The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

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"It's not about having the right opportunities. It's about handling the opportunities right."

-Mark Hunter

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“Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.” - R.G. Risch

Aside from lowering prices, releasing better products, or providing superior service, there's something else that your salespeople can do to improve sales performance. A sales professionals livelihood depends largely on the levels of trust and credibility they build with prospects and clients.

The more respect you command, the higher close ratio you will have. Additionally, the higher the degree of trust you establish, the less the need to negotiate. Getting that first appointment with a new business prospect is difficult because most sellers don't take the time to establish trust and create value in the mind of the prospect.

If you want to be treated as a professional, someone who is trustworthy, and worth an investment of time, do these four easy things and prove it to your prospects and clients. 

Based on HubSpot research, only 3% of buyers trust sales representatives. If your sales process follows the cookie-cutter pattern of simply selling a product or service, the chances of you reversing that statistic are slim to none.

If you follow the formulated Sales Accelerator process, you know how important it is to execute the steps in correct order. During Discover, sellers uncovered prospect’s desired business results. The next step is to Advise the prospect on the best solution path, and that starts by determining which solution path is right for the situation.

This is the step where sellers learn how to differentiate themselves and prove to potential clients how they can make their life easier. From determining a solution path to removing surprises and handling objections, there are several points you don’t want your salespeople to overlook.

As 2020 unfolds, we see that Glassdoor’s prediction of a culture-first decade is upon us. Company culture and employee engagement are differentiators for organizations. This rise in popularity is largely due to a long string of well-respected experts, with studies in hand, pointing to a solid link between employee engagement and company productivity, revenue, and key customer retention. More than ever before, leaders understand that to grow the bottom line, they must start by creating a culture of engagement.

A conversation about desired business results (needs, challenges, and opportunities) is an essential part of the sales process. When engaging new business prospects as well as current customers, it’s crucial to ask the right questions. Aside from the right questions, other tools can help a seller discover core needs quickly and succinctly.

Needs analysis is a central and critical part of making the sale. Sellers work hard setting appointments; the end result should never be a botched needs analysis. Here are eight tools—along with some thoughts about each—that sellers can use to make the most of a needs analysis meeting.

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"Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect."

-Clement Stone

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The third step of our sales process is often the most tedious. Discover—also referred to in other sales process steps as “define,” assessment,” or “needs,” all share the same goal of meeting with a prospect or client to uncover their desired business results.  

The key part of this stage is understanding each prospect's challenges and needs and establishing how your product or service can help. We find that sellers rush through this step, but by taking their time in the Discover phase of the sales process, they will actually accelerate the sales cycle and increase their odds of closing the deal.

There are several resources readily available with information on what it takes to be a great sales coach and manager of people. We often talk with managers who want to hire top-notch sales coaches and the list of their requirements is usually a long one—including experience, past successes, and “must have” talents. It’s definitely a hire you want to get right!

There are many natural behaviors and characteristics that make a sales coach great, and it's important to uncover the intensities of these talents before you hire someone.

Telecommuting, flexible work environments—both fancier terms for working remotely—is the new normal for many of us. By now, you’ve gotten a taste for what working from home entails. And whether you choose to admit it or not, some of you have decided that remote work isn’t as great as it sounded just a few weeks ago.

At first, working quietly in your pajamas seemed enticing—even productive—then the silence set in, and you missed all the chaos. Most people do! Knowing how important socializing is, how do you keep that feeling intact with your team in a time of social distancing?

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"Obstacles don't have to stop you. If your run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it."

-Michael Jordan

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While technology and buyer behaviors have caused businesses to modernize their sales process, basic principles such as qualifying prospects, defining needs, and understanding buying patterns haven’t changed that much. Every business is different, but most follow a progression with comparable sales stages.

Recognizing the need to humanize the sales process, our Sales Accelerator series is known for being more in-step with how real selling is done today while applying basic fundamentals.

Each of the six steps in the Sales Accelerator series offers important points you don’t want your salespeople to overlook. However, the second step—Connect—is where we teach sellers how to establish two vital fundamentals: establishing credibility and building trust.

Setting the first appointment with a new business prospect is not an easy task. Some argue it’s the toughest part of the sales process. Additionally, it’s something veteran sellers struggle with as much as new sellers.

The main reason this is a difficult task is the lack of credibility that salespeople are saddled with. Let’s face it; salespeople are usually met with skepticism and kept at arm’s length by prospects who don’t know or trust them. Building trust and closing the credibility gap from the onset of the sales process is a great way to set more appointments with new business prospects.

Everyone is looking for creative ways to drive new business—and we could easily provide a list of five hacks that would be helpful. But those five tips would not have the same impact that changing just one thing would have—your perspective.

There is a legendary story about a large American shoe company that sent two sales representatives to different regions of the Australian outback to scope out the business potential for the company.  The first reported, “No business here. The natives don’t wear shoes.”  The other wired back, “Huge opportunity! The natives don’t wear shoes.”

Same data, different conclusion. Which message would you have sent back?

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"Start working with your prospects as if they've already hired you."

-Jill Konrath

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Remote work statistics have consistently increased over the years. A special analysis conducted by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics found that from 2005 to 2017, there was a 159% increase in remote work. Based on the growing numbers, Upwork’s Future Workforce Report predicts that 73% of all teams will have remote workers by 2028.

COVID-19 forced many teams into a remote workforce, and nearly 43% of full-time American employees say they want to work remotely more often even after the economy has reopened. The same survey reports that of the more than 1,200 employees surveyed, nearly 20% said their employer is actively discussing how they can make remote work more of an option in the future.

Routines, schedules, processes—they all make us more efficient, consistent, and accurate in our roles. A strong sales process helps the prospect along their journey but also acts as a roadmap for reps so that they can consistently close deals.

The strategic sales process that we teach at The Center for Sales Strategy is called Sales Accelerator. It's an updated look at the customer-focused sales process, addressing how the sales process has evolved, and more in-step with how real selling is done today.

There are six steps of the Sales Accelerator, each filled with several courses that goes deep enough to build an effective, tailored solution while moving fast enough to achieve acceleration. Sales managers take note; these are the things you don’t want your team to overlook in the first step—Identify—of the sales process.

Sales managers and salespeople have discovered new ways of conducting face-to-face sales activity as a result of recent social distancing restrictions. Being creative and using video technology to stay connected with customers as well as propose and close business with new prospects has become the new normal.

World-class sellers know it’s time to move from playing defense to playing offense because customers and prospects need help. They need solutions. They need the problem-solving expertise that a quality salesperson brings to the table. Simply put, customers are more open to ideas and solutions than ever before because their level of pain is high.

- MOTIVATION -

"What we dwell on is who we become."

-Oprah Winfrey

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