5 Ways to Manage Underperforming Sales Reps

Zac Kerr

Manage, motivate, and help underperforming reps with these 5 tips

If you have certain reps that go through patches of underperforming or you feel like you’re not doing your best work as a rep, there are solutions. Everyone has times where they feel unmotivated which usually reflects in their sales stats. If this describes you right now or someone on your team, here are 5 ways to help.

5 Ways to Help Underperforming Reps

  1. Be empathetic and avoid harsh judgment before knowing the entire story.
  2. Help your reps self-evaluate as often as necessary.
  3. Identify the root of the problem and offer ways to solve it.
  4. Clarify expectations and plan ways to achieve it together.
  5. Have an open door policy.

*Bonus Tip: Don’t forget to have fun with sales contests!

#1 Be empathetic and avoid harsh judgment before knowing the entire story.

When a rep is underperforming they can rush to anxiety and worry over what their manager will say, so it’s important to approach the situation first with empathy then solutions. Times have changed during Covid and employees’ mental health has reflected that. Did you know:

  • One survey found that 55% of workers say a mental health issue has affected them since the pandemic began.
  • 41% of workers admit they feel burnt out, drained, or exhausted from their work.

#2 Help your reps self-evaluate as often as necessary.

How often you evaluate your reps can depend on the need but generally going over their performance on at least a quarterly basis is necessary. Meeting with employees often accomplishes two things:

  1. They feel more comfortable with you as a manager and can see that you actually care about their performance.
  2. Reps will never have to guess what expectations you have of them. They’ll always know what goals you’re looking for and how they can accomplish them.

#3 Identify the root of the problem and offer ways to solve it.

After identifying which of your reps is struggling, sitting down with them to identify the reason why is crucial. Here are some common causes for rep underperformance:

There are several common root causes:

  • The sales representative is experiencing a problem outside of work that is impacting their performance.
  • The sales rep struggles with organization and time management skills, which is negatively impacting their ability to complete deals.
  • They lack one or more basic skills that are necessary in sales.
  • They’re disinterested in learning the skills needed to succeed as a salesperson.
  • They might mistakenly believe that they already have the skills to succeed.

#4 Clarify expectations and plan ways to achieve it together.

After understanding the root cause of your reps problem, it’s time to offer solutions. Setting achievable sales goals, providing incentives, and simple advice are all ways to help your rep feel like they have ways to get out of the hole they’re in. Their temporary struggle shouldn’t continue when they know you’re in their corner fighting for their success. 

#5 Have an open door policy.

Whether a rep is thriving or underperforming, they’ll at some point need guidance. This is where an open door policy can be really helpful. Many reps will benefit from extra-training and they will appreciate having the option to meet with their manager individually. This can vary depending on the schedules you run or what is doable for your team, but giving your reps extra opportunities to come to you for help is guaranteed to improve how they view you as a manager.

What are some tips you have?

We love to share knowledge to help your sales team, if you have any additional tips that could help someone else succeed please share them down below! And if you’re interested in increasing the productivity of your sales team, feel free to schedule a free demo with us today and we can show you how.

Access Our in-App Lead Communication Tool

Mike Hilverda

Use SalesRabbit’s in-app lead communication tool on iOS and Android

Have you struggled developing a streamlined communication line between reps and customers? Well this article details how you can reach out to a lead, straight from the SalesRabbit app in both iOS and Android. The Lead Communication Tools allow you to contact your leads via email, text, or phone. To utilize these features you must have the contact information filled out for the lead. To add/edit this information, select the lead and then select the pencil icon to open the Lead Details. Follow the guide below for details.

iOS Steps

Step 1. Navigate to Your Leads

In order to communicate with a lead, we will need to pick which lead we want to interact with. To get to leads, we will want to open the SalesHub tab.

Step 2. Select Your Desired Lead

In the SalesHub view, you can click on a lead status from the map (or select one from the leads list). A white preview ribbon will appear on the bottom of the page. 

