Selling Power Blog

Get a Big Sales Coaching Boost for Your Salespeople Right Now

Today's post is by Ed Ross, CEO and founder of The CORE Results, Inc.

 

 

We’re hearing a lot about which businesses are “essential” and “non-essential” in this pandemic. No matter what condition the market is in, I think we can all agree that sales teams are in the “essential” category. Salespeople will drive your ongoing operations and may even help you tailor your offerings to appeal to markets with growth opportunity. 

Sales Coaching Is Critical to Success

That said, this is a new world for salespeople, and they’ll need proper coaching to find their footing and yield the best performance. (Salesforce research indicates that 67 percent of companies that have had a formal sales coaching program in place for three years or more experienced high revenue growth.) 

For the time being, this coaching will have to happen remotely. At The CORE Results, our AI-enabled approach to sales coaching was developed to maximize a sales manager’s ability to leverage data to improve the level of individual, targeted training – absent the need for physical interaction.  

How AI Enables Great Remote Sales Coaching 

Innovations in machine learning and AI are leading the way to fully automated, personalized sales coaching programs built on precise insights and remote interactions. 

Real-time coaching fosters greater coaching competence and proficiency among managers (so you support your team at all levels – both managers and sellers). Our system helps you in the following ways. 

• Takes the guesswork out of sales coaching. For decades, sales managers have led teams by relying on instinct while cherry picking data buried in multiple systems. This is time consuming and, honestly, an elaborate form of A/B testing.
  
  Our technology identifies coachable moments for the sales manager and the individual contributors throughout a coaching interaction by establishing clear and concise actions to advance an opportunity in the sales process. Focusing on the core behaviors aligned to each stage and/or milestone enables sales organizations to increase sales-funnel velocity. 
  
  
• Helps you coach efficiently and with greater precision to save time. One of our global healthcare clients has used our system to provide just the right amount of coaching for each salesperson on his team.
  
  As he put it: “There’s never enough time in the day to spend time with every rep, on every deal. CORE’s dashboard allows me to quickly see my team’s progress, then drill down to gain insight into each rep’s individual skills and competencies. With this level of visibility, I know exactly where I need to focus on developing an employee – whether a top performer or rising star. We’ve never had insights like these all in a mobile platform. It has allowed me to be more effective as a coach, in less time.”
  
  
• Fine tunes your sales coaching insights and increases deal velocity. Our proprietary technologies analyze emotion, context, and sentiment in real time for nuanced coaching insights. Because interactions on our platform are powered by AI, our system delivers more precise and useful suggested action steps the more you use it.
  
  We’re on track to create a fully automated cycle in which sales managers receive the key insights, feedback, and analysis they need to be exceptional sales coaches, while also sharpening their skills. When insights are converted into predictive analytics about selling and coaching behaviors, they have a great impact on deal lifespan and revenue. 
  
  
• Accelerates sales managers’ progression from individual contributor to game-changing sales coach. Recently promoted a rep to manager? This transition often leaves the new manager feeling overwhelmed and under-prepared. Our Six Elements of Coaching™ methodology enhances your newly-promoted manager’s ability to measure key competencies of individual sales representatives, as well as analyze the performance of the entire team. This data can then be combined to understand and improve the proficiency of a sales manager’s coaching ability.

During this time, it is more important than ever that we all leverage technology to stay productive and keep sales moving forward. Adopt remote sales coaching strategies today that will yield your team greater success tomorrow and beyond. 

For more insights about sales coaching, download the Six Elements of Coaching Guide.

How to Equip Your Team for Virtual Selling

Today's blog post is by Ben Taylor. He is the content marketing manager at Richardson. He has an MBA in finance from LaSalle University and over a decade of business and writing experience. He has covered content for brands such as Nasdaq, Barclaycard, and Business Insider.

 

Virtual selling requires more than a camera.

Sales teams are discovering that virtual selling is different from executing normal sales conversations in front of a screen. They are learning that being effective over video requires more than simply transferring in-person selling skills to a video interface. 

Understanding these new skills is critical because virtual selling isn’t temporary; it will become an accepted method of business as selling organizations become accustomed to the time and money saved with an approach that doesn’t require travel or logistical burdens. 

Let’s look at the top selling skills salespeople need to move sales forward and close deals while working remotely. 

Skill #1: Pace yourself so you have energy to engage customers.  

Selling virtually can be unexpectedly draining. 

During in-person sales presentations, individual sales professionals have an opportunity to catch their breath as they hand off the floor to a teammate. In a virtual setting, this recovery time is not possible. Every sales professional is always on camera. Therefore, they must be engaged – and engaging – from beginning to end. 

Maintaining continuous engagement is difficult because a virtual connection often lacks the energy sharing that occurs when everyone is in the same room. The spontaneity of lively discussion can feel dampened as individuals wait for their opportunity to talk or when customers choose to mute themselves. 

