I believe the job of a sales manager is one of the most difficult there is. In this episode, I’m going to share how a sales manager can create more and better results with fewer headaches.

If you’re the kind of sales manager or leader of sales managers:

• Who has it all buttoned-down and you feel your sales management is optimized, you’ll love discovering how you can use that powerful platform to take it to the next level and beyond.
• Who feels like your sales management is meh, at best, well, you’re going to love this because it is your time for a breakthrough.
• Who has some elements optimized, but others just aren’t creating the miracle you were hoping for, I think I can give you back hope for a really bright future.

There are some common obstacles to creating quality sales growth that you have to watch out for:

• First, you are dealing with a lot of egos. Many “good” lenders say, “Hey, it’s working,” and make it clear they don’t want you to change a thing—and, therefore, they keep you stuck where you are.
• Also, you have the sales managers that will tell you they can get it done. If they can’t within 30 days, and it’s a $1 million per month opportunity to get the growth you want at premium pricing, how many months do they get to fix the problem at that cost?
• Then, most banks have lenders who came from different banks, each with their own sales system. So really you aren’t managing a single sales system, you are instead observing at least a dozen, which gives you no hope of actually MANAGING anything.
• And, of course, many of your lenders have been lending for 30 years, so they are quite sure there their methods are just fine, thank you very much. It’s not their fault—they just don’t know there are better ways because they’ve not seen them.

I’ve heard these each over 500 times from CEOs over the last three years. So let’s just say there is a predictable pattern here.

But there’s hope. I’m going to give you four steps to transform your sales results even more, so you can celebrate some positive change in a few short weeks.

Step 1: UNLIKE so many sales management systems taught by sales training companies, I recommend that you forget a sales funnel—it’s worthless. You need to be able to see a weighted sales funnel with rules clearly defined. For example, nobody stays in the weighted sales funnel if you don’t complete a new sales stage within 14 business days.

Step 2: Unlike the “get credit for what walks in” approach, you need to have a system that measures results on the Top 1,000 type prospects that they deployed the plan on. Lenders have a way of filling their funnels with what walked in recently. Those are often riskier and rate-sensitive prospects versus optimal prospects who, when taken through an optimized sales process, end up paying far more for your USPs.

Step 3: Instead of a “throw it against the wall and hope it sticks” strategy, integrate the sales process with the marketing process so that marketing knows the exact Top 100 and Top 1,000 prospects, and exactly what to do to build reputational equity and get raised hands. You want the prospect in love with you even before they meet you.

Step 4: NEVER ever stop. Once you get results popping—refine, refine, refine until you close 50% of your most desirable prospects each year without rate even being brought up. Less tenured lenders should be closing 50% of the Top 1,000 list prospects they were assigned. Help them understand that everything else is NOISE.

Here are those four steps again for emphasis:

• Forget a sales funnel and have a weighted sales funnel with rules that are non-negotiable, so you have a predictable funnel where you KNOW you will close 90% of what is in it.
• Then, give them credit for focusing on the sacred few and close to NO credit for what walks in the door.
• Next, integrate with marketing and marry sales with marketing to make sure they know there is only one game in town—close Top 100 prospects at premium pricing and get them focused on that.
• Lastly, refine the system but NEVER let go—if you let it go, results will drop like a rock, and the next attempt will be like pushing a boulder up a mountain with your nose. Salespeople like to “train” their sales managers that they really can’t be managed, and if you give them the proverbial inch, well, you KNOW they’ll take it.

By managing these systems, you can create the miracle you dreamed about when you took your role and all the satisfaction of a job exceedingly well done.

Don’t miss the next session. I promise you; it is going to be one that will transform your bank!