That ribbon will show the lead’s name and address along with 4 contact icons. These icons enable you to interact with the lead: Email, Text, Call, or get Directions. If the contact information for a certain category is missing, it will appear transparent on the preview ribbon and you will not enable you to use it. (ex. dotted box in the bottom left of the picture below).

**If necessary, you can add or edit the information for this lead by selecting the pencil icon.**

Step 3. Add/Edit Lead Contact Information

Clicking on the pencil icon will open a Lead’s Details. You can click on any field that you would like to alter, and adjust the information accordingly. 

Now that we have ensured the contact information of a lead, on the “Lead Details” page we are now able to use the associated contact features. 

Continuing from our previous example from above, you can see that after we added in the email address, we can now select the email interaction option.

This article details how you can reach out to a lead, straight from the SalesRabbit app. The Lead Communication Tools allow you to contact your leads via email, text, or phone. 

Note: To utilize these features you must have the contact information filled out for the lead. To add/edit this information, select the lead and then select the pencil icon to open the Lead Details. 

Android Steps

Step 1. Navigate to Your Leads

In order to communicate with a lead, we will need to pick which lead we want to interact with. To get to leads, we will want to open the SalesHub tab.

Click on the navigation drawer in the upper left hand corner. Then select “SalesHub”.

Step 2. Select Your Desired Lead

In the SalesHub view, you can click on a lead status from the map (or select one from the leads list). A white preview ribbon will appear on the bottom of the page. 

That ribbon will show the lead’s name and address along with contact icons. These icons enable you to interact with the lead: Email, Text, Call, or Navigate. If the contact information for a certain category is missing, it will not appear on the preview ribbon. 

For example, the following lead (Customer) was just barely placed on the map. The only information it has is the address. As such only the navigation option appears (dotted box).

**If necessary, you can add or edit the information for this lead by selecting the pencil icon.**

Step 3. Add/Edit Lead Contact Information

Clicking on the pencil icon will open a Lead’s Details. You can click on any field that you would like to alter, and adjust the information accordingly. Continuing our previous example from above, we will want to add a phone number and an email so that we have all the options. 

Now that we have added/edited our contact information of the lead, we are now able to use the associated contact features. 

When we view our example lead, we can now see that it has all 4 of the contact options in its white preview ribbon: Email, Call, Message, and Navigate.

Get More Help Center Articles

If you liked this article and want to see what other guides we have, login to our Help Center and get unlimited SalesRabbit resources. Or to learn more about what we can do for you and your sales process, schedule a demo for free or contact our support team at (801) 418-9009 or email them at support@salesrabbit.com for assistance on an existing account.

2 Steps to Adjust Sales Area Settings

Brady Anderson

Adjust your sales area settings in 2 steps

Learn here how to easily adjust your sales area settings and limitations in your SalesRabbit account. From here you can change the amount of active areas that can be assigned to a rep, at any one given time, and how long inactive areas will remain in the system before automatically being deleted. 

Note: ***The ability to access settings is only available to roles who have the permission enabled***

Step 1. Navigate to Your Sales Area Settings

  1. To adjust the number of months sales areas are able to remain in an area while inactive you will need to go to “Settings.”
  2. Then click on “Areas” under the Sales section. 

Step 2. Adjust the Sales Area Settings

On the Sales Area Settings page you can see the options for:

User Sales Areas Allowed (per department): Users are allowed to have up to 10 active areas at one time.

Automatic Sales Area Deletion: Here you can adjust how long an inactive area will remain on your system before being automatically deleted. The maximum time limit is 36 months.

Once you have made your adjustments, click “Save” in the upper right hand corner.

Pro Tips

  • For data optimization purposes, for those reps in the field, we recommend keeping the “User Sales Areas Allowed” between 1-5 areas. 
  • Plan ahead: draw out Areas that are left unassigned, ready to be assigned to the appropriate rep

Set Area Limitations

  • We recommend 3 Areas per user for accounts with DataGrid.
  • You may have as many unassigned Areas as needed on the map.
  • Automatic Sales Areas Deletion” will only delete unassigned Areas from the map.

