Selling Power Blog

How to Identify and Quantify Value-Added Benefits to Maximize Your Competitive Advantage

Today's post is by David Jacoby, Managing Director at the Sales Readiness Group. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

 

 

Think of the last time you won a close, competitive sales opportunity. What tipped the scales in your favor?

In sales situations where it’s difficult to differentiate your solution from the competition’s, you often win by offering your buyer extra services, or value-added benefits. These are extra services beyond what you provide with your primary product or service at additional cost to the buyer.

Chances are you're already providing your buyers value-added benefits, but you're likely not getting credit for them.

Types of value-added benefits

Here are a few common examples of value-added benefits:

• Support services: services provided by your company, not by you personally. Such services include free training or a 24-hour customer service hotline.
• Consulting services: services that you offer, such as providing your expertise on use or implementation. But be careful! Consulting services can require an extensive time commitment on your part, so offer these only to high-potential accounts.
• Personal services: enhancements that you bring to an account. For example, you make an urgent delivery yourself. Some sales professionals simply tell their customers, “If you have a problem, just give me a call.”
• Promotional services: help you give to buyers to help them grow their business or do their jobs more efficiently. Examples include point-of-purchase materials, advertising, free samples, job aids or tools, and technical guides.

Use these categories to trigger your thinking and help you identify which value-added benefits you can offer buyers. Of course, any such value-added benefits should relate to the buyer’s needs— otherwise they won’t value it.

Quantifying value-added benefits

To maximize the competitive advantage that value-added benefits give you, it’s important that you quantify their value. Buyers will have a greater appreciation of your total offering when you identify and present the why value-added benefits actually add value.

Not all value-added benefits (e.g., personal services) have an obvious value. However, whenever possible, make them tangible and memorable by quantifying them.

Here are a few ways to quantify value-added benefits:

1. Benefit to buyer

When you can’t quantify the value the buyer receives, a back-up option is to quantify the cost to your organization of providing the benefit. For example, “Based on your volume, our free shipping will save you $500 per month.”

2. Convert numbers to bottom-line values

Try to quantify using dollars rather than percentages or time when possible. “This could save you up to $8,000 a month,” is more impactful than “Your efficiency will increase by up to 10%.”

3. Link value-added benefits together

Look for as many value-added benefits as possible. Often when you identify one benefit, it leads to others that you might not have considered.

Here is an example:

“To save you start-up time, which was one of your priorities, I’d like to offer you training and access to our high priority technical support. If you do have problems, you’ll be able to get access to a technician within one hour without any extra charge. Of course, if you have any urgent issues, you can always call me directly.”

Value-added benefits can make the difference between winning and losing in a competitive situation and help reinforce why selecting your solution is a good decision. So, before your next sales presentation, identify and quantify specific value-added benefits for your buyer.

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How Neuroscience Can Improve Sales Performance in Weeks, Not Years

Today's blog post is by Evan Sanchez. He is Sales Excellence Practice Lead of Think-X.

 

The changes to our working environment as a result of COVID-19 have been dramatic, to say the least. To find success in 2021, smart leaders are turning to neuroscience to identify performance gaps, make better hiring decisions, improve team performance, and reduce stress in a matter of weeks, not years.

Using neuroscience allows us to uncover thinking patterns that contribute to a high-performance mindset with a fast and scalable process. At first, you may think this is another assessment, but neuroscience diagnostics such as the Think-X Discover dive into the subconscious to find drivers of success as well as the barriers. Performance thinking barriers often sabotage underperformers and make hiring for performance-based roles very difficult. These tested findings and clinically validated activities are proven to create thought shifts that lead to better performance and less stress.

Why is this important to sales?

• In sales, A-players produce 5 times what a B-player produces and 10 times what a C-player produces.
• A-players typically produce 60-80% of all revenue, and they do it faster.
• You can invest in more sales training and more technology, but the ROI will not be maximized if barrier thinking is present.
• If you trade up barrier thinking you can recapture lost ROI from past training and technology implementations that failed to produce expected results.
• You can hire more efficiently and effectively.
• You can develop talent by improving the performance thinking.
• You can lower stress and anxiety that negatively impacts performance (perhaps needed more today than ever before).
• High levels of stress due to change can cause A-players to underperform and burn out.

How do you know you need this?

