The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. 5 Highly Effective LinkedIn Summary Templates for Sales Reps — HubSpot

The summary is one of the most important parts of your profile, since it’s a space to showcase your passion, enthusiasm, and most importantly, your track record of results. However, many reps leave their summaries blank for a very simple reason: They don’t know what to write. If you’ve got writer’s block, good news. These five LinkedIn summary templates will help you flesh out your profile in no time flat. Next thing you know, the number of opportunities in your pipeline will be soaring.

I recently overheard a telephone conversation when traveling, and it concluded with the person saying, “Sales is all about teaching.” Well, having been in outside sales, sales management, or consulting sales organizations my entire adult career, I stopped and pondered this. My gut reaction, was "No it isn’t," but then I thought, "Well, it is." I concluded, it’s both. It depends on what filter you are looking through.

. . . you just help enough people get what THEY want. I heard this truth many years ago from the legendary Zig Ziglar. It’s so simple and so powerful, it should be the basis for everything a sales professional does. But, simple and easy are two different things. Most sales professionals are so wrapped up in their products and services that nearly everything that comes out of their mouths sounds either like a monologue about features and benefits or a manipulative question designed to get the prospect to say they have a need which the salesperson’s product magically fills. 

But, what if you made this statement the basis for every move you made? If you really believe you can get anything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want, how would that change… 

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. Google Is Leaving You Clues to Help You Rank Higher: Know Where to Look — Unbounce

With the help of AI, machine learning and years of data, search engines are getting better at predicting what people want. As search engines become more concerned with solving people’s problems, the old SEO toolset is going to be thrown for a curve. The search race is no longer simply about keywords — it’s about being a trusted brand committed to solving people’s problems. The good news is there are a few places you can start looking to see what your customers want, so you can then deliver.

We hope you've had a great week! It's Friday, and today we're sharing what we've been reading online this week! Here are our "best" from around the web.

1. 18 Empathy Statements That Put Your Prospect at Ease — HubSpot

Sales is evolving. Today’s buyers won’t stand for being bullied into a deal. That’s where the empathy statement comes in. If your idea of empathy is throwing an “uh-huh” or “I see” into your conversations every few minutes, think again. This article highlights several empathetic statements that will show your prospects you’re more invested in their interests than closing a deal.

The words "Role Play" immediately bring feelings of fear, dread, and anxiety for most salespeople. 

But why? 

That's easy. Most sales managers use role-playing as a form of punishment. We've all either done it or had it done to us.  

As a manager, we are often frustrated by a salesperson, team, or project when they fail to make the progress that we expect. We try all kinds of solutions: motivation, incentives and sometimes "threats," but when those don't work, what do we do? We summon the team for a meeting. A meeting where we ROLE-PLAY! That'll work! Right?

Well, it can, but only if we do it right! 

I have been doing sales training and consulting for nearly 20 years and I always get a chuckle when salespeople tell me they need to find ways to close business in two calls. When I hear this today, I wonder where these people are living. Do they live on the same planet as I do? It’s not about the number of calls—it’s about the length of the sales cycle. And the sales cycle doesn’t start until the buyer is ready for it to start.

As we dive into fourth quarter, life starts to pick up the pace from lazy summer days to hectic school and work days. Traffic is heavier, vacations are over and the hustle and bustle of the holidays starts to take shape. Before you realize, it’s a new year (with new budgets!). Avoid being caught come January 2^nd and make a plan now to set yourself up for success in the coming year. As Benjamin Franklin so famously stated, “If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail.”  There is so much truth to this statement. 

I recently had a coaching assignment with a highly ambitious salesperson. This person wasn’t prospecting for new business as often or as much as her manager would like. I’d had a few calls with her and given her a few assignments to complete between our calls in the prospecting part of the sales process. Her performance for me (and for her manager) continued to be lackluster. I've done a lot of individualized coaching over the years. Because of the talent interviews my company does, I am privy to the innate talents of everyone I coach. Often times my coaching assignments are to get people to do something they are not currently doing. Prospecting is often at the top of the list.