More Help Center Articles

If you liked this article and want to see what other guides we have, login to our Help Center and get unlimited SalesRabbit resources. Or to learn more about what we can do for you and your sales process, schedule a demo for free or contact our support team at (801) 418-9009 or email them at support@salesrabbit.com for assistance on an existing account.

Make People Love You in Sales with Kenny Brooks

Sean Huckstep

Kenny Brooks and Sam Taggart discuss how to use your personality in sales

Funny Sales Man, Kenny Brooks, and D2DCon founder, Sam Taggart, are among the most well-known faces in door to door sales. They sat down together to discuss what it means to use your personality in sales and how you can get prospects to love you and in turn give you their business. This is a great tool for any sales rep looking to up their game in 2022. Check out these tips straight from Kenny Brooks and the full video here.

Kenny Brooks Personality Tips for Sales:

  • Keep a positive attitude in the face of rejection.
  • Practice your approach, body language, etc., in the mirror before knocking.
  • Play a mind game with yourself, manifest what you want to happen before you reach the door.
  • Act like you’ve sold everybody no matter what. This will give you confidence to have a fresh start at every door.
  • Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Sell like yourself and master your own craft. If you prefer a more serious approach, don’t force jokes, or vice versa if you have an easy going personality, use that.
  • Always remember that people buy personality before they buy merchandise. You have to sell yourself and your personality to get the customer interested.
  • 4 steps to a sale: approach, introduction, demonstrate service or product, then close. Don’t immediately try to demonstrate a product or service before introducing yourself and providing value.
  • Be conscious of your body language and the body language of your customer. Take a step or two back when a prospect opens their door, don’t be too in their face. If a customer is leaning in the doorway, it’s a good sign they’re comfortable talking to you.

Check out the full video here!

 

What do you think about these tips?

How to Set up your Enerflo Integration

Sam Dearing

Enerflo Integration Overview

Enerflo is a sales process management software that optimizes the in-home sales experience. Built by in-home sales and software experts, it increases your efficiency by creating a custom-fit process to match your culture and goals. See how Enerflo’s software has integrated with SalesRabbit to further enhance your sales data process.

What does this integration do?

  • Send your SalesRabbit data into Enerflo to create custom proposals with data and photos.
  • Eliminate duplicate entry issues by syncing data.
  • Export lost deals into SalesRabbit for followup

What data is transferred into Enerflo?

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Street Address
  • City
  • State
  • Postal Code
  • Custom Fields

3 Steps to use this Integration

Step 1.

Generating your new API Token:

Access the SalesRabbit web app (app.salesrabbit.com) and go to Integrations > API.

Click on the “API Token” button.

Step 2.

Renaming your token:

You will want to rename your created token to keep track of what it connects to. Click on your newly created token and rename it. (ex. Enerflo API Token) 

Step 3.

Configuring the Integration with the API:

After creating and renaming your token, please reach out to Enerflo directly. They will help facilitate the remainder of the configuration for this integration. 

Set Up More Integrations

If you’re interested in using any of these powerful integrations, any and all of these integrations can be set up through our Help Center portal, the Integration Marketplace or by reaching out to your account CSM or support team at support@salesrabbit.com 801-418-9009.

How to Increase Sales Velocity

Brady Anderson

Learn the 4 Components of Sales Velocity with Sean Huckstep

If you’re in door to door sales, you know the name Sam Taggart. His d2d tips have helped thousands of sales reps and he’s chatting with SalesRabbit’s VP of Sales, Sean Huckstep, about what sales velocity is and how it can help you grow your business. Learn here what sales velocity is, tips for sales managers, and why sales reps should use it. 

What is Sales Velocity?

Sales velocity is a single metric that is a conglomerate of key performance indicators. This gives you a trend to how well your business or you as a rep is doing. Overall sales velocity reflects how quickly you move leads through your funnel to produce revenue.

