Selling Power Blog

Trying to Call Higher? Here Are Six Ways To Do It Better

Today's post is by Ken Valla, President and Co-Founder of The Valla Group, a modern sales training organization. Follow The Valla Group’s LinkedIn page for sales effectiveness insights.

 

B2B sales reps have all heard the refrain from their managers: You’re not calling high enough. Companies usually cite examples where executive relationships generated huge contracts, so they encourage salespeople to aim high in their enterprise selling efforts. But getting a bigshot on the phone is not enough to guarantee success. In fact, you can damage your chances if your interaction with an executive falls flat. 

How do you engage executives successfully? Prepare, understand, anticipate. Students who study well do better on tests because they know what to expect before they walk into the classroom. If you think about your executive conversations the same way and follow the six steps described below, you’ll do better too.

Executive Calling Conversation Strategy

1. Conduct research

Executives don’t want to teach you about their company or industry. Before reaching out, identify their highest priorities, such as regulatory issues, competitive pressures, financials, or new product releases. Learn about their go-to-market strategies, how they do business, and their biggest challenges so that you can engage in consultative selling that’s worth their time.

2. Reach out to others

If you have the choice between calling your executive target or starting with someone lower in the company hierarchy, we recommend the latter. It may seem counterintuitive, but the more insight they can share about the executive—how that person thinks and communicates, their hot-button issues, current projects in motion, or topics to avoid, the better off you’ll be in future conversations.

3. Be ready to share value

You don’t have a second chance to make a first impression. A consultative selling approach requires you to share valuable insights that your executive wants to know, including:

• A point of view on industry trends, operational improvements, strategic planning, and other topics that can stimulate business-level (rather than product-level) conversations
• Customer stories that demonstrate how working with your company can be a profitable endeavor, or cautionary tales that show how inertia led to negative business outcomes
• Insights from trusted sources (i.e. analysts, thought leaders, executive peers from other companies) about new business ideas that will get the executive to pay attention

4. Know where you are in the executive’s journey

Developing a rapport with any buyer, particularly a senior executive, requires you to provide information that aligns with where they are in their journey. What is the executive trying to accomplish organizationally and where are they in that journey? Before contacting an executive, know if they’re actively considering your type of solution, are aware of it, or know nothing at all. Getting them to consider a business approach that’s not on their radar requires a vastly different conversation than speaking to them when they’ve done some research and are already considering alternatives.

5. Don’t talk about your product

Remember that proper consultative selling techniques with executives do not include unsolicited product pitches. Executives respond much more favorably to conversational sales approaches that focus on their business outcomes, not your products. Connect to the business outcomes they will achieve by working with you, not what your product does, and they’ll see you as a resource instead of just another salesperson.

6. Plan your outcome

Simply getting to know a high-level executive is not a viable objective. Instead, use a consultative selling approach based on objectives that will advance your cause. These may include:

• Putting your company on their radar for evaluation
• Receiving a sponsored introduction to key stakeholders
• Gaining a better understanding of business issues facing the organization
• Plotting a roadmap of the buying process and next steps
• Overcoming an obstacle that has stalled a sales cycle
• Assigning realistic timelines to your efforts

For more insight about planning a successful revenue blueprint to differentiate yourself from the competition, click here. 

5 Pandemic-Proof Sales Skills

Today’s post is by Brett Keirstead, CRO of GlobalVetLink and author of We Are All Sales, People. His book is written to celebrate what makes salespeople great throughout their lives at home, work, school, and in the community. Connect with Brett on LinkedIn and follow him on his blog, We’re All Sales People.

 

The headlines are everywhere:

“How to sell in a pandemic”

“Selling will never be the same”

“What lies ahead for sales?”

“Is traditional selling dead?”

Throughout my 30 years in sales, one thing has remained constant: The more complex the situation, the more important it is to focus on the fundamentals. I have observed 5 key attributes that help salespeople succeed in any situation – good or bad. These skills are especially important for the next generation of remote salespeople, who may not have access to the watercooler advice that influenced many of us at the beginning of our careers.

1. Know yourself

All great sales professionals know their product – its features and benefits, its value to customers, and the problems it solves – inside and out. But the best salespeople know themselves equally as well as they know their product. Are we aware of how we communicate and make others feel? Do we know our strengths, weaknesses, biases, and blind spots? Are we open and honest in our disclosures? Taking great care to present yourself in the most professional manner is the key to earning trust and achieving success when times are tough.