If your team has all had the same training on sales, product, or service, and you have followed your company’s hiring process, but you still have a wide gap between A-, B-, and C-players, you have to focus on improving the team’s mindset and performance thinking capability. The key performance drivers include:

• Ambition
• Confidence
• Emotional intelligence
• Empathy
• Systems thinking

Typically, the core performers (B- and C-players) have some of the key performance drivers listed above. However, barrier thinking patterns contribute to a negative or conflicting internal dialogue promoting a fixed mindset—the belief that things will never change or there is no need to change. In times of uncertainty and stress, this thinking can override learned behaviors as the stress triggers the flight, fight, or freeze reactive behaviors that lower performance. Most newly adopted training, agility, and capability to change goes out the window at this point.

This is caused by the presence of that barrier thinking and is often a blind spot. These blind spots – or what we call breaks – include: 

• High self-defeat
• High need for reassurance
• High controlling
• High skepticism
• High self-consciousness

What if we could identify the barriers holding one back from thinking and performing like the top 10%? 

That’s right: better thinking and better performance!

How do you start using performance thinking neuroscience strategies?

Each employee starts with a personal benchmark of score ranges in each of these performance drivers. By analyzing the profiles of the top 10% in each role, the data will point to conclusions about what these individuals have in common that makes them successful in the organization.  For an example, you can go here to see our most recent study and top performer templates.

Through a combination of individual and team data, managers can benchmark and measure performance drivers needed in the new remote environment, identify leaders, and provide employees with fast, accurate, and personalized feedback that can immediately impact their day-to-day activities. A much larger part of the core will become A-players. If you are a sales professional looking to improve your performance in 2021, please sign up for a diagnostic here.

If you are a sales consulting or training company, I suggest you reach out and explore our revenue generating strategies and partnering opportunities by contacting me to learn more by emailing me at evan.sanchez@think-x.com.

What to Expect as a Sales Training Buyer

Today's post is by Ken Valla, President and Co-Founder of The Valla Group, a modern sales training organization. Follow The Valla Group's LinkedIn page for sales effectiveness insights.

 

The inherent problem is that the economic model of most sales training providers is at odds with your desire to truly improve sales performance. You need modern, innovative, quality, and research-based content, customized for your unique business situation. This content creation process takes money, time, knowledge, and experience in selling. It is easier and more profitable for most sales training providers to continue to promote their decades-old approach and innovate lucrative services.

If you are someone who buys sales training, does this situation sound familiar?

The sales leadership of your company wants to implement a new sales methodology. You’re tasked with finding and sourcing a provider. This new methodology is supposed to transform your business, enabling your salespeople for future success in your evolving and fast-paced industry. This is a big part of your company’s growth strategy, it’s a big deal for you and your company, and you are driving it.

While evaluating current sales training providers, you notice most have been around for ages. Their latest offering has more to do with how they deliver training versus what the training actually teaches salespeople, and the content is basically the same as what they sold 10 years ago. But now they have a new reinforcement app (so maybe your leaders won’t notice the content is stagnant).

Their pricing models are also the same: Pay per person for the content or license it for a certain number of years, and all services and customization are extra. Also, if you don’t renew, you will lose access to the content and need to rip it out of your other trainings or systems it’s integrated into.

Already, you might feel like you’re in a bind.

You ask, “If we pay per person, will we have access to all the components of the offering to drive change and transform our company?” You hear, “Yes, we have consultants and can offer a great services package to drive your transformation.” This also comes at a cost.

“Can we embed this into our new hire process?” “Yes, if you pay us to T3 your facilitators and if you keep buying more participant guides per person.” 

“How about reinforcement?” “Yes, that is what the new subscription-based app is for.”

Everything you touch, try to change, adopt, sustain, or measure is all available for a fee, and always requires the sales training vendor to either do the work or be heavily involved. Why shouldn’t you be able to have more control of your own sales training programs? Why should you have to pay for a company to do what you could do internally? 

The Problem with Most Traditional Sales Methodologies

If this situation sounds familiar, it’s because this is how the industry has rolled for a long time. 

The inherent problem is that the economic model of most sales training providers is at odds with your desire to truly improve sales performance. You need modern, innovative, quality, and research-based content, customized for your unique business situation. This content creation process takes money, time, knowledge, and experience in selling. It is easier and more profitable for most sales training providers to continue to promote their decades-old approach and innovate lucrative services. 

