, SPOTIO B2B sales technology delivers an average efficiency increase of 46%. Territory and route management software supplies the insights needed to make informed decisions concerning your sales structure. It will increase sales within enterprises of all sizes and is near essential to large, complex organizations.

There are simply so many variables available to sales leaders when asked to improve performance and conversions that attempting to maximize returns without the help of dedicated software accrues a massive cost in time and manpower. Sales responsibilities need to be balanced across your enterprise. The correct customers need to be targeted by the right sales teams based on sales potential, geography, socio-demographic factors, performance history and current relevant statistics.

Sales technology gives your business the highest potential for securing a new opportunity by giving you all the tools you need to implement intelligent territory management. Mapping territories with the help of a dedicated platform is quick and easy. This means that your reps and managers will be equipped detailed profiles and maps filled with qualified prospects in just minutes.

What’s time worth to your business?

Saving Your Company Onboarding Costs

When you know your workload and the balance which your employees are currently maintaining, then you can onboard new reps more efficiently, skyrocketing the process of reaching full productivity.

Onboarding normally comes with a definite period of adjustment whereby new sales reps are learning customers and company protocol. Businesses which resort to a complex arrangement of individual software packages and pen-and-paper management solutions end up costing the company a significant tally of resources to get new staff up to speed. The simpler your sales system and the more diverse your SaaS platform, the more momentum onboarding gains. Instead of wasting hours on the road coming to know your customers and prospects, reps are allowed the full value of their most powerful asset – time.

The Sales Management Association carried out a study and found that 62% of all businesses feel that they are ineffective at onboarding despite it being a prime area of focus for sales leaders. The only way to increase the efficacy of training programs and the adoption of existing customers and leads without excessive HR staffing costs is to invest in proven sales technology.

Projections, Estimates & Quotas

Sales quotas are assigned on-the-fly far too often.

This leads to a massive productivity loss, unnecessary traveling expenses, and can even ruin your chances with a customer forever if your rep’s timing is terrible. Managers and upper level staff assign responsibilities based on quotas and projections which cannot carry any acceptable degree of accuracy without sales technology being used. Even onboarding and training costs scale sky-high in many businesses due to nothing other than a lack of information and comparative insight. Reps get assigned unrealistic goals and quotas which, other than sucking resources from your business, also drain motivation and enthusiasm. This in turn causes a long-term negative effect on your rep and his or her performance.

Poor customer placement due to speculation rather than reporting and analytics is another cause of collapsing conversions. Good sales software removes all the guesswork allowing every department of your business to strategize with minimal risk. As each decision, delegation and organizational change in your enterpriser is set in place, growth can be relied on rather than a blind-chase towards an earnest estimated goal.

Massive ROI from Sales Technology

No less than 50% of all sales teams report improved productivity after implementing sales technology. Despite the many benefits and numerous ways that you can see sales technology as an asset to your business, many enterprises bring decisions down to a basic deciding factor of return on investment.

Those eager to adopt new sales software and systems will be happy to know that this $36 billion industry delivers a whopping ROI of 245% on average. Over and above this sizable sum, your sales technology will also grow your revenues by 24% per-over-year as your database scales in size and detail.

The more data your software or field sales enablement platform amasses, the greater the scope of its capabilities, accuracy, and benefit to sales. With more information comes efficiency and efficacy improvements, better sales insights, and stronger bonds with existing customers.

From supporting canvassing and customer retention to expanding your marketing reach and even directly boosting revenues, sales technology comes at a fractional cost when you compare it to the massive value added to your ever-expanding enterprise.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales automation and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

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References:

1 – https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2018/12/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/
2 – https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3421285/Bbdboom%20Oct2017/BBD%20Boom%20Blog/BOOM-How-to-manage-leads.pdf
3 – https://blog.capterra.com/easy-and-affordable-crms-for-small-business/
4 – https://www.outerboxdesign.com/web-design-articles/mobile-ecommerce-statistics
5 – https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/prospecting-stats
6 – https://www.salesforce.com/au/blog/2017/07/is-collaborative-selling-the-answer-to-increased-productivity-an
7 – https://spotio.com/solutions/business-to-business/
8 – https://www.brainshark.com/ideas-blog/2018/september/sales-enablement-statistics?language=pt-br
9 – https://learn.g2crowd.com/sales-statistics
10 – https://www.readycloud.com/info/21-CRM-Facts-Your-Business-Needs-to-Know-Now

Expert Series: A Unique Way To Attract Sales Reps

The SPOTIO team recently had the opportunity to discuss recruiting and retaining sales talent with James Peuster, CEO of The Route Pro, a sales route consulting program that specializes in helping dry cleaning companies increase revenue by establishing a route service. James has nearly 20 years’ experience consulting and building dry cleaners across the country. He is a best-selling author and accomplished seminar speaker.

Don’t Be Stymied By a Stigma

According to Peuster, one of the most challenging parts of recruiting door-to-door sales talent for roles in dry-cleaning or similar industries is the stigma associated with the term “door-to-door sales.”

“When we first started advertising for door-to-door sales positions, we had two main issues,” Peuster said. “First, you would get responses from door-to-door junkies who love this kind of work but tend to hop from job to job looking for the next pot of gold.

According to Peuster, these candidates usually love door-to-door sales but are a risk for leaving the company after you invest in their onboarding.

“Second, you would see a lack in response because of a stigma associated with door-to-door, even though most people find after doing the job that it can be a rewarding and lucrative job.”

Peuster sought to avoid falling victim to the stigma by replacing the words “door-to-door” with phrases like “face-to-face” and “canvassing” in job postings.

“It’s not that we are trying to trick them or that we’re psychologically trying to fool them into taking a position,” Peuster said. “We want to make it known that there is a door-to-door aspect but there is more to the job.”

According to Peuster, in the dry-cleaning industry and other similar industries, door-to-door sales in not a job, it’s just one responsibility that’s part of a job. With the help of smart prospecting tools like those offered by SPOTIO, traditional door-to-door sales is less common.

“Sometimes it’s just ‘door’ sales because it’s not walking up to one door after the next, but instead canvassing only those with qualified leads.

By eliminating the term “door-to-door” from job postings, Peuster finds that he’s able to reach more candidates who wouldn’t have realized this role is a good fit for their skills and career.

Smart Talent Sourcing

According to Peuster, technology offered by platforms like Indeed.com have changed the game for talent sourcing.

“Indeed has a head-hunting program that allows you to turn around traditional recruiting,” Peuster said. “Instead of traditional recruiting where you post a job and wait for applicants, it allows you to set parameters and alerts you when candidates who meet your parameters update their resume or create a profile.”

According to Peuster, this functionality provides him with a daily pipeline of qualified candidates. Since you’re looking at candidates who just updated their resume, you can also assume they’re eager to find a job.

Another strategy Peuster uses is to recruit from similar industries that are not necessarily an obvious fit.

“We don’t just look at people who have experience in door-to-door; we look at those with similar experiences, like those working in high-end retail,” Peuster said. “These are people who have that special gift of selling, they like to talk, and they don’t have issues with rejection.”

While it may seem obvious to target those with experience in the same kind of role, it can be more fruitful in the long-term to find the right candidate and train them on the specifics of the job. Peuster also advises his clients to not always go for the obvious candidates.

“One of the best salespeople I’ve seen in the industry is introverted and shy,” he said. “So instead of trying to force him into a box, we trained him to do an introvert-type of sale.

“If you find someone who has the willingness to do the job, you can teach them how to sell in her or his own way. That way they have a sales strategy that works for them and they are connecting with customers versus selling.”

