When your sales numbers are declining, you start to look for ways to get them back up, such as analyzing buying behaviours, adjusting marketing techniques, and providing additional training. Sometimes these adjustments work, but other times, they don’t change a thing.

One of the most difficult decisions a CEO will have to make when sales just aren’t where they are supposed to be, despite all her efforts, is to completely deconstruct and rebuild the company’s sales team. Though it is an intervention that no CEO ever really wants to have to undertake, sometimes it’s necessary. So, if your sales situation is looking bleaker by the day and you need to start getting proactive, here are some ways to rebuild your sales team from the ground up in order to stay in business.

Analyze Your Problems

You cannot find a solution to your sales problems if you don’t know the problems you are facing first. Once you firmly understand where you went wrong with your last sales team, you will be able to learn from your mistakes and avoid having the same issues in the future. For example, if you know that your past sales people were lacking morale, make a point to create incentives with your new sales team in order to keep morale high. If you see that your old sales people were lazy and unmotivated, only hire new employees who have the opposite qualities.

Do not allow yourself to fall into the same trap and end up in the exact same situation where you have to rebuild your sales team again in a couple years from now. Make changes with your sales team that will allow that department to thrive for the long haul.

Recruit the Best in the Business

If you remove your sales team in order to get fresh blood into your business, don’t just get the same types of employees you just let go. Recruit the very best people in your business in order to make changes happen. Ensure that your new sales people are confident, assertive, persistent, optimistic go-getters who will stop at nothing to get the sale. Review their past performances at other firms, and most of all, let them sell themselves to you. If they can effectively sell themselves to you and have you eating out of their hands, then you know they can sell anything. If you don’t have the time or eye for recruiting that you need to find the right people for the new sales team, engage a sales recruiter to find them for you. They have the skills and experience necessary to find the best talent in your industry.

Motivate and Inspire

You might be frustrated that you have to rebuild your sales team, train them, and trust them to represent your company. Do not let this frustration show. Your new employees need motivation and inspiration to go out there and sell your products or services. They do not need to worry about fearing you. They need leadership and an effective role model in order to become the strong sales team you have been working so hard to acquire.

Rebuild Your Sales Approaches, Too

Your old sales team might have been a problem that needed fixing. However, it might not have been your only problem. Analyze your sales approaches, look at which tactics were working and which weren’t and simultaneously restructure how you go about selling your products or services, too.

Unfortunately, sometimes you need to make the difficult decision of rebuilding your sales team from the ground up in order to increase sales, gain a competitive edge, or simply survive. In order to reverse your downward sales spiral, you need to learn from your mistakes, recruit the very best sales people in the business to make up your new sales team, motivate and inspire them, and simultaneously rebuild your selling techniques.