This makes them service companies first and content companies second. They make their money selling services (people or technology platforms these days). The implication to you—the person tasked with finding the right partner to buy the right sales methodology for your teams—is that you are completely tethered to the provider. You have limited flexibility with their content so driving a transformation over time requires you to be joined at the hip with them and have deep pockets on a continuous basis. This also raises another challenge: How do you leverage the existing resources on your training and enablement team if the provider is doing all the work?

Expect Better

You shouldn’t have to be stuck in a bind. Successful adoption of a transformative sales methodology happens when your sellers can relate to the situations that a modern methodology addresses, when it is adapted to your unique business situations, and when you can leverage your own internal resources who know your business best.

And should you really have to pay for every little thing? Future sales training financial models will be most attractive when they enable you to use content. Unlimited. Untethered. Ongoing.

If you are a sales training person and you are looking to buy a new sales methodology that is tailored to your unique needs, you should expect:

•  Content in a sales methodology to be modern, research-based, and flexible
• The ability to leverage your own internal resources and put them to work with the new content and not at a charge on every move
• Not being “nickel and dimed” for services
• Flexibility in leveraging the content with the ability to develop derivative works
• A perpetual license to the content so you can use it without the fear of what it takes to unwind from your business the day you stop paying for the content

These aren’t big asks. This is what you should be requesting of your sales training partners, because they are required if you are going to be successful with that big initiative you have been asked to drive.

Ditch the Pitch: Use a Value Positioning Statement

Today's post is by Bill Cates, CSP, CPAE, President at Referral Coach International.

 

 

The dreaded elevator pitch!

Yes, you need a succinct and confident way to tell people what you do, but some methods of creating this short message can come across and cheesy, vague, or worse—confusing.

Your value positioning statement (VPS)

Because clarity is critical, I favor a straightforward approach. Don’t let your creativity or cleverness get in the way of clarity.

There are three main reasons to have an effective value positioning statement:

1. Gives people a sense of the work you do—in a way that they can identify with immediately
2. Demonstrates who you do it for, so they can see if it pertains to them (or if they know someone to whom it pertains)
3. Conveys one or more benefits in a way that taps into an emotional response

Why an emotional response?

The work of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has demonstrated that at the heart of every decision is emotion. Yes—facts, statistics, and evidence are important, but at the end of the day, those all create an emotional response. When an analytical client wants to know the details of what you do and a logical reason for why you might recommend a solution, it’s because they want to feel comfortable about their decision.

The Radical Relevance Value Positioning Formula™

There are no right answers, only right answers for you, because if you don’t craft a VPS that you can write and speak naturally, with confidence, then it’s worthless.

What does the brain want?

Neuroscientists will tell you that the brains of your prospects are wired to look for two main things: what problems you solve (or prevent) and what opportunities you provide.

For most people, solving and preventing problems usually carries a bit more weight than looking for opportunities. With that said, I think it makes sense to hit both of those triggers.

Step 1: Your expertise

You are an expert in your area of focus. Don’t run away from this concept. Your prospects are looking for “experts” and “specialists.” Using this concept conveys confidence and credibility.

Step 2: Who you serve

By describing who you serve the best – for whom your processes are geared – you will become more relevant to that prospect. Or if you’re speaking to a center of influence, you’ll be teaching them about who they should send your way.

Step 3: What they want (the benefits)

Whatever your prospect wants are the benefits. The clearer you are about your ideal prospects, the easier it is to speak in terms of what they want—how they will benefit from your work.

Step 4: Value in action

You’ll see from the following example, that steps 1-3 do a pretty good job at explaining what you do and how your clients benefit. But, in my opinion, you want to bring your value to life with either a real-life example or letting your belief in your value show through.

Financial advisor example

My expertise is in financial planning for successful business owners.

I work with fast-paced owners and entrepreneurs who want to focus on what they do best—running their business and making money.

(Value in action) I’m like a financial quarterback for my client. I put the right team in place to make sure they have all the right insurance in place, a benefits package that helps them retain their best employees, and that all their investments are working as hard as possible for them.

The true test

Creating the right VPS can be difficult. I tell my coaching/consulting clients, “It’s hard to see the picture when you’re in the frame.” You might come up with something that feels right in the moment, but when you try saying it to someone, you think to yourself, “What was I thinking?”

So, your VPS needs to pass the “will-I-actually-say-it?” test. And don’t be surprised if your VPS evolves over time until you settle on a standard response that will fit most of your situations.

