1. Never stop prospecting

Think like a grower: If you don’t plant, you won’t harvest. Even when bids won’t close for months, keep adding qualified prospects—property managers, facility directors, and GC partners—so the pipeline doesn’t run dry. Establish a weekly cadence: Begin with a phone call; leave a concise, value-focused voicemail when you miss them (which will happen most of the time); connect on LinkedIn; nurture with light engagement; and then ask for a meeting 60 to 90 days later. The outreach you do today becomes next quarter’s site trials and next year’s contract starts.

2. Think strategically, act consistently

Estimate a realistic timeline and map milestones to the buyer’s journey, including RFP windows, budget cycles, and incumbent end dates. Your job is to advance the decision a little with every touch: share short proof points (e.g., reduced slip-and-fall claims, gloss retention curves, labor-hour savings), offer a quick demo on one high-visibility area, or send an industry update tailored to their facility type. Against an incumbent, you’re positioning to be the obvious choice when the agreement renews, not trying to force a premature switch.

3. Keep your contacts current (high, wide, and deep)

Over long cycles, people move. Expand beyond one champion and keep details fresh: the budget owner, safety/risk, procurement, and the onsite supervisor who feels the daily pain. The broader your web, the more resilient your opportunity—and the more precise your understanding of what “value” means at that site (downtime windows, after-hours access, sustainability goals, or tenant satisfaction).

4. Be ready when the stars align

Deals close when need, solution, and timing intersect. Maybe the incumbent misses a shine standard, a CFO frees budget, or a new safety initiative prioritizes slip resistance. Because you’ve stayed present and added value, you can move quickly with a clear scope, competitive pricing options, and an implementation plan that minimizes disruption.

Winning long-cycle contracts isn’t passive waiting; it’s disciplined preparation. Keep prospecting, stay strategic and consistent, broaden relationships, and be ready to act the moment the window opens. That’s how you turn marathon cycles into durable, profitable floor-care partnerships. 

The post Mastering the Marathon: Winning Long-Cycle Floor-Care Contracts appeared first on Cleanfax.

Whether you have a team of low, high, or mixed performers, your job is to help those people perform better—at least up to their abilities. I’m not a fan of high turnover. It damages your company culture, the sales team’s morale, customer relationships, and your mindset. Sometimes, you do have to fire someone, but I like to feel that I can look at myself in the mirror and say that I’ve done everything I could to help them succeed before I fire them. That’s where a process of profitable behavior change comes in.

Profitable behavior change is done in three steps: Training, Coaching, and Accountability. Entirely too many managers (or owners) skip the first two steps and go straight to accountability. We hire them, but they don’t get results. We dictate, and then we fire them. That’s lame, it’s unfair, and it’s unprofitable. Let’s look at these three steps in a little more detail.

Training is the structured transfer of knowledge in a teaching environment. Essentially, training is built around the idea that we want our salesperson (or employees in general) to know certain things, so we are going to create a structured method of teaching them these things. The knowledge could be about the sales process, sales methodology, the company’s products, services, culture, business process, or any other pieces of knowledge they need to do the job correctly.

What distinguishes Training from Coaching is its preplanned nature and objectives. Training creates a baseline of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques you expect your people to know and implement. It lays out how you want business to be done and how you want your customers to be treated. It’s not a step to be skipped or a shortcut. Training should begin during the 90-day onboarding period after you hire a new salesperson. When should it stop? Never. Ongoing training reinforces and refreshes what’s been taught before, and it should also advance and build upon the skills baseline with new skills and techniques.

Sales training isn’t a one-time cure-all for what ails your sales team (I probably shouldn’t say that since it is a big part of my business, but there it is). Sales training is an excellent way to build your team’s skills, but it loses much of its effectiveness if management does not continually reinforce and refresh. Whatever sales training program you choose should be part of your sales culture and language, and it should be consistently updated to keep pace with buyer preferences and expectations (and the pace of that change is at an all-time high right now). What’s “tried and true” might be tried, but it might not necessarily be true now.

