Creating a Path to Success That Your Sales Reps Can Believe

This article is based on a webinar from MediaRadar’s Chief Sales Officer, Jen Wilga. Watch the full webinar, here.

You have your go-to-market (GTM) strategy and your sales reps have realistic goals.

Great.

Now what?

Create a path to success that they can believe.

Here are four ways you can do that.

MediaRadar sales tips recent ad creative and more

Show Your Reps Their Account List’s Potential

Whether one of your reps is working toward a revenue target, president’s club or a performance-based trip, their success relies in some part on you showing them how to succeed.

To do this, start by showing them their account list.

But don’t just show them.

Sit down with them and show them its potential.

For example, you could filter their list by “spend growth” to find the brands that have increased their spending by at least 20% in the past 12 months.

Then, have them target these high-growth brands—they’re likely more eager to do business than one with decreasing spend.

Similarly, take a look at which brands are in the RFP process, and show your rep how to insert themselves into that brand’s consideration set.

You could even look for brands approaching peak spending, like a retailer during the holidays or those that are shifting their strategies, and see if they are open to a conversation.

Slice and dice the list however you want—the important thing is that you make the time to show your reps where there are opportunities to sell.

From there, look at their historical sales metrics, like average conversion rate and the number of meetings it takes them to close a deal, and map everything out.

By the end of this process, not only are your reps eager to get going, but they have a clear path forward and know what they have to do to be successful.

Get in the Trenches

You’ve done your due diligence and understand your total addressable market (TAM), helped your reps set goals and started mapping out a path.

Now it’s time to get in the trenches.

Remember: The best way for you to ultimately zoom out and do less hand-holding is to zoom in for a bit.

A great way to do this is by looking at one of their accounts and walking them through how you’d use market- and company-wide data to develop a pitch, talk to them, and close the deal.

For example, I had a customer come to me recently interested in finding a water sponsor for an upcoming festival.

They wanted to work with Dasani, but upon going into MediaRadar and looking at the data, we found that Dasani wasn’t a great fit.

So, we kept looking and found a better one.

This is the process I’d show to a sales rep—how to sift through the data, have valuable conversations and build the relationship with customers and prospects.

Not only did this help the rep understand how I sell, but they saw the sweat equity I’m investing, which hopefully will impact their morale and engagement.

Getting in the trenches also gives me a clear vantage point into the frontlines and the perspective I need to be an effective sales leader.

It’s a win-win-win.

Take Your 1:1s Seriously

I’m a firm believer that 1:1s with your reps are your most valuable asset.

Why?

Because being a great sales leader is just as much about coaching as it is about tactics and strategies. An effective 1:1 puts this into action by increasing transparency between you and your rep, while also giving you the opportunity to lend a hand.

That said, before getting into the 1:1, ask them the “cost of admission.”

I think of these as the bare minimum line items a sales rep should be doing—think things like making calls, prospecting and sending emails.

If a rep isn’t taking these steps to build their pipeline and close deals, a more in-depth (and valuable) 1:1 probably isn’t in the cards; there are more fundamental problems to deal with.

Assuming your reps are covering their bases, you can get into the the good stuff—upcoming opportunities, the sales funnel and obstacles they may need help navigating.

Have them map out their account list to key sales metrics.

For example, which deals should close this quarter? Which ones look like they’re going to fall through?

Try to get to the “why,” so you can see how they are taking steps to reach their sales goals. Remind them of the goals they’ve set and how close—or far—they are from achieving them. After all, the here-and-now is important but it’s all for naught if the greater goals fall by the wayside.

With so many moving pieces, your 1:1 can get complicated. Here’s a pro tip:

Start a “living” document, share it with your reps and use it to track action items for the week, like creating a media mix report or making intro calls to prospects.

This document should also act as a place where reps can ask questions, and note any challenges or other items they want to discuss with you.

Play All Fours Quarters

I’m a huge fan of celebrating wins big and small alike.

Whether it’s a toast, dinner or company-wide email, celebrating the wins is one of the best ways to improve morale and help reps maintain momentum.

Boosting morale is becoming increasingly important as remote work takes hold and in-person interactions become less frequent.

What I’m not a fan of is reps focusing only on what’s in front of them and neglecting what’s to come.

Whenever one of my reps starts getting trapped in this mindset, it’s usually because of time (or the lack thereof); even the best reps will get tunnel vision and lose sight of the bigger picture.

In other words, they spend all of their time closing and no time prospecting.

If your reps are doing the same, introduce time management strategies that help them stay on course and not lose sight of their goals.

How many calls should they make each week?

How many times should they reach out to prospects to keep a deal moving?

How many emails should they send to schedule an intro call?

Figure out what they need to do consistently to succeed and then make sure they block off time to do those things.

Time blocking is an effective way to do this because it eliminates one of the biggest hurdles to productivity: making a decision.

So, just like many successful people wear the same thing everyday to remove a decision from the equation, your reps won’t have to decide between doing what will help today and what they have to do to succeed tomorrow.

Their calendar will make the decision for them (or at least remind them).