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28 • SEPTEMBER 2012 • WORLD FENCE NEWS SECURE GATE SYSTEMS, INC. Create a gold medal sales team BY TOM LUBY, PROFIT BUILDERS INTERNATIONAL Finding qualified and motivated ORIGINAL MANUFACTURER OF HIGH SECURITY PANIC GATES (866) 725-6995 www.securegatesystems.net employees has always been a chal- lenge in the fence industry (and many others), and it can be particularly diffi- cult to manage in the sales department. A high performing sales staff may not be as easy to spot and benchmark as, say, a good accountant or even a crew foreman. At first look the yardstick for success for the sales staff can be sim- ple and quite easy to measure histori- cally; simply put, are they delivering volume and do they close profitable sales? But how do we know whether or not they can do better? Salesmanship is a skill set that can be difficult to spot and hard to quan- tify or qualify in new hires and to op- timize in existing staff. Hiring and training the wrong per- son for a sales position can be expen- sive and time consuming for the company in both lost resources and wasted leads. Also, here's something to think about: can my existing sales staff be better trained and improve their cap- ture ratio and sales profitability? How can you qualitatively measure and im- prove salesmanship skills, or is sales- manship only a quantitative equation? First let me try to give you a few tips on how to build a high perform- ance sales department and also a short questioner based on my book, "The Close," a fence industry sales guide. These questions and the answers your potential new hires and existing staff provide can prove very interest- ing and insightful and can help serve as a barometer to evaluate their com- prehension of the sales game and also underscore ways to improve their per- formance in your company. After all, accountants have tests that measure skills; the CPA exam would be one example. In the fence in- dustry, we have measures of profes- sionalism such as the American Fence Association's Certified Fence Profes- sional designation. But, other than strictly by past per- formance, how can we judge the abil- ity of a potential new hire in the sales department? First, here are some ideas on your overall sales team and how to make sure your company can be well trained and best prepared to win the "gold medal" for sales. 1. Know the value of knowledge- able salespeople and the intangible costs of turnover. Avalanche Series™ Concealed Fastener Fence Yorktown Series™ 5/8" x 3/4" Picket Considering base salary, commis- sions, training, travel expenses and benefits, a new hire can cost the com- pany up to $50,000, according to var- ious studies published on the subject. Open territories can cost 2 to 3 times this amount. The intangible (but very real) cost of turnover is critical to con- trol. 2. Get organized. You need to organize "battle sta- Ornamental Fencing Glass Panel Railing tions" and work environments: Your sales desks, field sales kits (samples), sales facilitator – appointment sched- uler, territory management plan, and sales materials, flyers, brochures, etc. Time management is also crucial. 3. Get started fast. Consider some real world training. Estate Gates Ornamental Railing ZipTrack™ Cantilever Gate Buy American, Be American™ u u u Chesterfield Township, MI Port Richey, FL Murfreesboro, TN AAMA 2604 COMPLIANT We are environmentally responsible Have the new hire set appointments with some of your satisfied existing re- peat customers and set an objective to learn about various fencing products and why they are superior. Train your new hires on why your customers buy your products. With this real world training, they will see and understand features, functions, and benefits of your fence products more tangibly than through in house feature/function training. 4. Get them on a certification process. A certification process is an ex- tensive training, evaluation and feed- back process which is defined with agendas, benchmarks, tests, role- continued on page 30