Coaching is also a transfer of knowledge, but it’s far less structured. Coaching, done properly, is an ongoing process of skills improvement with no fixed beginning, end, or pre-set curriculum. Coaching involves observing your salesperson’s behavior in a real-life selling environment (such as a ride-along for face-to-face sales calls or a listen-in for phone or video sales calls), finding opportunities to improve the way their customer reacts to their selling, and then helping them to build their skills in whatever area of selling you observe.

The biggest mistake that sales managers make when they attempt to coach is taking over the sales call and trying to make the sale for the rep instead of shutting up and letting the rep fail if necessary. I know. That’s hard. In fact, it was the most difficult thing I ever had to do as a sales manager. Watching a sales call go wrong is excruciating when you know exactly how to bring it back right. Remember that your job is to improve the rep’s skills on every call they make, and if you step in and sell, you’re only helping them on this call. You can’t always be there.

The second biggest mistake is to dictate instead of persuade. Coaching isn’t a dictatorial process of “You must do this;” but a persuasive process of “If you do this, here’s how you’ll benefit.” Use your selling skills in coaching—remembering that you’re trying to sell your rep on a new course of action.

The final method of profitable behavior change is the least fun: accountability. Now, you’re not persuading. “Holding people accountable” means acknowledging that they are deficient in some phase of their job, that you won’t accept that deficiency, and that they must correct it. This could be activity-based (maybe they aren’t hitting their activity numbers), it could be skills-based (perhaps they refuse to implement a critical sales skill despite having been trained and coached on it), or perhaps they are not treating co-workers well.

Now you have to say, “Do this, or else these consequences could come to you.” That doesn’t have to mean termination. It could mean losing territory or customers, entering a probationary period, or other smaller, short-term consequences. One thing to remember is this: In all but the most extreme behavioral problems (for instance, lying to customers, maltreatment of co-workers, etc.), you don’t have the standing to hold someone accountable over a behavior unless you’ve trained them and coached them on it already. At some point, if they refuse to succeed, yes, you have to terminate them—but it’s a progressive process.

Profitable behavior change is possible, enjoyable, and the best way to improve your team’s results. Remember and implement the three steps, and you’ll be fine.

The post How to Change Sales Behaviors appeared first on Cleanfax.

Here’s the thing: Sales managers have four distinct levels of control, which they should use in a specific order. Let me explain.

Level 1: Authority and Respect

This is where you should start, and it’s more powerful than most managers realize. When you’ve earned your team’s respect through your expertise and leadership, many behavioral changes can happen through simple influence. “Based on my experience, this new approach will improve your results” can be surprisingly effective when it comes from a leader the team trusts. In other words, you are selling behavioral change to your people at this level. They do it because you want them to do it.

But here’s the catch—you need a clear answer to the “Or what?” question even at this level. You don’t have to use it proactively, but you must be ready to use it if you are challenged. The consequence here is primarily the loss of your reasonable opinion and support. Don’t underestimate this. In sales, your future opportunities often depend on your manager’s recommendations and backing. I once worked with a sales organization where the top performer had amazing numbers but couldn’t get promoted because his past managers wouldn’t endorse him. His disregard for their guidance had cost him tens of thousands in potential earnings and a different career path than he wanted.

Level 2: Activity Management

Let’s say you’ve got a salesperson who isn’t buying in through respect alone. The next step is implementing specific activity metrics. For instance, if you need to focus more on new accounts, you might need to track daily prospecting calls. Or, if you’re trying to emphasize the investigation phase of the buyer’s journey, where the buyer’s needs and wants are prioritized, you might track discovery meetings that include technical resources.

The beauty of activity management is that it creates accountability without feeling punitive. The “Or what?” here is straightforward: fail to hit the metrics, and you’ll find yourself in daily coaching sessions, reviewing call logs, and having documented performance discussions. I recently saw a manager turn around a struggling rep by implementing simple tracking of the number of C-level conversations per week. Within two months, not only were the activities up, but the rep’s pipeline had doubled.

