Here’s a little story that might seem familiar.

Liz was trying hard to make her sales numbers, but no matter what she tried, she wasn’t hitting her goals. She’s a “people person,” and her boss, the company owner, was sure she would succeed as a rep when he hired her more than a year ago.

She spent the first three months learning the ins and outs of the print and signage business. Her colleagues helped her understand what their equipment did and the information she would need to capture from the customer to help them produce a job correctly.  She went with the owner to inspect sites and learned how to measure space and what she needed to be careful of when installing a graphics project or sign. She spent time with the mailing team and learned about direct mail and personalization. She familiarized herself with the most common papers and media and had a feel for the costs and how they could impact the quality of the product.

Her owner took her to meet a few customers in the early days, and it all seemed so easy. The sales just seemed to happen. She didn’t think she knew everything her owner did but felt she could talk to people about their projects and make a sale. She was confident she could reach her sales and income goals.

Unfortunately, things hadn’t turned out that way. She found it hard to get meetings, lost opportunities because of price, and couldn’t land any new customers. She was doing everything she read online; cold calling, follow-up emails, and sending samples…but nothing seemed to work.

Today, her boss told her he could not keep her if her sales didn’t pick up in the next 90 days.  Liz was getting married in 6 months and was hoping to buy a house with her fiancé soon. She had hoped her commissions would help with all that, and now she was 90 days away from losing her job if something didn’t change. Her boss, who had been so helpful in the beginning, was knee-deep in the implementation of a new MIS system and didn’t have time to work with her.

She knew she needed to look for a new position.

That means ongoing sales training and coaching. Even owners with a sales background are often too busy running their companies to provide the necessary training and coaching to help their reps succeed. Even reps with sales experience from other industries need help adapting to the nuances of selling visual communications. If reps don’t develop the skills to be successful, they fail. When sales reps fail, owners waste money, and companies don’t grow.

Here are some statistics to keep in mind when planning to hire your next rep:

• Only 19% of printing companies have a defined and documented sales process. Source: Marketing & Sales Best Practices Study – Karen Kimerer & Evolve Sales Group, Inc.
• Businesses with a standardized sales process see up to a 28% increase in revenue compared to those without. Source: Harvard Business Review.
• 90% of the companies that use a formal, guided sales process were ranked as the highest-performing companies in their class. Source: Sales Management Association
• 68% of all salespeople do not follow a sales process at all. Source: Objective Management Group
• 62% of salespeople who are not on track to meet quota say they are not taught to communicate value. Source: Value Selling Associates
• Continuous training results in 50% higher net sales per sales rep. Source: The Brevet Group
• Successful sales coaching programs increase average deal size, sales activity, win rates, and new leads by 25%-40%. Source: Rain Group
• 66% of companies surveyed who have implemented structured sales coaching practices saw increased employee engagement and retention. Source: Value Selling Associates and Training Industry, Inc.
• 33% of printing companies do not offer any form of sales training. Another 29% offer sales skills training quarterly or only twice per year. Source: Marketing & Sales Best Practices Study – Karen Kimerer & Evolve Sales Group, Inc.
• Struggling sales reps are five times more likely to report they weren’t fully onboarded & productive one year after starting their job. Source: Spekit
• 40% of sales professionals lack the training & coaching needed to conduct virtual sales successfully. Source: Salesforce
• High-performing sales reps spend about 6 hours weekly researching prospects. Source: Crunchbase
• Top-performing reps only “Pitch” 7% of the time. Source: Sales Insights Labs
• 92% of B2B Buyers are willing to engage with a rep known as a thought leader. Source: Fit Small Business
• Only 26% of sales onboarding is tweaked to account for a new hire’s pre-existing strengths & weaknesses. Source: Allegro
• 7% of sales reps will leave their job if the training or onboarding experience is poor. Source: Spekit
• The average time for a sales rep to become productive across all industries is 3.2 months. Source: Hubspot
• 43.8% of printing firms surveyed reported that new reps were productive within 3 to 6 months. 33.5% of companies reported that reps were productive in six to twelve months or more. Source: Best Practices of High-Performance Print Sales Organizations, Keypoint Intelligence
• 93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers. Source: Workforce Learning Report – LinkedIn.
• 66% of companies don’t believe their managers have the skills to manage and coach sellers. Source: Entrepreneur

If Liz’s story sounds familiar and you are tired of hiring and firing reps, isn’t it time to rewrite it? Outsourcing to experienced trainers and coaches who know the industry well can help your business outshine its competition. Find an expert to tailor a program to fit the needs of your business and reps and write a new ending.

Use the contact form below to get to inquire about Evolve Sales Group training and coaching solutions.