Bill Cates, author of Get More Referrals Now, Beyond Referrals, and Radical Relevance, and a highly sought-after international speaker. He is also a Selling Power 2021 Leading Sales Consultant. To learn more, go to www.ReferralCoach.com. Bill can be reached directly at:  BillCates@ReferralCoach.com.

Three Secrets to Hiring the Best Sales People

Today’s post is by Nigel Green, a sought sales advisor and author of Revenue Harvest.

 

Forget the resumé. 

If you’re hiring salespeople, you already know that no two interviews are alike. The objective is to find talent with both tangible and intangible characteristics that will easily segue into their role at your company. Every candidate has a different backstory, expectation, and range of talents, and the quicker that salesperson becomes productive, the better the situation is for everyone. As the sales leader, it’s your job to ask the right sequence of questions during the interview in order to understand what drives this person, how they operate in a professional setting, and how they respond to challenges, all of which are strong indicators for success in a selling role. 

The ideal candidate will have the willingness, intelligence, passion, and skills necessary to develop a successful sales career under your coaching. But how do you pull these characteristics out of the candidate during the interview process? 

I’ve interviewed hundreds of salespeople in my career, and it’s a difficult task. To add to the gravity of this decision is the fact that making a bad hiring decision costs thousands of dollars and invaluable, unrecoverable time. In order to find the ideal salesperson, there are several central attributes that I look for, and I’ve found three that are the most important to me. I call them the Three Cs: character, chemistry, and competence. These three characteristics can be assessed in an interview by asking the right questions and actually listening (to improve your listening, read this) to the responses the candidate gives. 

Character 

When I hire people, I always look at the person’s character first. You want to hire a salesperson who isn’t afraid to be real—a person you can trust to get the job done and who holds themself accountable when they mess up. In order to evaluate a candidate’s character, you need to know where they are coming from, how they arrived, where they are, and where they see themselves ending up. 

For me, an indicator of strong character is when I can hear a candidate, confidently, talk about mistakes they have made and what they’ve learned from them. If I ask a candidate, “What’s your biggest weakness?” and they provide a response that resembles, “I work too much,” or “I’m too competitive,” then the interview is over. Those aren’t real weaknesses. I’m looking for something like, “I struggle managing conflict,” or “I tend to wait until the last minute to finish my reports.” These are real opportunities to improve. 

Chemistry 

Looking for chemistry highlights the importance of compatibility—to work with someone and to work with a team, we’re going to have to jive, not just in a relationship, but also with our habits, goals, and work ethic. You aren’t looking for someone who just wants another job. The best salesperson will care about what they are selling, who they are working with, and how they are getting it all done. 

Discovering chemistry with a candidate provides valuable insight that can prove beneficial to the organization and goes beyond their basic qualifications and/or typical answers to standard interview questions. I like to ask a candidate what was the last book they read. If they can’t remember, then we aren’t going to work well together. I’m not judging them for not being a reader, but rather observing that I believe leaders are readers, and I’m looking for leaders. 

Competence 

Competence is the attribute most hiring managers look for first, but it ranks last for me among the Three Cs. While your best candidate will impress you with what they initiate on their own and how they take responsibility for their own professional growth, it doesn’t mean that they have to know everything right out of the gate. If you have solid character and we have great chemistry, then competence is something I can teach you. The right talent will train themselves—they will put in the long nights studying or on the phone with other team members until they master their craft. 

I understand the importance of hiring quickly; not having a full team makes it difficult to reach your growth goals. But making a bad hire can be a costly mistake, which is why I always say, “Slow to hire, quick to fire.” Better hiring is achieved by process not intuition. An ironclad hiring process is detailed in my book Revenue Harvest.

Your ability to determine if a seller is going to perform is linked to the quality of your interview questions. Here is my go-to bank of 70+ sales interview questions.

Three Changes Sales Leaders Should Make to Their Outbound Sales Strategy in 2021

Today’s post is by Skip Miller, author of Outbounding: Win New Customers with Outbound Sales and End Your Dependence on Inbound Leads. Outbounding equips salespeople with the knowledge, training, and road-tested sales tactics to raise the success rate of their outbound sales. He is also the president of M3 Learning.