The solution to these challenges is to enter every virtual sales presentation and discussion with the expectation that it will require enormous energy and stamina. Knowing this aspect of virtual selling in advance prevents the unexpected exhaustion (which some are referring to as “Zoom gloom”) that can set in during the second half of the call. 

Tip #2: Embrace difficult questions to advance the sale. 

Your customers face new and unexpected challenges right now. In nearly all cases, the customer’s challenges have intensified and become more near-term. 

Many customers are seeking ways to maintain revenue and preserve capital amid growing threats from diminishing GDP. This reality of our current economy has changed the dynamic of the sales conversation. The customer’s challenges will shape your key selling challenges. 

Helping customers clarify the specific nature of these challenges is critical to properly positioning the right solution. The problem: Seeking clarity on these issues means asking the kinds of questions that may yield unpleasant truths. Sales professionals who fear this discomfort choose to avoid sensitive topics.

A better approach: Face this stress directly. Sensitive questions are necessary. In fact, avoiding such questions “can be economically costly,” according to social science research from The University of Pennsylvania. The researchers worked with nearly 1,000 participants in their study. After reviewing the findings, they determined that “question askers believe that asking sensitive questions will cause greater discomfort than they actually do, and they expect that asking sensitive questions will harm the respondent’s impression of them more than they actually do.” So, go ahead and ask sensitive questions. 

Doing so often fosters a sense of candor that advances the relationship and encourages openness among the stakeholders.    

Tip #3: Safeguard against external distractions.

Distractions have an outsized influence on virtual selling. Stakeholders are either at their screen or in a conference room with their phone or individual laptop nearby. As a result, they are still exposed to the alerts, updates, emails, and notifications that have become the “white noise” of our daily lives.

In an in-person setting, these distractions are limited because social norms keep people focused on the speaker. However, in a virtual setting, stakeholders can listen to and respond to these distractions inconspicuously. Therefore, sales professionals need to take a proactive stance against distractions that are unseen but not uncommon.

Sales professionals can overcome this characteristic of virtual selling by asking individual stakeholders for their feedback. This person-to-person approach keeps stakeholders alert because they know they may receive a question about their opinion at any time. This interactive approach encourages participants to keep their video and microphone on.

The key is to avoid a one-way conversation in which the sales professional merely presents information. A conversational approach is more effective because it keeps distractions to a minimum, and it enables the sales professional to understand the details behind the customer’s challenges and goals.

Succeeding in selling virtually requires understanding the new rules of engagement. As this approach to business normalizes, sales professionals need to develop heightened energy, incisive questions, and a proactive approach to distractions to succeed.

For more insight about transitioning your sales team to sell virtually, check out Richardson’s Virtual Selling Training Program.

How to Find Your Next Remarkable Selling Idea

In March of this year, just before social distancing started in response to the coronavirus pandemic, I hosted the Sales 3.0 Conference in Orlando (along with our amazing Chief Networking Officer, Alice Heiman).

During one of the breaks at the event, I recorded a video interview with ConnectAndSell CEO Chris Beall. I always love talking with Chris. He is an original thinker, a true fan of the science of selling, and always has great, transformative ideas to share.

Even as of March 11, Chris could feel the fear taking over the world of business and sales. As he acknowledged in our interview, this fear is not altogether unfounded. However, we must ultimately meet fear with two things: courage and creativity.

We're living in a historic time, and B2B sales teams need creativity and courage. They need transformative ideas to turn customer fears into mutual value. But where will these ideas come from?  

What Makes a Great Selling Idea? 

The American philosopher Mortimer Adler once directed a team of experts, who wrote two books containing the 102 greatest ideas that shaped our world. Adler’s team rated the books of great minds from Aristotle to Albert Einstein and extracted all the great ideas they had come up with in their lifetime. Adler defines an idea as an “object of thought that we cannot touch, or perceive with our senses, but that, as thinking individuals, we can discuss with one another.”

The interesting part is that it is the quality of our conversation that either shrinks a great idea or enhances the idea to the next level, where it becomes transformative. Transformative ideas contain the key to sales success.

Great Ideas Begin with Great Questions

Werner Heisenberg, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932, once said, “Nature does not reveal its secrets. It only responds to our method of questioning.”

A salesperson’s method of questioning can determine the success or failure of a sales call. Customers appreciate a salesperson who leads them to think and causes them to critically examine their situation through the lens of a great question.

While good salespeople persuade their customers with great (but often prepackaged) answers, great salespeople ask great questions that transform the customer’s position from a sales target to a cocreator of the sale.

How The Right Questions Can Push the Sale Forward

Let’s assume we’re engaged in a thoughtful conversation about current events. For example, we might discuss a news item we both read about research being conducted to find a COVID-19 vaccine. Without a doubt, our conversation will reveal our understanding of what’s good or bad, and it may cause us to review what’s right and wrong. The chain of ideas could lead, through artful questions, to a better understanding of what both parties value.

