((Foreword: I wish to dedicate this write-up specially for contemplation by sales leaders in the financial solution products industry. From my many years of past involvement working with sales force members in this sector, I have documented a personal file containing my observations on vital aspects sales leaders ought to focus on for supporting their sales team members. I believe the points would facilitate as food for pensive thought regarding their leadership role.))

The job of a sales member in a financial solution products industry is two-fold: (1) promote the products to potential clients in line with meeting new business targets, at the same time providing solutions to financial needs. (2) Service existing clientele to ensure existing business continues to stay in the books. But when it comes to a sales leader, what would be the description of his key role? There are many notions - perhaps perceived on broad context – like manage team for sales results; set directions for team to abide; guidance and counselling etc. Such descriptions are in one way or another correct, however superficially in generic definitions. Why do I say so? Well, let me paraphrase by way of these questions:

What specific aspects should sales managers focus on in managing (team for sales results), setting directions and guiding/counselling? I guess the specific answers are not easily forthcoming, right?

Many sales leaders perceive the superficial or broad parameters for deployment of their tasks. And very often, they could not make much headway repeatedly in team results measured against team goals. My simple explanation for their uneventful venture is – they fail to recognise three key fundaments which must inhere in their team members in order to be efficacious.

I categorise the key fundaments (for development of members) as:

# SOURCE:

The larger the pool of identified potential prospects, the better are the chances of reaping good sales scores by a sales member. How do potential prospects come about? Answer: From personal contacts - such as relatives, friends, new acquaintances, peers in related industries, former academic mates, social clubs/associations etc - and referrals (recommended leads from existing contacts). Seasoned sales members may not have problems in prospecting. However, the newer ones may face issues after they run out of natural prospects.

Newcomers normally exhibit two concerns regarding their prospecting source, viz. (1) How to continuously expand their prospects pool so that the source does not diminish. (2) How to qualify a suspect as a (potential) prospect. Technical skills are entailed to overcome the concerns, and that is where the team leader comes in – to groom his team in this respect.

Techniques on converting personal affiliations (including existing clients) to centres of influence (COI) will be handy for securing referrals. A COI is a contact who is willing to provide names to the salesperson asking for support. Bear in mind nobody is ever ready to offer referrals unless he understands how the salesperson concerned would approach the referrals. The COI also needs to know the descriptions of people who can likely be “qualified” referrals to the salesperson. Hence, this involves a process for “educating” the intended COI so that he voluntarily refers the right “candidates”. Training on this process forms part of the development programme to a team member, which invariably lies on the shoulders of his leader.

Leaders should also coach members, especially newcomers, on methods of networking – or should I say, the art of expanding/building contacts. Sales people must be extroverts, simply meaning they must break away from the inhibitions that hold them back from reaching out to strangers, like other participants who attend the same social functions. It should be their instinct to strike up an interesting conversation with a new acquaintance at the slightest chance. Sharing captivating “stories” should become a habit of sales people. Successful scorers have the knack to win over the friendship of new acquaintances, hence stretching out the contacts network, which then constitutes the prospects pool. Such skills are not natural personality traits but are endowed via training, coaching and guidance by sales leaders.

Any name, or acquaintance, or referral remains as a mere suspect before being qualified as a potential prospect. A set of criteria helps to assess the potential level of the individual, such as current financial situation and needs, age group, health status (if for life insurance products) etc. A needs analysis tool facilitates the assessment in a structured manner. Seasoned financial solutions salespersons have already been tutored to be well familiar with the perusal of such tools.

The techniques for propelling a continuous build-up of contacts, for identifying potential prospects from the plethora of contacts and for converting prospects to clients will not be assimilated by newcomers without proper guidance from their leaders.

# ELEMENT:

Element, in this context, relates to personal calibre of a team member. Being conversant is only a small spark of personal calibre. What makes the difference is being conversant with charisma to convince his prospect “buy” him first in terms of trust. Can he enigmatise the other party? What level of professionalism and knowledge are being transmitted by the member to the prospect during discussion?

Encouragement on personal development - encompassing personality elevation such as knowledge, presentation eloquence, conduct, judgement, characteristics - forms a vital push factor for moulding up a sales member. Again, this is where the leader comes in – to render mentoring. Apart from one-on-one attention, the leader may recommend external self-development courses to his team.

