The Ultimate Guide to Starting A 7-Figure Sales Team
Building a Seven-Figure Sales Team is a lot like managing a high performing professional sports team. It doesn’t matter if your team is selling services, products or software, both teams want the same result...to WIN!
And in this guide, I’m going to teach you the proven processes and principles you must implement in your sales team to go from six to seven, or even eight figures and beyond.
I’ve used these strategies to help build sales teams that I’ve personally managed or worked with me as clients in all sorts of fields. And chances are, if it worked for them, it will work for you.
So if you’re ready to do the work and ready to break through to create a seven-figure sales machine, let’s dive in.
You Need A Team
Start by assembling your team.
There’s a reason why players play and coaches coach. Think about it. The coach doesn’t kick field goals or shoot free throws and coach!
As the head coach of your business are you trying to do it all? Are you trying to be the head coach, centerfielder, and the kicker?
If you’re trying to be the CEO and the chief salesperson, chances are you’re doing a poor job at both, and your company is suffering because of it.
The coach, owner, and front office a professional sports team can do a lot, but if they don’t have a team to actually play on the field, they’re not really a team! If you really want to grow you need to build a team. You can’t do this alone.
Lucky for you, there’s never been a better time to recruit, and hire a new salesperson. With social media and a ton of recruiting websites, the places to look for a new salesperson are ample.
Always Be Recruiting
You probably thought I was going to say “always be closing” but not so fast. Always be recruiting should be your new mantra.
Professional sports teams spend an incredible amount of time recruiting and evaluating future star players. I’ve even heard stories of coaches checking out middle schoolers to try and secure their next franchise player.
Sports teams spend so much time looking for talent because they know just one key player can change the trajectory of their team, and it can for you as well.
There are dozens of recruiting strategies you can implement, but let’s start with a simple three-step process to get your recruiting playbook ready for the big leagues.
Implement these three plays to start recruiting your next most valuable salesperson:
Use Your Network
Tell friends and family that you’re looking to hire. Don’t just stop there, let your vendors, and even your customers know that you’re looking to expand.
A lot of companies already do this, but they’re not doing it enough, or as often as they should be. Your customers, vendors, and others in your social circle need a consistent reminder. It's easy for them to assume that you made a hire.
You want to be the first person they think of when they meet someone who could be a great fit.
Your next great hire can be someone who’s a second or third connection away from you.
Go to the Free Market
There are dozens of websites swamped with candidates looking for their next opportunity. They’re just waiting to apply for an excellent opportunity. Sites like indeed.com, careerbuilder.com, and monster.com are the big national ones, and you most likely have regional job market websites you can use too.
Some you have to pay to play, others are free. Determine what makes sense for you and your company.
Be an Agent
This strategy takes a more aggressive approach but the pay-offs can be incredible. Just like in sports teams, sometimes the head coach and team need to go out and actively recruit, and you can do the same.
Use LinkedIn to search for salespeople that are already employed at either your competitors or industries that would translate well into your market. Identify the 15-20 of these people, connect, and start a conversation.
Don’t go in for the recruit right away, but try to form a bit of connection. Thank them for connecting, and ask them for advice on a topic, or thoughts on the market. Of the 15-20 that you reach out to, you may only get 3-5 responses back, but over time you can nurture these “leads” into candidates.
Use this playbook to develop a consistent pipeline of candidates. You never want to be dependent on just one salesperson. Life happens, salespeople lose their motivation, move, or get recruited by the competition.
Don’t attach your team to just one player, build an all-star team that can crush the competition.
Scout your Ideal Customer
Just like a sports team needs to know who their competition is, you need to know exactly who you’re trying to sell to and service. Sports teams spend endless hours scouting, and watching film of their upcoming opponent.
Come gametime they know their competition inside and out. And while sports teams do it in a way to beat the competition, you need to scout your ideal customer so you can serve them at the highest level.
You need to have a crystal clear picture of who they are and what they look like. Don’t stop there.
What are their goals, values, and challenges? What are their hopes, dreams, and issues are they waking up to this morning?
When you can enter the conversation going on in your customer’s mind then they automatically think you have the solution.
For all of these questions, you don’t have to actually know the answers for each individual company, but know how your “ideal customer” would answer.
Here’s a cheat sheet to get you started for your first scouting report:
Your Playbook for Connecting with Prospects
People are busier now more than ever. Email, text message, social media, and long meetings we’re busier now than ever before. We’re also being exposed to more marketing messages than ever before.
That’s why it’s tougher than ever to get in touch with your ideal prospect. You’re not only trying to track them down via phone, email or social but now you also have to cut through the clutter and deliver a message that grabs hold of your prospect and shakes them out of the overwhelm.
Most salespeople and organizations try to reach their prospect a handful of times, If they don’t get a response after a call or two, they write that lead off. How sad. Your company spends tons of money on finding and nurturing leads that are simply thrown out by salespeople that don’t have a plan.
You need to establish a cadence. What’s a cadence?
A cadence is a frequency and the “how” of how you’re going to contact these leads.
