Your closers are part of one of the most important teams in your business…
And over the years, I’ve built sales teams of all sizes, including up to well over 100 closers.
I’ve tested many ways to train them, incentivize them, and help them perform to their fullest potential.
Some things worked, while others didn’t.
So, in this week’s newsletter, you’ll get a comprehensive list of things you must do if you want a closing team of top producers.
So, grab a notepad and a pen and get ready to make good notes…
Because this newsletter will be one of the most important things you read if you want to take your business to brand-new heights.
Why Your Sales Team Must Be Coachable
Before you hire any new closer, you must first find out if they’re coachable.
The way to do this is to roleplay with them and give them feedback.
If they take the feedback well and without ego, you know they’re coachable.
Next, you want to roleplay again to see if they can take the feedback onboard.
This will show they can implement feedback fast, which is exactly the type of person you need on your team.
Why Your Prospects Are More Important Than Your Product
The old way of sales is DEAD my friend.
Gone are the days of talking AT your prospect and selling the features and benefits.
In today’s market, your prospect is most important, and in fact, they always were, it’s just taken people this long to figure it out.
Every closer on your team must know your prospects inside out.
They must know their pains, problems, roadblocks, goals, fears, aspirations, etc.
Outside of that, they must have the product knowledge to know if you have a good solution to their problem.
You’d be surprised how many business owners don’t have a customer avatar document.
You should already have a detailed customer avatar to give new team members, especially in sales and marketing.
If you want to know how to create a customer avatar in 5 simple steps then click here >>
How To Set Them Up For Success
A lot of business owners don’t have a solid onboarding process.
They don’t set expectations well enough (more on this later)…
And they don’t give them the right materials to study.
So, here are 5 things that will help onboard your closers:
- Show them how to set sales appointments
This should be done live either by you, your sales manager, or your top closer or appointment setter. - Show them how to close deals live
This should be done live either by you, your sales manager, or your top closer. - Give them successful sales calls to listen to
Find the best sales calls you can, and give them to your closers to listen to on repeat. - Get them to roleplay amongst themselves daily
If you have a physical office, you can create an objection game, so whenever your closers walk past each other they throw objections at each other and have to answer them on the spot.
If you have a virtual office, then get them to set aside some time each morning for roleplay. - Create an environment with tools that can train them when you can’t
Recommend the best sales books… give them access to sales trainings you’ve invested in.
Set up their environment in such a way that you’re not needed every time you want to train them.
As the CEO you don’t have time to train your team every day, like I’m doing here >>
But you should train them periodically or find someone capable to do it.
What Expectations Should You Set Before They Start Work?
You’ll want to let them know their KPIs based on performance and behaviors.
Performance KPIs will obviously be the number of sales, but behavioral KPIs will be things like…
Clearing their pipeline every day… never being late for sales meetings… following up with prospects every 90 days or so, etc.
If they dip below their KPIs for two weeks or don’t meet your minimum expectations, they’ll need more training.
Hold them accountable to your expectations and their KPIs by firing them if they’re not met after a further two weeks.
Make sure you fire the bottom 25% of your closing team every quarter as well.
This keeps everyone on their toes and ensures you have the best producers on your team.
Why You Must Have a Leaderboard
You’ll want to set up two leaderboards either in your office or somewhere your team can see them daily in a virtual setting.
Have one leaderboard for sales results, and another for the daily tasks/behaviors I mentioned earlier.
Because it’s the behaviors that create results for them and your company at the end of the day.
Why You Must Create A Solid Compensation Plan
Your compensation plan must incentivize your closers.
We use a combination of a few different commission structures, depending on price point and profit margin.
Every new closer starts in my company as a setter, regardless of their experience.
They earn a percentage of sales for appointments they set.
After they’ve proven themselves by getting a predetermined number of sales, they then move to a closing position.
In this position, they get a base plus commissions, and we also work out a bonus structure that works similarly to the tiered commission structure.
Providing your closers with a base removes neediness and desperation.
The last thing I want in my team is a closer who is in survival mode because this causes most people to act on emotions and irrationally in a sales conversation.
How To Reward Your Top Closers
If you like, you can also reward your top closers with gifts.
The size of the gift isn’t as important as the fact that you’re giving them something for performing well.
It can be as small as a $20-$50 gift card.
Then, as you grow you can increase the size of the gifts.
In closing…
Training your closers, setting expectations, and rewarding them for good performance is key to building a successful closing team.
Until next time… go high ticket,
Dan Lok
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