While a conversation about current events leads to a chain of ideas that helps us better understand the world we live in, a great conversation with a prospect will help us understand the customer’s world. As a result, we will be able to generate better ideas for creating customer value with our solutions.

Asking great questions can often lead to great responses from customers. But here is the big challenge: How do we process the customer’s response? By listening actively, we will get much closer to the great selling idea that will add value to the customer’s business.

Listening to the customer is similar to catching a baseball. It takes an agile mind and body to catch a ball thrown by a professional player. One customer may throw a curveball, another may send a fastball, and yet another could launch a knuckleball. The goal of active listening is to catch more balls, which ensures complete understanding of the customer’s true situation.

Five Qualities that Can Yield Great Selling Ideas

Top salespeople develop the five qualities listed below and, in turn, come up with the great selling ideas that lead to more sales.

1. The ability to recognize and understand a great idea during a conversation with the customer. This is the starting point for all good selling. Top salespeople speak two languages: the customer’s language and the company’s language. In essence, great salespeople are like ambassadors who speak the language of the host country and their own county.

2. The ability to analyze an idea. Top salespeople will look at a customer’s problem from many different angles with the help of smart questions. Examples: “What would be the cost of doing nothing? If it turned out that we found a solution, what would be the impact on your business?”

The salesperson’s job is to extract enough information from the prospect to be able to define the core problem and establish a value for the solution.

3. The ability to objectively compare one idea with another. Top salespeople will lead the conversation to an observation point, at which the customer can objectively compare where the path leads by adopting solution A or pursuing solution B. Comparisons are near impossible when salespeople are unable to appraise a situation objectively.

4. The ability to place the ideas on a map that lead to the best solution. Great salespeople are like mapmakers, and they show their customers where they are on the map, how far they can go, and how to get there.

5. The capacity to assign a value to each idea. Top salespeople will break down the value of the final solution into concrete numbers: time saved, money saved, troubles avoided, reduction in cost, gains in productivity, etc.

The big idea is not to prepackage ideas before visiting the customer, but to engage the customer and then co-create the idea that you placed on the map before the call. In the ideal scenario, your customers will end up thinking that it was actually their idea that created the solution. The smart salesperson will always give the customer the credit, while he or she gets the commission.

Join Me for the Virtual Sales 3.0 Leadership Summit

During the coronavirus pandemic, courage and creativity will lead to transformative ideas among sales teams. And your ideas will give you the cutting edge you need to win and remain competitive.

I'm excited Selling Power will partner to produce the new Virtual Sales 3.0 Leadership Summit on May 28. Top B2B sales experts and sales leaders will be on hand to answer all your pressing questions (live) about how you can succeed and thrive amid via virtual selling and making human connections with customers.

My good friend Chris Beall will be there -- he's already shared some interesting data on LinkedIn illustrating how sales reps are using ConnectAndSell to connect with customers in high volume while they work from home. Our agenda so far includes these topics and more will be announced soon. 

• Creating a Revenue Resilient Sales Team
• How B2B Decision Makers are Responding to the Coronavirus Crisis
• Six Great Strategies for Selling in Tough Times

Register now for this FREE event and as a bonus you'll receive 500 free prospects from our data partner, MountainTop Data. 

In the meantime, keep asking questions that move the sale forward. I wish you good luck and good selling! 

 

How to Be Ready to Serve Customers in the New Normal

Today's post is by Mike Fisher, master facilitator with Integrity Solutions and chief sales officer of Sales Bullpen.

 

In the mere months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, much has been written about the need to adjust to a new normal in how we’re doing business – and from where. We get it: We’re all working from home. We’re socially distanced. And we’re collaborating in new ways. Yet, as we continue to make sense of all that, one question looms large: When the day comes, what are we going back to? 

Said another way: What’s next – in how we’ll serve customers, lead teams, and collaborate with each other? 

Are You Planning for Sales Success? 

Permit me to skip the one question that is hotly debated lately: When? Nobody really knows. Let’s just say it’s someday, and maybe soon. In fact, it may have already started for you – depending on where you are and when you’re reading this. And, as we know, not everyone is shut down – many people in essential jobs never stopped working.

But, whenever everything starts again for most of us, we can guarantee that the world into which we reemerge will be different from the one we left behind.

Now’s the time to look at that and think through some important issues. How can we make the best use of the time we have now to get ready – even if we don’t have all the answers?

As I think this through myself, I’m reminded of the times I’ve been to a busy fast-food place or a bustling coffee shop – standing in line for 5-10 minutes as the line inches forward. There’s always the risk that a person one or two in front of me, as he or she steps up to order, will utter, “Um, huh, let me see now…” and then spend another few agonizing minutes scanning the menu before deciding what to order. 

Here’s what’s most maddening in such a scenario: Number one, they have already had five or more minutes to read through the menu and decide. And number two: They have been there hundreds of times, no doubt. 