Level 3: Compensation Adjustments

This is where things get serious, and I’ve seen too many managers jump straight to this level —usually with poor results. Changing compensation should be your third option, not your first. You might adjust territory assignments, modify commission structures, or implement specific bonuses for desired behaviors.

The “Or what?” is evident here: don’t adapt, earn less money. But be careful. I once saw a company adjust its compensation plan to drive new account acquisition, only to watch its account retention plummet as its best relationship managers chased new business instead of maintaining existing accounts. They had to do a mid-year compensation adjustment to fix the problem, which created even more chaos. One of the worst things you can do with salespeople is constantly messing with their money; therefore, any compensation change should be something you’re willing to commit to for a few years, not a few weeks or months.

Another company for which I worked tried to use compensation to force the adoption of their new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, cutting commission rates for deals not properly documented in the system. Their top performers started looking for new jobs, and their mid-tier performers began entering fake data just to check the boxes. As I’ve noted before, CRM adoption can be made relatively easy and painless through effective management and training. Remember, compensation changes are like surgery—necessary sometimes but not your first treatment option.

Level 4: Direct Mandate

This is your nuclear option. “This is no longer optional. This is how we’re doing it.” Simple, direct, and usually a sign that you’ve got more significant problems than just the behavior you’re trying to change.

The “Or what?” here is crystal clear: comply or face progressive discipline, up to and including termination. At this point, you’re probably dealing with either a critical compliance issue or a complete breakdown in the manager-employee relationship. I recently consulted with a company that had to take this approach with their entire sales team regarding a new pricing structure. The results weren’t pretty. They lost three reps and spent six months rebuilding their pipeline.

Here’s the key point: Many sales managers start at level three or four, jumping straight to compensation changes or mandates. This is a mistake. Start with influence through earned respect. Move to activity management if needed. Use compensation changes sparingly and strategically. Save direct mandates for true emergencies or when all else has failed.

Remember, at each level, you must clearly answer the “Or what?” question before you start. Your salespeople will test you—maybe not explicitly, but they’ll probe to see if you’re serious about the change you’re requesting. Having your progression of consequences clearly thought out in advance isn’t simply good management—it’s survival.

One final thought: The best sales managers rarely need to go past level two. If you frequently resort to compensation changes or mandates, it might be time to look at your hiring process or leadership style. Because in sales management, like in sales itself, the best solutions usually don’t require force. I worked with one sales manager who hadn’t needed to make a single compensation adjustment in five years. His secret? He hired well, led by example, and built such strong relationships with his team that his influence alone was usually enough to drive change. That’s not just good management. That’s sales leadership at its finest.

The post The ‘Or What’ Question appeared first on Cleanfax.

But things were going so well…

I recently spoke with a business owner about prospecting and selling new accounts when the owner asked me an interesting question: “When should I stop worrying about selling new accounts?” My response is always the same: “You should never stop selling new business!” It’s been said that pride goeth before a fall. That’s probably true, but in business, complacency goeth before total collapse.

For a brief time, I worked for a company with an astounding growth rate. They went from zero to $35 million in annual revenue in 10 years—all on the skill set of some talented salespeople and excellent customer service. When they reached US$35 million, they decided to take a “break” from selling new business. Their logic was that they were making plenty of money, the people were happy, and selling new business placed unnecessary strain on their company’s infrastructure. Two short years later, they were making $17 million in annual revenue, losing big bucks, and panicking about the company’s longevity.

What happened to them isn’t uncommon. First, one big customer went into bankruptcy and ceased operations. Then, top management at another big customer was swept out, and new management wanted to use a different vendor than the old. Add in a customer death; they were down to $23 million in a few months. So, what happened to the rest of their business?

What happened?

Complacency is what happened. When the salespeople were told not to sell new business, a couple didn’t like it … but most did. Remember, everyone at this company was making big bucks, and relieving the salespeople of prospecting responsibility while keeping their compensation high was a dream job for many of them. Not all sales staff were financially affected by the collapse in revenues, and those who weren’t affected didn’t feel any real pressure to build the company back up.