 

In a strong economy, customers are open to buying. Social media and marketing lead generation efforts are a main source of leads to sales teams. Further, inbound sales efforts are responsible for 40 to 100% of a company’s sales lead generation.

But as early adopters dry up and the low-hanging fruit starts to disappear, marketing and social media aren’t yielding the same results, driving companies to increase their outbound or prospecting efforts to meet increasing quotas.

Outbound selling can be intimidating even to the most senior rep who hasn’t had to make a cold call in a long time. However, with the right skills, processes, and strategy, leaders can help transform their teams into confident outbound sellers.

Engage senior stakeholders early

The buyer’s perspective in the sales process changed drastically in 2020. Without in-person meetings and trade shows, all initial discovery is now conducted online or at virtual events. Sales leaders must adjust their sales process to accommodate this change. It is imperative that your reps are getting a C-level executive on sales calls, even if the executive only joins for 15 minutes. Getting the senior stakeholder involved will help your rep tailor the rest of the sales journey to the prospect’s strategic business goals. While remote selling makes it easier to get an executive on the phone, the rep still needs to make sure the message is about maximizing value to meet the prospect’s needs.

Adopt virtual outbound selling best practices

Your salespeople need to learn the best practices used by top outbound sales reps, who are using video conferencing solutions to engage buyers on virtual sales calls. They send an agenda in advance to get feedback from the prospect, and then tailor the agenda before the call based on the prospect’s goals and needs. They screen share for no more than 10 minutes at a time, and use breakout rooms and drawing boards to encourage conversation. These approaches make for a much more compelling and engaging video call.  

Coach for the right skills

Transitioning to a fully remote sales process has also changed the skills required for success. In this new environment, it’s not enough to focus energy exclusively on getting the deal over the finish line. While sales calls are shorter, the contract process is longer, and deals are at risk to slow down toward the end of the process. To combat this, reps should be prospecting more,  communicating with prospects frequently, and involving the right stakeholders. Sales leaders should focus on remote coaching and helping reps prioritize the right activities. There is a difference between important tasks and urgent tasks. Both need to happen, but reps need to focus on ensuring the important tasks – like prospecting – don’t get neglected when urgent ones arise. 

You need to change. Change is hard. Listen to your customers. Invest in your best.

Key Actions For a Healthy Pipeline

Today’s post is by Ken Valla, President and Co-Founder of The Valla Group, a modern sales training organization. Follow The Valla Group’s LinkedIn page for sales effectiveness insights.

 

The term pipeline management is commonly cited by sales leaders as an area of concern. However, like “trusted advisor” – another frequently used term – pipeline management doesn’t seem to have a common definition. Sales leaders often say: “We need our people to focus on pipeline management” with little detail about what that really means. So, let’s give it some structure.

First, pipeline management is not something a salesperson does on command. Similar to health, a person trying to become healthier wouldn’t say: “Monday’s are my healthy day,” as this would not yield long-term lifestyle results. Pipeline management is the same. Sales leaders should never have to ask their salespeople to focus on it because it should be part of their everyday routine to be successful. 

Pipeline management is a continuous process of decisions that influences how a salesperson works and sells each day. There are three components to successfully and effectively managing a pipeline: Evaluating, working, and filling.

Evaluating

Evaluating a pipeline is the foundational action for effectively managing it. The evaluation has historically been boiled down to a salesperson adding up the total pipeline value to see if they had 2.5X or 3X their total annual goal in the funnel. While common, this approach lacks the detail required to truly make good decisions. It suggests that if a seller shoves enough opportunities in one end of the funnel, there should be enough coming out the other end to achieve their goal. This is a pure quantity play, which is only one element of a comprehensive pipeline evaluation.

Factors such as deal quality and velocity are critical in today’s market, but other key evaluative factors – such as deal size and product/service mix – should also inform a salesperson about their pipeline health. However, the evaluation is not about the pipeline itself. It’s about the decisions a salesperson is making each day which are driving pipeline health. Either way, they provide the insight a salesperson needs to make adjustments to how they think, work, and sell.

Working

It’s not enough to simply evaluate the pipeline; a salesperson needs to be able to act on the insights—or work the pipeline. This has a couple dimensions to it. The first is related to how a seller makes decisions about which existing opportunities to focus on. Some critical decision points include:

• Which opportunity has the greatest potential for a “Return on Time”?
• How does the seller leverage resources (technology and people) to advance the opportunity?
• What percentage of time should a seller direct toward customer interaction versus strategic thinking on key opportunities?

