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The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Common Issues for Key Decision Makers

Common Issues for Key Decision Makers Post-Pandemic

Active buyers in today’s market have immediate and pressing issues that couldn’t be foreseen earlier this year. Business owners have more distractions than ever, and there’s no roadmap for dealing with the economic changes that are still occurring.   

Putting yourself inside the mind of these buyers will help you gain access to them. Understanding who they are is critical to understanding how you sell your products and services to them. We call this tactic defining your target persona. 

Topics: target persona

Sales Prospecting: The Top Mistakes Companies Make and How to Fix Them

Sales Prospecting The Top Mistakes Companies Make and How to Fix Them

If you're looking to grow your business, prospecting is a crucial part of the process, as it allows companies to identify potential customers and clients and generate new business opportunities. However, many companies make mistakes when prospecting that can hurt their chances of success.

Let's talk about some of the most common mistakes companies make when it comes to prospecting and how to avoid them.

Topics: target persona prospecting

Help Your Sellers Secure Hard-To-Get-Meetings

Help Your Sellers Secure Hard-To-Get-Meetings

Before you can close the deal you first have to schedule the first meeting with the prospect’s decision-maker. Often, that’s the most challenging element of the sales process. Many sellers express the same frustration. “We have a great story to tell, but we’re simply not getting enough at-bats.”

Here are five ideas to help your sellers get off the bench and into the game.

Topics: target persona sales playbook getting appointments

New Business Hack: Know Your Target Persona

identify target audience new business hackOur team coaches salespeople from markets across the country on tactical things they can do within their sales process to help them connect with a decision maker or decision influencer faster to grow their new business.

Many things can be done to accomplish this, but one that seems to be resonating with salespeople lately is identifying their target persona so they can clearly define WHO their target is and fine tune HOW they plan to approach a new business prospect.

This is not a new strategy, just one that is often overlooked.

Topics: Needs Analysis target persona sales process

What is a Target Persona and Why Do I Need One?

what is a target personaResearch reveals that 47% of buyers view at least three to five pieces of content before deciding to speak with a sales rep. In today's digital age, sales teams must rely on inbound marketing strategies (the process of attracting prospects to you) to convert leads. Why? In order to be successful, you must generate amazing content that speaks to your prospects’ various needs, pain points, and buying cycle stages.

Developing a target persona* is critical for success. If you don't have a clearly defined persona, who's all your content targeted to? A target persona is absolutely necessary for a successful lead generation strategy. If you don't have this information, how do you create valuable content?

Topics: Inbound Marketing target persona

Ever Feel Like Your Salespeople Are Bad at Picking Prospects?

are your salespeople bad at picking prospectsWell, you wouldn’t be alone  I hear this from sales managers all the time. Here are the reasons I see that salespeople too often select the wrong companies to pursue:

  • They are opportunistic and therefore look for low-hanging fruit where getting access to decision makers is relatively easy. Sometimes that works out, but too often it translates into prospects that do not have the resources to be a key customer in your organization.

  • They let their own preferences dictate who they pursue. There might be particular categories they are comfortable with, or types of individuals they like to deal with that prejudice their thinking about who they should pursue as a prospect.
Topics: key account growth sales performance target persona account list management sales accelerator

Shopping for Solutions: Delivering the Perfect Digital Advertising Target

target-1.jpg

Mid-February is an interesting time of the year. The stores, malls, and grocery stores are jam-packed with people shopping for Valentines Day. If you like to shop, this may be paradise… heading out with all of the other crazed shoppers, trying to find that one special thing for that special someone. But if you're not into shopping, you probably want to minimize the places you have to go.

Imagine if you only gave yourself one opportunity to find that special gift—you're determined to go to only one store. Some of you would get lucky. Others might find that is it out of stock, while others find that the one store chosen never even carried that special something. So what do you do if you weren’t lucky? Since you only gave yourself one shot, you have two options—find another gift or go home with no gift.

Don’t like those options? Me either, but when it comes to digital marketing, I see salespeople and marketers do just that all the time when using ad targeting to reach their target consumer—their someone special if you will. Instead of using multiple targeting options available to them, they make the decision to hyper-target… using just one behavior, age group, or a small geographic area. Doing that is the same thing as just going into one store to find your target gift. You might get lucky and generate results, but more often hyper targeting minimizes your chances to deliver results.

Topics: Digital selling digital advertising integrated media solution target persona

Sales Strategy: Lost leader, or lost cause?

Lost Cause Price Tag photo
Topics: customer satisfaction setting expectations sales strategy Sales target persona

Are You Running in Circles, or Asleep at the Wheel?

inbound marketing, photo by Mike AndersonWhen it comes to inbound marketing, most companies fit into one of three categories:    

Topics: Inbound Marketing target persona

What Does Your End Zone Dance Look Like?

CelebrateWhen football players score a touchdown, it’s not unusual to see them celebrate in the end zone. Long-term traditions include player renditions of the dirty bird, the “dunking” the ball over the goal post, or the famous (infamous, if you’re from Minnesota) Lambeau Leap. In recent years, the NFL has become more strict about excessive end-zone celebrations, because of their potential to be interpreted as taunting, poor sportsmanship, and… well, class-less.  (Do I need to spell it out with a Sharpie?)

Topics: sales performance Sales target persona