Next, customer service went to hell in a handbasket. The intent of the “no new customers” mandate had been to make the customer service and production jobs easier, more pleasant, and more productive. It had the exact opposite effect. The customer service reps no longer had to deal with the changing needs of a sales force bent on growing the business, and they got fat and happy (not unlike the salespeople). Attention to detail and follow-up suffered. Production expanded what work they had to fill the time allotted since there was no pressure to get orders out to impress new customers. The whole thing took on the customer-friendly atmosphere of your average Department of Motor Vehicles office.

In a nutshell, an entire company got lazy. That $35 million looked good, but they didn’t count on normal customer attrition. Granted, it’s unusual to lose three huge customers within a few months’ time, but it’s not so uncommon that you can think, “It would never happen to me.” The salespeople, customer service, and production people who were only too happy to shift into “maintenance” mode found it challenging to shift back into “hit the bricks and sell” mode. The company struggled mightily with these issues. Ownership didn’t help much, either—as the company lost big money, they jetted to vacation homes and bought new Mercedes and Porsches instead of tending to business.

Salespeople aren’t immune to this syndrome either. Salespeople can attain a certain income level and decide it’s “enough” to live on. Like the people at the company discussed above, it is tougher to restart prospecting than never to stop. I once interviewed a gentleman for a sales position who had a long background in the industry that I was working in, had worked with many of the same types of clients that I wanted to do business with, and presented himself very well.

The chinks in the armor showed when he told me how he built a $1.5 million per year territory (very impressive in that particular industry and time) by prospecting and cold calling and bragged that he had been working with many of his customers for more than ten years. When I asked him how much business he was doing at the present, he replied that he was doing about $350,000 annually. It was elementary to drill down and find out that he had built this significant territory, stopped prospecting, lost customers to the usual attrition, and not filled his sales funnel with new prospects and new business. His plan, in fact, was to bring his business (what was left of it) over to my company and presumably ride it all the way down to zero. Not surprisingly, I didn’t hire him, and I don’t know if anyone else did.

Never fall into the trap of complacency

The lesson here is crystal clear: Never stop selling. Complacency is a silent killer in the sales world, sneaking up on even the most successful businesses and individuals. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you’ve “made it” and can coast on your current customer base. But the hard truth is, customers come and go, sometimes in bunches, and often when you least expect it.

Savvy sales managers and top salespeople know that keeping that sales funnel full is the key to long-term success. Always be prospecting, always be looking for new opportunities, and always be hungry for growth. It’s not just about hitting your numbers today; it’s about ensuring you’ll still be in the game tomorrow, next year, and a decade from now. Remember, in sales, the moment you stop moving forward is the moment you start sliding backward. Keep selling, keep growing, and never, ever get complacent.

The post Complacency appeared first on Cleanfax.

With millennials now making up most of the workforce and Gen Z close behind, you might need to evolve your hiring practices to continue attracting top young sales talent. The old way of hiring salespeople—putting out a basic job description and waiting for resumes to trickle in—just won’t cut it anymore for recruiting younger generations. I’ve seen this in working with my clients and I noticed some new methods do generate remarkable results.

Sales managers must take a more proactive and strategic approach to stand out and connect with qualified candidates. Here are six updated hiring techniques proven to be successful in reaching younger sales professionals.

1 | Showcase your company culture

“Culture” isn’t just a buzzword anymore. Today’s younger workforce values culture, flexibility, and purpose when job seeking. They look for it when checking out jobs.

Showcase what makes your company culture and job opportunities unique when recruiting. Highlight your culture on your careers page, company website, and job posts. Let candidates know if you offer benefits like remote work options (sales is well positioned for this, in my opinion) and professional development programs. These attract young talent. Use images, videos, and employee spotlights so candidates can get a feel for your work environment.

Culture can make or break whether you connect with younger applicants. One key is that whatever you do, it must be authentic. Understand that even if you fake your culture, sites like Glassdoor will quickly let candidates know the truth.