The second dimension of working a pipeline is continuously creating and updating a pipeline plan. This plan is then adjusted based upon results from the seller’s evaluation of their pipeline. Salespeople get used to receiving their goals from leadership and jumping right into working their opportunities. This is a huge miss. Those annual goals need to be more than just financial measures. They also need to translate into quarterly objectives which should become part of an ongoing decision-making process. This is how a salesperson ensures they are working on their business and not just in their business.     

Filling

When a salesperson has a plan and is effectively working on their business, it directs them to the third action: Filling the pipeline. This comes down to defining how much prospecting and business development is needed to achieve the goals. The answer is based on the goals, the plan, and the evaluation of the pipeline.

While filling a pipeline is a continuous process, it’s important to figure out how much time to dedicate to it through clear planning. For example, salespeople need to be clear on where to find new opportunities. They may ask themselves: “Should I search for a new opportunity in an existing account or seek out a new logo?” The answer depends on the plan and the priority order of their accounts.  In my experience, salespeople who play fantasy football spend more time ranking their players for a draft than they do ranking their accounts for business potential.

Finally, filling the pipeline is about ratios: the ratio between the number of contacts needed to achieve a meeting and the ratio from first meeting to an actual sale. These ratios should inform how much the pipeline needs to be filled to achieve the overall goals. By the way, remember deal size and velocity from the evaluating action? Those play a role in the amount of filling required. So this entire process is integrated and comes full circle.

Pipeline management is important for sales success today. It’s a cornerstone of the job and should be an everyday occurrence. It doesn’t have to be a challenge, just focus on a few key actions.

To learn more about effective pipeline management, click here.

People First, Sales Second. Customers Need Calm

Today’s post is by Clay Hall, Vice President of Sales of Reno Type.

 

 

In the midst of a global pandemic, those in sales roles might feel like pests. Unless you’ve lucked into selling plastic barriers, masks, or personal protective equipment (PPE), many of us felt like we were knocking on doors at a time when physical distance was top priority. 

And yet, salespeople are vital to the longevity of their organizations. They support their company’s ability to satisfy payroll and protect against layoffs at a time when keeping a roof over one’s head is essential. They support their clients’ ability to continue fulfilling their expectations, keeping brands afloat as businesses repeatedly take hits. While we likely haven’t experienced a pandemic in our lifetimes, I can confidently say that sales is a critical exercise despite one of the most turbulent economic periods in recent history. The way to ride it out is to remember: Prioritize people first. Sales will follow. 

Over my career, I’ve worked with such brands as FedEx, SiriusXM, and Honda, helping generate new revenue and grow existing revenues. Small brands or large, I always ask what value I can add to a clients’ process. While skill sets vary, we all have the power to contribute one precious thing to each of our clients: calm. 

Consider it a commodity. Though priceless, it has intrinsic value and is often exchanged for currency. Those who offer calm to customers will earn a spot as confidant and counselor when clients might perceive other salespeople as pests. 

There are a few ways to do this successfully. 

1. Get into the mindset

The pandemic thrust us all into different and atypical modes of operation. While some thrive in crises, many feel frazzled. When we let our brains fire off in chaotic directions, our actions follow. Try to acknowledge the fight-or-flight feelings you’re having. If you do, it will be easier to put them aside. Then, remember a time when things were going well. Sales were skyrocketing; you were happy, healthy, and fulfilled; client accolades flowed in. Pay attention to this feeling. Can you map out what circumstances contributed to your success? Was it a steady diet and consistent exercise? Was it a disciplined and consistent sales call calendar? Work on identifying the process and see if there are any components you can re-integrate into your current routine. And be graceful with yourself. If you’re only able to bring back one or two components right now, you should celebrate the micro-success as a means of getting back on track. 

2. Listen

In customer and prospect conversations, it’s essential to take a back seat. Listen to your discussion partner. What are their pain points? Where are they looking for new revenue opportunities? Sure, you want to hear them because it will help inform how you counsel them, but your customers truly need a safe place to vent. Perhaps they can’t confide in their spouse because the fear is too tangible at home and they both share the same stress. Maybe they can’t confide in their boss because profits are razor thin and raising additional concerns could position their head on the chopping block. Perhaps they simply don't know what the future holds, and they're collecting feedback from everyone possible to identify a safe path forward. Listen as an act in and of itself. To listen to your customer’s concerns is to draw closer, create a more collaborative relationship, and better understand how you can provide them with means to navigate through turbulence.  