Top Considerations for Sales Leaders Right Now

In terms of where we all are now, one goal now needs to be: Don’t be that person. You should be ready when it is your turn to order. Before we’re ready to get back in the game more fully, we need to know that, if we’re not ready to operate in a new-new normal – if we drop the ball in any number of key areas – that might be just the spark to inspire a customer to go elsewhere.

Without attempting to have all the answers, here’s what to think about now:

Preparation is key: When this thing breaks loose, you cannot afford to have set-backs. Your people all need to be forward thinking, not excuse making. No hiccups allowed: You have had time to prepare, so your supply chain, inventory, distribution, and more all need to be at the top of their game.

Things will be different: Some of your customers were hit really hard; some may not be there. You will need to prepare to develop new relationships. Asking how their business has changed and how you can best serve them is good practice. 

Needs have changed: Do not assume things are the same as before you left. For example, in the medical device field, when elective surgeries open up, the need for inventory and a fast process will be high. Prepare and put these systems in place right now. Communicate with your customers now and try to forecast if you are in an industry with a similar situation.

Top people are accessible: Business owners are accessible right now. Many gate keepers are not there to answer calls, so don’t be afraid to pick up the phone – you might just have a direct line to your prospect.  

Expect orphan accounts: Let’s be honest: Some businesses will not survive this, leaving their customers looking for the services you provide. “We are offering this, this, and this to our customers. We would love to serve you as well…” 

No doubt many of the points I raise here will spark a pain or two, as you grapple with intangibles or find yourself in a haze of ambiguity. That’s to be expected, but don’t give up on working through some important questions that will help you prepare. There’s so much at stake. 

I spoke to a business owner recently and he confessed to me his biggest fear: He didn’t want to let down his team. He said, “I am writing the chapters now of how I handled this storm. I want to look back and know I communicated with my team effectively and made good choices.”  

That’s as good a motivation as any, in my view. Make the decisions on how you work with your customers now, based on how you want them to judge you after – because that is exactly what they will do.

For more information visit www.integritysolutions.com.

How Companies Can Leverage AI to Benefit Sales

Today’s post is by Matt Langie, CMO at XANT.

 

 

We have all seen enough Hollywood movies to know the stereotypes of sales. The sunburned door-to-door suspect. The slicked-back smooth talker at the car lot. The buttoned-up professional in the boardroom. Among the more recent additions is the caffeine-driven tech bro working the phones and email.

Good Sales Leads Always Drive Revenue

But the one thing these caricatures tend to get right is the driving need for good leads. Good leads have always been the backbone of any sales organization to build pipeline and drive revenue.

With each new technological revolution, the way sales teams found, sorted, and pursued leads improved. The humble act of knocking on doors drastically decreased as more households adopted the telephone. Cold calling began to disappear as computers helped teams find better targets and communication preferences shifted from phone to email.

However, even as more sales representatives adopt digital communication, they struggle to get the right data to do their jobs. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) can take sales to the next level. AI is not just a reworking of tried-and-true technology; it is a genuine game changer. Companies that utilize AI to drive sales leads are finding that it does more than just level the playing field – it raises the entire field. These companies are becoming more efficient and reaching more of the right prospects, at the right times, in the right ways. 

Find Sales Leads More Efficiently with AI

There are three primary ways companies can reap the benefits of AI for sales:

1. Implementing data algorithms that comprise the right statistical and machine learning code that helps an AI learn data patterns.
   
   The right data algorithms can fuel automation capabilities to improve the sales process. Those same algorithms can also enable automation to improve a sales rep’s visibility and productivity. Utilizing these algorithms correctly breaks down which sales activities will have the greatest impact, at the right time of day. 
   
   
2. Gathering enough data volume and depth of information so AI algorithms can sort, compile, and understand these inputs.
   
   CRM and sales activity data can be merged, anonymized, encrypted, and enriched. Once complete, that processed data can be used to train AI models that deliver predictive insights to sales organizations. This will help sales reps target the right customers – improving the quality and effectiveness of any given engagement. 
   
   
3. Ensuring proper data quality – including variability, freshness, and uniqueness – so AI can provide the best outputs.
   
   By enriching and extending customer data, an AI system can best identify not only whom to target, but, more importantly, how they behave and how to best engage them. 
   
   This enables every sales representative to effectively execute a “cadence” when they reach out via email, phone, social media, etc., to initiate a conversation with a potential prospect. The art of a cadence is determined based on myriad factors, fueled primarily by the quality of data regarding the company and contact being pursued.

These three levers help sales teams produce exceptional data intelligence and, in turn, more sales. The intelligence behind these levers is also not new – essentially, sales leads have been driven by patterns, raw data, and quality for many years. But AI helps leverage much larger datasets than ever before, find the best variables and fit, and then predict business outcomes with high accuracy.

Imagine a world with no more cold calling and fewer leads that turn out to be duds? Imagine a world where you’re not wasting time and resources selling to the wrong individual at a company? Using AI to improve leads and manage the sales team will make everyone from the EVP of sales to the junior associates happy, which will turn around the stereotypes and present a kinder, gentler form of salesperson. Where will scriptwriters turn in the future for examples of burned-out, frustrated professionals? Maybe the marketing team.

