The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

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"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

-John D. Rockefeller

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Can you identify with the following situation — and can you learn from this story?

A highly talented salesperson has a lot of natural ability, and when engaged, they're one of the company’s top performers. However, when not that engaged, they're occupied with other things outside of work and seems to lack the desire and drive to succeed in their job. 

We talk a lot at The Center for Sales Strategy about putting the right people in the right jobs and we believe that when you do that, they naturally soar with their strengths. Throw a fish in the water and it swims. Put Taylor Swift on stage and she belts it out. Hire someone who is born to sell, and they sell.

Except when they don’t.  

Sometimes to be more productive and effective, you just need to take it back to the basics. But, often, that’s what takes the most time — and most days, we don’t have enough hours in the day.  

If you could invest now to save later, would you do it? Ask yourself, if you could make a change today to reap benefits in the future, would you be willing to give it a try?  

At The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS), we value sales and marketing alignment, and a lot of our efforts overlap; and therefore, we carry tips and strategies across departments. Why? Because they work.  

In this post, you’ll find three valuable non-innovative marketing tactics that we’ve seen support the sales process. We call them “non-innovative” because it’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but the question and challenge we have for you is, have you done these things, or are you committed to putting forth the effort to adopt these tactics to boost your sales process? 

One of the most frustrating problems a sales leader encounters is managing an underperforming sales rep.

When you hire a seller, you see talent and potential. You know they’re a solid performer with a track record for success. However, they’re now in the 20-30% of sales staff that’s underperforming.

Interestingly, the pandemic has caused many successful AEs to struggle with sales performance. Seasoned reps with long term Key Accounts are suddenly finding themselves with no clients. Some of these reps now find new business development as their primary focus — and they don’t like it.

How can you help underperforming sales reps succeed?

Which skill do you think your manager needs to improve most?

When Robert Half Management Resources asked this question to more than 1,000 U.S workers, one skill clearly surpassed the rest — communication skills. Adapting your communication style based on individual and situational needs is critical to improving sales performance.

You can have the greatest business strategy and sales plan, but those plans will never get implemented if you can’t communicate effectively. Communication is key, and below are four focus areas where every leader can start improving today.

- MOTIVATION -

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."

-Vince Lombardi

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72% of Americans believe whoever is elected in the White House will directly impact their finances — and 32% are putting off a big financial decision until Election Day.

Every four years, there’s a whirlwind of uncertainty about who will win the presidential and congressional elections. This year, our economic future tops the poll of concern. The unknowns are causing leadership to take fewer risks, hold off on making necessary business decisions, and hesitant to have conversations regarding annual contracts.

While we can’t predict the future and outcome, we can take control by being proactive. When it comes to business, time is money. And every business decision you delay is costing you valuable time and money.

Your IFM's should be the most productive and most important time spent with your sales reps every week.

For those unfamiliar with the acronym IFM, it stands for Individual Focus Meeting. What is an IFM? It's what our team at The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS) calls your weekly one-on-one meetings with your salespeople (CSS loves to create an acronym for more common sales terms to keep you on your toes.)

Numerous studies support the fact that one-on-one meetings have a large impact on your team’s performance. So, if you’re struggling with IFM’s, it’s time to prioritize and improve with these three tips.

Salespeople in different industries encounter different questions and objections, right? Wrong. Your products and services may affect the minor details of objections, but Google the phrase ‘most common sales objections’ and you’ll find most sellers face the same objections from their leads.

Whether it’s price objections, the prospect isn’t interested, or “now isn’t a good time,” sellers often encounter the same types of questions and objections during the sales process. Sales enablement resources help them anticipate and overcome these objections.

Creating talk tracks and related sales collateral material helps enable sellers to respond quickly — allowing them to move the sales process forward and close business sooner.

When you think about the sales meetings you attend, are you delighted or disappointed? Are you engaged or enraged? Is your time spent in the meetings worthwhile or wasted?

Sales meetings are a staple in most every sales department. Time is money to every salesperson and sales leader. It’s up to the sales leader to make sure each meeting is positive, motivating, and worthwhile. Treat your sales team like customers who want to feel like their needs have been met and that they leave the meeting enlightened and energized.

- MOTIVATION -

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."

-Peter Drucker

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Marketing content isn’t just for branding and lead generation anymore. Today’s buyers aren’t interested in being sold. Instead, they want to be educated and informed.

Consequently, it’s more important than ever that sales teams have access to content relevant to their prospect’s business problems and positions the seller and the organization as thought leaders and subject matter experts. The content that Marketing creates to support the go-to-market objectives (blog articles, eBooks, whitepapers, case studies, etc.) is often repurposed to support the buying journey  and sales process as well.

To better support the sales team, marketers are not only creating and repurposing content, they’re also building specific sales plays (that include items like customizable email templates, voice mail scripts, and corresponding cadence schedule) that prescribe how and when the content should be leveraged to support the sales process.

Interviewing salespeople is tough!

Screening, uncovering, and selecting top talent takes a lot of practice and a reliable process. In order to better take advantage of every golden interview opportunity that comes your way, you need to know the common pitfalls — and then avoid them.

Are you one of the 63% of businesses that have problems getting traffic and leads? Or are your salespeople part of the 44% that give up after one rejection?

It happens to everyone in sales. You connect with a prospect, conduct a needs analysis, maybe even give a stellar presentation, but something happens along the way, and the prospect stalls. Do you know it takes six to eight follow-ups for sales leads to convert to paying customers?

Before moving forward after a stalled account, evaluate where you went wrong. How do you re-engage stalled accounts? Well, it all depends on where you’re at in the sales process.

- MOTIVATION -

"Be miserable or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice."

-Wayne Dyer

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One of the largest inhibitors to sales enablement in organizations is taking a random approach to it.

According to Salesforce, 58% of pipelines stall because sales reps are unable to add value. Is your current sales enablement content addressing the issues your clients and prospects are facing? Research says for many companies the answer is no, and it’s due to the lack of a sales enablement strategy.

As you look to grow your sales enablement efforts, our experts want to offer their tips on successful sales enablement strategies that they know are proven to work.

The “old days” when we just showed up on someone’s doorstep or dropped into their inbox or voicemail weren’t really all that long ago, were they? 

The reality is these time-tested cold calling methods were already losing their effectiveness before the pandemic shutdown sent everyone home from the office. Still, changes in prospect behavior have accelerated, given the trials of the last six months.  And, those trends are likely to result in permanent changes in how B2B sales are conducted.

- MOTIVATION -

"Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is."

-Vince Lombardi

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Culture is powerful, and like brand, you’re going to have one whether you like it or not. The best organizations to work for are the ones that recognize this and actively strive to push the right buttons every day to build a positive climate and a culture of engagement.