Unlocking the Secrets of Sales Performance: 5 Essential Practices

In a CSO Insights study published in 2016, the Miller Heiman Group identifies the best practices of companies achieving top sales performance.

We break them down for you so you can integrate them into your own sales processes. Feel free to draw inspiration from them, and in turn, become one of the top-performing sales organizations in your sector.

Best Practice #1: Take the time to identify your best salespeople (and their ways of working)

You undoubtedly know the top performers in your sales team; but have you taken the time to identify their best practices?

94% of top-performing companies know how to identify their best sales talent, as well as their working methods to spread them throughout the organization. Result: valued talent, shared best practices, and steadily increasing sales performance.

Best Practice #2: Foster communication with company leadership

97% of companies with the highest sales performance establish a relationship of trust and genuine dialogue at all levels of their organization. Furthermore, 90% of them encourage communication between salespeople and their direct managers.

Can your salespeople, like these companies, communicate freely with their management?

Best Practice #3: Continuously coach your sales team

As a manager, you supervise your sales team and support them daily. But have you considered integrating coaching sessions into this support?

88% of the most profitable companies expect their sales managers to coach their team members. After identifying your employees’ needs, offer them solutions to help them overcome the challenges they face. This way, you will improve your company’s sales performance while boosting your team’s engagement and motivation.

Best Practice #4: Foster a culture of change

Among the best practices observed in top sales organizations, the ability to drive change holds an important place: 92% of these organizations ensure they adapt to their customers’ needs in real time.

And this adaptation effort often involves change management: let your employees submit their ideas to evolve your sales organization. This will encourage them to innovate while valuing individual or collective initiative: sales force engagement guaranteed!

Best Practice #5: Ensure marketing-sales alignment

Finally, companies with the highest sales results pay particular attention to marketing-sales alignment; 94% of them make it a real priority.

To ensure the balance of this marketing-sales alignment, foster coordination and collaboration between your company’s different departments. By breaking down silos between sales and marketing, for example, through the use of a CRM, you will be able to better adapt your commercial offering to your customers’ needs.

And for these best practices to bear fruit, you must constantly question your team’s sales practices. Base your reflection on quantifiable data whenever possible. This continuous analysis will allow you to evolve your organization in real time, and thus boost its sales performance.

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