2 | Leverage social sourcing

Younger generations live their lives online and on social media. It would help if you incorporated social sourcing strategies into your hiring process to connect with sales talent where they already spend time.

Strategically post job openings in relevant Facebook and LinkedIn groups in your industry. Share and engage with content from top performers and rising sales stars you’d like to recruit and connect with. You can also identify passive candidates by searching profiles with relevant backgrounds or skills.

Social recruiting allows you to grab the attention of talented individuals who aren’t actively job seeking. This also means being innovative with respect to your recruiting message. Don’t be afraid to step out of your lane and try things like a video job ad (keep it to 60 seconds or less) or memes (funny or serious).

Post not only to the “normal” media like LinkedIn and Facebook, but also consider TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram.  Remember, you can’t hire people if they don’t know you are hiring. Don’t be snobbish about the way you get your candidates. Just get them.

3 | Highlight development opportunities

Younger sales applicants care about career growth and acquiring new skills. If your company lacks structured development programs, highlight other growth opportunities in your job posts and outreach.

Better yet, build some structured development programs, starting with your 90-day onboarding program (you have one of those, right?). Mention if top performers have a chance to take on mentees, have access to skill-building resources, or can participate in stretch assignments. You want candidates to see that your company supports professional advancement so they envision future opportunities. And have one-on-one meetings with candidates, that’s powerful.

4 | Showcase tech stack

Millennials and Gen-Z candidates expect companies to harness modern technologies and encourage innovation from employees.

When recruiting sales talent, thoroughly describe your tech stack, such as sales engagement platforms, LinkedIn integration, data analytics, and automation tools you leverage (and if you aren’t already, get comfortable with phrases like “tech stack”). Discuss how your sales team utilizes technology to enhance productivity. Today, you’d better be comfortable discussing artificial intelligence (AI) as a sales tool. You want tech-savvy candidates to see you provide cutting-edge resources to drive results.

By the way, if you aren’t using tech to drive sales results, start doing it. The sales profession isn’t going to be backtracking to a low-tech environment anytime soon.

5 | Convey company mission and impact

Younger people increasingly seek out purpose-driven work. When recruiting new team members, sales managers should communicate how their company’s mission makes a difference and highlight recent company impact metrics.

For example, explain how your product or service tangibly helps customers. If you have community involvement programs, those should be part of your messaging.

One fear I’ve heard is that sales managers are reluctant to get into politics with candidates. That’s fine; you don’t need to. Companies can be seen as positive without being seen as taking a particular political stance.

6 | Respond quickly

Social media has conditioned younger generations to expect quick likes, comments, and attention. If you want to succeed in hiring, get used to doing the same. This may take some effort, but it’s worth it to get the best results.

I used to recommend that managers collect resumes for a week, sort through them, pick ones to call, and then call. Now, the best practice is to receive a resume, do a quick scan of it, and then call right then. If your candidate doesn’t answer, you should also email and text. You want the candidate to get that quick dopamine hit that comes with an immediate response and then give multiple ways to get back to you.

Never mistake this: You are competing for talent in a highly competitive environment. If some of the tactics above resemble ways that you’d compete for customers, that’s not an accident. Compete for sales talent with the same intensity as you compete for customers. If you do this, you’ll have a great sales team and will leave many of your competitors behind.

The post Attracting Younger Sales Talent appeared first on Cleanfax.

With millennials now making up most of the workforce and Gen Z close behind, you might need to evolve your hiring practices to continue attracting top young sales talent. The old way of hiring salespeople–putting out a basic job description and waiting for resumes to trickle in–just won’t cut it anymore for recruiting younger generations. I’ve seen this in working with my clients, and I’ve seen some new methods generate remarkable results.

Sales managers must take a more proactive and strategic approach to stand out and connect with qualified candidates. Here are six updated hiring techniques that have been shown to be successful in reaching younger sales professionals.

Showcase your company culture

“Culture” isn’t just a buzzword anymore. Today’s younger workforce values culture, flexibility, and purpose when job seeking.