Retaining Talent

If a new employee fails, Peuster says that it’s rarely the fault of the employee. “I blame the situation or the onboarding,” he said.

According to Peuster, keeping good people is easy if you’re willing to invest properly in their onboarding and development.

“A lot of times people – when they hire staff – they look at it as a cost (labor cost) instead of as an investment,” Peuster said. “I encourage my clients to look instead at the ROI of great talent.

“Are they making you money, saving you money, or costing you money?” Peuster asked rhetorically.

According to Peuster, if they’re making you money or saving you money, they are worth investing in as their growth will only improve their results for your sales organization

“Very rarely do I hear people say, ‘How much can I grow my company with a great salesperson?’” Peuster said. “But this is the way you have to look at it.

“Often times people let good salespeople go because they think they are expensive and that they’re costing them money – then they see their sales drop and wonder why.”

Peuster encourages his clients to measure and track performance in a way that helps in understanding the value a salesperson is providing the company.

An Outside Perspective

Peuster offers one more recruiting tip: Get an outside perspective.

According to Peuster, too often when people are trying to recruit, they have a picture-perfect description in their head of the person they think they need. Because of this, they miss great candidates, or worst, they favor candidates with good energy but obvious gaps.

“They think they know what they’re looking for which causes them to overlook less obvious candidates with true potential,” Peuster said. “If you bring in an outside perspective from someone who is not emotionally invested in the process, you’re more likely to get an objective point of view.”

Peuster mentions that this is a great way to see less obvious traits like a willingness to learn and improve, the desire to move up in the company, or simply the willingness to do the job well. He also focuses on positive interview questions that allow the candidates to demonstrate their potential and avoids questions that are intended to uncover negative traits in the candidate.

“I focus less on trying to source the perfect candidate and more on how to develop people into what you need them to be,” Peuster said. “Sometimes when you invest correctly in someone who seems like an average candidate, you end up with amazing talent.”

James Peuster

The Route Pro

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Expert Series: How Sales Consultant Michael Rosenberg Wows Customers by Recruiting & Retaining Top Talent

An Interview With An Industry Leader in Door-to-Door Sales

The SPOTIO team recently had the opportunity to sit down with “The Brand Ambassador Guy,” Michael Rosenberg, and learn from his successful 35-year career leading companies driven by door-to-door sales. Rosenberg started his door-to-door sales career at age 12 when building his paper route. After years of tremendous growth across 22 states and building to millions in revenue, he sold his company in 2008.

Today, Rosenberg acts as an executive coach and consultant, helping companies around the globe optimize their door-to-door sales operations with a tremendous focus on talent strategy, recruitment and retaining talent. In this article, we’ll share what we learned from Rosenberg, including his go-to strategies for recruiting and retaining rock-star talent.

An Unconventional Interview Process

“I can teach pretty much anything, but there are two things I simply can’t teach – I have to hire for them,” Rosenberg said. “I can’t teach people to be likable, and I can’t teach people to be persistent.”

Kindness is King

According to Rosenberg, the first quality he looks for in a job candidate is a relatable and likeable personality.

“Whether I’m using a video conference or meeting someone for lunch, I look first for nice,” Rosenberg said. “I’m looking to see if the person looks me in the eye, says please and thank you, and comes across as a genuine nice person.”

If Rosenberg doesn’t get the warm and fuzzies, he doesn’t move forward. But according to Rosenberg, likeability is the easier of the two unteachable qualities.

Testing for Persistence

According to Rosenberg, traditional interview questions fail to truly test for persistence. That’s why Rosenberg consistently leverages a strategy he learned from The Ultimate Sales Machine author, Chet Holmes.

The strategy is based on the theory that most customers are going to say “no,” or “come back later.” When you ask traditional interview questions about how candidates handle rejection, they’ll likely provide a scripted example. There’s no way to know if that story represents their consistent and repeatable behavior.

“I need a sales rep that’s not going to back down,” Rosenberg said. “When they hear no, I need to know they’ll keep going. And I need a way to simulate that in the interview.”

To do this, Rosenberg takes an unconventional approach. He rejects them in the interview and observes their reaction.

“Eight out of ten candidates are going to accept the rejection,” Rosenberg said. “These are not the right candidates for me.”

According to Rosenberg, about one out of ten will get angry and defensive. He usually hires these candidates for their grit, but these are not the candidates who show the most promise.

“The best candidates will say something like, ‘Thank you for the feedback, but what is your definition of a rock star sales rep?’ with ease and grace.”

Rosenberg is looking for candidates who are not going to take no for an answer, but they’re going to be polite about it. They may switch gears by telling you a story.

“They’ll tell you about the time they didn’t make the basketball team but kept showing up for practice, or a time that they pushed really hard to earn something,” Rosenberg said. “And they’re going to keep telling stories with ease and grace – those people have superstar potential.”

Finding and Developing Leaders

According to Rosenberg, building out a quality sales force is only half the battle. If you want to grow a company exponentially you must focus on attracting and developing leaders – people who can run businesses.

Rosenberg cites The E-Myth by Michael Garber as the book that changed his mindset about building his business.

“If you want to be wildly successful, you have to work on your business, not in your business,” Rosenberg said, citing the popular book.

Rosenberg acknowledges that while door-to-door sales is a tough game, great door knockers are not always great business leaders. To reach exponential growth, you have to find people who can run companies.

“I’ve become successful by finding people ten times more capable than myself,” Rosenberg said. “I find people with the potential to run companies, and I fast track them.”

Rosenberg believes that company leaders should have first-hand experience in their business, so he starts them at the bottom even if they have great leadership experience.

“I make a commitment from the beginning,” Rosenberg said. “If leadership recruits hit their numbers in four to six weeks, I tell them they will be offered the chance to manage one of my offices.

“And at six months, as long as they are honest, hard-working, and people respect them, I’m going to make them my partner.”

According to Rosenberg, the key was to get out of the day-to-day business and shifting his focus on finding top talent who would run their companies as their own.

“Sometimes this means I took profits of my company and put them in business,” Rosenberg said. Sometimes it was through franchise, partnership, or a company store, depending on the situation.”

Retaining Talent

According to Rosenberg, retaining talent has never been an issue for him in his experience and this method to success is very simple.

“Retaining talent comes down to creating a great company culture, creating good air, and focusing on things people care about like recognition, incentives, good comp plans, and benefits,” Rosenberg said. “Also, retention often comes from the spouse and family.

“I do my best to make sure the family is happy and proud of the company their family represents.”

According to Rosenberg, 99 percent of companies are shaped like an upright pyramid. Everyone’s job is to make the owner on the top money. Rosenberg believes this is philosophically backwards and instead encourages the organizations he consults to operate as an upside-down pyramid that puts the boss at the bottom and the customer on top.

“As a leader, your job is to serve the team, so that they in turn are motivated to serve the customer” Rosenberg said. “When the boss serves the team, creates great mentorship and advancement opportunities, and treats the team like family, the team is committed to doing what’s right for the customer.”

If you treat your employees well, they treat your customers well – Everything comes full circle, he said.

Want more from Michael Rosenberg?

After a wildly successful career in door-to-door sales, Rosenberg now helps others reach their full potential. To learn more or to contact Rosenberg directly for a free coaching session, reach out to him on LinkedIn.

How To Manage 1099 Sales Reps

Maximizing corporate revenues often boils down to one key (and invaluable) internal component: sales. An effective sales team does more than build robust client pipelines; proficient account executives are your company’s frontline, continuously sourcing new opportunities to edge out the competition, steal market share, and broaden your brand’s reach within your targeted demographic.

