Without a clear plan and constant maintenance, even well trained sales staffs will slip into bad habits over time, the Entrepreneur.com article “7 Crucial Steps to Building a Champion Sales Team” explains. Improving your sales team can give your business a boost regardless of external factors. Even if you can’t find new customers, you can find ways to get them to spend more. Whether this means bringing in new staff members or refining the ones you have, it needs to be done strategically. Follow these steps to get started:

1. Evaluate the current strategy. Your strategy must address three areas: Finding more prospects, making larger sales, and increasing closing percentage.
2. Assess the existing team. How many A players, B players, and C players are on your staff? Are you spending too much time trying to improve the C players and failing to maximize the abilities of your best personnel assets? You need to realistically evaluate your sales staff, through data and on-site evaluation, and determine what actions you need to take, including letting go of those who aren’t carrying their weight.
3. Develop a hiring process. There’s no point in replacing poor performers if there’s not a good chance they’ll be any better. Too many owners and managers hire off “gut instinct,” resulting in costly mistakes. A formal hiring process developed with research and even consulting experts and resources from industry groups can greatly improve the chances of a successful hire.
4. Compensate for results. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that higher base compensation with small bonus or commission opportunities will attract better employees because of the stability. The best performers are confident in their abilities and will relish the opportunity to earn more based on performance. As long as your commission system is set up properly, you should be glad to pay them as much as they can earn, because you’ll be making more too.
5. Train consistently. Training isn’t a one-time thing, and a suggestion here and there isn’t training. Training should be a pillar of your business. Everyone should be using the same concepts and techniques and regular trainings should reinforce company sales strategy. Even the most seasoned salespeople should take refresher courses regularly to avoid slipping into bad habits.
6. Create accountability. Don’t review sales numbers on a monthly basis. Do it daily, so there are no excuses at the end of the month. Make salespeople accountable to each other by setting team goals along with individual ones. The thought of letting down their peers is much more powerful than letting down you or themselves.
7. Reassess strategy regularly. Keep lines of communication open with your salespeople and customers, so you can recognize problems and weaknesses and adjust quickly. Just because a strategy works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

Click here to read the article from Entrepreneur.com.