4 Components of Sales Velocity

  1. Number of opportunities.
  2. Average deal size.
  3. Your win rate.
  4. Length of sales cycle.

These are the four main levers to look at to create a sales velocity score. This metric isn’t something to look at on a daily basis, it should be looked at as a trend perspective from month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter. If it’s not increasing, then something in one of the 4 main components is askew. 

“80% of B2C companies that talk to SalesRabbit, cannot tell you this score. No one really knows their metrics.”

Identifying these metrics as a sales manager or rep is crucial for growth. If you aren’t tracking these numbers, you’re missing out on the opportunity to change and evolve your business.

Tips for Sales Managers to Track Sales Velocity

For sales managers, data is your best friend. Using data to track your reps will help you identify high performers, reps that are underperforming, and ways that you can shave time in a reps day to help them knock more doors. According to Sean Huckstep, the best steps for sales managers to make if they’re not already tracking key metrics are to:

  • Develop or find a system of record.
  • Consider hiring a Sales Enablement Manager to record these metrics for you if you can’t find time to input data.
  • Utilize leaderboards to motivate your reps and easily track your top performers.
  • Invest time and resources into your reps to make their experience better which will in-turn lead to better customer satisfaction.

Why Should Sales Reps Care about Sales Velocity?

The difference between a good rep and a great rep is one that understands the importance of key metrics like sales velocity. Tracking the 4 components to figure out your sales velocity will help you accomplish things like:

  • Incremental steps to help you track your own progress.
  • Quicker way to understand your flaws in the sales process.
  • More revenue produced.

Check out the full video here!

 

How to Edit & Customize Sales Lead Status Pins

Mike Hilverda

Quickly Create, Customize, and Delete Lead Pins Statuses in SalesRabbit

Accessing and organizing leads is a vital part of the sales process. In the SalesRabbit app we allow you to create, customize, and delete pins for individual leads so you never have to wonder about your areas or the areas of reps you manage. Everything you need to know about the status of that lead is found in these easily customizable pins. Find out the 3 ways to use our pins with this Help Center article.

3 Ways to Use Lead Status Pins

Access Lead Status Pins

Log in to app.salesrabbit.com and select “Settings” within the left hand menu.

Under the “Sales” section, click “Lead Statuses.”

Once you are on the “Lead Status Settings” page you will see a list of your current leads and their associated icons. 

#1 Create Lead Status

You can create a new lead by clicking on “New” in the upper right-hand corner. You will then be directed to a page where you will need to fill in a series of fields to create your new lead status.

  1. Name: The name that you want to give your lead status pin (e.g. “Doors Knocked,” “Renter,” or “Not Interested”). 
  2. Abbreviation: A shortened form of your lead status pin’s name (e.g. “DK,” “RNT,” or “NI”). 
  3. Status: You may set a lead status as “Active” or “Inactive.” An inactive lead status will still appear on the “Lead Status Settings” page but will not be available as a lead status pin in the app. 
  4. Type: You can select either “Normal” or “Custom Auto.” As of now, select “Normal.” 
  5. Color/Icons: You will also have the option to select a color and picture icon to further customize your pin. 

#2 Customize Lead Status

The first type of customization is altering your current leads. Our system will auto-generate some lead statuses for you which will appear on that Lead page. You can change them by clicking on one that you would like to change. After clicking, you will be brought to that status’ custom page. There you can change the “Name,” “Abbreviation,” “Color,” and “Icon.” Or, if you have a seasonal status that you don’t want to necessarily delete you can make it Inactive. There is also a custom color tab were you can make even more specific color combinations. 

Once you have made your changes, click “Save” in the upper right-hand corner. After saving, the new lead status or altered lead status will appear in the app.

#3 Deleting a Lead Status

In order to delete a lead status you must click on the lead status you would like to delete in the Lead Status Settings page. Then in the upper right-hand corner of the lead status profile you will see the “Delete” button next to “Save.” 