Previous generations of business owners relied on traditional (read: W2) hiring methods to staff their sales positions. However, today’s entrepreneurs recognize that bringing on full-time employees isn’t the only way to develop their sales team. Instead, companies across every industry are opting to work with independent (read: 1099) account reps to optimize selling results and success.

W2 Or 1099? Know The Benefits Of Hiring Independent Contractors As Sales Reps For Your Business

Would hiring independent contractors work for your business? Understanding some of the many benefits offered with this hiring model can help you determine if it’s the right choice for your organization. Staffing your team with 1099 account executives can:

> Lower overall financial responsibility and risk compared to full-time internal sellers

> Deliver faster connection to your designated marketplace, particularly when hiring 1099 reps with extensive industry experience and an established client network

> Provide access to a virtually unlimited talent pool

Best of all, 1099 sales reps often work strictly on a commission basis. You’ll only have to pay out based on closed deals, which can instantly increase cash flow and bottom line profits.

Of course, every staffing approach brings with it a potential opportunity cost to consider before making the hire. Sure, you may own the business or “manage” the rep; however, you ultimately have no real authority over a 1099 account executive. While you’re not paying for underperformance if they don’t make a sale, you may still experience loss of growth, potential revenue, and market share if your reps fail to produce the results needed to propel your brand forward.

Tips For Success With Your 1099 Selling Staff

If you do decide to move forward with 1099 sales reps, it’s essential to address several considerations for hiring success. When onboarding your independent contractors, always:

Outline Clear Deliverables

Independent contractors often enjoy more job flexibility than their full-time employee counterparts. They make their own hours and come in and out of the office on an as-needed basis, which is great, right?

Yes and no.

While you’ll want to encourage your independent reps to be out in the field as often as possible, you’ll also want to develop a specific outline of deliverables. Manage expectations right at the start of the engagement to help your hires understand their roles, responsibilities, and timeframe for results.

Define Commission Structure

In most cases, your independent contractors will work solely on commission, which is often higher than what your standard employees earn. Be clear and specific about the commission structure, so your hire knows exactly what will be paid with each closed deal. You will also want to discuss how you’ll be invoiced to establish a well-defined billing/payment process before the first sale.

Create An Effective Onboarding Program

The best way to set your independent contractor up for success is to help assimilate your sales rep with the rest of your internal team. Develop an onboarding and training strategy that not only helps them understand exactly how to promote your products and services but also identifies key support personnel that can manage administrative responsibilities. Integrating your 1099 rep with the rest of your staff can help minimize ramp-up time, streamline the transition phase, and equip your independent contractors to stay focused on their two primary selling objectives: closing deals and boosting revenues.

Have you outsourced your sales positions to independent contractors? Was it a success story or a cautionary tale? Tell us all about it in the comment below!

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Spotio is the #1 field sales enablement platform designed specifically for outside sales managers and reps to squeeze every drop out of their field sales efforts.

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16 Sales Competencies That Define Winning Sales Teams

Employee turnover is expensive. Hiring the best sales professionals is crucial for organizations.

Excellent sales candidates will have a specific set of core sales competencies. It is the manager’s job to uncover these competencies in the interview process.

What makes a great sales candidate?

Sales competencies for sales professionals are shared across the sales team in order to produce the most successful reps. These core competencies span every role on the sales team, from rep to manager.

In this article, we’ll define core sales competencies, discuss why they are critical to the sales and management process.

What Are Sales Competencies?

Sales competencies are the skills successful reps use to influence buying decisions.

These aptitudes are both inherent traits to their personality and skills or processes that can be trained and practiced. Understanding what these select proficiencies are, how they contribute to a sales professional’s success, and how to recognize them in a candidate will make a significant difference in your ability to hire the right people and reduce sales rep turnover.

3 Core Competency Areas for Any Sales Professional

Whether they are converting inbound sales calls, fighting it out in the field or managing from behind the front-lines, sales professionals need a particular set of foundational skills.

Sales core competencies center around three areas:

1. Systems. How do you get a person from a prospect to a closed deal? Short answer: systems and processes. Systems encompass the ways your processes lead to sales. From prospecting to time management to uncovering new opportunities from established accounts, systems sales core competencies are ways sales reps achieve their goals. Per Rain Sales Training, sales reps should have skill areas that help them drive opportunities, account growth, and ultimately, success.

2. People. Sales is always about people, so reps and managers must have People skills – the ability to lead and manage a conversation, to create emotional engagement, and earn the trust of others.

3. Sales. All reps need to effectively prospect, manage pipeline, uncover pain, capture benefits, demonstrate product-fit, and negotiate the close.

16 Competencies that Define High-Performing Sales Teams (By Category)

Systems: Competencies that Improve the Sales Process

1. Prospecting: Finding needs in the marketplace keeps the pipeline full of potential customers for new business. It’s essential to research industries, uncover the main friction points, and define the ideal customer profile

Essential attributes for this area would be the ability to comprehend various businesses and the related challenges of the sectors, a talent for asking the right questions, even the tough ones, and, as the sales training experts the Gulas Group says, a focus on getting prospects to “quantify the pain.”

2. Upselling: Reps need to be able to identify opportunities for expansion revenue. For sales managers, this area entails watching the team’s account management approach and training them to incorporate a way of “checking in” with accounts to stay on top of any changes or new opportunities.

Key attributes for this area would be active listening, attention to detail in account management, and knowing what questions to ask when.

3. Time Management: Self-management is a significant factor influencing success in sales because often there is little oversight and accountability for a sales rep’s activity day-to-day. It is incumbent upon the rep and manager alike to keep themselves on task and address each part of the sales process.

Necessary attributes of people accomplished at managing time are that they can communicate how they divide their time between the various stages of the sales cycle and what tools they use to measure their progress toward these goals.

4. Plan for Success: A talent for planning is essential because shows how sales professionals intend to accomplish their goals. Effective planners know the end goal and plan around achieving those goals. An effective planner has a day-to-day breakdown of their time and a way to record progress, as well as the ability to share why it works for them and examples of past successes as a result of their behavior.

5. Accountable: When it comes to sales competency, the capacity to see how one’s actions create results is a huge predictor of success. People who understand how what they do creates reactions will be successful because they own their process and the results they get with it. Sales professionals who have an aptitude for taking responsibility tend to internalize the blame rather than accuse others. They also accept that it is impossible to control everything, and instead concentrate on managing their actions and reactions to situations. These individuals also recognize that it is okay to fail—even though they would rather succeed.

6. Ownership: Sales competency also includes the concept of owning one’s actions. A person who owns the sale asks tough questions at the appropriate times, knows when to push a deal that is dragging on, and isn’t afraid to get to a fast no. The Gulas Group says, when a sales rep owns the sale, he or she “doesn’t need approval” and gets the job done.

People: Competencies that Build Rapport and Trust

7. Build Rapport: It’s crucial that sales reps and managers know how to create emotional engagement with people and help buyers consider new ideas.

Key Attributes

– Understanding how to help people relax and get comfortable
– Communicate well
– Foster trust with others

In the case of the sales manager, you need to do what you say you will for your team always—a vital element for excellence in leadership—to build trust with your team.

8. Lead Conversations: An essential sales skill is taking control of the conversation when you need to, and knowing when to let the prospect speak.

Some important behaviors for this sales core competency are:

– The awareness to ascertain the comfort-level of the conversation participants and
– The ability to adapt and move forward, particularly when the unexpected occurs

9. Drive Buying Decisions: Sales is about getting people to buy, so knowing how to encourage people to make a purchase is essential. Key attributes in this area are fearlessness when it comes to asking for a yes and the ability to navigate back to an area of opportunity when the answer is no. Also, excellent listening skills are crucial as what a person says in a sales call long before the closing stages tell you what he or she wants to be included before saying “yes.”

