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The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Maximizing Virtual Selling for Prospects and Clients

Maximizing Virtual Selling for Prospects and Clients

Remote selling, virtual selling, more communication via emails, and phone calls it’s all the new normal. And these new normal tactics require a significant shift in skills to create a more engaging buyer experience.

Conducting business over Zoom is tricky. Rather than shaking hands and reading body language, salespeople must learn how to limit distractions, make virtual sales demos more like traditional presentations, and learn to communicate as effectively online as they do when they’re physically with prospects and clients.

Being a sales professional in 2020 is very different than it was just last year. Buyers, who used to prefer meeting face-to-face prior to making a purchasing decision, have changed too.

Topics: sales process Remote Team virtual selling

15 Things Every Great Sales Manager Knows

great sales managerWhat do you consider the greatest job in the world?

Maybe I'm biased, but I'm convinced I have that job. Why? Here’s what I do every day:

  • Talk with people who are actively engaged in sharing important information with me
  • Figure out what makes those people “tick”
  • Work with sales managers to understand the talents of the people they are interviewing
  • Help them to hire the very best people for the job
  • Focus on the unique strengths of individuals
  • And, help managers to coach their direct reports to become wildly successful

And best of all, I have the privilege of working closely with some of the greatest managers out there. After all these years, I can tell you that there are 15 things that every great manager knows. 

Topics: hiring salespeople Sales

Weekly Roundup: Employees Want Bosses To Do This, What Prevents Virtual Selling Success + More

Employees Want Bosses To Do This, What Prevents Virtual Selling Success

- MOTIVATION -

"We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are are, we cannot help but change."

-Sherly Sandbrg

- AROUND THE WEB -

<< If you only read one thing >>

7 Things Employees Wish Bosses Would Start Doing Immediately–Inc.

Great organizations are built by great bosses. (That's why identifying and attracting talented people is almost as important as developing talented people.)

How do you become a better boss? You could take a page from the Google book and match your skills to what Google determined are the key behaviors of top managers. Or you could check out the following blog where Contributing Editor, Jeff Haden asked one million-plus LinkedIn followers a simple question: 

"If you could cause every boss in the world to start doing one thing, what would it be?" >>> READ MORE

Topics: Wrap-up

How to Get Results in Individual Meetings with Your Salespeople

How to Get Results in Individual Meetings with Your Salespeople

Sales managers often ask us how to make Individual Focus Meetings (IFM) with their salespeople more productive. What's interesting about this, is that salespeople also ask us (on a weekly, if not bi-weekly basis) why they even need an Individual Focus Meeting with their sales manager.

As you can already tell, there seems to be an issue with this weekly meeting — neither side is getting what they want out of it. And we understand why this is happening.

Topics: successful sales meetings sales performance sales coaching

How to Use a Sales Playbook with Your Sales Team

How to Use a Sales Playbook with Your Sales Team

Before we get into the how to use a Sales Playbook, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page when it comes to answering what is a Sales Playbook.

In its simplest terms, a Sales Playbook is a key piece to a winning sales enablement strategy that outlines your sales process and aligns it with the buyer’s journey. It provides salespeople with a collection of resources like best practices, insights into their buyers, how to approach specific sales scenarios, talk tracks, email templates, ways to handle objections, competitive intel, and more.

Topics: sales enablement sales playbook IMPACT

7 Sales Coaching Statistics All Sales Leaders Need to See

sales coaching statistics

Sales coaching is not about telling your sales team what to do. There's so much more to it.

Sales coaching helps sales leaders equip their teams to reach their maximum potential, and gives them the tools and knowledge to make better decisions in their sales process, which leads to overall improved sales performance for themselves, the team, and you.

Topics: sales performance sales coaching

Weekly Roundup: Sales Trends COVID-19 Has Accelerated, Adaptability in a Remote Sales World + More

Sales Trends COVID-19 Has Accelerated

- MOTIVATION -

"Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later."

-Og Mandino

- AROUND THE WEB -

<< If you only read one thing >>

5 Sales Trends COVID-19 Has Accelerated: And Why they're Here to Stay–Sales Hacker

When COVID-19 first hit the United States in March, many sales organizations thought the adjustments they had to make would be temporary. But as the crisis continues, it’s becoming increasingly clear that many of the changes brought on by the pandemic will be permanent.

Here are five significant sales trends that are here to stay and are only being accelerated in their adoption due to the current environment. >>>READ MORE

Topics: Wrap-up

6 Ways Inbound Lead Generation Provides ROI + 6 Key Metrics to Track

6 Ways Inbound Lead Generation Provides ROI

There’s no doubt — lead generation that is clear-cut, clean, and specific is ideal. When we picture lead generation working at peak performance, most of us envision the salesperson being handed a lead that is pre-qualified and only a small step from closing. Smooth and easy!

But don’t fool yourself into thinking that every lead generated by inbound marketing will be so straightforward. That’s not reality, and if you allow tunnel vision to influence your ability to measure your inbound marketing ROI, you'll miss out on a lot of critical information.

Topics: Lead Generation Inbound Marketing

Coaching Salespeople Who Struggle to Work From Home

Coaching Salespeople Who Struggle to Work From Home

Are you coaching a salesperson who is struggling to stay focused and deliver results while working from home?

You’re not alone! Several studies provide evidence of increased productivity while working remotely, but earlier this year Forbes also reported more than 75% of employees admit their productivity has plummeted due to distractions related to working from home and the pandemic.

If your salesperson has low discipline and struggles with organization, don’t lose hope — there are several strategies you can use to regain their focus.

Topics: sales performance Remote Team

How to Improve Virtual Selling

How to Improve Virtual Selling

It's been nearly six months since the first social distancing orders were issued—six months of working from home, Zoom meetings, and not wearing work clothes. Back in early April, most of us didn't think that this new normal would last more than a few weeks.

Well, we were wrong.

Working remotely, Zoom meetings, casual every day, is here to stay for a while and maybe forever. We must ensure that we’re not only enhancing our techniques for virtual selling but also becoming as personable on a Zoom call as we are face-to-face. If you’re not comfortable with virtual selling, you’re going to have serious problems moving forward and succeeding in this brave new world.

Topics: Remote Team virtual selling