3. Speak low and speak measured

Studies suggest that individuals perceive speakers with lower-pitched voices to have higher levels of competency and trustworthiness. A measured cadence can also contribute to your listener’s sense of calm. For example, dentists have been using speech patterns that mimic hypnosis for centuries to build trust, ease fear, and relieve patient anxiety. Clinical research aside, simply be mindful of your vocal range and see what happens when you drop it down one or two notches. Additionally, observe the reaction when you take a beat longer than normal to formulate responses. Some studies indicate we have a tendency to take on the speech patterns of those we agree with or respect, meaning you may see your client’s patterns start to mimic your own. 

4. Remember: This, too, shall pass

I’ve been in sales and sales-adjacent positions for decades. I waded through the heartbreak of September 11 and the subsequent uncertainty that followed. I managed through the worst of California’s fallout after the real estate bubble burst. I helped clients through the 2008 recession and, today, I’m helping my customers get through the worst of the pandemic. All this to say: This, too, shall pass. I say this with confidence so that you can also say it with confidence. Remember this and share it with your clients, calmly, steadily, and frequently. Fear only contributes to more erratic buying habits, so relaying a positive outlook to your customers can help them re-center and refocus, ultimately benefiting their bottom lines. 

In the uncertainty of 2020, many of us have allowed our emotional responses to lead the way. I don’t say this to criticize, but to illustrate to you that if you can lean in to calm as a commodity, you will become an influential counselor on behalf of your clientele in 2021. People first, my friends. The sales will follow.

Insight is the Cornerstone of Conversational Sales

Today’s post is by Ken Valla, President and Co-Founder of The Valla Group, a modern sales training organization. Follow The Valla Group’s LinkedIn page for sales effectiveness insights.

 

Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying, “This product sells itself.” Unfortunately, B2B products don’t sell themselves, and enterprise selling efforts often fall flat precisely because salespeople over-emphasize product-focused sales interactions. Thus the reason most customers do not want to meet with salespeople during the early stage of a buying process: Sellers don’t bring value to the conversation!

At a foundational level, salespeople create value when they share insights that cause buyers to rethink their approach to key business challenges. Doing this goes a long way toward earning the right to influence your buyer’s decision-making process.

Types of Insights

It stands to reason, then, that sharing insights requires more than a confident attitude. To gain respect and confidence from your buyers, you need to become an effective storyteller in your conversational sales approach and share a point of view that resonates with your buyer.  Read on to find out how to do these effectively.

Storytelling in Conversational Sales

Virtually every B2B website is full of case studies that are typically focused on ROI, usually at the expense of differentiation. These are, for the most part, the same customer stories that salespeople share with buyers: long on products and results, but short on business focus, differentiation, and insights.  

Unlike typical case studies, effective storytelling is a key part of a conversational sales approach. It focuses on each buyer’s unique journey, and it demonstrates your knowledge and experience working with organizations who share similar business issues as your buyer. Each story should be concise and well organized, uniquely relevant, and involve a relatable character. It should have a beginning, middle, and end, and convey a clear, easily understood point.

Another attribute of an effective story is that unlike the conventional wisdom, it can include both positive and negative experiences. Share lessons learned from approaches that worked, and also share insights about hurdles—both minor and major—that required new approaches, and the lessons learned from those experiences. Buyers know that solving business problems can get messy, and they respect salespeople who demonstrate that they’ve been there, learned important lessons, and helped their customers get through it.

Sharing a Point of View

The value of sharing stories in conversational sales is that a good story gives you credibility, but that’s useful only if you follow it up with a perspective that adds value. Knowing what a similar client went through without relating it to your buyer is a lost opportunity. By adding your point of view, you can elevate the conversation beyond your product to focus on their business. Buyers want this perspective; they often pay consultants to share the same information about competitors and markets that good salespeople encounter every day. The key to synthesize in-field experiences—both individual and organizational—into a point of view that resonates with your buyer. How do you do it? There are two paths:

• State a position that strongly advises a customer to follow a specific approach. A position is aggressive by nature, asserting to the buyer that there’s one right way to achieve their business result. It’s like coming to a fork in the road—you have to go one way or the other.
• Share a perspective, which demonstrates knowledge of several different approaches, providing insights into the tradeoffs among them. Returning to the driving metaphor, it’s like coming to a four-way stop—different paths will lead to different results, and you can help them choose the best option for their needs.