10. Control emotions: A vital core competency of successful sales reps and managers is the emotional intelligence to manage one’s feelings and the feelings of other people. Controlling emotions requires much self-awareness and self-confidence.

People with strong core competencies in this area show restraint, do not panic, and know what to say or do at the appropriate time.

11. Maintain Positivity: Sales is a demanding job, and that staying upbeat and optimistic in slow periods is essential to keep hammering on doors and opening new opportunities.

Sales: Competencies to Crush Your Quota

12. Prospect Consistently: Prospecting is a numbers game that fills the sales pipeline with new potential buyers. Successful salespeople recognize that it is a priority to find new accounts, so they set aside time dedicated to discovering them. The behaviors associated with consistent prospecting include awareness of how many calls it takes to find a new prospect, a record of making those calls promptly, and a willingness to learn from mistakes or outcomes of unsuccessful calls.

Sales managers should be monitoring and coaching their teams to dedicate time, energy, and understanding to this vital area of sales competency.

13. Define Criteria: Knowing who will say yes and how much they will buy are critical bits of information to uncover during the discovery phase of the sale process.

Sales professionals effective at discovering the parameters of a sale will spend less time on accounts with the smallest potential and focus instead on the best opportunities. These sales professionals can get past the gatekeeper and speak to the decision maker. Then, they are efficient at finding out the available budget.

14. Build Solutions: Finding a mutually beneficial way to yes is crucial in sales. An essential skill for sales reps and managers is the ability to read a situation and fix any challenges that occur.

For sales reps, this aptitude exhibits in matching the buyer’s pain points to the product’s features and benefits.

For managers, this sales manager competency presents as a talent for uncovering weaknesses in the team’s systems, process, or skills and addressing them with training.

15. Sell Benefits/ Value: For reps, sales competency is shown in their ability to not only explain the feature of the product or service, but how it solve their pains. For managers, this manifests in the ability to convince salespeople to adopt their suggestions into their personal sales process.

16. Negotiating Prowess: While presenting value is critical to success, the ability for sales reps to customize the deal for the buyer leads to more sales.

Sales managers must also adjust their expectations to their team’s needs to get the best performance from their sales reps. People who are excellent at negotiation know it means getting mutual agreements in stages, knowing when to hold your ground, and having some wiggle room to get the deal approved ahead of time.

3 Competencies That Don’t Dictate Sales Success

We just covered seventeen sales competencies that are crucial to sales team success for both sales reps and managers. However, there are a few competencies that you should not worry about as much.

In other words, here are three areas you should stop emphasizing:

1. Education: It is natural to assume a person who has achieved many academic successes and a long list of degrees will be excellent at sales. While it is true that the best sales professional candidates should be smart and articulate, they do not have to have excellent grades or a slew of diplomas to be successful sales professionals.

2. Geniality: Being friendly is a magnificent trait in a person and a co-worker. However, friendliness is not essential to sales success. Does that mean the best candidates are rude and unsociable? Of course not. While sales performance does not necessitate being the prospect’s best friend, it does need the rep to be likable and trustworthy.

3. Thoroughness: In nearly any other job, being a conscientious rule-follower is a plus for success, but not in sales. As we mentioned earlier, sales professionals should be hard workers that use systems, but they should also be flexible and adaptable to the situations as they present themselves.

Let Sales Competencies Define the Hiring Process

Sales competencies are why salespeople can do what they do. Sales manager competencies are how sales managers get them to do it. Both are the skills and talents the sales professionals have for influencing the behavior of others.

There are core competencies for sales professionals that are critical to the members or potential members of any sales team. These sales core competencies fall within the three areas, which include Systems they use, People skills they have, and Sales mechanics they employ. From time management to leading conversations well to negotiating tactics, the sales competencies list is long and detailed.

However, while the list is long, some common competencies for success in other jobs are not on it. Education, geniality, and thoroughness seem like they would be vital, but experience shows they are not crucial for sales success. That said, having those competencies certainly would not hurt a candidate.

Understanding the key elements that fit within each of the core competencies will make defining job roles and expectations much easier, and ensure you are hiring the most qualified candidates. Perhaps most importantly, employing the most qualified candidates could also make you the least likely to be retaining their replacements in a few months.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 sales enablement and territory management app to increase your revenue, maximize your profitability, and increase your team’s productivity in just 2 weeks.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

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Sources:

Schultz, Mike. “Core Competencies of Successful Sellers.” www.rainsalestraining.com Web 21 November 2018. https://www.rainsalestraining.com/blog/core-competencies-of-successful-sellers.

“21 Core Competencies of Successful Salespeople.” www.gulasgroup.com. Web. 21 November 2018. http://www.gulasgroup.com/sales-competencies.shtml.

Lawrence, Ph.D., Amy. “5 Competencies to Focus on When Hiring Salespeople.” www.selectinternational.com. Web. 26 November 2018. http://www.selectinternational.com/blog/5-competencies-to-focus-on-when-hiring-salespeople.

How to Become a Medical Sales Rep (with No Experience)

Medical sales is a challenging and rewarding career.

How rewarding? The national average salary for a medical sales rep per the MedReps 2018 Medical Sales Salary Report is just under $150,000 ($149, 544), an increase of around $2,000 from 2017.

The medical sales industry is growing, which means they will always be looking for new talent. But, do you have what it takes to be a successful medical sales rep?

Let us explore this exciting and challenging field and the opportunities it presents.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

1. The responsibilities of a medical sales rep
2. What hiring managers look for in their talent acquisition strategy
3. Critical medical sales rep requirements
4. How to become a medical sales rep with no experience

The essential skills that will lead to your first medical sale

What is a Medical Sales Rep?

Medical sales reps sell a company’s products, whether for pharmaceutical companies or healthcare equipment manufacturers, serving as the liaison between the customers and the manufacturer. The sales rep also promotes the features and benefits of the company’s products, answers questions, provides consultation on the use of the product, and introduces new products as they launch.

Key Responsibilities of Medical Sales Positions

Medical sales reps handle all parts of the sales process. They identify and qualify prospects, demo products, negotiate contracts, attend trade shows, conferences, and meetings, and serve the healthcare professionals that make up their client list.

Medical sales compensation is a mix of base and commission. Per the 2018 MedReps Medical Sales Salary Report, the average base is just under $93,000 and the commission is just over $63,000.

What Do Hiring Managers Look For?

Hiring managers have a specific set of skills they are looking for in the ideal candidates for medical sales. Per MedReps.com, their talent acquisition strategy includes a search for:

1. Foundational Skills
2. Transferable Skills
3. Industry-Specific Skills

Let’s take a closer look at the three skill types and some examples of each.

Foundation Skills

Foundation skills are fundamentals imperative for the position. These skills are not specific to the medical industry, but are necessary for success in medical sales.

Some examples of Foundation Skills include:

Sales Skills: Medical sales reps must have new business development and prospecting abilities, presentation proficiencies that communicate features and benefits, and an aptitude for self-discipline to stay on top of new technology and research in their field. They should also be able to set and achieve goals.

Interpersonal Skills: Candidates should be active listeners comfortable with collaborative work environments and possess excellent problem-solving tactics.

Self-Management Skills: The strongest candidates will have adequate time management skills. They need to be self-motivated and able to set goals and create systems to achieve those goals. They should also have a positive attitude accompanied by a strong work ethic. Finally, they should adapt quickly to change, as the medical sales industry is always evolving.

Transferable Skills

Transferable skills are those abilities acquired through other occupations. These competencies are not specific to medical sales, but instead are work-related talents gained through experiences in different positions.

