Jamsworld the home for Jam727 Enterprises

There are sev­eral dynam­ics that can affect a sales team’s pro­duc­tiv­ity and suc­cess. Teams that are prop­erly moti­vated and com­pen­sated, for exam­ple, tend to be pro­por­tion­ately more pro­duc­tive. Conversely, poor communication between sales teams and managers can negatively affect a company’s profits.

Sev­eral of those issues can be solved by com­pa­nies ensur­ing that the right struc­ture and cul­ture is in place when building a sales team. That struc­ture and cul­ture is espe­cially crit­i­cal for suc­cess­ful highly trans­ac­tional sales teams. It increases the like­li­hood that those sales teams and their man­agers under­stand expec­ta­tions, communicate, collaborate and keep on producing.

Every company can follow these few steps to rein­force that struc­ture and cul­ture within its sales teams:

Hire Very Com­mit­ted Managers

Sales team man­agers need to be com­mit­ted to their teams, their com­pany, and their mis­sion. So when you eval­u­ate your sales process, team, struc­ture and cul­ture, you must hire man­agers that are going to live by those prin­ci­ples and lead by example.

Here are some other things to keep in mind:

• Hire man­agers that drive met­rics and encour­age feed­back. That infor­ma­tion can be used to man­age a sales team proac­tively rather than reac­tively, antic­i­pat­ing results rather than respond­ing to them.
• Man­agers should hold every­one account­able, actively tutor and par­tic­i­pate, and be in the office before — and leave after — every other mem­ber of the team. Sales teams will respond to that ded­i­ca­tion and feel moti­vated to fol­low the lead.

“Model Day for Success”

I’ve dis­cussed my phi­los­o­phy on set­ting up a “Model Day for Suc­cess” before, but I think it applies to this topic too. The idea behind that struc­tured day is to estab­lish a salesperson’s idealistic work­day, rein­forc­ing good time man­age­ment habits and pro­vid­ing a frame­work that each sales team mem­ber can follow.

The gen­eral prin­ci­ples of the Model Day for Suc­cess are to:

• Expect eight hours of pro­duc­tiv­ity from your sales team.
• Design reac­tive and proac­tive activ­i­ties for the team. An exam­ple of a reac­tive activ­ity includes hav­ing your team respond to inbound sales leads. A proac­tive activ­ity, by con­trast, refers more to out­bound prospect­ing and tar­get account penetration.

 One of the sales manager’s pri­mary respon­si­bil­i­ties is to dis­cover ways to moti­vate the sales team and increase pro­duc­tiv­ity. Cam­paigns can be an extremely effec­tive way to do that. But in order to be effi­cient and pro­duc­tive, they need to be sup­ported by structure.

• Define what resources you will need to be suc­cess­ful. Whether it’s emails, scripts, or ref­er­ence mate­ri­als, man­agers need to ensure their sales team is pre­pared for each campaign.
• Run con­tests around each cam­paign. Great sales peo­ple and sales team man­agers are usu­ally com­pet­i­tive and inspired by goals and mile­stones. By offer­ing a con­test for each cam­paign, you’re dan­gling a car­rot that will undoubt­edly moti­vate the team.
• Eval­u­ate and pro­vide feed­back. Man­agers must think on their feet and use both proac­tive and reac­tive processes. Evaluate the success of the campaign rapidly and change what is not working if necessary. As the cam­paign continues, pro­vide feed­back to each team mem­ber and let them know how they’re performing .

Hav­ing a good com­pany cul­ture with vis­i­ble aspirations, values and achievable goals goes a long way in devel­op­ing strong sales teams and sales methodology. With the right struc­ture, you will arm your sales people to achieve success.

Two reservations potential students think about before getting a tutor are the tutors fees and policies .  Unfortunately , private tutoring has gotten the reputation of being pricey as well as inflexible and this may be discouraging to probable students looking to hire a tutor .  In any case , being a tutor running your own tutoring business, you will be free to think about these issues and promote tutors fees and policies that are agreeable to probable students and acceptable  to you. possible students need to clearly see the advantages of online learning vs traditional tutoring.

One problem with the larger tutoring companies is that they require the parents to sign a contract which traps the clients into paying a specific fee for an extended amount of time , most likely , for at least an entire year.  This can be discouraging for parents who know  that their child only needs assistance for a short period of time or that they require to work with a tutor occasionally instead of on a regular basis.

You may want to consider having parents pay on a monthly basis instead of locking them in for a long period of time.    By paying for a month at a time  , parents feel more involved and in control of the situation.   You might want to establish a method in which the student will be billed each month until they decide they want to discontinue the tutoring services.  They should inform you in writing at least a month before they wish to stop the tutoring sessions , otherwise, they will continue to be billed.  Parents are relieved to hear that they are only making a month to month commitment when signing up with you and that it will not be a complicated process to end the services.

You may also want to consider offering specific packages which include a set number of hours of one on one tutoring for a certain fee.  For example , if you plan to earn at least $25 an hour, offer two packages:  the first might be a $112/month package which entitles the client for up to 4 hours of tutoring at $28/hr and the second might be a $200/month package which entitles the client for up to 8 hours of tutoring at $25/hr.  The client may choose to pay the $200/month over the $112/month package because they recognize the bargain, even if they didn’t originally believe their child needed the full 8 hours a month.  Meanwhile, although you are earning three less dollars and hour, you are guaranteed to get paid for more hours than you would have if you didn’t offer a specific package. 
Evaluate the number of hours you will be willing to work and your financial needs and then pick two or three packages that will work for you.  Be sure that the cheapest rate per hour is associated with the package that offers the greatest number of sessions and vice-versa.

Put your billing practices down on paper and make sure that you review them with the student  before you start tutoring their child .  Have the client or the students’ parents sign a copy so you know for sure that the client is aware of your practices . 

Concerning tutors fees and policies , by offering a variety of packages, allowing clients a simple way out, and not requiring them to sign an extensive contract, you will be demonstrating your flexibility and willingness to work with individual students on a more personal basis than larger tutoring corporations are willing to do .