After clicking on that button, a box titled “Delete Lead Status” will appear. This box will allow you to change the existing leads, with the lead status that you are deleting, to a different existing lead status. Once you have selected the status you would like to change them to, click delete. After logging out and back in again (of the Web App) that lead status will be gone from your list and the leads that had that deleted status will be changed to the new status you selected.  

Find More Help Center Articles

If you liked this article and want to see what other guides we have, login to our Help Center and get unlimited SalesRabbit resources. Or to learn more about what we can do for you and your sales process, schedule a demo for free or contact our support team at (801) 418-9009 or email them at support@salesrabbit.com for assistance on an existing account.

4 Expert Tips for Selling Solar Door to Door

Sean Huckstep

Solar sales software is the key to adapting to a fast-changing industry. The internet has completely changed the way that people buy. People simply have so many resources available that they feel as though they ought to be in complete control. If you want to learn some expert tips for selling solar more effectively, check these out.

4 Insights to Selling Solar:

These aren’t all the tips and tricks to selling solar, but these are 4 of the insights that we’ve found to be incredibly helpful when going door to door to sell solar that you can add to your list.

#1 Understand your Buyer’s Journey

A buyer’s journey is the first step any salesperson should take, especially in solar. The buyer’s journey describes a buyer’s path to purchase. In other words, buyers don’t wake up and decide to buy on a whim. They go through a process to become aware of, consider and evaluate, and decide to purchase a new product or service. Before speaking with a customer, understand the journey they’re taking because not everyone is at the same level.

#2 Offer Value- Not Education About Buying Solar

With the internet, customers already know the benefits of solar panels or buying solar for their homes, so you don’t need to explain that to them. With the popularization of solar panels it isn’t a matter of if someone will buy, it’s when. So instead of spending your time explaining why they should buy, position your company and services as the go-to option for when they make that decision.

#3 Use the 90/10 Rule

In door to door sales there is something known as the “90/10 Rule” which means you spend 90% of your time in preparing and setting up the sale and use the remaining 10% to close the deal. Closing a deal isn’t just about convincing a customer to buy from you when you get to their door, you need to do the prep work to help the process go more smoothly.

#4 Avoid a “Pushy” Sales Approach

So many sales reps have an unoriginal approach to selling solar. Being a pushy salesperson that puts themselves above the customer is the first to be rejected at the door. Modern customers don’t want someone to give them a tired, recycled sales pitch, they want you salespeople to be honest about why their company is the best option and flexible when the customer asks questions.

What are your best tips for selling solar?

If you enjoyed these inside tips, check out more insights we have about selling solar to the modern buyers to help guide you in the process. If you’re looking for a way to rebuild your sales process, schedule a free demo with us anytime so you can see how our software helps boost your door to door solar sales.

SalesRabbit Receives Significant Growth Investment from Diversis Capital

Brady Anderson

SalesRabbit Receives Significant Growth Investment from Diversis Capital

We are pleased to announce a significant growth investment in SalesRabbit by Diversis Capital. Since 2013 SalesRabbit has been centered on outside sales and tailoring the software to serve the field sales rep. It has matured to serve various use cases, industries and adaptations. As the pioneers in the field sales software category, we have so much more we want to bring to our clients.

This new era at SalesRabbit will mean additional headcount specialized in and dedicated to field sales innovation. We will immediately be increasing our technical staff, product management staff, and will be adding new roles to our organization that will enable us to provide new products, features, and services. This will help you and your teams sell more with less effort. Additionally, we know how important it is for you to grow your business and improve sales metrics across your organization. We’ve been working hard to launch some new and exciting features. Watch for that in the early quarters of this upcoming year. We look forward to providing additional information about these new products soon.

About Diversis Capital Management, LP

Founded in 2013, Diversis is a software and technology focused private equity fund with $1bn+ in AUM that invests in lower middle-market companies, targeting situations where it can add unique value in helping a company reach the next level. With a collaborative approach to investing, its Operating Partners and Strategic Advisors work alongside management teams to help build successful organizations positioned for long-term growth. To learn more, visit www.diversis.com.