Here’s an example of a successful cadence:
Day 1: Call, Voicemail, Email
Day 2: Call, Voicemail, Email
Day 3: Call, Voicemail, Email
Day 5: Call, Voicemail, Email
Day 7: Call, Voicemail, Email
Day 8: Call, Voicemail, Email
Day 10: Call, Voicemail, Email
Day 13: Kiss-Off 1
Day 15: Kiss-Off 2
Monthly: Call, Voicemail, Email
I’ve implemented this cadence in vastly different industries including B2B and B2C businesses. The results are always the same. We see a massive increase in connections, meetings generated, pipeline growth, and revenue created. Here’s why. The amount of activity prescribed in this cadence along with the frequency of touches breaks through to the prospect.
Use the above cadence as a starting point for establishing your own cadence. It may sound daunting or too aggressive, but today’s executive is getting absolutely inundated with emails, text messages, social media posts, and calls. Your job as a salesperson is to break through that noise as if saying “YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO ME.”
Have A Sales Game Plan
There are four elements to a great sales conversation that if you’re going to create a 7 figure sales team or be a 7 figure seller need to be mastered. Most salespeople make the mistake of not having a game plan for every sales conversation that they’re going to be in.
Imagine a pro football or basketball team that didn’t have any plays and they decided to just “wing it” for four quarters. You can imagine the end result...disaster.
The same can be said for your sales calls and meetings. Seven-figure sales teams and sellers have a game plan for every call and every appointment.
There are four key elements to every sales call that you can start using today.
Build Rapport with your prospect. Don’t just dive in, build some common ground first.
Ask Questions and actually listen. Don’t just show up and throw-up, listen more than you talk to really understand your prospect.
Speak to Answers. Take everything you learned in “Ask Questions” and speak to your solution in terms that are applicable to them.
Create a Win-Win. The natural evolution of a sales conversation if you’ve built good rapport, asked good questions, and spoke to how you could help. Ask for the sale.
Take your game to the next level by using these four elements of a great sales conversation.
Playing Through Objections
Just like any great team, chances are you’re going to run into some setbacks. It happens all the time in sports, star players get injured, and top-ranked teams lose games they shouldn’t. Sales can have no shortage of setbacks and hurdles. One of the most common hurdles that have the chance to derail even the best salespeople and teams are objections.
Let’s face it, just like a team faces competition so will salespeople face objections. This a natural part of the buying process and handled successfully.
4 Rules To Crushing Objection Handling and Making the Sale
The best salespeople are canned.
They have the best answer and use the best answer every time.
There’s no guesswork here or wondering how to respond to the most common objections. Just like a sports team that practices the fundamentals so should you and your team be practicing the fundamental objections to your product or service so they are not a surprise
The first objection is not a real objection.
You’ve probably done this to an unassuming salesperson in the past, or at least while out shopping.
The clerk trying to be helpful asks “Can I help you find anything?” Most people’s answer to this question, “No, just looking.” We do this even when we’re specifically looking for something.
Seven-figure salespeople and teams understand that you have to push past the initial objections, get past the smokescreen that your buyer is putting up, and get to the heart of the sale.
The average sale takes 3-5 objections
Seven-figure salespeople and teams know that objections are good! These high-level teams and performs know that once they start receiving and handling objections, the sale is on!
Don’t fear objections, know that it takes at least 3 of them to gain commitment. Embrace objections and be happy when they start coming your way.
Do not practice on your prospects
Could you imagine a professional sports team that doesn’t practice? When it comes time for the big game they show up, try a bunch of new plays they’ve never used before, and said, “well we gave it our best shot.”
That coach would be fired at halftime, and the franchise could be in serious jeopardy. You wouldn’t watch that game, and they’d be the laughing stock of the league.
You wouldn’t see a sports team do this, but I see countless sales teams do this every day. They’re consistently practicing on the very people that could give them money.
Seven-figure teams and salespeople know that the key to sales success is practice, practice, practice.
Set a schedule for intentional practice at a minimum of once per week and if you want to be a top team or performer, practice daily.
Follow-Up for Success
There’s money in the follow-up.
The mistake I see a lot of sales teams and salespeople make is assuming that if a prospect doesn’t buy from you on the very first interaction, they’re not a good lead. It’s like running a play once, having it not work, and then never trying the play again.
People are busy. And if you aren’t connecting (not selling) to them on a weekly basis, your brand, product, and service will be forgotten.
You need to build rapport and relationship by sharing value and leading with the giving hand on a weekly basis. Start small by sending out a value-only email at least once a week and scale up from there.
Follow-up doesn’t need to happen just online. The average business executive is receiving hundreds of emails every single day. While your prospect’s inbox might be overwhelmed, other communication avenues can be wide open.
They might have thousands of unread Facebook messenger ads. But their LinkedIn inbox is sitting empty.
They might not respond to phone calls, but they don’t let a text go unresponded too.
Their email inbox might be drowning in emails, but their mailbox is wide open. Start using this strategy by sending your prospects a simple handwritten note this week. Thank them for considering your services with a call to action. You’ll be amazed at the response.
Identify creative and unique ways--that your competition isn’t using--to follow up with your prospects and close the deal.
There you have it.
If you follow the game plan outlined above and take action on what I’ve just shared with you, you’ll be well on your way to starting your first or next 7-figure sales team.
This is just the playbook, you need to play the game!
What is your #1 struggle in building a seven-figure sales team?
What is the most important lesson you learned from this guide and how will you take action on it this week?
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