Developing a High Performing Sales Team – hiring, training and retaining top sales talent

To develop a high performing sales team, business owners and employees require a shared sense of purpose and a common performance culture – knowing what the company stands for, beyond shareholder value and understanding how to get things done effectively.

To achieve this during the hiring, training and retaining process, leaders need to invest time to get to know their people, how they tick, what are their triggers and motivations as well as their life goals and aspirations. When this transpires greater buy-in, discretionary effort and engagement ensues and ultimately the business generates high performing teams.

If it was easy every team would be a high performing team!

Employees are your greatest business assets. Coraggio recommends the following steps to drive business performance. Executing these building blocks and prioritising actions to building strategic resilience.

Employees are questioning their life/work balance, as they seek richer, fuller lives. This has shifted the balance of power from employers to employees. Investing in human capital when hiring and training talent is the key to your business survival. Employees want to be seen as complex human beings and understand how their role adds value to their future career progression, which will also:

• Increase productivity
• Reduce sick leave, staff turnover and workers compensation claims
• Heighten employee engagement and morale
• Cultivate a positive workplace culture

Furthermore, employers have a duty of care to all staff which includes their mental and physical health, well being and skills development. Mapping employee behavioural change and your customer journey over long periods of time will guarantee an unforeseen windfall, preparedness and establish the foundation for enduring success. All this assists facilitate trust, binding the right talent to your company long-term.

In addition, to retain employees, companies need to rethink their constructive culture and operating model based on how their people work best.  Equally, sustainability is an intrinsic part of forming company culture.

Coraggio, CEO, Richard Skarzynski cites, “A successful business has to be able to adapt their services they can offer customers, clients and stakeholders as well as modifying their values and optimising operations to future proof their market offering. Consider what will your business’ new operating environment look like?”

Focus on supply chain resiliency, cybersecurity and adoption of automation and artificial intelligence. According to McKinsey the four key strategic qualities are recovering revenue, rebuilding operations, rethinking the business and accelerating adoption of digital solutions.

To retain staff successful businesses will redesign their operations and supply chains and are willing to set new standards and upend old paradigms, building long-term strategic advantage.

Clear goals, focused teams and rapid decision making have replaced corporate bureaucracy. The way in which they rethink their organisations will go a long way in determining their sustainable competitive advantage focusing more on workforce safety and security, cost management, technology and enterprise agility. Accelerating these efforts now, will reap rewards and significant benefits in terms of productivity, flexibility, quality and end-customer connectivity.

Leveraging imagination, facilitating leadership, inspiring passion and allegiance, whilst doubling down on real-time digital execution, is paramount to retaining employees in this ever-changing environment. This will ensue promising tangible benefits in terms of reducing employee attrition and escalating business productivity, efficiency and innovation, positioning your business winning in the marketplace with greater certainty and stability.

Providing your sales team with the latest CRM tools, sales analytics software, and communication platforms can streamline their efforts and allow them to focus more on selling and building relationships.

While skills and experience are crucial, ensuring a candidate aligns with the company’s values and culture can predict their long-term success and integration into the team. Studies have shown that employees who share the company’s values tend to stay longer and perform better.

The sales landscape is continuously evolving due to technological advancements and changing customer behaviours. Regular training sessions and workshops help keep the sales team updated and equipped with the latest tools and techniques, ensuring they remain competitive.

Implement regular feedback sessions where employees can voice their concerns, provide insights, and discuss challenges they face. This open dialogue can offer invaluable insights for management and make employees feel heard and valued.

To increase the retention of high performing employees, reevaluate and enrich your company’s policies on flexible work schedules, remote work options, motivational incentive structures, and clear pathways for career advancements.

By integrating these strategies into your approach, businesses can further strengthen their sales teams, enhance performance, and ensure long-term retention of their top talent.

Being a business owner typically presents complex issues, sometimes on a daily basis. Imagine if you could leverage the experience from an extensive group of industry peers to improve your decision making and social proof as well as future proof a sustainable business, whilst being held accountable?

Also imagine if you gained the peace of mind to seamlessly access these answers and navigate company challenges, simply by connecting with entrepreneurs and gaining knowledge from business leaders? This is the strength of peer to peer leadership mentoring and impactful, meaningful relations.

Coraggio offers a mutual exchange of expertise, ideas and a support system enabling you to capitalise on a give-and-take dynamic amongst advisors who have walked the path before, mitigating risk to your business.

Join Coraggio to become part of a highly effective business community facilitating leadership, guaranteeing accountability and sharing innovative ideas within a cohesive and confidential national network.

This mutual exchange of Member’s expertise tangibly results in sustainable revenue streams, increased cash reserves and productive outcomes to future proof your business.

Afterall, in the words of Henry Ford “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself”.

Coraggio is one of the largest Advisory Board organisations across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast providing solid ground for their valued Members. Coraggio Chairs are forward thinking industry leaders and they share their insights addressing a plethora of business owner challenges.

To speak to a member of our team contact 1300 899 006 and email info@coraggio.com.au