What have you sold today?

If your business has a well established sales culture, you will ask that question of yourself and your employees everyday.  No exceptions.  It’s not only a question of quite literally “what have you sold today?” but also “how has your sales-oriented mentality affected your decision making?”  We want employees to be focused on sales even when they are not in the actual act of selling something.

The question becomes how to build and then maintain a sales culture.

There are four key traits that managers and their employees should have to build and maintain a sales culture.

1. Attitude – You must have a positive outlook about the development of the sales culture.  This helps avoid the “why should I care if my manager doesn’t?” line of thinking from your employees.
2. Clear & Attainable Goals – If your employees think a goal is unreachable, it is likely that they won’t care about the outcome.  This is where having quality forecasting really comes in to play.  Forecasting should play a major role in outlining goals.  We find that when goals are clearly defined and forecasted properly, employees tend to not only feel a sense of accomplishment upon completion, but also view it as another thing attained as they advance in their career.  Focus on specific numbers, rather than generalities.
3. Follow Through – Having clear and attainable goals is great, but they mean nothing if you or your people do not follow through on the outlined path.  Describing the big picture for your employees is important to inspiring them to follow through with their goals.  Some employees may not be able to clearly see the big picture the same way management does.  Rely on your leadership abilities to help motivate.
4. Accountable – You and your employees should be held responsible for all of the goals that were outlined.  Let the performance figures speak for themselves.  By basing evaluations (thus pay) on performance, over-achievers will excel and under-performers will drop off.

Too often our colleagues in HVAC and Plumbing only focus on the tasks at hand for that day.  Building a sales culture in your HVAC or plumbing business can drive business and set up the company for long term success, which begs the question:  What have you sold today?