Is Your Sales Culture Strong Enough to Overcome Adversity?

Today’s guest post is by Shannon Holmes, president of DoubleDigit Sales. Connect with Shannon on LinkedIn.

 

When daily routine, work life, and business have been upended by a crisis, you’re suddenly faced with the task of establishing a new normal for your sales team. How you lead during this crisis will determine how well your sales force is positioned for success when the situation recovers.

As your team turns to you for guidance, the best way you can offer support is to nurture a strong sales culture – the attitudes, behaviors, and values consistently demonstrated by your sales team. A strong culture will help your team stay motivated and engaged during this time.

To start, take stock of your current sales culture. Your sales culture plan for this year serves as a great guide. Reflect on each element to determine what stays the same and what needs to adapt given the current reality. Then, you’re ready for action.

Be a Great Sales Coach

Although your schedule is likely hectic right now, it’s critical that you dedicate time to managing your sales team. One-on-one coaching conversations help salespeople build confidence and skills, with the outcome of achieving consistent results.

Adapt your approach to the individual. Together, determine the frequency of your meetings given the current context (e.g., you may want to meet more frequently than usual) and format (e.g., phone call vs. video). 

The winning formula to coaching your team is to question better, confirm more, and respond less. Before providing your feedback, encourage your team members to self-reflect – and listen to what they share.

Instill Confidence by Developing Skills

Your sales team will need to be skillful in handling the tough client conversations they’re facing. More than ever, salespeople must be consultative and agile in order to be a good partner.

With work-from-home policies – and, potentially, lighter workloads – in effect, now is an opportunity to fine-tune your team’s sales skills. Explore virtual sales training solutions offered in a series of bite-sized sessions that enable individuals to apply their learning immediately. Training will help your team stay sharp and focused through challenging times.

Engage Your Idle Sales Team 

In many industries, buyers will not be making purchase decisions during this crisis. That said, having fewer opportunities doesn’t mean your team should sit idly. Brainstorm together and get creative.

Develop an empathetic approach to selling that reflects company values and respects the sensitive nature of this situation.

Perhaps your product can meet a new need that has arisen in the marketplace. Or, lead with the heart and simply check in on clients instead of trying to sell. Brainstorming with your team will not only bring about tactics that support them, but also generate excitement during a tough sales period. 

Build Routine to Stay Connected

Lastly, it’s crucial to your sales culture to maintain rhythm and routine amidst this uncertainty. Communication is more important now than ever, so review your schedule to identify meetings that need to be added or removed.

Determine the format of meetings based on the value they will bring. Not all require video, though face-to-face time with your team creates connection. Calls, messages, and emails will also be helpful as you continue to engage with individuals.

Remember to inject some fun, too. Book informal video calls where a team member hosts a workout, a board game lunch, or coffee time. In formal ways or otherwise, staying connected boosts team morale.

The reality we’re facing right now is complex, and we’re all figuring out how to navigate it. Focusing on your sales culture is the best way to help your team remain strong through adversity. This time of crisis will pass and, when it does, your sales team – and culture – will be more resilient than ever.

To learn more about driving sales culture, visit doubledigitsales.com.

The Best Sales Training Tool to Win More Conversions

Today’s post is by David Varner, author of The Sales ChecklistTM: Get It Right Every Time! 

 

I’ve been in the sales training industry for the better part of 20 years, and I’ve observed countless companies re-implement their sales training or pursue the latest shiny new thing. 

I’m not talking about ongoing sales skills development and optimization. I’m talking about the belief that their overall sales process isn’t yielding enough conversions to sales. In response, sales leaders feel the need to start over, invest in more training, “and do it right this time.” 

Why Is the Average Closing Rate Only 25 Percent? 

Why do sales organizations continually do this? Was the training they invested in flawed? Seeking the answer to this led me to write my new book, The Sales ChecklistTM. 

The reality is that most salespeople already have an acceptable level of selling skills. Can they get better? Absolutely. Is lack of skills the real sales conversion problem sales organizations are facing? No. 

From our research, the average closing (conversion) percentage today, across all industries, is approximately 25 percent. This means three out of four of the sales pursuits that make their way through your sales process will result in a loss, no decision, or an unknown conclusion. 

Disappointingly, this losing rate has stayed the same for many years. With access to so many sales skills programs, why is this happening? 

The reason sales are lost (or pursued when they should not be) is that the salesperson missed something he or she knew was necessary to do. Why did they miss it? Because, in the real world, it may be something they don’t consistently execute. However, there are required steps that must be systematically covered to ensure a positive outcome – either a closed sale or an informed, early disengagement. 

The Sales Checklist™ – Get It Right Every Time! 

Checklists minimize avoidable failures due to lack of attention, memory, or thoroughness. They empower professionals to have a higher baseline of performance by reminding them of the necessary steps in a process – where missing one step potentially has the same consequences as missing all the steps. 