Showcase what makes your company culture and job opportunities unique when recruiting. Highlight your culture on your careers page, company website, and job posts. Let candidates know if you offer benefits like remote work options (sales is well positioned for this, in my opinion) and professional development programs. These attract young talent. Use images, videos, and employee spotlights so candidates can get a feel for your work environment.

Culture can make or break whether you connect with younger applicants. One key is that whatever you do, it must be authentic. Understand that even if you fake your culture, sites like Glassdoor will quickly let candidates know the truth.

Leverage social sourcing

Younger generations live their lives online and on social media. It would help if you incorporated social sourcing strategies into your hiring process to connect with talent where they already spend time.

Strategically post job openings in relevant Facebook and LinkedIn groups in your industry. Share and engage with content from top performers and rising sales stars you’d like to recruit and connect with. You can also identify passive candidates by searching profiles with relevant backgrounds or skills.

Social recruiting allows you to grab the attention of talented individuals who aren’t actively job seeking. This also means being innovative with respect to your recruiting message. Don’t be afraid to step out of your lane and try things like a video job ad (keep it to 60 seconds or less) or memes (funny or serious).

Post not only to the “normal” mediums like LinkedIn and Facebook, but also consider TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram.  Remember, you can’t hire them if they don’t know you are hiring. Don’t be snobbish about the way you get your candidates. Just get them.

Highlight development opportunities

Younger sales talent care about career growth and acquiring new skills. If your company lacks structured development programs, highlight other growth opportunities in your job posts and outreach.

Better yet, build some structured development programs, starting with your 90-day onboarding program (you have one of those, right?). Mention if top performers have a chance to take on mentees, have access to skill-building resources, or can participate in stretch assignments. You want candidates to see that your company supports professional advancement so they envision future opportunities. Having one-on-one meetings with candidates to discuss career path trajectories are also powerful.

Showcase tech stack

Millennials and Gen Z candidates expect companies to harness modern technologies and encourage innovation from employees.

When recruiting, thoroughly describe your tech stack, such as sales engagement platforms, LinkedIn integration, data analytics, and automation tools you leverage (and if you aren’t already, get comfortable with phrases like “tech stack”). Discuss how your sales team utilizes technology to enhance productivity. Today, you’d better be comfortable discussing artificial intelligence (AI) as a sales tool. You want tech-savvy candidates to see you provide cutting-edge resources to drive results.

By the way, if you aren’t using tech to drive sales results, start doing it. The sales profession isn’t going to be backtracking to a low-tech environment anytime soon.

Convey company mission and impact

Younger people increasingly seek out purpose-driven work. When recruiting new team members, sales managers should communicate how their company’s mission makes a difference and highlight recent company impact metrics.

For example, explain how your product or service tangibly helps customers. If you have community involvement programs, those should be part of your messaging.

One fear I’ve heard is that sales managers are reluctant to get into politics with candidates. That’s fine; you don’t need to. Companies can be seen as positive without being seen as taking a particular political stance.

Respond quickly

Social media has conditioned younger generations to expect quick likes, comments, and attention. If you want to succeed in hiring, get used to doing the same.

I used to recommend that managers collect resumes for a week, sort through them, pick ones to call, and then call. Now, the best practice is to receive a resume, do a quick scan of it, and then call right then. If your candidate doesn’t answer, you should also email and text. You want the candidate to get that quick dopamine hit that comes with an immediate response and then give multiple ways to get back to you.

Never mistake this: You are competing for talent in a highly competitive environment. If some of the tactics above resemble ways that you’d compete for customers, that’s not an accident. Compete for sales talent with the same intensity as you compete for customers. If you do this, you’ll have a great sales team and leave many of your competitors behind.

Author Troy Harrison is a speaker, consultant, and sales navigator, who has written two books: Sell Like You Mean It! and The Pocket Sales Manager. For more information, visit TroyHarrison.com.

The post Recruiting Younger Sales Talent appeared first on Cleanfax.