2. Sincerely understand others

The ability to truly understand your customer increases the odds of a successful sale. The world’s most delicious bread won’t sell if it’s pitched to someone who is gluten intolerant. Great salespeople use their natural curiosity and interest in others to ask the questions that help their clients achieve their goals and solve their problems. When times get tough, many people shift their focus inward. Salespeople can’t afford to make this mistake. They must take the time to meet their customers where they are – not where the salesperson wants them to be. Showing a genuine interest and curiosity in others is foundational to sales excellence.

3. Sell win-win deals

One-sided deals don’t make good salespeople. Instead, successful professionals look for mutually beneficial outcomes – a win-win for the customer and themselves. In uncertain times, it’s easy to lose this perspective and focus more on your own self-interest. Take extra time to review each proposal and request and examine whether they are truly mutually beneficial. Are you being reasonable? Is your customer also getting a fair deal? You may selfishly win a short-term proposal in a one-sided deal, but you will miss out on a potential lifetime relationship.

4. Negotiate

Even in the best of times, salespeople lose a deal 75% of the time and suffer rejection 10 times that throughout the process. Crisis situations can make customers seem even more inflexible and dogmatic. When they encounter pushback on their perspective, they might become upset or angry. Now is the time to de-escalate tension through greater flexibility. Winning a deal often means compromising on price and terms, and it’s important to accept that as a natural course of business. You must be graceful, learn from each experience, adjust your strategy, seek common ground, and push forward. People have fluid circumstances in their life and the willingness to give a little will be a refreshing experience that will help win a customer’s respect and business.

5. Persist through close 

A deal is not done until it closes. Verbal commitments, handshake agreements, or spoken promises do not count. In good times, when people are more apt to take risks and the buy cycles are more stable, you can have a greater confidence in a prospect’s words. But in uncertain and volatile times, sellers must stay vigilant. Circumstances can change on a moment’s notice. Stay connected with your client, reaffirm your value proposition, and follow your close plan. Assume nothing and keep following up until the deal is done.

In hectic times, I have always found that a renewed focus on these 5 basic principles will steady the ship for you. Be self-aware, understand your clients’ needs, find mutually beneficial outcomes, be flexible, and remain vigilant until the close. If you execute these core ideas, you can weather any sales storm you encounter. Good selling everyone!

You can purchase Brett’s book “We Are All Sales, People” on Amazon. 

Leverage Your Core Sales Skills During This Pandemic

Today’s post is by Justin Zappulla, managing partner at Janek Performance Group.

 

While many states and countries are gradually in the process of re-opening, there remain restrictions and a need to navigate a new sales normal. Additionally, an economic crisis is clearly part of the COVID-19 fallout. All of this has created a business environment where sales can be achieved, but through a different process than we are used to. However, it’s important to remember that, regardless of the state of the world, your industry, or business in general, there is a path forward to sales success.  

1. Adapt your skills to the current environment 
The sales process has likely changed. We are connecting with customers in different ways, there’s a greater emphasis on remote selling, and there is a vital need to think creatively in meeting the unique challenges of an economy overshadowed by a pandemic. But the good news is, you’ve developed core selling skills that can be applied to the new environment – just a bit differently.  

Things like knowing how to open and close, being a trusted advisor, identifying needs, tailoring a solution, offering insights and ideas to get customers to think differently – these are all core selling skills sales professionals have honed over the years and are still critical in today’s unique environment. They are applied a bit differently, as the communication medium has changed. Lean into Web-based tools with video, if possible, and get comfortable working phone and email. While face-to-face interactions will be limited, you still can connect deeply with your customers by leveraging the core selling skills you’ve learned to rely on.  

2. Pay even more attention to communication style preferences
Communication styles are one of the most critical gateways to understanding and connecting with buyers. In times of stress and strife, like COVID-19, they become even more important. Being able to talk to someone who is in sync with you in your preferred communication method is a huge relief, and it’s an opening that sales professionals can use to establish trust, build rapport, and engage in a productive sales dialogue. 

However, the environment has changed. Even with the relaxing of some restrictions, face-to-face is still less likely to take place. Consequently, sales professionals will need to use other strategies to discern communication styles – verbal clues like tone and words used, and writing elements such as content, length, and syntax. When possible, the use of video can be a tremendous asset. Being able to read the body language of your customer – and them being able to see the same – is a significant advantage. 

3. Short-term problems could take priority over long-term solutions
Because pandemics involve a great degree of future uncertainty – no one knows precisely how long it will last, for example – long-term strategizing will likely downshift to a lesser priority for buyers. After all, if you don’t know what the world will look like in the future, it can be difficult to make plans based on that.