Some examples of transferable skills include:

Marketing Flair: Candidates who know how to promote the features and benefits of a product to a specific audience are in demand by medical sales recruiters. Knowing how to use different channels to reach potential customers or expand the relationships with existing customers is key to a medical sales rep’s success.

Public Relations: Communication is significant for medical sales reps. Hiring managers want medical sales reps that can present to an audience, answer questions, and disseminate information about the products. They also want people who can handle customer concerns and overcome objections.

Project Management: Desirable candidates will have project management aptitude. Running a medical sales territory has many moving parts, and the best candidates can develop systems to help them manage and organize their territory to meet the expectations of their organization.

Industry-Specific Skills

Industry-Specific Skills refer to those skills directly related to the healthcare industry. These might be from work experience or education.

Some examples of industry-specific skills include:

Relevant Experience: The best candidates for a job in medical sales are those that have already been in medical sales. Per Elitemed, a recruitment firm for medical sales, hiring managers often want to hire reps that already have two to three years’ experience in the field.

Healthcare Professionals: Candidates that were nurses, scrub techs, or other healthcare providers are often excellent candidates because they have industry knowledge. Elitemed says healthcare professionals understand the hospital environment and speak the same language as the customer.

Biotechnology or Science Background: Candidates with education in scientific fields have an advantage in medical sales. MedReps suggests people with a scientific background often also have technical writing skills and can explain things well in regular language. These candidates are also familiar with research and using evidence-based claims to convince customers of the product benefits.

Do you have many of the foundational, transferable, and industry-related skills discussed here? If so, here are the steps you need to take to become a successful medical sales rep.

How to Become a Medical Sales Rep (with No Experience)

Having the right skills is only part of the equation to success as a medical sales rep. Candidates that want not only to get the job but to thrive in their new career should consider the following steps.

Step #1: Pick a Focus for Your Medical Sales Career

There are many areas of specialization in medical sales. While the sale itself is often transactional, there are times when a consultation would benefit the deal. Medical reps that can speak the language and understand the science behind the products will have the best success. Choosing an area to master will establish you as a leader and drive you to success.

Consider the following specialties:

Medical Devices and Equipment: Reps that sell medical devices specialize in equipment or biomedical implants used by clinicians in treatment. Some examples of the products a medical device rep would represent are artificial joints like hip replacement devices or pacemakers used by cardiologists.

Pharmaceuticals: A pharmaceutical rep would present the features and benefits of drugs that treat conditions within the clinician’s specialty. For example, a pharmaceutical rep for a company with a cholesterol reducer might call upon cardiologists and general practitioners.

Biotechnology: A medical sale rep working in this field would represent companies that use living organisms for their healthcare-related inventions and procedures. Like a pharmaceutical rep, there are specialties within the field, which range from drug development to mapping the genomes and other areas of micro- and molecular biology. Unlike the other specialties, this one might require a strong background and education in life sciences.

Step #2: Establish your 30/60/90 Day Plan—in Theory, and Practice

When you have somewhere to go, you need to have a plan to get there. A 30-60-90 day plan is precisely what it sounds like; it is a plan with specific goals for each period. Not only will having a plan help you focus on what you need to do to land the job, but once you have the job it can help your transition into a new career.

A strategic approach to a territory tends to be more successful than “just going for it.” Let’s take a closer look at each type of 30/60/90/day plan.

For the Interview Process:

It is a favorite interview question to ask the candidate what they would do if they had the job. Hubspot suggests that having an answer to the question in the form of a 30-60-90 plan can demonstrate to the hiring manager that you are organized, thorough, and can prioritize well.

For the New Job:

Starting a job in a new company can be overwhelming and stressful. Having a concrete plan for the first three months helps you focus on one goal at a time while gaining mastery of the features and benefits of your products.

The 30-day goals are by the nature of their timeline, your quick wins. An example will be to learn about your main accounts and understand their business. Likewise, the 90-day goals will be those that take more steps or require more experience to accomplish. Examples here could be gaining entry into a significant prospect that isn’t a customer—yet.

It is crucial, however, that you allow time for the short-term and long-term goals from day one. Otherwise, you might not lay the proper groundwork for the tasks that require the longer timeline.

Step #3: Get Familiar with the Job and the Environment

One thing all recruiting professionals like to see is the hands-on experience. The problem is you do not have any. Getting field experience is vital to improving your chances at landing your first medical sales rep position.

Job Shadow

In sales, you often learn by doing. Try doing a ride-along or job-shadow with a successful medical sales rep. Seeing the experienced medical sales rep in their day-to-day interactions will not only give you the crucial experience you need, but it will also allow you to know whether you want to do this job.

Internships

Another way to get immediate experience is to apply for an internship. Internships with medical sales companies allow you to work alongside the sales team and learn directly from the experts.

Your duties as an intern for a medical sales organization could encompass a range of sales and support activities. Some interns qualify new accounts. They might also manage or gather additional data in the company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system. Some interns look for new opportunities to deepen relationships with existing customers or adapt current systems to a new market. Other interns travel with the sales team. Many interns will research new specialty product opportunities.

Another option is to contact the doctors’ offices directly and ask what they look for in a good sales rep. Who better to tell you what you need to do then the people that would buy from you?

Volunteering

Hubspot recommends that you also consider volunteering at a hospital or medical practice. Gaining experience can come from related jobs, too. Working in a medical practice or at a supplier for hospitals or medical practices, even at an entry level, can give you some experience in the field that would benefit your resume.

In addition to industry-related experience, it is also an excellent idea to brush up on your transferable skills as well. You should be able to operate proficiently in most sales-related technology, like CRM, project management software, and Microsoft Office programs. You should also brush up your communication skills, including technical writing.

Transferable skills are important too. MedReps.com recommends working on presentation skills as medical sales reps are usually fielding questions and presenting scientific evidence.

Step #4: Train Yourself for Success

It’s never too soon to start training in your chosen field. Medical sales reps need to have a command of the selling process so they can hit the ground running.

Hubspot recommends enrolling in a training program on your own, even before you have a job. Many medical sales organizations have affiliations with consulting groups that have training programs in place to help candidates like you get started on their skill set to make them more desirable to recruiters.

The most beneficial training programs will teach you the language of the industry. Also, they should give you a better idea of what is expected of a medical sales rep and exposure to the typical processes and procedures with a healthcare-related supplier.

In addition to formalized training, you should read studies, press releases, and new articles. Sign up for Google Alerts, a search tool that finds articles and results related to a topic of your choosing. You will automatically get notified when there stories, products, or mentions that you should read.

You can also visit Medical News Today for breaking news of medical topics in your chosen specialty and also to use the collections section of the Knowledge Center to research developments for your specialization.

Many organizations use Salesforce as their CRM. Having an excellent working knowledge of Salesforce will not only make you a more desirable candidate, but it will make your transition into the new position easier.

Salesforce has a free online training center called Trailhead for new users. However, there are more interactive online versions, too, as well as public and private settings for training as well.

Brushing up on sales skills is also an outstanding way to train for medical sales jobs. SPOTIO has an assortment of resources articles, eBook materials, and tools that can help you learn to prospect and qualify leads, manage a territory, plan for success, and optimize your sales calls.

Step #5: Network, Network, Network

Knowing the right people is never the wrong thing to do when you are trying to break into medical sales. Networking is vital.

LinkedIn

One free and easy way to start networking is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social network for your professional life. You create a profile and link to people you know. The site has a helpful “people you may know” section to help you build your network. You can post articles you have read, posts you have written or other professional links and news on your profile.

LinkedIn also has Groups where you can interact with other people in the group. Search for a group under medical sales and request to join to interact with others in the field.