Although we don’t typically think of a shopping list as a checklist, it is. Without a checklist, we forget to pick up items we know we should. A checklist for shopping ensures you don’t have to go back to the store to pick up the milk! 

In aviation, checklists are vital. Pilots use them as part of their protocol because they have found it could mean the difference between life and death. The first known use of a checklist for pilots occurred following the 1935 maiden flight of the prototype Boeing XB-17 (later B-17) WWII bomber. The flight, conducted by one of the Air Force’s most experienced pilots, ended in tragedy shortly after takeoff: the pilot had forgotten to release a locking mechanism on the rudder and elevator controls. The pilot had known he had to do it, but he simply missed a step. Once Boeing identified the cause of the crash, they developed a checklist to ensure that, going forward, pilots didn’t miss any steps. 

Once the checklist was adopted, the impact was two million flying miles without a similar incident.

The Power of a Checklist for Sales

How do we, as salespeople and sales leaders, gain the same consistency of a pilot successfully executing a flight from departure to arrival? How do pilots get it right, statistically, almost 100 percent of the time? How do they apply their knowledge consistently and correctly every time? How do they make the preflight look so easy, so simple? How do they manage extreme complexity so consistently? 

Simple. They follow a checklist. 

Overall, salespeople are competent and know how to ask questions, probe, develop solutions, develop coaches or mentors, and so forth. The reality, however, is that the majority of their time (75 percent losing rate) is wasted on opportunities where they have missed a step or more. 

This leads to lost sales (or sales that were never going to be won) being pursued to the end of the customer’s buying process – representing a tremendous opportunity cost. 

Typically, customers require three to four companies to quote or bid on any major purchase. This means the customer must motivate two or three of the salespeople who are not going to win the order to stay engaged to ensure they receive the necessary number of quotes. 

Using The Sales Checklist™ will ensure you have visibility when you’re the third or fourth quote – empowering you to make an informed decision whether to stay engaged or invest your resources where they will produce a greater return.

A sales checklist minimizes avoidable failure. No longer will missed steps lead to being blindsided by a surprise lost sale. Checklists minimize avoidable failures due to lack of attention, memory, or thoroughness. 

Yes, You Can Build a More Successful Sales Organization and Win More Sales

Sales leaders, are you tired of the following? 

• Struggling with the difficulty of growing sales organically
• The lack of data to make informed sales decisions
• Managing and coaching salespeople who all seem to have their own ways of selling
• Implementing sales methodologies that consistently fail to meet your expectations 
• Low closing rates, inaccurate forecasts, wasted resources, and surprise losses
• Poor adoption and impact of CRM

If so, my book enables you to implement a simple checklist – one that will empower you to run your sales territory or organization with the confidence and consistency of a pilot. Simple solutions get adopted; complex ones do not. Sales meetings, sales coaching, and deal reviews will be short, focused, productive, and consistent. 

Data will enable your team to systematically disengage from business they’re not going to win. Do the math: If using the checklist empowers your sales team to intelligently fire one out of four of your pursuits and replace it with one more likely to close, how will your numbers be impacted? All of a sudden, a 10+ percent growth in organic sales is very reasonable. 

Salespeople, are you tired of attending the “flavor of the month” sales training programs every year or two, only to have it be essentially forgotten in a few months? For this reason, many of you have become jaded and don’t take new training seriously. 

In the short time it takes to read this book, you’ll learn a framework to consistently navigate any business-to-business sale, with no long implementation process. This book is written from a sales leader’s point of view, but the concepts also apply to everyone within an organization. It will provide you with immediate, measurable results, including higher commissions. 

The Sales Checklist™ and COVID-19

In the past few months, the worlds of our customers have been turned upside down.  The majority of (if not all) the opportunities in our sales forecasts have been impacted – and will continue to be impacted.

With all the uncertainty we’re facing, we need data more than ever to quickly answer key questions. What does our forecast look like now? Where do we spend our time? How can we move opportunities forward? Which opportunities are no longer qualified? We can’t afford to guess or assume. Gut feelings are dangerous. 

Time is of the essence. We need solutions that are easy to use, simple to coach, and produce immediate results. We need to do something now – not next quarter. 

The Sales Checklist™ is uniquely suited to help. Using the checklist will allow you to use data to quickly review every active opportunity on your forecast, accurately determine where you are positioned, and decide what you need to do next to either move it forward or make an informed decision to disengage and invest the sales resources where they will produce a greater return. 

Unfortunately, it’s irrelevant if a deal had been forecast to close the end of April. That may not be accurate any longer. 

Additionally, if yours is one of the few businesses that has seen a positive spike in business from COVID-19, what’s your forecast and pipeline going to look like when the spike subsides?

We must strive to run our sales organizations with facts, not faulty assumptions. The Sales Checklist will empower you and your team to make timely, informed sales decisions minimizing your current risk and positioning you for success in the future.

