Find out how to make your sales team a high performing one and increase sales.

1. Building a High Performing Inside Sales Team Sales Progress Tim Hagen President

2. High Performance It is difficult to build and maintain a high performing inside sales team. Salespeople must know their product, understand needs based selling and have a desire to achieve. There are several key characteristics that are critical to forming that successful sales team.

3. High Performance It is critical that team members are constantly practicing their craft. Role Play Make simulations of day-to-day interactions with customers

4. High Performance Inside sales professionals must have the ability to uncover customer needs and frustrations associated with the particular products and services being sold. Ask open-ended questions Ex. Why, what, how You must appeal to the customer’s needs

5. High Performance You can achieve higher sales if you work as a team rather than as individuals By partnering with different departments, you can truly understand their needs and develop a relationship that results in a positive impact on your bottom line success. Perform random acts of kindness Send an e-mail congratulating them on a job well done

6. High Performance Having a positive attitude can go a long way when it comes to sales, but few companies take the time to develop a positive attitude among their employees EX. One company decided to encourage their employees to do their best and came up with creative solutions to keep them upbeat and happy. As a result in an industry that was down 80% in 2009, the sales team met it’s quota.

7. High Performance Employees are more likely to learn when they receive coaching from a manager rather than from a seminar. In order to successfully coach an employee find ways to: Develop skill sets Improve attitudes and behavioral attributes Increase knowledge One study found that employees are motivated by the sense of achievement they get from good work not reward and recognition.

8. High Performance In order to effectively sell your product, you must know everything about what you’re selling. Product knowledge is key to a sales person’s success. To get a grasp on how much your sales people know about the product they are selling, ask them to teach you about the product and it’s specifications and features.

9. High Performance Go ahead. Celebrate that sale your team made, it will only help to build the morale. Integrate these techniques and characteristic into your sales team day-to-day activities and see the results start to increase and your team performing at a higher level.

10. High Performance Tim Hagen, President of Sales Progress, has been teaching his progress coaching program for over 10 years. His adult education background has allowed him to speak to the needs of adult learners. For more information on Tim Hagen or his Progress Coaching System please visit: www.salesprogress.com