Which point of view you choose to share depends on the situation, your credibility, and your understanding of where the buyer is in their decision process. As a result, you can’t take a cookie-cutter approach to establishing a point of view.

By incorporating effective storytelling and a well-considered point of view in your enterprise selling efforts, you’re much more likely to establish credibility among senior-level buyers.  Keep in mind that today’s B2B sales involve many stakeholders, so you must be prepared to share insights in your conversational sales interactions that are germane to the unique business interests of each stakeholder.

To learn more about sharing insights to gain credibility with buyers, click here. 

Winning Traits of Best-in-Class Virtual Sellers

Today's post is by Justin Zappulla, managing partner at Janek Performance Group.

 

The foundations of sales – engaging clients, understanding needs, providing solutions, and building relationships – are the same whether selling face-to-face or virtually. However, sales pros should be mindful of some key differences. Here are several traits sales pros can utilize to get the most from selling virtually.

Get Creative

Many sales pros have benefitted from creating comfortable virtual stages. Personal effects – our homes,  books, pictures, and even pets – help us share with clients, as it invites them to share with us. By getting creative, such as experimenting with camera angles and setting an effective background, sales professionals can engage clients more personally than they did in stale conference rooms.

Be on Time

Punctuality is extra important in a virtual world. As remote meetings tend to include participants who join from their own computers, it’s good practice to start meetings a few minutes early. The casual interaction before a formal start builds rapport and often provides insight into relationships. Also, periodic reminders are essential to avoid the inevitable no-shows that are a byproduct of virtual.

Have a Plan

Because time is important, sales pros must be prepared. Set and share an agenda before the meeting. This not only helps the sales pro stick to a schedule; it also helps establish a comfortable pace. In addition, it orients clients and lets them know where they are in the process. As this improves engagement, it also helps sales pros proceed confidently and cover all their bases.

Captivate Clients

Virtual makes it easy to check out. To keep attention, make your virtual interactions engaging. A big part of this is maintaining eye contact. As often as you can, look directly into the camera. Scan participants and reach out to those who seem withdrawn by asking a question, or say their name and admit you’re just checking in.

Practice Mindfulness

In virtual, sales pros must be mindful and keep clients from getting distracted. Within the pace of your presentation, pause and check-in often. Make sure everyone can hear you and there are no technical issues. While polite, it also prompts participants to speak up or give a virtual wave or thumbs up, and engages attendees who have their video off. Also, note their words and phrases, so you can speak your client’s unique language.   

Listen Actively

Virtual environments can make it difficult to read body language. Often, we are limited to closeups of faces. As such, salespeople should fine-tune their active listening skills to catch the subtleties of their client’s speech. Do they start but not finish sentences? Do they self-correct or seem unsure? These clues help salespeople identify problems that need additional discovery.

Adapt and Do More

Whereas salespeople can often just show up for face-to-face meetings, virtual has more moving pieces. From screen sharing to whiteboarding to reading rooms and engaging, there’s a lot to do. In addition to multitasking, best-in-class virtual sellers must adapt quickly to issues or glitches that arise and successfully transition back to their presentation. Though it can seem like a lot, it just takes practice.

Know Your Tech

Though virtual selling does not require tech wizardry, a little tech goes a long way. As anyone who has been on a virtual call knows, there will be glitches, like a persistent hum in the audio or a sync issue in video. These little things can interrupt the pace of your meeting, and it’s helpful to have handy quick fixes to keep things moving.

Adjust and Flex

More than anything, virtual selling requires sales pros to adjust and be flexible. Whether it’s scheduling virtual meetings with four decision makers in three time zones, losing audio during an important question, or a persistently playful cat perched on your shoulder, best-in-class sales pros must bring it all together. As virtual takes on greater importance and organizations combine virtual with face-to-face engagements, flexible sales pros will best accommodate their clients’ changing needs.

While some sales professionals stressed over the shift into virtual selling, many didn’t realize the possibilities. As with all change, it will take time, but soon, most will realize that the virtual environment has opened new and exciting ways to connect with clients and sell.  Happy virtual selling! 

For more helpful advice on how to advance your selling and sales management skills, visit Janek's resource library.