Personality is nurtured, not inborn. Nurturing takes time as a serial process. Individual demeanour or mental disposition can change as the result of effective indoctrination and repetitive experiences in specific exposures, especially from the impact-felt ones. I know of previous sales colleagues, from humble origin, who were passive at the beginning. After a period of grooming, they then became assertive.

A wide general knowledge topped up with eloquence adds credits to a person’s charisma. If you are a salesperson, just imagine you were seated together with a group of politicians at a dinner function. You could expect they would be chatting about their favourite common subject – the latest political updates. Also imagine you were not in touch with the political events in your country. Would you not be left out of the conversation? Would you not feel out of place? But if you were very much in the flow of what was happening politically plus being able to engage in interactive conversation, you would be a natural participant of the prolific chat exchanges. You could warm up your new acquaintances to become your new source of contacts.

A salesperson who interacts in active dialogue with a new acquaintance may create chances of establishing fraternity between both. If he could tune into the same mental wave-length as that of the new acquaintance, the better is his probability to magnetise that counterpart “buy” him as a friend. Friendship first, business prospect later……see the link?

I always believe the overall personality in terms of charisma, whether vibrant or dull, either makes or breaks the career continuity of a financial solutions salesperson. In the business of financial solutions, potential purchasers “buy” the salesperson first before considering the recommended financial product. Again, I reiterate personality is nurtured, and the nurturing care to develop the right personality of a sales member falls on the responsible shoulders of his sales leader.

A professional financial solutions provider allots a portion of his work calendar to keep in touch with his existing clients. He takes equal pains that the people who bought from him remain as his faithful client, and not merely as customers holding his product. His faithful client will only turn to him – and no one else - in event of need for new financial solutions, but his product customer probably considers other providers when planning additional purchases in future ………. this is the practical difference between “client” and “customer”. A provider cannot convert his new customer to client status if he fails to render continual impactful after sale services to the latter.

Committed sales team leaders frequently monitor service call activities of their members, like when the latter should conduct review of possible change in needs pertaining to clients. For example, a bachelor who bought his first life insurance plan a few years ago may just have gotten married. So, it is time for the sales agent to conduct a situational needs review for adequate cover on the couple. The service call grants opportunity for upselling or cross-selling. Another example: If a mutual fund investor has gained substantial asset value growth in his current portfolio, discussion should be held with his agent whether to lock in the gains by redeeming the returns and then either put into a bank to earn fixed interest or invest in safe government-backed securities. Such are important service calls.

Clients satisfied with the continual services of their providers will stay with the latter faithfully. Loyal clients represent the solid business cum income foundation of a financial solutions provider, especially so relating to products that facilitate regular deposits, like life insurance recurring premiums or regular top-ups into mutual funds. The regular contributions remitted by long-staying clients constitute revenue accumulation to the company represented by sales team members who in turn earn recurring emoluments.

His overall image in terms of calibre and level of professionalism counts a lot as to whether a financial solutions provider can sustain well in the business. Image in this context relates to offer of the right recommendations and rendering satisfying after sale services. Leaders aptly play their role to remind subordinates in this respect. They come in to help consolidate the rounded calibre of team members.

Some leaders managing a large sales group churn out structured overview reports on customers and clients belonging to team members. They use a system to purvey details and analytical overviews of clientele files. The leaders peruse the reports for prompting follow-up calls to be conducted by respective team members. To efficaciously administer service activities of the group, the availability of relevant logistics must be facilitated by the respective leader.

# ESSENCE:

When I was a teenager, my mother frequently served me Brand’s Essence of Chicken – a small bottle containing pure extract of chicken nutrients in drink form. She professed the concentrated elixir would pep up my mental energy to prepare well for examinations. To an extent, Brand’s helped me to stay alert for longer hours when memorising preparatory scripts.

Likewise, sales personnel need the right essence to boost their mental energy - or should I say, morale – in order to keep moving enthusiastically in sales drives. Morale, whether positive or negative, is the by-product of work atmosphere. For example, an office atmosphere that conduces fraternity among team members will pep up vivaciousness to bolster performance. Conversely, an atmosphere immersed in office intrigues, or fear pressure, or disharmony, or animosity will dampen their mental spirit to render full commitment, thus negatively impacting performance.