LinkedIn also helps with searching for jobs. You can see who has viewed your profile. Then, you can message them to see if they have any questions for you. Also, actively responding to blogs posted by others in your field can help you network and find new opportunities.

You can also research companies on the site.

LinkedIn also includes photos of people that have some affiliation with you or your network. These contacts can be a starting point for your networking efforts.

Networking and Associations

Consider joining associations. Many have active memberships that present opportunities to network with like-minded professionals in your area of focus.

Online networking is only part of your strategy. You should also pursue in-person opportunities to meet people in the medical sales industry. Seminars and conferences are a great way to create connections with other attendees.

However, remember that quality connections are far more useful than the quantity of contacts. Introducing yourself to people who will quickly forget your name will not help you get a job in medical sales. Creating unique connections with people rather than just “working the room” will yield better results.

Step #6: Create a Compelling Online Presence

LinkedIn is one of many stops you should make when building your online presence. In fact, 80% of recruiters do an online search before reaching out to potential candidates per HuffPost.

It’s essential to think about what they might see if they searched for you. The best way to find this out is to simply Google yourself and see what comes up. Then, Google a respected person in the field to see how their online presence differs from yours.

Here are a few tips on what will help and what can hurt.

Things That Help You

A Professional Headshot: A professional headshot presents you in your best possible light. Our advice is to spring for the professional, no matter how great you think your camera’s phone is.

Customized Summary of Work History: You want your work history to speak to how you match with the job you want. So be sure to customize your work history to highlight all the qualities you have that would make you a tremendous medical sales rep. If possible and appropriate, customize the summary specifically for the organization you want to join. Just be careful that you do not eliminate yourself from other potential organizations in the process.

Accomplishments: Whenever possible, you want your work history to reflect successes, the more specific, the better. For example, you did not just grow your territory in media sales; you increased your territory in media sales by 17% in the first three quarters of the fiscal year. Also include any education awards, achievement-based accolades (e.g., Rookie of the year or President’s Club), and significant accomplishments outside of work, like being an Eagle Scout or on the National Volleyball Team, etc.

Skills, Endorsements, and Recommendations: You also want to make sure that when recruiters search for you online, they find their way to your skills that fall into foundational, transferable, and industry-specific categories. Also, be sure to post any endorsements, reviews, or referrals you might have received from past employers or clients. Talent acquisition specialists like to see that you have a track record of success with people.

Things That Hurt You

Inappropriate Pictures: Seeing is believing and a picture speaks a thousand words. Scrutinize (and scrub) any photos you have on your social media sites so that when a recruiter or hiring manager finds you, they believe you have what it takes. Let those thousand words your pictures say include, “professional, ambitious, and successful “ first and foremost.

Crass Language: Like your pictures, what you say online is also a significant contributor to your online presence. Ensure that a search of your words will reveal a candidate who is poised and appropriate.

Mixing Personal and Business: This point can be tricky since often the two areas overlap. However, it is critical to demonstrate that you know the difference between the two and can adapt your behavior and demeanor to match the situation.

Post-Hire Success: Tips for Getting Your First Medical Sale

Let’s say you do it. You met all the medical sales rep requirements, and now you have your first medical sales rep position. Now what?

Here are a few tips for getting your first medical sale:

1. Know the customer: Gaining a deep understanding of your customer allows you to anticipate their needs and to match features and benefits of your products to solve their challenges. Social media and a robust internet search will often reveal a lot about your customers, mainly their professional focus and any research area in which they have a particular interest or involvement. Also, you will likely learn more about their philosophy of care, which can also tell you a lot about their personality and values. All of this information should help you make the minutes count when you get that valuable face to face time.

2. Prospect Intelligently: Your sales will be better if you start with excellent prospects. When you qualify your potential leads, ensure that what you offer is in the doctor’s specialty and appropriate for their practice. In addition, look for indications that they might be a champion of your competitor. Also, take a few minutes to learn more about the gatekeeper at the practice and how they handle requests for the staff’s time. All of this foundational research will help you be more efficient with your time and reveal your best opportunities. Tools like Spotio’s Lead Machine can also disclose as much information as possible about prospects to get you started in the right direction.

3. Engage in Pain-based discovery: Your sales discovery questions should be open-ended, and pain focused. First, you can learn as much as possible about the prospect. Second, you can discover the needs your prospect has. Needs-based selling is not like selling at all; it is more like problem-solving. When you know what is not working for a prospect, you can craft a solution based on what you have to offer. Then, you have not sold a customer so much as you have helped them. The Sandler Pain Funnel has a series of questions you can use to uncover the real pain a prospect feels, which gives you a better chance of finding a real solution.

4. Follow a Follow-up Strategy: Nearly as crucial as prospecting intelligently for landing your first medical sale is following up sufficiently. Every successful medical supplies salesperson has an excellent follow-up strategy. It should follow the three Ps: personalized, proper, and (pleasantly) persistent. Personalization shows that you listen well and understand what the prospect wants. Having proper follow up establishes you as a professional partner for their practice. Being persistent shows that their business is important to you, and also, does not let your product slip through the cracks of a busy medical practice.

5. Set Daily Goals: One way you can shorten the sales cycle is to be diligent about attacking all the essential tasks each day that can get you closer to a yes. However, like any goal-setting strategy, they should be achievable. In other words, don’t make a daily goal that is not realistic (e.g., making your sales quota for the month by the end of the day). Have a certain number of calls you want to make, an amount of new opportunities that you identify, a few accounts where you move the sales process to the next step, and, after you have been at it for some time, a few accounts that you think you might close. Over time, the groundwork you do every day will lead to your first medical sale.

6. Learn from Your Failures: It is no secret that getting to your first yes will involve hearing a lot of nos. It is crucial that you learn to overcome the no. Analyze what did not work and figure out why or at what moment the sale went wrong. Then, address that moment with a new tactic next time to get a different outcome the next time. Many sales experts will tell you that the best salespeople are lifelong learners. And they all know how to overcome objections that lead to no’s and turn them into a yes.

Medical sales is a challenging career, but it is also one of the most rewarding. With an average national salary firmly in six figures, medical sales rep jobs can be high-paying opportunities.

Medical sales is also an industry that continues to grow with almost an endless need for new talent. If you have the skills, meet the medical sales rep requirements and the ability that hiring managers and recruiters are looking for, you could be the next successful medical sales rep, even if you had no experience before.

By understanding what the job entails, taking the steps we showed you for how to become a medical sales reps, and ensuring that you have the right training you will have built a strong foundation for your future career. Add to it your efforts to learn the industry and customize your online presence to attract medical sales talent acquisition specialists, and you will be able to land your first medical sales position.

So what are you waiting for? You have some work to do.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 sales enablement and territory management app to increase your revenue, maximize your profitability, and increase your team’s productivity in just 2 weeks.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

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Sources:

“2018 Medical Sales Salary Report.” www.medreps.com Web. 12 October 2018. https://www.medreps.com/medical-sales-careers/medical-sales-salary-report

“The Necessary Skills to Succeed in Medical Sales 101.” www.medreps.com. 30 October 2017. Web. 12 October 2018. https://www.medreps.com/medical-sales-careers/the-necessary-skills-to-succeed-in-medical-sales-101

“Breaking Into Medical Device Sales.” Elitemed.com. Web. 12 October 2018. , http://elitemed.com/entry-into-medical-sales-outdated/

Chi, Clifford. “The 30-60-Day Plan: Your Guide for Mastering a New Role [template + Example].” Blog.hubspot.com. 19 July 2018. Web. 15 October 2018. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/30-60-90-day-plan

Mullins, Karyn. “How to Become a Medical Sales Rep (Even If You Have No Experience).” Blog.hubspot.com. Web. 16 October 2018. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/become-medical-sales-rep

Joyce, Susan. P. “What 80% of Employers Do Before Inviting You for an Interview.” www.huffingtonpost.com. 1 May 2014. Web. 17 October 2018. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-p-joyce/job-search-tips_b_4834361.html

13 Sales Conferences We Suggest You Consider Attending in 2019

It’s hard to believe but (gasp!) 2019 is here. As a sales manager, it’s critical to use these last few weeks of 2018 to organize, forecast, and strategize. One key resource that you should make a priority for you and your team in the new year? Sales conferences.

