Feedback is a very efficient way within companies not only to correct defects throughout any process, but also to further improve what has been done well.
When we talk about business processes, feedback to the sales team becomes even more important within all organizations.
After all, selling more and better is the goal of any company. And without organization, standard and assertiveness, how can businesses grow and remain healthy in the long run?
When dealing with a sales team, it is important that a manager is aware that he is seeking constant improvement through feedback given to the sales team.
After all, the connection we can make is simple. The better the processes, the better the results will be. And that will reflect more sales and growth.
But, how to accomplish this mission, how to introduce this feedback culture within companies?
In this article, we’ve separated some tips for you who want to improve your sales team’s daily work even more.
This way, it will be easier to scale sales and reduce your company’s Customer Acquisition Cost.
Come on?
Good reading!
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Why is it important to give feedback to the sales team?
Feedback is one of the best tools any commercial manager has at hand. It doesn’t work and cannot be done just to point out mistakes.
The truth is, if you only give feedback when problems occur, when you call the sales team to speak, everyone will know it’s bug reporting. And then it will be half way for them to get discouraged.
It’s no use just complaining. Complaining about goals that were not met, the number of opportunities that were not opened or idle salespeople if nothing is proposed or debated in order to improve.
Likewise, it makes no sense not to give feedback to the sales team when performance is satisfactory, above average.
Every manager wants to maintain and improve results. So, it is necessary to encourage people to increasingly improve business processes.
That’s what you need: turn dissatisfaction into motivation – and motivation into results.
Understanding the context and pains you have in the sales process are essential to continuous improvement.
By doing this, you will know what you need to invest in: training? Tools? New contributors?
For that, we have separated some steps that you need to take.
Create a feedback culture with your employees with 3 practical tips
For feedback to make sense and work in improving processes, it needs to be structured within the commercial sector of any company.
Only then will it be possible for the team to understand its importance, assimilate the stipulated frequency and understand that it is part of a macro process within the sector.
It is up to the manager to be also present in the daily work of the team. On the spot.
To make this feedback task easier, we’ve set aside some tips to follow. Check out!
Set a periodicity and comply
Feedback can’t just be one time, because of a problem or something really good, and never happen again.
Nor can the time to talk occur only for those professionals with poor performance.
Even because, whoever is called, will be sure that it will be charged and can easily become discouraged.
Feedback is an instrument for development and not just a space for demands and reprimands. So: talk to everyone regardless of their performance.
There is not, however, a certain frequency for it to occur, as it depends a lot on your sales cycle.
But not setting a period for a new meeting with the sales team is bad enough.
After all, if this next meeting doesn’t happen, what good would it do to do the previous one?
Feedback is a process and, as such, it needs to be frequent to make sense to those who participate.
Evaluate, analyze what happened in the period, define changes of course if necessary and, after the stipulated time, make another meeting to analyze what evolved and what stagnated.
Therefore, keep in mind that it is important to encourage agile methodology within companies. This encourages shared knowledge and constant improvement.
Base feedback on data, always!
Feedback is not a time for injustice. If you need to charge the sales team or any collaborators individually, don’t do it without having accurate data in hand.
Likewise to praise. This is not a time for guessing. Processes need to be improved and directions, if necessary, need to be corrected. Doing this “in the dark” is a serious mistake.
So: don’t be lazy.
Rely on an Online CRM to be able to collect accurate and truthful information in the opportunity reports of each member of the commercial team – be it salesperson or SDR.
From there, it is possible to stimulate a two-way street. The manager needs to talk about their impressions and the employee must express themselves about their difficulties, challenges and solutions found along the way.
However, it is important to have on the tip of your tongue what was stipulated as a goal:
- How many leads did marketing generate for the pre-sales team?
- Of these, how many need to be qualified and enter the sales funnel?
- How many sales does the seller need to close within the stipulated period?
That said, in addition to the number indicators, also take into account:
- The actions taken to reach the goal – Was the CRM correctly filled in? Was the timing to act on the open opportunity correct? Between others…
- Day-to-day attitudes – Was there proactivity and creativity to overcome problems? Customer objections? And the appointment with time and agenda? Between others…
ARTICLE: What to do when your team doesn’t want to complete the CRM for sales?
Don’t make this task a burden for everyone
For everyone to be able to understand what has been done and assimilate the actions that need to be taken in the future, the moment of feedback cannot be a burden for everyone.
The sales leader must take the lead in the feedback meeting, but he cannot make a monologue of it.
It is important for him to introduce his opinion on the team’s performance in the period, show numbers, talk about the challenges and difficulties, among others.
However, it is a two-way street. Everyone needs to talk and find the best way to work and smooth the processes.
If a sales manager has noticed that opportunities sit for a long time in the sales funnel, they need to put it correctly.
Show the numbers and ask salespeople why the leads have gone cold. Collect insights to improve.
Question a few things to find solutions to problems like:
- Do I need to hire one more salesperson to handle the workload?
- The sales funnel not organized?
- Is the pre-sales team not qualifying leads on time?
- Is the lead activity information not properly recorded?
Ask the professionals involved to detail their work routine. The objective is to improve not only individual performance, but also that of the team – one thing is linked to another, right?
Be purposeful rather than reactive. Listen, write down and propose solutions together. At the next feedback meeting, it will be possible to assess what has improved and what remains bad.
Your feedback meeting can be more efficient
To make this mission more effective, the manager needs to have the meeting mapped. Before, during and after the meeting there are things that cannot be neglected, such as:
Preparing the meeting
- Create a meeting schedule and stick to it so it doesn’t last too long;
- List positive and negative points of the analyzed period, both for the team and for each employee;
- Identify the professionals who stood out when analyzing data, actions and attitudes;
- Identify the professionals who fell short by analyzing data, actions and attitudes.
Conducting the meeting
- Talk about general numbers for the sector and highlight what was positive in the period;
- Show what you scored about the positives and negatives;
- Propose solutions and discuss them together with everyone present so that the bottlenecks are corrected;
- Define the actions that the team or collaborator needs to carry out until the next meeting;
- Schedule the next feedback meeting.
Echoing the meeting
- Closely monitor the sales team and/or the professional who needs to correct any defections;
- Suggest free courses, books or additional content that meets what was detailed;
- Always be available to your team so that any doubts can be resolved.
With these tips, you can start introducing the feedback culture into your company.
It is laborious, yes, but the short and medium term results are very good for the business processes of any business.
So, how can we help you?
If you’d like to share your pains about how you do feedback within your company.
Take the opportunity and read an article on our blog that talks about the importance of CAC and LTV in companies.
Good sales!