If you’re seeking a simple yet sophisticated tool to immediately improve your sales results, get your copy of my new book, The Sales ChecklistTM: Get It Right Every Time! 

The Value of Digital Sales Transformation Right Now

Today’s guest post is by Mike Orr, co-founder and CEO of Grapevine6. Connect with Mike on LinkedIn.

 

As sales and marketing teams adapt to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re all adjusting to new modes of operation as we try to stay productive, connected, and successful. 

One lesson the global quarantine has taught us: the value of digital sales transformation. Specifically, it’s urgent for sellers to change our communication habits and embrace the digital world to stay connected and carry on. 

At Grapevine6, we began helping customers prepare for a shift to digital sales transformation a few years ago. Here are two key reasons. 

#1: Conventional content marketing approaches aren’t cutting it anymore. For one thing, customers have stopped trusting what brands say about themselves; they trust what other people say about the brands through peer advocacy and peer reviews. Second, too much content has created noise and made it difficult for brands to stay relevant. 

#2: Social has emerged as a source of trusted information. Many forward-looking companies like Guardian Life Insurance Company, SAP, and others recognized the shift to social as a source of trusted information in the buyer’s journey. 

Harvard Business Review reported 82 percent of the seller’s social content had a significant impact on their client’s buying decision. They turned to digital programs to address the issue of brand authenticity and to help their business leaders and customer-facing employees create engaging and valuable conversations with their future clients. These social selling initiatives enabled salespeople to build out authentic and professional (yet personal) brands online, create authentic connections with their networks, and provide engaging, valuable content to their buyers. 

The True Value of Digital Sales Transformation

The sheer volume of available content creates two primary challenges:

1. How do we enable our salespeople to efficiently find the right content at the right time to advance sales conversations in digital? 
2. How do many companies – especially the ones that represent highly-regulated industries such as financial services – ensure the content and conversations don’t create more problems than they solve by introducing reputational or regulatory risk?

The answer to both questions – managing relevance and risk at scale – is artificial intelligence (AI), specifically AI-powered technology. These tools collect large amounts of content, analyze it for compliance, and personalize it for each user’s profile based on their personal preferences. 

Those profiles can be further personalized by monitoring the engagement with content over time. This approach, powered by mature AI, takes the pain and risk out of content curation and compliance, freeing up the valuable resources for more strategic and creative tasks by sales and marketing.

Now’s the Time to Embrace Digital Selling

Digital transformation of sales was always a good idea, but it was never an urgent one. In March 2020, however, it became a pressing issue – moving digital selling from “nice to have” to vital.  

As we adapt, survive, and learn, we are accelerating this change. Most companies have to embrace digital selling in the short term or risk a collapse in commerce. Ignoring social and digital selling also creates the long-term risk of falling hopelessly behind competitors. Combine that urgency with the understanding that most behaviors are very difficult to change and change back. It’s apparent that investing in digital selling as an organizational capability and mandate is critical now and will be in the foreseeable future.

How to Skyrocket Win Rates by Multi-threading Your Deals

Today’s post is by Devin Reed, head of content strategy for Gong. Previously Devin worked for six years in SaaS sales. 

 

You’re riding high on a deal that’s certain to close. The prospect has budget, need, and a clear-cut timeline. The prospect even has authority to say yes. In short, you have all of the “BANT” ingredients to ensure a successful deal.

Then it happens. Or, in this case, doesn’t happen. Your main (and, as it turns out, only) point of contact on the deal goes dark. Silent. Gone. 

You’ve been ghosted.

Did your contact go on an impromptu vacation? Did he or she leave the company? While both are possible, it really doesn’t matter. The deal is dead.

If you only had...insurance – or deal insurance, to be specific – you would’ve avoided heartbreak (and won that deal). But your BANT criteria is missing a critical element: influence.

Why Multi-threading Is Insurance for Sales

Multi-threading is insurance for salespeople working toward the close. Multi-threading means building relationships with multiple stakeholders within your deal. It’s also your ticket to winning influence in an account. How do I know this? 

The Gong research team analyzed 53,632 sales opportunities (and the sales calls and emails within them). We found that most deals start with one point of contact. But deals that are ultimately successful have triple the number of participants from the buyer’s side for the second meeting. Multi-threaded deals are a defining characteristic of sales success.

Here are some other insights we discovered. 

GONG LABS DATA POINT #1: Successful deals include at least three people from the buyer’s side in meetings across the sales cycle (phone/Web conferencing). 

By contrast, deals that are ultimately lost show that it’s often a struggle to get more than one point of contact to attend meetings. The first person they connect with is often the only person they ever speak with.

The success gap really widens when you look at the unique number of prospects involved in a deal via email.

GONG LABS DATA POINT #2: On average, winning deals involve eight points of contact via email. Losing deals only make it to three points of contact via email. That’s a 243 percent difference in engagement.

