The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

If you’re in sales, there’s a good chance that you will soon close another deal.

But why? Why do clients buy what you have to sell, and then, why don’t they buy?

First, you need to follow a logical process; ours is the Sales Accelerator, but today we’re going to look to Ancient Greece and what Aristotle believed were four main causes of how things come to be. In this case, how your sales or lack of it came to be.

Many believe prospecting for new clients is the most difficult stage in the sales process.

Working at the top of the funnel is certainly filled with more rejection and dead ends than you’ll encounter once you connect and are into the discovery and advise stages.

With all the challenges in the early part of the sales process, it’s not surprising that many salespeople settle for less than desirable new accounts. These accounts often ending up spending less and wanting more. They may not be the best product fit, their results are mediocre, and they doubt the effectiveness of your solutions. They take precious time away from working with more ideal targets and key accounts. And they can suck the life out of your passion for being in sales.

Without quality activity, sales teams fall short of their performance goals.

If it seems that more than a third, or even more than half, of your team is struggling with producing quality activity, it’s time to take a hard look at your sales structure, because your sales structure is perfect­ly designed for the results you’re getting.

To identify where you might have a problem with your sales structure, break the sales process into three key areas:

• Generating Leads
• Selling Solutions
• Serving Clients

Is there one clear area that more than a third of your team is struggling with?

To start something at the beginning and complete it (in order) to the very end is seen as a virtue. Linear thinking is logical, and experts say that most of us in the western world rely on it 90% of the time. But don’t let that limit you into believing there's always just one path to the best result.

What result do you want from sales training? To say the team completed all the courses or learn to sell smarter or faster?

In a very short time, the sales process and a large portion of our life went entirely online.

It’s not that every time we contacted a client or prospect it was always in person, but the reliance on shared screen meetings is now the standard and is unlikely to change any time soon. New activities create new buzz words, and the most recent is “Zoom Fatigue.”

Your clients and prospects are on a predictable journey to making a purchase. You have a much better chance at success if you understand their buyer’s journey. The model we present to clients expands on the traditional Awareness-Consideration-Decision stages. This helps us look at things from the mind of your client or prospect.

B2B sales professionals must understand the buyer’s journey. It’s an important framework for strategy, but a common question is, how do I know where my prospect is on the buyer’s journey, and how do I get them from step one to closing?

Moving into 100% commissioned sales in my 30’s was one of those “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger” moments in my life. Truth be told, it wasn’t a moment; it was a journey. I remember trying to learn all I could from the veteran salespeople on my team. But, when I read the book Sales Dogs I began to understand that the answer was not to be found in trying to copy the talents of other salespeople, but to learn how to leverage my own unique mix of talents.

There are core sales talents that people need to be successful in sales. Yet even the most talented salespeople will have a unique mix of those talents, and how they play out in practice is as different as one dog to the next.

When dealing with severe levels of change, it’s natural to reign in and hyper-focus on the activity we feel is most essential to surviving and thriving in that environment. In sales, that core activity would include things like the need to continue identifying quality prospects, connecting with decision makers, and discovering their needs and desired business results.

Activity is important, but a knee jerk reaction to keep approaching those activities the way you always have will not be effective when business cycles are at their most volatile.

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.

Talent assessments are an excellent tool for understanding the way your candidates and current salespeople are wired. The difference in approach with each group is key to productive new hires and successful coaching.