The type of work atmosphere in a company is cultured by its top leadership, right from the chief executive officer (CEO) to the senior officers. If the CEO prefers to plant fear pressure downwards to push results, the office atmosphere will be tense, which then emits negative vibes. On the flip side, overly amiable and amicable leadership will surely convey the impression to sales personnel that the normal business as usual (BAU) sales mode is good enough so long there is some profitability, no matter in whatever quantum.

I know of a few Malaysian insurance companies operating on the BAU mode for a long time. They were established many, mang years ago, yet continuing the normal runs without noticeably innovating significant new strategic directions. Their leadership seems contented with average business scores and not disrupting the tranquil mood already entrenched in the workforce. In that kind of inherited mundane culture, their key managers in charge of sales will invariably lack the gusto to switch on the fast speed gear. A mundane work atmosphere will create mundane executives, which in turn churns out mundane sales teams – principles of the forces of attraction and domino effect.

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Question: Of the three fundaments, which stands out as the fulcrum? My answer: ESSENCE! Why? Reason: When sales people do not imbue into themselves a positive work morale supported by the right atmosphere, you can bet they will lack interest to pursue vibrantly ahead, thus subduing efforts to extend their contact sources and to enhance their calibre element. On the other hand, those who have already harboured a significant pool of contacts and moulded their calibre will lack the desire to plough the business field enthusiastically for sales calls. See the logic? Invariably, by not expecting to see light in their prevailing career realm soon, they either leave to join a competitor or venture to other vocations.

Setting a conducive environment that caters for the right work atmosphere, which in turn boosts the morale of sales team members, is the incumbent responsibility of the respective top management and team leaders. The responsibility must be driven from the topmost down the line to all officers managing sales teams. If the several leadership echelons play in sync to pave a culture of high morale within the company, the sales workforce can be expected to score prolific goals.

ESSENCE REINFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES:

May I exhort sales leaders to goad their team members on engaging the following “essentials”:

+ Socialise with positive-minded peers. Psychologists promulgate that a positive-minded person surrounded by negative-minded people will ultimately be influenced by the latter party’s negative vibes to a certain extent, depending on the former’s level of resilience.

+ Participate in affirmative programmes like team-building sessions, atmosphere-propped events organised by their management, industry update seminars etc – pertinent activities that uplift the morale of sales people.

+ Periodic re-energising time-off for mental reflection on past achievements and failures, prevailing strengths and weaknesses. Meditation or going for a short recluse break will be most useful for mental reflection. My favourite philosophy (quote): “Know your strengths so that you can capitalise on your strengths; know your weaknesses so that you can make some improvements albeit impossible to eradicate them totally. Capitalising on your strengths and improving some of your weaknesses enhance your overall aptitude.”

SUMMING UP:

Newcomers joining a sales team are like young lambs needing to be nourished. It is in this nascent stage whereby they either grow (in performance) or languish out of the business. During this nurturing period until they reach “maturity”, they need close attention from their leaders. Mature members, although able to fend quite independently, still require counselling occasionally. Seasoned players, being human, do face sporadic downturns because of oversights or distractions. And these are the instances when their leaders can timely offer advice to bring them back on track.

I wish to impress upon all leaders managing sales personnel one way or another the importance of recognising the three fundaments as the bastion of success to the latter party. True to some extent that the fundaments may be self-imbued; truer it is to a larger extent these are instilled by leaders into their sales force. Imperatively, sales leaders must allot a major proportion of their time to focus on nurturing their team members in this respect.

I have noticed many sales leaders prefer to focus on exuberating their personal calibre. Much time is spent to elevate themselves via academic programmes. They like to portray their string of knowledge credentials. Yes, to a certain degree, such academic achievements add value to personal quality. However, let me use the analogy of a medical professional engrossed in medical research to discover new treatment methods but without spending time to physically treat patients ……..will all the knowledge and credentials be applied to care for people in need of medical help? Obviously, no. So, the same goes to sales leaders who are too engrossed in building their self-image instead of helping their team members. Their excellent credentials do not draw in the coveted group sales results.

Of course, leaders need to continuously upgrade themselves. However, that should not be at the expense of neglecting attention on their subordinates. I would suggest at least 70 per cent of their time be allotted to support their team. I pose this question to them for ponder: Which party comes first……you or your team? Needless for me to cite my answer as you all know what I am pointing at, i.e. prompting you to be cognizant about your key role.

I end this article by sharing the following quotes in relation to the three fundaments:

SOURCE:

ELEMENT:

ESSENCE:

Happy leading.