Three Critical Advantages of Multi-threading Your Sales Deals

1. Get deal insurance in case your champion goes dark. 
When you rely on a single person to close your deal, you’re only a single person away from losing it. This is single-threading, the “unhealthy opposite” of multi-threading.

Even if your champion is the decision maker or economic buyer, investing in their direct reports is worthwhile. You may have a verbal yes, and it may feel like the deal is pretty much done.

Until that single point of contact disappears.

You need additional contacts that will continue to give your deal momentum or, at the very least, supply you with information and deal updates. Any update is better than radio silence. 

2. Win over the decision-making committee. 
Healthy deals can take a quick downward turn when priorities shuffle, budget restraints set in, or bandwidth becomes limited. Each circumstance has the potential to hold up your deal, but multi-threading can tackle them all.

Multi-threading means you are never fighting obstacles alone. The ability to tackle several threats at once is especially important for companies attempting to go up-market and for sellers chasing larger, more complex deals.

3. Get deeper insight from multiple sources about potential deal obstacles. 
Every deal in your pipeline has a surprise – a hidden truth you have yet to uncover. That’s why you’re never truly in control of your deal until you learn the full truth, and that requires numerous information sources.

You uncover unknowns by triangulating the truth with your stakeholders. This means asking the same questions to multiple contacts and seeing whether the answers align. 

If they do, great! You have your path to a deal. If they don’t align, then you’ve found a hiccup in the buying process before it’s found you. Now you can get in front of it and continue the buying process.

Build the Path to a Successful Close

Now that you know the importance of multi-threading, you need plays you can put into play today. That's why we created our Multi-threading Playbook, so you can keep influencers engaged throughout your sales cycle. Download it today and get three ready-to-fire multi-threading plays so you can stack the odds in your favor to win more deals.

Agile Selling: Why It Matters Today and How to Apply It

Today’s post is by Ben Taylor, MBA and content marketing manager at Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

 

Agile selling works because it accounts for the most common aspect in selling: change.

Unexpected change is not only a common experience in selling, it’s becoming increasingly frequent. Businesses and governments have seen unprecedented changes in consumer demand, supply chain logistics, and forecasts as macro-economic changes and geopolitical trends evolve. There has never been a more appropriate time to leverage the battle-tested agile selling methodology.

Why Does Agile Selling Matter Today? 

An agile model focuses on customer collaboration and responsiveness to change rather than adherence to a single, unchanging plan. Put simply, agility in selling means being flexible and using different skills when and where you need them.  

This fluidity matters not only in the context of recent economic upheavals but also in the context of sweeping changes to the way businesses operate. Consider research from BCG showing that “businesses move through their life cycles twice as quickly as they did 30 years ago.” Today, success belongs to businesses that have an agile approach.

How to Apply Agile Selling

Adopting the agile selling methodology means first becoming comfortable with change – because change is inevitable, and change signifies that the customer is thinking critically about the best way forward. 

Sales professionals can develop their agile approach using these three capabilities:

Read the Buying Factors

The customer’s journey revolves around a set of buying factors – the facts, influences, and circumstances that all contribute to the result of a decision to buy or not buy. These factors are dynamic and interrelated and exert pressure on customers throughout all stages of their buying journey. These factors: the case for change, the stakeholder dynamics, and the decision process.

The case for change is the what and why of the buying decision. Customers are determining if the desired outcomes, solution options, and value vs. risk are all strong enough to warrant making a purchase. The most common and immovable obstacle in building the case for change is the status quo – representing what the customer considers normal. 

The stakeholder dynamics represent the various decision makers involved in the buying process. Each buyer has a distinct definition of opportunity and risk. The sales professional must first identify these different perceptions, then address each one. 

The decision process represents the iterative steps the customer takes toward the purchase. This process is complex (and often non-linear) as a result of changing priorities and stakeholders who enter and exit the picture.  

Build Consensus

Once sales professionals understand the buying factors behind each of the above categories, they can begin to build consensus by building alignment. Doing so is an increasingly important skill as buying decisions become more diffused in organizations. The challenge, however, is that alignment is not natural. Each stakeholder has individual leanings and likely wants something different from the solution.

In the early stages of consensus building, sales professionals are forming a relationship with the customers. In the middle stages, sales professionals coalesce the different perspectives and needs into one cohesive case-for-change narrative. Finally, in the late stages, alignment is more about driving the decision and managing the perceptions of risk. 

Explore the Customer’s White Space

When sales professionals identify the white space in an existing account, they are creating opportunities by positioning solutions that align with the customer’s goals, challenges, and initiatives. An agile approach fits this strategy because sales professionals benefit from the momentum they’ve already created. With an existing understanding of the buying factors and the stages for alignment, it is easier to find the areas in the customer’s business where the solution will add value.

At Richardson and Sales Performance International, we are equipping sales professionals with these agile selling skills via our Virtual Instructor-Led Training Workshops, which replicate the classroom experience and are highly effective tools for sales teams working remotely.