Diversis Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Ron Nayot, said, “SalesRabbit has an outstanding reputation, with high customer satisfaction, strong growth, and exceptional unit economics. We are proud to partner with SalesRabbit’s impressive management team and execute on initiatives that will bring more value to the markets and customers they serve. In addition, we are actively identifying strategic add-on acquisitions to broaden the product portfolio.”

How SalesRabbit will be Changing:

  • We will be hiring a number of new roles to better support the needs of our clients and our business growth.
  • We will be instituting additional processes and policies that will ensure we are doing the best work we have ever done and will be providing new levels of service as a result.
  • We will be doing advanced research, surveys, and customer conversations to ensure we capture your opinions and recommendations.

How SalesRabbit Won’t Change:

  • You will continue to work with the same great people in our organization you have worked with in the past.
  • All of our people are being retained in their current roles.
  • Your subscription will continue under the same terms of service you are accustomed to.
  • Our solution and services will continue with no changes or interruptions.

Brady Anderson, Founder and CEO of SalesRabbit, said, “SalesRabbit’s platform supports top ranked sales and marketing organizations, and we will introduce continued innovation for field selling activities. Because of our strong expertise in the field selling category, we have identified several initiatives to better serve the organizations who rely on us. Diversis is the right partner for the market, our clients and our team members to accomplish our objectives.”

We Value You

We are excited to continue doing business with you and appreciate your continued partnership. It is our hope that with this announcement, you’re as excited as we are to explore the future of SalesRabbit alongside Diversis Capital as we continue to provide you with the best outside sales tools possible. Read more about this exciting announcement here.

Build and Edit Custom Lead Forms in 5 Steps

Mike Hilverda

Create and edit your customer SalesRabbit forms in 5 simple steps

This article will go over how to create Forms. Forms are used as a method to capture information and attach it to a lead while storing it in our database and are compatible with API third party related sources, such as Zapier. However, these Forms are for Pro and Enterprise SalesRabbit accounts.

The 5 Steps

Step 1. Navigate To The Form Builder

In order to create a form, go the SalesRabbit navigation bar and click on Settings>Form Builder.

Step 2. Create and Name the Form

To create a new form, click on the “+New Form” in the upper right-hand corner.

To help distinguish this newly created form, you will want to change its title. To do so, click on the pencil icon in the upper left corner. You will then be able to title the form.

Step 3. Build your Custom Form

While it is not required to have more than one section on your form, adding additional sections can help with how the form is presented and organized.
If you desire additional sections, they can be added by clicking “+Add a Section“. You can title sections by clicking the text at the of the desired section.

Now that the form has been created and laid out, it is time to select what data you want on the form. You choose what data you would like to pull over from the lead, or what additional data you would like to capture.

  • Lead Fields: An information field that has already been captured or filled out on the lead. Using a lead field will pass this lead information over to the form, eliminating the need for double entry.
  • Form Fields:  These information fields will need to be filled out while going through the form. These fields can also be edited to have predetermined options, such as: a dropdown, toggle, date, time, and/or datetime fields.

To add a field to your form, click on the desired field and drag it over to the desired section.
Lead Field ex.

Step 4. Required Fields

After mapping some fields over to your form, you will see that each field has a “Required” toggle option.

If this toggle is switched on, the form will not be able to submit if the field has not been filled out.

Step 5. Publish Your Form

Congratulations! You have completed setting up your custom form. The last thing that needs to be done is publishing the form so it is live and accessible. To do so, click the “Publish” button in the bottom right corner. You will then encounter a window that will ask if you are sure you want to publish.

Attention: If an edit is made to a form, you will have to click the publish icon to submit those changes. After publishing, those edits will be live.

Full Process

If you had a hard time following the steps above, here is a detailed video walkthrough of everything that was mentioned.

Get Connected

This feature is a must have for any sales process. Please call or email our Support team at (801) 418-9009 or support@salesrabbit.com if you would like to upgrade your plan to access this feature if your company is not on a Pro or Enterprise plan.