How to Build a High-Performing Sales Team

Sales is the lifeblood of any business. Without it, businesses would quickly die. That’s why finding ways to improve sales performance is always a top priority for business owners and managers. If you’re looking for the one secret to high-performing sales, look no further! This blog post has everything you need to know.

High-Performing Sales Teams: Key Characteristics

How would you describe your sales team‘s performance? Are you not firing on those making excuses for not meeting quotas all the time? Missing the strategic window for opportunity?

Organizations that want to achieve and sustain high levels of profitable growth must build a high-performing sales team. This means that they have a sales team that consistently meets or exceeds their sales targets (on-field performance) while also getting along with and contributing directly to the target customers (off-field performance)

What does it take to be a high-performing sales team?

First, you need a competitive solution and a sales team that can connect with your target buyers. These are not the only requirements to be successful in the game. It is important to understand that there is a big difference between the success and failure of one salesperson or product and that of an entire sales team over time.

Focus on the following four essentials to create a high-performing sales team:

1. Clear and compelling go-to-market sales strategy

Too many sales teams try hard to be everything to everyone or rely on their product to do the work. Although rare products (like the iPhone) can win alone, our organizational alignment research revealed that strategic sales clarity accounts for 31% of the difference in high-performing sales teams.

High-performing sales teams can identify and prioritize their ideal customers, target markets, value proposition, and key bets for profitable growth.

High-performing sales teams can identify and prioritize their ideal customers, target markets, value proposition, and key bets for profitable growth.

2. A healthy, accountable, and aligned sales culture

40% of the difference in high-performing sales teams is due to their sales culture. Once you have a clear sales strategy, it is important to ensure that your sales culture supports and doesn’t hinder your growth.

Many companies promote a sales-driven culture. However, we are constantly surprised at how difficult it is for us to get work done that truly puts customers first. This means making it easy for us to close deals, get customer service, and align with our customer’s needs.

When your sales team is engaged and everyone in the company is focused on making your customers successful, you will know that you have a sales-driven culture. This requires metrics, rewards, and systems that support customer intimacy with an externally-oriented focus.

Many companies promote a sales-driven culture. However, we are constantly surprised at how difficult it is for us to get work done that truly puts customers first. This means making it easy to close deals, provide customer support, and ensure our products and services align with the customer’s wants.

When your sales team is engaged and everyone in the company is focused on making your customers successful, you will know that you have a sales-driven culture. This requires metrics, rewards, and systems that support customer intimacy with an externally-oriented focus.

3. The right sales talent that fits

Once your sales strategy is clear and aligned, you can create a talent management plan to attract, develop, engage, and retain top sales talent to help you reach your goals. This means you need to clearly understand your current capabilities and where you want to go. This will allow you to determine the best way to fill your sales talent, skills, and process gaps in order to succeed.

4. Strong sales execution

If plans and sales strategies are not implemented, they are useless. You need to set sales goals that motivate the team, track progress, and adjust as necessary. It all comes down to clarity, alignment, and accountability.

5. Sales coaching

Sales managers are often promoted from the sales ranks. They are skilled at selling but have little knowledge of how to coach their sales reps.

Properly executed sales coaching can make a huge difference in sales success. According to a study by Selling Power, The Five Hallmarks of High Impact Sales Organizations, managers in high-impact sales organizations (defined as those where more than 75% of their sales reps reach quota) are more skilled at coaching sales and spend more time coaching than managers of low-performing sales teams.

High-performance sales coaching is about learning how to create a coaching culture, assess skills gaps, develop coaching plans, and observe calls.

5 Characteristics Needed For A High Performing Sales Team

1. Outstanding Sales Management

What is high-performance without strong leadership? Great sales managers are essential to building a strong team. The best sales managers have a “boots-on-the ground” mindset and spend significant time training their team and in the sales office.

Great managers know how to create a high-performing sales team. They foster a positive work environment and empower team members who are struggling.

This support is crucial because managers who give their sales teams a quota without high-performance training can expect demotivated sales teams and unmet sales goals.

2. Excellent time management skills

Salespeople who are not likely to convert into sales are the most successful. These people are often not worth their time, and they know that high-value leads provide a better return on their time.

Learning how to quickly identify potential leads for top-performing sales reps with excellent time management skills is crucial.

3. Setting goals

As a high-performing salesperson, you must be able to set goals and be adaptable.

High performers thrive when they can achieve specific goals. You can harness previously untapped motivation by setting realistic and achievable goals for each sales team member.

If a sales rep struggles to reach a goal, be attentive and offer additional coaching. Remember to celebrate the achievements of your sales reps.

4. Always looking for Improvement

Salespeople who are successful acknowledge their success and seek ongoing strategies that will improve their performance for the next quarter.

Hiring and managing motivated salespeople is a constant challenge. To hire the best candidates, more managers are turning to predictive analytics.

5. Adaptability

A high-performing member of a sales team must be flexible to adapt to changing situations. Top-performing sales reps employ various strategies to remain flexible in their pitches, including tailoring their language to relate to potential customers.

Top sales reps are humble and open to learning and expanding their skills. They know that the sales environment changes constantly, and they take pride in adapting to the latest best practices.

PerceptionPredict creates unique and accurate candidate profiles. Performance Fingertips, our sales candidate models, help companies preemptively identify key performance indicators that will allow them to forecast strong ROI.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that if you want to achieve and sustain high levels of profitable growth in your organization, you must build a high-performing sales team. By following these tips, you will be able to build a great team and boost your revenue. Remember to create a healthy and accountable sales culture.

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