It’s a tough climate for business right now, and sales are certainly no exception. There are plenty of things a sales team can do to limit the effects of a poor economy, though. In particular, a culture change may be beneficial or even necessary.
Whether the economy is a boom or a bust, there’s no place for excuses on your sales force. If your sales team is making excuses, you have a culture that supports excuses, and it means someone on your team is listening to what they’re saying rather than coaching them.
Instead of blaming the economy for a lack of sales, your team needs to work against the conditions to sell anyway. After all, factors like a weak economy and strong competition will always be a part of business – it’s more productive to find ways to combat them than to complain or blame.
A helpful step your company can take to change a culture of excuses into a culture of responsibility is to make objectives clear and public. These can be objectives for individual salespeople, or goals for the sales team and even for the company as a whole.
Set two kinds of goals for your team. The first kind is a non-negotiable baseline goal – the kind of goal that will take an effort to achieve, but is definitely doable. The second is a brass ring goal, one that is more difficult to achieve. You might not even know how to manage it at first but once you get going, the way will eventually start to become clear.
If your sales team has a toxic culture – filled with excuses and devoid of responsibility – or even if there’s just a hint of lost accountability, it can really hurt your bottom line. Replacing blame with responsibility, and excuses with goals, can be just the change you need to help your team win in a bad economy.
Clear Vision and Goal Setting go Hand-in-Hand