A well-outlined conference does more than help your sales staff sharpen mission-critical selling skills and techniques (although, they definitely do that too). Relevant conferences and seminars deliver an invaluable opportunity for your salespeople to meet and engage with potential prospects, network with industry partners and affiliates, and gain inside access to the very latest market innovations that can help them grow their book of business (aka directly impact your company’s profit margins).

Not sure which sales conferences will yield the biggest ROI for your team? Look no further. Here are thirteen sales conferences to consider attending in 2019:

Sales 3.0 Conference

Dates: April 1-2, June 18-19, September 16-17
Location: San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas
Tickets: San Francisco | Chicago | Las Vegas

This two-day session is designed specifically for sales, sales operation professionals, and sales enablement leaders. Each Sales 3.0 Conference offers executive-level speakers who deliver strategic insight and best practices tactics that accelerate performance and drive bottom-line growth.

Sandler Summit

Dates: March 20-22
Location: Orlando
Tickets: Purchase here

This year’s Sandler Summit will be held at Orlando’s Rosen Centre, where you’ll have an opportunity to network and engage with over 1,000 sales, leadership, and management professionals from across the globe. Immerse yourself in a two-day intensive, high-impact training and networking seminar that’s led by some of Sandler’s leading sales training innovators.

Digital Sales World

Dates: TBD
Location: Boston, Dallas
Tickets: Purchase here

In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a Digital Sales World. Designed for inside/in-field reps and sales leaders, this conference offers tools, tips, and strategies to tap into the power of digital innovation to improve selling performance and increase overall revenues.

10X Growth Conference

Dates: February 1 – 3
Location: Marlin Park Stadium, Miami
Tickets: Purchase here

How could you possibly miss out on the self-proclaimed Largest Business Conference On Earth? The 10X Growth Conference showcases some of the world’s most successful and innovative entrepreneurs who share their insight and tips with sales professionals across every corporate level. The star-studded lineup of keynote speakers includes Steve Harvey, Daymond John, and Bethenny Frankel, making it a must-attend event.

Unleash 19

Dates: March 10 – 12
Location: Paradise Point Resort & Spa, San Diego
Tickets: Purchase here

Not only is this conference held at a luxurious spa…it’s also hosted on its own private island. Don’t worry, Unleash 19 offers more than tropical weather and gorgeous scenery. Here, sales leaders and professionals from around the globe train, network, and listen to elite speakers as they sharpen their leadership skills and strategies.

Rainmaker 2019

Dates: March 11 – 13
Location: Cobb Galleria Centre, Atlanta
Tickets: Purchase here

This three-day seminar designed for sales management provides exclusive trends, tips, and techniques from some of the biggest innovators and thought leaders in the industry. Rainmaker 2019 offers proven strategies to help you build essential partner relationships and grow your business.

Sales Leadership Summit

Dates: April 16 – 18
Location: Hyatt Regency O’Hare, Chicago
Tickets: Purchase here

Touted as the Inside Sales Leadership Event of the Year, the Sales Leadership Summit gives managers, leaders, and executives access to the innovation, tools, and resources needed to sharpen their own sales skills and bring their team of Account Executives to the next level of selling.

Inbound 2019

Dates: September 3 – 6
Location: Hyatt Regency O’Hare, Chicago
Tickets: Purchase here

Hosted by HubSpot, Inbound 2019 brings together industry thought leaders and professionals for a four-day curriculum designed to not only grow your business but help change how you do business. Equal parts enterprise and empathy, this conference can inspire your sellers to not only do their best but also to be their best.

Traction

Dates: August 7 – 8
Location: JW Marriott Parq, Vancouver
Tickets: Purchase here

Traction Conference delivers world-class speakers and actionable selling strategies to fast-track business growth and launch team performance. Over the course of two days, you and your account reps will connect with executives from Fortune 500 companies, major media contributors, and high-impact startup founders as you hone your skills and grow your professional networks.

B2B LeadsCon

Dates: March 4 – 6
Location: The Mirage, Las Vegas
Tickets: Purchase here

Known as The World’s Largest Performance Marketing Conference And Exposition, B2B LeadsCon gathers industry-leading innovators for a two-day session dedicated to essential practices like field performance, lead generation, and networking. Developed for marketers and sales professionals, this conference and exposition offers keynote speakers, workshops, and breakout sessions for optimized results and success.

D2DCon

Dates: January 10 – 12
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Tickets: Purchase here

The largest In Home Selling conference in the country for Door-to-Door, B2B, and Referral based selling. At D2DCon, sales managers and business owners come together for a highly informative three days focusing on leadership, recruiting, sales and business development. Attendees learn how to grow business from industry greats. How valuable is D2DCon? So valuable that D2DCon is one conference the SPOTIO team never misses!

Win The Storm (WTS)

Dates: February 21 – 23
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Tickets: Purchase here

Win the Storm brings together 2500+ general contractors, roofing contractors, fire/water restoration companies, public adjusters and other industry entrepreneurs. At WTS, you are given the opportunity to learn from speakers, vendors, and industry experts to gain insights that will take your business to the next level. And as an added bonus, SPOTIO will be there! Stop by our booth as we would love to introduce ourselves.

Solar Power International

Dates: September 23 – 26
Location: Sales Lake City, Utah
Tickets: Purchase here

As the largest solar event in North America, Solar Power International is not to be missed. SPI brings a wealth of resources and knowledge into one place. Hobnob with ith distributors, contractors, engineering firms, architects, builders/developers, investors and financiers. In addition to learning from the industries best, the tradeshow floor gives you the opportunity to meet with top suppliers and manufacturers so that you can discover new solutions and ideas to help you business thrive. The extensive draw this event pulls is one of the many reasons SPOTIO is looking forward to attending this years’ show.

What are your plans for sales conferences in 2019? Tell us what events you or your team will attend in the comments section!

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales enablement platform designed specifically for outside sales managers and reps to squeeze every drop out of their field sales efforts.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

How to Write a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan (With Template)

Whether you want to impress a potential sales manager during a job interview or you are simply looking for a way to level up your sales game with the support of your management team, you can plan and track your development in a transparent way by creating and sharing a 30-60-90 day sales plan.

In the sales profession, it’s not uncommon during the hiring process to be asked to provide a 30-60-90 day sales plan as it helps the sales manager determine your approach to learning the business, ability to create and track measurable goals, and willingness to hold yourself accountable. Writing a 90-day sales plan may be the key to a smooth transition into a new role and will remove much of the onboarding stress your sales manager might have had otherwise.

What is a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan?

A 30-60-90 day sales plan is a tool used to lay out a course of action during a period of onboarding or growth. When used during onboarding, a well thought out 90-day sales plan maximizes progression into a new role by identifying development targets that include a clear timeline for completion.

Ultimately, the plan gives reps and sales manager alignment on what success will look like in the first 30, 60, and 90 days. It leaves very little ambiguity for measuring a successful transition, by keeping everyone pointed in the right direction.

