Accountability stands for being responsible for one’s actions and decisions. In sales, accountability plays a crucial role in determining success. It refers to taking ownership of the results achieved and acknowledging the impact of one’s efforts on those results.
In a competitive market, companies are constantly striving to improve their sales performance and meet their targets. However, with increasing pressure and expectations, it is easy for sales teams to lose focus and make excuses for not meeting their goals.
This is where accountability comes in – by holding individuals responsible for their actions. Read this article if your sales team has been struggling with meeting targets or if you want to understand the importance of accountability in driving sales success.
Why is Accountability Important in Sales?
To achieve success, sales teams need to be accountable for their actions and efforts. Here are some reasons why accountability is crucial for sales success:
1. Motivates Individuals
When individuals know they are responsible for their actions and results, they are more motivated to put in their best effort. This leads to a positive work attitude and boosts productivity.
2. Encourages Continuous Learning
Accountability creates a culture of continuous learning within sales teams. When individuals take ownership of their mistakes, they are more likely to learn from them and improve their performance.
3. Builds Trust
In a sales environment, trust is crucial for success. When individuals take accountability for their actions, it builds trust among team members and with clients. This creates better communication, collaboration, and stronger relationships – all of which are necessary for successful sales.
4. Drives Results
With accountability, individuals are focused on their goals and strive to meet them. This leads to increased productivity, and better performance, and ultimately drives results. When individuals know they will be held accountable for their actions, they are more likely to put in the extra effort required to achieve success.
How can Accountability be Implemented in Sales?
Here are a few things you can do to implement accountability in your sales team:
Invest in A Lead Management System
A lead management system, like Leadtrekker, can track the progress of leads and sales activities. This allows for a clear view of who is responsible for which tasks, and if they are being completed on time.
Leadtrekker’s features that support accountability include:
Tracks Behaviour and Their Outcomes
Connecting behaviours with outcomes is essential to the success of any sales team. Leadtrekker tracks the behaviours and outcomes of leads from their generation. With a record of this, a sales team can more effectively strategise on how to approach leads in the future and see where they have fallen short in the past.
Takes The Place Of A Sales Accountability Team:
Instead of wasting time trying to figure out if the salesperson handled the lead, and the potential client, correctly you can use Leadtrekker to track the actions of your whole sales team. The leads software is constantly updated with information on incoming leads, how soon the lead was contacted, whether the salesperson responsible followed up on that lead and whether the lead was converted.
Leadtrekker saves you time as you no longer have to follow up with your sales team – now you can simply check the system to see what leads have come in as well as which were converted and which were neglected.
Takes Out The Need For Micromanaging:
Micromanaging hinders productivity and can cause tension between the team and their manager. Leadtrekker is a sales lead management system that lets each team member know what leads they are responsible for, and in turn what they will be held accountable for. The idea is not to be able to blame any one person for lost leads but to see where the team, and individuals within the team, can improve.
Leadtrekker makes it very difficult to ignore leads with constant email and SMS reminders. If the lead is left unattended Leadtrekker will escalate the lead and notify the person who is accountable for the team – letting them know a lead is going to be lost. This way the lead may be saved by someone else before it is lost completely.
Improves Communication:
Leadtrekker keeps in constant communication with you, your team, and the leads. This communication will enable your team to be accountable for their tasks thus increasing your lead conversion rate.
Set Clear Expectation And Goals
If everyone in the team understands the expectations and goals, they are more likely to be held accountable for their actions.
SMART goals, for example, are a great way to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound expectations for your team. When using Leadtrekker, you can assign these goals to each team member and track their progress in real-time.
This not only creates a sense of accountability but also motivates the team to work towards achieving their goals.
Invest In Your Sales Team
It’s important to realise that most people aren’t only motivated by money. Yes, we all like to earn a decent income, but in many cases, job satisfaction ranks higher than a fat salary. Imagine earning twice as much as what you are currently earning, except, leaving to work every day is a dreary, exhausting process. Having a brain-dead-like job where there is no hope for growth, no challenges and only monotonous slavery is never worth a few extra numbers in the bank; happiness and work satisfaction overrules all.
Here are some ways to invest in your sales staff:
- Training: regular training has a profound impact on the overall attitude of your sales staff. Not only will it make an already difficult career path more bearable, but it is also a great benefit for your business to have more skilled sales staff.
- Culture: Famous Austrian-born American management consultant, Peter Drucker, once said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Having a strong company culture will have a positive impact on the attitude of your sales team. (Also referred to as hygiene factors: The reasons people stay with a company).
- Be a soundboard: It is easy to become demotivated, especially in a sales career. Have regular one-on-one meetings with each sales team member and ask the right questions. Also, encourage them to give you honest answers.
Have An Accountable Sales Team Now!
Accountability in a sales team is what ultimately leads to success. You can train, mentor and equip your team members with all the tools they need, but without accountability, it will be challenging to achieve sales goals.
Get in touch with Leadtrekker now, and see how we can transform your sales team into a highly accountable and successful force in the market.
