Do you think building a successful sales team happens by accident?
Of course not.
Why then do so many sales managers in the Senior Living industry choose not to provide ongoing sales training, allow each counselor to adopt their own sales process, and accept poor results?
It’s not that training, sales processes, and excellence aren’t important to the leaders of underperforming teams. It’s just easier to raise quotas, create monetary incentives, browbeat employees, and buy new tools. Providing thorough training, coming up with a simple, repeatable yet effective sales process, and coaching are difficult.
Mike Miller, President and CEO of Primo Solutions, LLC, believes that training is one of the key components to building a winning team. In a recent article entitled “Sales Training – Critical or Just Another Option?”, Miller addresses a common objection to committing fully to training:
“So you ask, what if I invest all of this time and money in my staff, and they decide to leave? I would answer by asking this question: What if you do not invest your time and money in your staff, and they decide to stay?”
Too many Senior Living communities are seeing the results of the latter approach. One of the services Miller and Primo Solutions provides is mystery shopping for the Senior Living industry. The data the company has compiled via mystery shopping paints a disappointing picture:
“We have conducted over 100,000 mystery shops in the senior living space, and we have found that 70-80% of the deals are lost over the phone. Most companies knowingly admit that their inquiry to tour ratio is about 30%, and they are okay with those numbers. That blows my mind.”
What about process? How can a sales process help a lackluster sales team reach its full potential? Miller has some ideas about how developing good salespeople and an effective sales process go hand in hand:
“If you are looking to turn your organization around and develop salespeople into the best versions of themselves, stop weaving “pieces” of multiple processes and wondering why it falls apart after a few uses. Adopt a process that is aligned with your core values and mission statement, keep it simple, and hold your staff accountable for the process.”
Don’t think that software and tools are a reasonable substitute for training and a well thought out sales process. Adding complicated software that no one understands does more harm than good. That applies especially to CRM software. As Miller states, “Do you ever wonder why most salespeople do not use their CRM to its maximum benefit? It’s probably because it is too difficult to learn every bell and whistle that is offered.”
If you’re looking for a simple, highly effective CRM application that adapts to your sales process, sign up for a Continuum CRM demo today.
For more of Mike Miller’s insight on sales training and sales process, be sure to check out his article here: Sales Training – Critical or Just Another Option?
