To grow a business it's important to always keep your focus on sales. Sales are the fuel for your organization, folks, without them the business can't go anywhere.
Having sales targets helps us stay focused and motivated. We set goals that are larger than what each salesperson managed in 2024 but still numbers we believe are achievable. We have confidence in our sales team's abilities, but sometimes as leaders we have to help our team have confidence in themselves. Here's what works for us:
1. Break down the goals into smaller, bite-sized amounts. We break down our annual goals into monthly and weekly goals by dividing the total by 12 and 50 (because we don't typically close many sales the last two weeks of the year), respectively. This makes the goals feel more achievable and also helps our team keep track of their pace.
Chris Psencik and I at GROW! teaching a session on sales.
2. Get in the trenches with them. It's important our entire team feels supported by their management. What this looks like will vary based on your own skills and what you're good at. For our sales team, I get tapped in to help them craft emails or communications, get in touch with a lead they're having trouble contacting, or to teach salespeople skills like looking for enhancements.
3. Invest in your team so that they can get more efficient, find more enhancements from the relationships they already have, or close more sales. Technology has come a long way since I started out in landscaping sales, and the biggest tool we have to help our team be more efficient at GLC is Aspire and Property Intel to standardize and simplify estimating. We also invest in their training and development through mentorship and sending our team through The Grow Group's sales training program - Virtual Sales Bootcamp and Virtual Sales Bootcamp 2.0. We'll have a number of our new sales people joining us for Virtual Sales Bootcamp 2.0 live when we hold that training again on December 18-19.
We're still hustling and finding work for 2024 believe it or not: we closed a large sale last week that the crews will start work on in early December. But we're also looking ahead to 2025 and investing in our sales team so that they're prepared to play their part in achieving our goals next year. It's all part of running a successful landscaping company: we must be looking ahead while also getting done what we need to in the present to succeed.
We have opportunities before the end of the year for you to invest in your team and prepare them to be more effective in 2025. Will I see you either online or in Dayton, Ohio before the end of the year?
Grunder Landscaping Co. Field Trip
Dayton, OH
December 4-5
Virtual Sales Bootcamp 2.0
Online
December 18-19
Founder & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.