While following a 30-60-90 day sales plan will help you get off the ground, the value is less about learning tasks and more about generating alignment with your new management team on what success looks like. At the end of 90 days, success should demonstrate you were a good hire and set a foundation for career growth.

Goals of a 30 60 90 Day Sales Plan

Each phase of your 30 60 90 day plan should be grounded on specific outcomes that align with your individual priorities, your team’s goals, and a plan for measuring success. Measurements should be quantifiable. In cases where they’re not easy to quantify, they should be designed to ensure it’s easy to demonstrate successful completion.

Align to team goals

When identifying your own priorities, you must first understand your team’s goals. These are typically set out by management and will greatly influence your personal priorities. Be sure to go beyond the surface level to understand the purpose behind your team goals, what strategy they align to, and what success looks like for the team.

Identify your priorities

By deeply understanding the purpose behind your team goals, you’ll be well-equipped to identify your personal priorities. Identifying your personal priorities will provide you with a foundation to refer to if you’re not sure if a task should be prioritized. By aligning your personal priorities to the team’s goals, you strengthen your accountability to the team.

Measuring progress and success

A plan is not a plan without a clear way to measure success. To track your progress, be sure to include a way to measure each item on your 30 60 90 day sales plan. Depending on the activity, your goals should tie to one of the following things:

1. What you’ve learned
2. How well you’ve adjusted and integrated into your new team
3. How ready you are to perform your role without extra support

Two Scenarios that Call for a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

During the Interview

One scenario that calls for a 30-60-90 day sales plan is during the final stages of the interview process. In some cases, a hiring manager may informally ask how a candidate would approach their first 30, 60, and 90 days on the job.

In this case, it’s useful to be armed with a formal plan which demonstrates you are thinking ahead and serious about the job. In addition to having a formal plan, you should be prepared to speak to it, articulating the highlights in response to the questions.

In addition to showing you’re ahead of the game, the plans show the hiring manager how you prioritize tasks and organize time.

It also provides the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the role while helping the hiring manager see your capabilities and how you will approach the tasks at hand.

First Week On The Job

Another scenario for sharing your 30-60-90 day sales plan is during your first week on the new job. During this time, onboarding is critical. Sharing the plan upfront gives you and the management team goal alignment, helps them understand the way you operate, and reduces the chance of miscommunication.

Even if you’re not asked to craft a 30, 60, 90 days plan during the first week on the job, it’s highly recommended. Not only does it provided alignment, it’s also helpful for you as an individual to stay grounded during a time where you’ll be getting comfortable in a completely new environment. Having a plan in place will help you feel like you have control of the situation. It also gives you something to refer to if you feel lost or stuck.

A Simple 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan Template

Now that you understand the value of a 30-60-90 day sales plan, let’s talk about the appropriate milestones for each phase.

30 Day Plan

You’re starting from scratch, and should begin by answering, “What does success look like in the first 30 days?”

In many cases, the first 30 days should include completing your company/role training plan, understanding the target market, mastering the company’s products or services, and getting to know your colleagues.

Here’s a sample checklist of things to consider for the first 30 days:

Have you completed all required company training?

Do you understand the high-level priorities for your company and team? What are the core goals and objectives your company plans to achieve in the next year?

Do you have a complete understanding of the target market?

Do you understand your company’s key products and/or services?

Do you understand what makes your company different and unique?

Do you understand the competition?

Have you developed connections within the organization?

Do you have a clear sales plan?

This part of the plan should be heavy on information gathering.

For each of the items in your plan, and any others you add, schedule weekly checkpoints to track progress. This may be a 1:1 with your manager or mentor. At the end of the first 30 days, be prepared to report back on your completion of the plan.

If you didn’t complete a key commitment, that’s okay. Sometimes once you become more familiar with a job, items on your list may be deprioritized and rolled into the next phase.

60 Day Plan

During the second month, you’ll be able to spend more time in the field. During this phase of your onboarding plan, you should focus on getting to know your market, meeting and developing relationships with prospects and clients, understanding the customer experience, including what’s working well and where your team can better support customers.

During the 31-60 day period, you should also make sure to get feedback from your manager, team, and customers on what you’re doing well and where you can improve. This is also a great opportunity to establish weekly personal goals that will help you stay on track for success.

Aim to have more hands-on experiences that will drive you to a deeper understanding of all aspects of the business. One way of increasing your awareness is by spending time reviewing customer comments to guide you into defining solutions for common roadblocks.

During this time, you should also be teaming up with coworkers to role play, shadowing peers and reps in the field, and discussing with your manager optional tools to help train you to see issues before they are problems.

This shows your sales manager that you are eager to keep up with the team and that you want to help move the company forward.

Here’s a sample checklist of things to consider for your 60-day plan:

Have you introduced yourself to key clients and prospects?
Have you completed a customer experience and satisfaction review?
Have you participated in adequate job shadowing with peers and management?
Have you completed all formal training requirements?
Have you started developing new leads?

By the 60-day checkpoint, your goal should be to get in the game – show that you can handle the workload and that you’re ready to succeed on the team.

It’s not uncommon for new team members to stay quiet in meetings and engagements out of fear that they’ll disrupt a meeting flow or look foolish. Between days 30 and 60 you should have enough of an understanding of the business to speak up, ask questions, share ideas, and engage in discussion.

90 Day Plan

At the end of 60 days, you should feel ready to hit the ground running. Days 60-90 are all about building on what you learned during the first 60 days to begin making an impact.

This may mean you start optimizing your prospect list with larger, more strategic clients. It may also mean adjusting your goals to make even more impact.

Your plan for days 61-90 should cover how you’ll establish and build relationships with clients and prospects, as well as how you’ll provide feedback and input into your own sales organization to drive broad impact.

Here’s a sample checklist of things to consider for your 90-day plan:

Have you met all key accounts and started developing relationships?
Have you started prospecting for new leads?
Have you actively asked for feedback from your peers and management?
Have you used feedback to adjust your strategy and approach?
Have you established a schedule that works for you, your clients, and your team?
Have you established credibility within the team?
Do you feel successfully “on board?”

At 90 days, you should feel like you’re flying. While nobody will expect you to be a seasoned expert, you should know enough to perform critical sales tasks without a ton of support. You should also be very clear on where to go for questions or support if you get stuck, and have a strong network in place to ensure success.

3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Building a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

You should be off to a great start in developing your 30-60-90 day sales plan. But, as with anything, things can easily get derailed.

In this section, we’ll cover common mistakes and how to avoid them.

#1. An ambiguous plan

As you’ll recall, the most important aspect of your plan is to provide alignment between reps management teams. The biggest enemy to alignment is ambiguity. To avoid an awkward conversation during one of your check-ins, make sure that your plan has no room for misinterpretation. Include specifics in your plan including dates, numbers, and other things that can be quantified as SMART goals.

#2. No plan to measure success

It’s not really a plan if there is no way to measure success. Within each phase of your plan, be very specific on what constitutes successful completion of a task. Think of this as your onboarding scorecard.

#3. A fixed mindset

When you start a new role, you don’t know much. By the time you start executing on a plan, you’ll likely find some of your assumptions were off, and you’ll need to adjust the plan accordingly. Don’t let this bog you down, or worse, stop you from following through. Make sure your plan is flexible enough to make adjustments as needed.

Conclusion

Your 30-60-90 day sales plan should serve as a tool to establish yourself in a new role, organization, and time of growth and development.

It includes specific objectives, deliverables and timelines, and should include a scorecard to measure success.

Coming to the table with a plan is the best thing you can do to hit the ground running and build credibility by showing team members you are eager and prepared.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 sales enablement and territory management app to increase your revenue, maximize your profitability, and increase your team’s productivity in just 2 weeks.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.