Salespeople will naturally resist any activity that will take them away from their customers, but this will make them less productive in the long run. Proper sales training can make a good salesperson great and a great salesperson spectacular. But how do you get them to take notice?

First, you need to make sure the training offers real value. Good salespeople will recognise if their time is being wasted and will zone out. The training needs to be extremely practical and make it very clear how this will impact their bottom line in the long run. Generic sales training is not useful – make sure the training targets specific behaviours that work in a specific environment.

Remember that motivational speaking is not sales training. While motivational speaking may give your salespeople a short-term boost, it will not change their behaviour or improve their sales in the long run. Make sure to praise them yourself, but if you are investing in training, make sure it will bring real change to the team.

It is also important to make sure the training is tailored to your company and industry, but without being watered down. Often, when training is adapted it becomes almost identical to what a company has previously been practising. This will not bring change to the sales team and will not be useful in the long run.

Even the best salespeople need someone to give them pointers and keep them on track. If you make sure you train them on a regular basis, and offer them something that is timely, relevant and realistic, you should see a noticeable improvement in their figures.

How do you get the most out of your sales team?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Sometimes it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day for everything you need to do: prospecting, returning phone calls, travelling, team meetings, updating your CRM system, keeping up with industry knowledge, training… You might start to feel like you don’t have enough time to actually sell. A recent survey found that sales people tend to divide their time as follows:

• 41% selling 
• 24% generating leads 
• 19% team meetings and admin 
• 16% other tasks – training, service calls, etc. 

It’s really important to make sure you make the most of your time, so that you spend the maximum amount of time possible actually selling. Here are three ways you can make sure this is happening so you are not losing sales.

1. Create a schedule

Think about when you are most likely to be able to get things done. Is there any point calling a list of prospects on a Friday afternoon? Could you spend this time catching up on your admin work instead? Review when you are usually most effective and task your work accordingly. Unexpected work may still come up, but by creating a schedule, the workload should feel more manageable. Assign time limits to each task, and if you are spending far too long in one area, look at how it could be made more efficient.

2. Optimise your travel

You’ve had a call from a potential client. They’re several hours away and it’s only a small sale, but you can’t just ignore it. Make the most of this journey by planning your route carefully. Are there any clients on the way that you haven’t seen for a while? Could you drop by on a potential contact you’ve been meaning to call anyway?

3. Let others help

Salespeople spend a lot of time alone. They are also heavily invested in what happens regarding their clients and are likely to believe they can do everything better than everyone else. But in most companies, there will be a support team there. Utilise these resources. If a client has a question about invoicing or shipping, forward these to the appropriate department rather than getting too involved. If you have an in-house product specialist, make sure you are making the most of them. This will free you up to spend time on more productive areas.

What one change could you make to help you spend more time selling?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Cloud computing and mobile devices have both played a major role in IT sales recently. Matthew Lloyd, Specialist IT & Telecommunications Sales Consultant at Hays, shares his thoughts on how these two trends may have influenced each other. An expert in all aspects of IT sales, he would be happy to hear from anyone interested in this post by email (Matthew.Lloyd@hays.com) or on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattitandtelecomms.

Cloud computing has been around for a little while now, and its popularity continues to grow. IT cloud service sales are expected to grow by 18.5% every year for the next 5 years. Amazon generated about $1.5 billion in revenue in 2012, with cloud believed to be a top contributor. Technologies such as software as a service, storage as a service and applications as a service are fuelling this growth.

At the same time, sales in mobile devices have continued to increase. A recent IDC report suggested that global IT spending will increase 5.7% this year, and mobile devices will make up about two thirds of this growth. While PC sales have gone down by 8%, there are predictions that tablet sales could grow by 1,000% in the next few years.

The way that people use devices such as tablets is very well-suited to cloud computing. Due to the memory constraints of these devices, it is more convenient if the content is accessed through cloud-based applications. The development of new apps has rapidly increased to accommodate smartphones and tablets, and this has allowed for an increase in cloud computing.

Furthermore, both cloud computing and mobile devices are also both indicative of a larger trend: the need to be always connected. Cloud computing is starting to release people from the constraints of desktops and allowing them to develop their own personal cloud. At the same time, tablets and smartphones are seen by some as the first step towards a world where all kinds of devices will be able to access the internet – and connect to our personal cloud. This means that it seems likely that the demand for both tablets and cloud computing is only going to increase.

Do you think the rise in cloud computing is connected to increased sales in mobile devices?

Hays Sales UK are experts in all areas of sales recruitment. To find out more about how our highly skilled consultants can support you, please visit our website.

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed having a rest over Christmas and are now back in the office and ready to make this year the best year ever. We've put together a few tips on how to make sure 2013 is a great year for your sales team.

1. Reflect on 2012

What went well last year? Where could you improve? Be brutally honest with yourself and think about what you could do differently this year. At the very least take some time out for some personal reflection. Ideally, arrange a meeting with your sales team (perhaps over lunch) and talk about your strengths and weaknesses.

2. Create an action plan

Now you know what you need to do, how are you going to do it? Put together a plan with some clear goals. These need to challenge you and your team to have any effect, but they need to be realistic to make sure they are not demoralising. Make it clear what success looks like and how it can be achieved.

3. Get the team on board

The best way to do this is usually through a beginning of year meeting. Get the team together and get them excited about what you have planned. Make sure they understand your action plan and are clear about what is expected of them. Inject some fun into the meeting to make sure everyone is on board.

4. Review and reinforce

A third of New Year’s resolutions are broken before the end of January. Make sure your sales plan sticks through regular reviews for your team, both formally and informally. Offer extra incentives for those who excel. Where salespeople are not meeting your expectations, find out why and offer support.

Could some new salespeople help you succeed in 2013? Or have you been thinking about a new role yourself? To find out how our highly skilled consultants can help you, please visit our website.