Developing Sales Stars is No Accident
By Mike Paton

In sports, all-stars make excellence look easy. But savvy athletes know there's more than talent behind the effortless swings and confident jump shots. In fact, the great stars nearly always study more and work harder than others, despite their immense talent.

The same can be said of the world's best sales and marketing professionals. If your goal is increasing revenue production through improved performance, follow these three steps:

• Discover what works by analyzing top performers' best practices
• Develop similar habits among the entire team with fun, energetic training
• Demand excellence with an ongoing reinforcement program

These steps aren't new or unique. Until recently, however, few companies strung them together in a methodical way. Here's how to do that:

First, analyze performance from top to bottom. The best leaders compile mountains of data about the marketing initiatives that work, those that don't, and why.

That information becomes a series of best practices that form the basis of a marketing and sales system designed to maximize results. The knowledge, attitudes and behaviors that consistently achieve the desired results are then built into an employee development program that starts (but does not end) with training.

To achieve positive change, such a program must help participants understand the need for personal and organizational change. They need to know “What's in it for me?” And they need to have fun practicing the new skills that will make them more effective.

The real key to effective training is not in the teaching, it's in the follow-through. You wouldn't expect an all-star slugger to watch a video tape of Hank Aaron and start hitting the ball out of the park the next day. To help sales and marketing professionals through that difficult process of changing their habits, launch an ongoing reinforcement program that includes objective performance measurement, continuous training/coaching and ample recognition for a job well-done.

In addition to looking at sales numbers, regularly evaluate your team's knowledge, attitudes and behaviors with testing, mystery shopping , and customer surveys. Offer regular training events to continue building critical skills, and equip managers and supervisors with the proper tools to coach those who need it. Finally, demand excellence by holding your team accountable for minimum standards of excellence and rewarding exceptional behavior.

Mike Paton leads the sales efforts at Signature Worldwide, a business solutions and training company, www.SignatureWorldwide.com.