By Karen Wessels, co-founder of SnappSales and VA Connect
Have you ever considered that your entire team is actually a salesforce? I’m speaking of everyone from the receptionist through to admin and support staff, and team members in between these divisions.
Think about it for a moment. If one of your staff members is at a social function, a braai like we have in South Africa, and they are chatting to someone they’ve met for the first time, the inevitable question comes up, “What do you do for a living?” Instead of them saying I’m a receptionist at XYZ company and that’s the end of that, wouldn’t you rather have them speak enthusiastically about what your company does and how you add value to the market?
Each staff member is an ambassador for your brand, your company and what you stand for. I have been a believer of this mind-set for years and try to instil this in our staff whenever the opportunity arises.
So how do we go about cultivating this mind-set and motivate all staff to be natural and enthusiastic brand ambassadors for the company?
Let me show you 4 easy ways to accomplish this.
1. It all starts with education
It’s your job as manager and owner of the business to help staff connect the dots between understanding their role within the company and how that is connected to sales. I call this 3D thinking - that is, understanding that what you do within the company has a much broader effect than merely pitching up for work every day. You need to help your staff understand that by them assisting in increasing sales everyone benefits from the opportunity, that it provides more stability and security within the business. Remember to celebrate all the wins, big and small.
2. Identifying new opportunities
In order to identify opportunities each staff member should really have a sound knowledge of the company, what pain you solve and a fairly good idea of which department handles each component of the business. The last thing you want is a staff member to come across as being ill-informed of how the business is designed and laid out. Once they have the opportunity to speak enthusiastically to a prospective client about your business, you want to ensure they keep the spark going.
Train your team to ask gentle probing, open-ended questions that offer more than just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response. They should also understand the power of listening to which I refer to as things that aren’t being said between the lines. This does take skill and will be learned over time. Encourage the team to close the loop, that is to ensure that the prospect sends their info through or that they complete an online form at least, anything to capture their details so that they may be contacted at a future date.
3. Understanding the elevator pitch
Does your staff succinctly understand your elevator pitch? Work out a scripted elevator pitch if need be and let everyone within the business have access to it.
Here is a simple formula you can use :
Formula: "You know how __[insert #1 biggest pain point of your target market that you solve]___, what we do is ___[insert your biggest solution and benefit to that pain point]___."
Once you have worked out your elevator pitch do role play with your staff members so that they feel comfortable with using it.
4. Asking for the sale
Sounds scary right, asking for the sale? Here’s the thing, either you’ll get a yes or a no, it’s that simple. Train your team to get comfortable with asking for the sale. Discover the best practice for this and then do regular role play to get the team comfortable with doing this.
Bringing it together
Empower your team, ensure their wellbeing and satisfaction level. The happier your team is the easier it will be for them to be enthusiastic and natural brand ambassadors on your behalf.
Karen Wessels is the co-founder and COO of VA Connect, a South African virtual assistant platform that provides outsourced administrative support; and is also the co-founder of SnappSales, a company that generates quality sales leads for its clients. Prior to establishing both her companies, Karen spent over 10 years in different sales, marketing & admin support roles. This experience has equipped her with the invaluable skills required to run her two successful business ventures. Follow Karen on her Personal Website | Twitter | Facebook | Google+
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