Every founder and sales leader wants predictable revenue growth.

We read books like From Impossible to Inevitable or The Science of Scaling, then we rush back to our teams to implement what we have learned.

These books, and all others like them, have great tactics and ways to push more efficiency and productivity with your team.

But most of what you read and hear is just noise.

Let me make it super simple for you.

If you want consistent and predictable sales performance, you need consistent and predictable action from your sales team.

The key word here is “action”.

To say it differently, you need lots of high quality activities from your sales team to get consistent results.

I sum it up in this this formula:

[Consistent Effort] + [Consistent Enthusiasm] + [Consistent Messaging] + [Consistent Lead Quality] = [Consistent Results]

When you have variable inputs, you get variable outputs.

And when you have consistent inputs, you get consistent outputs.

In order to get consistent inputs, you have to be very clear about what you want your team to do and how you want them to do it.

How?

Write it down.

Put it on paper in black and white, then hand it to each person on the team.

Make it abundantly clear exactly what steps a salesperson must take each day to be successful in their role.

Avoiding The Biggest Mistake

Founders and sales leaders spend so much time trying to find the right people to join the team.

But the biggest mistake that leaders make is failing to train and support the people on their team.

Of course you want to hire the best salespeople.

You spend hours thumbing through applicants and interviewing candidates, trying to find the perfect hire to join your team.

Compare the time you spend recruiting and hiring with the time you spend preparing your onboarding for new hires.

My bet is that you are spending far more time recruiting than preparing to train and onboard the new hires.

You aren’t alone.

Onboarding and training is an afterthought for most founders and sales leaders.

And the support isn’t much better for your fully-ramped sales team members, who rely on muscle memory and osmosis to improve their sales skills.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Take the time to put your sales playbook in writing instead of relying on the raw talent of your sales team combined with the generosity of their peers.‍

Making the case for documentation

I used to hate documentation.

It felt like busy-work. Empty calories. Something that you do to pretend that you are being productive.

Salespeople should be selling, not documenting.

Similarly, sales leadership should be leading and coaching, not writing things down. Right?

Wrong.

The naive and inexperienced version of me thought that hiring good people was enough.

I felt like if I could just get the right salespeople on my team, then they will figure out how to sell and the revenue will go up.

So I ran an intense interview process and sought out the best sales talent that I could find.

After failing to onboard a few hires that should have been all-star salespeople, I realized that I was the problem.

Or rather, my lack of a documented sales process was the problem.

New sales hires were learning on the fly, which slowed their progress and made it harder to make money.

I wasn’t doing enough to show them how to be successful in their role.

Then one day while I was sitting on the sales floor, I heard something that made the hair stand up on my neck.

Three different sales demos happening at the same time from three different reps.

Each salesperson was using a different version of our sales deck.

Each salesperson had a different way of explaining who we are and what we do.

Each salesperson had a different method of ending the demo and setting clear next steps.

And these were three of our tenured, successful reps!

How could we possibly scale a sales team with such a mix of sales execution?!

I decided to make a change.

I rushed back into my office and started a word document: “How to Run A Demo”.

This document outlined the exact steps for running a Levelset demo, in excruciating detail.

I was done assuming that salespeople would know how to do things the right way.

Leave nothing to chance. If they know, they will do it well.

If they don’t know, then at least I have it written down.

I included things like:
- how to set up your zoom so your video stream looks professional

- the ideal structure for a product demo

- email templates to make sure your prospect shows up to the demo

- what questions to ask your prospect to kick off the demo

- key objections and how to overcome them

- how to use the sales deck to drive conversation

- how to set clear next steps

For most experienced reps, it was too detailed.

But for new reps, it was like I gave them a magical compass.

It was a blueprint for success.

Write it Down

The “How to Run a Demo” document started out as a 5-page outline for how to run a successful demo.

It eventually became our 80-page sales playbook that we used to scale our team to $30m in annual revenue.

And you should have a version of this for your own sales team.

It doesn’t have to be fancy. The design doesn’t matter.

The only thing that matters is that the content is helpful and informs the salesperson how to do their job.

When you put the sales process in writing, you are setting the floor for performance.

Without an objective sales process and objective metrics, you are leaving the sales execution to chance.

You cannot scale a sales team by hoping that your team will know what to do.

So write it down. Start today. The document will evolve as your team grows and as you learn more about how to sell your product.

But you know enough that you can start your sales playbook today.

Once you share this with your sales team, you will start to see more consistent action.

And we know that consistent inputs lead to consistent outputs.

If you want consistent inputs, you have to tell the team what you expect them to do.

Then hold them accountable to the expectations.