The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

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"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."

-William Jones

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World-class leaders understand improving performance is part art and part science. A recipe that includes the proper blend of both—art and science—is often what separates failure from success and exhibits the following:

• Outstanding performance (beating others in their peer group)
• High level of employee engagement and satisfaction
• Low turnover
• A culture of engagement
• A tribe that everyone wants to be part of

The debate on whether successful sales leadership is truly an art or a science has been running for decades. At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), we know that it’s a perfect combination of both. When blended and configured correctly, the fusion between art and science results in a powerhouse sales team and business.

Want to know the secret to booking more first-time appointments with new prospects? It might surprise you!

In the recent Media Sales Report, we learned 93% of sales managers agree that salespeople should be averaging 4+ calls per week. However, 40% of sales managers believe that their salespeople are missing the mark at only 2 to 3 calls per week. 

Add to this the finding that 85% feel that appointments with prospects are harder to secure today than they were 5 years ago, and this leads us to the secret to booking more appointments.

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"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win."

-Zig Ziglar

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In an ever-changing sales landscape, maintaining a healthy personal brand on social media has become a necessary tool for sales professionals to build and maintain relationships with prospects. According to a Forrester Consulting study, Social Selling: A New B2B Imperative, “49% of B2B enterprises have developed a formal social selling program, and 28 percent are in the process of doing so.”

Even though using social media to sell has been widely adopted in many industries, our 2019 Media Sales Report found that only 12% of sales managers said their salespeople are using social media effectively to set appointments with prospects.

If you aren’t utilizing social selling as part of your sales strategy, you could be losing sales to more social-savvy salespeople. 

Great client experience is key to increased revenue and overall growth. And there are many things that affect your client’s experience with your company. From every encounter with the receptionist and support staff to the product itself, the client is forming an opinion on what the experience is like working with your company. While all of these aspects have an impact on experience, for many, it’s often the salesperson that has the biggest influence.

The best salespeople will focus on the client's needs and delivering their desired solutions. This, along with many other reasons, is why we focus on coaching sales talent and finding the perfect fit when hiring a salesperson.

Whether you’re a sales manager evaluating your team or in the field coaching salespeople who are trying to get quality appointments, you’re always looking to improve results.

Based on years of experience, we often see salespeople develop strong valid business reasons, but the delivery is too formal. Listen to the video for great before and after examples and keep reading for the secret to a successful sales strategy.

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"Leadership belongs to those who take it."

-Sheryl Sandberg

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Research shows us that 1/3 of our life is spent at work, that's over 90,000 hours. Given those statistics, it's safe to say that it's highly important to our overall well-being that we're in the right job.

We have a short window of time to make our mark on this world while at the same time finding happiness. At some point, we all complain about our jobs—and the grass can often feel greener somewhere else. But there’s a difference between job slump and being in the wrong career.

If you're asking yourself whether your job is right for you, here are some simple steps you can take to find out!

All great sales managers will tell you that training and development are the cornerstones for building an exceptional sales team. The sales industry constantly changes and evolves as prospects learn and alter tactics to deal with enthusiastic salespeople. And, every salesperson needs to learn how to adapt to these changes and continue to grow in their field of knowledge.

This is why sales managers and salespeople share common ground when it comes to learning and developing new skills, but as the 2019 Media Sales Report found, there’s still room for improvement when it comes to performance.

From prospecting clients to making the pitch, it’s the sales team that brings your business profits. When you work in a profession where quarterly quotas and revenue goals need to be met, you can’t afford a high turnover rate.

When meeting with clients, how often are they experiencing sales problems that are often due to extreme turnover on their sales team? There are multiple reasons behind sales rep turnover, one of the biggest being ineffective sales managers. Other reasons range from poor company culture and inadequate pay to lack of training.

A modest amount of turnover is expected. Plus, it’s good to bring on new people with different perspectives, ideas, and capabilities. However, turnover rates near 35% can be costly and reflect poorly on your organization in more ways than one.

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"Everyone lives by selling something."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

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Highly-talented salespeople are more in-demand than ever. In fact, of the top ten emerging high-growth jobs listed by LinkedIn, five of them are some form of sales role. One significant result from our recently published 2019 Media Sales Report is that salespeople in these roles (and other sales positions) don’t want to be paid on 100% salary. 

Salespeople have repeatedly told us they want the opportunity to make as much as they can. Research supported this with over 57% of the salespeople saying that they prefer a salary plus commission structure with 30% to 40% of their total compensation coming from salary.

Rethinking the sales organization is a big topic in the media industry. Knowing how to compensate is just scratching the surface of what we uncovered in this year’s Media Sales Report. While compensation is one way to motivate salespeople and bring them to your organization, non-financial elements also play a significant role when it comes to hiring, coaching, and development.

Whether they realize it or not, consumers travel through a series of steps before purchasing an item. For the consumer, this journey is not something they think about; they’re simply trying to make a decision.

The process consumers follow to purchase a product or service has changed significantly over the years. To truly understand the consumer journey today, we must look at the past relationship between the brand and the consumer and how it has evolved over time.

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"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."

-Albert Einstein

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