Face it. The company knows more about how well production is going than sales. There are numerous ISO, Deming, Lean, and  other manufacturing programs to track and enhance every phase of production. But what about sales? Prospect goes in and then you hope for a close at the end. What happens in the middle? This has been a dilemma forever, but recent research has found it is primarily due to:

1. Assuming a Prospect Is a Name. A target is not a prospect until they part with their most precious resource: TIME. Until a salesperson has a scheduled meeting, they have no prospect.
    

2. Tracking Activities Not Results: Many time sales people confuse golf with commitment. But if you track things like the first meeting is, if all relevant info is gathered, a decision phase is reached, and the closing then you can develop results-based tracking and discover the hidden problem of salespeople . . . the stalled phases.
    

3. Not Knowing Quality of Prospects or Lead Generation Methods: Once you have this sales tracking system in place, you can easily determine these critical characteristics.
    

4. Not Separating Buyers from Info Seekers: Assuming they are all the same.
    

5. Ignoring Hunting Versus Farming: When is each profitable and effective?
    

6. Not Instilling Courage and Bravery: Many training programs look at techniques but not the beliefs of a sales force. Shift beliefs, you shift their behavior.
    

7. Not Coaching: Whatever stalls each salesperson requires a different level and approach for moving them forward. This why generic training programs are not effective for everyone. Do they stall in prospecting? Gathering relevant info? Inducing a decision phase? Closing?
    

(c) 2005 The SAGA Institute

Institute Sale programs were designed upon these foundations. For more information on how these could apply in your organization click here.