Thus, sales reps may find they need to align with buyers’ most pressing short-term concerns over long-range issues. That doesn’t mean future scope is completely out of the equation, of course – one can make models and projections based on an array of possible futures – but addressing immediate problems could not only represent a win now but strengthen your position on future deals as well.    

4. Resist the trap of diving too deeply into non-business discussions
The pandemic response at the local, state, national, and international level has tragically become politicized. One of the things sales professionals need to be aware of is buyers who have strong opinions about the strategy employed to deal with COVID-19. Sales professionals need to be aware of the risks associated with diving too deeply into this dialogue.  

Despite the chaos affecting the entire world of business and sales, core selling skills are still critical to engaging and influencing buyers. Shifting strategy to work through different communication channels, emphasizing relationship building, strongly considering communication styles, and balancing both short-term and long-term goals are all ways to effectively keep the sales pipeline full.

For more helpful advice on how to advance your selling and sales management skills, visit Janek’s resource library. 

What You Need to Know to Win at Virtual Selling

Today’s post is by Tom Stanfill, CEO of ASLAN Training & Development.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic is a defining moment for your salespeople to hit their number while working from home. At ASLAN, we’ve spent over 20 years training reps to sell remotely. Salespeople who take the right steps can absolutely learn to influence, engage customers, and close sales virtually. 

We’re happy to share proven strategies that work. Start with the four tips below. You can also download our latest report, "How to Help Your Team Master Virtual Selling," for even more winning advice for sales leaders.  

Tip #1: Increase Customer Receptivity by Building Trust

Receptivity to sellers is a mixed bag right now. Customers are working from home and answering the phone, but they’re overwhelmed by other priorities and taking care of their families and teams. 

If you call customers out of desperation to achieve quota, your tone, word choice, and actions will reflect your self-focused mindset. To put your focus on the customer, ask yourself these questions: 

• Why is it in the customer’s best interest to meet with me? 
• How can I help them in this crisis? 
• What problems can I solve? 

The answers will give you a calm and confident demeanor, which will replace the, “Sorry to call you, but I’m supposed to be selling remotely and I need to fill my funnel” vibe.

When you call, ask (in an open-ended way) what challenges the customer is trying to solve. Your goal is to serve (we call this “dropping the rope”), not force your way into a meeting or get an order. This eliminates an adversarial relationship and allows both you and the customer to relax and collaborate to solve real problems (virtually) or agree to meet after the pandemic crisis is over. 

Either way, you will distinguish yourself from the pack and move from “rep to avoid” to friend, partner, and trusted ally (aka, someone they will always want to meet with). All these actions will increase the customer’s receptivity – even over the phone!  After all, they may not remember what you said during these uncertain times, but they will remember how you made them feel.

Tip #2: Land Meetings by Following a Process 

If you can’t “stop by” to visit customers, how will you land meetings while virtual selling? Likely you’ve already heard customers say things like: “Thanks for calling. Family’s fine and we’re good right now. Look forward to catching up when this thing blows over.” 

In the absence of the intimacy that naturally occurs face-to face, you need to follow a process to land meetings. Take the following steps. 

1. Lead with the customer’s whiteboard. Picture the person you are about to call sitting in his or her office or cubicle. Now picture a whiteboard displaying initiatives and key action items. Whatever it says, lead with that when you call. Response rates will soar.
   
   
2. Ask permission to meet. A request puts control in the hands of the customer, giving them the freedom to choose. This may yield a higher commitment: Research has shown that, when people make small, initial commitments (like agreeing to hold a meeting), they’re more likely to follow through.
   
   
3. Write fantastic prospecting emails. Pay attention to subject lines, narrative flow (how one idea rolls into the next), how you articulate value, and the supporting information you attach or link to. And you can learn more about how to include these five components of an effective email. 

Tip #3: Build Rapport Virtually 

With virtual selling, customers can’t see you in person, and you lose rapport and intimacy. This means customers are less likely to believe you can solve their problems – after all, you’re just another faceless voice or image on a screen. 

In these situations, salespeople must be strategic to uncover the information they need to diagnose problems and offer valuable solutions. You can do so in three key ways. 

1. Ask questions by leading with knowledge. Demonstrate knowledge or expertise, then pose a related question. (Example: “Ninety percent of social media strategies fail because they invest in content and channels that don’t reach the intended audience. How would you assess your current social media strategy?”) Asking a question by leading with expertise causes decision makers to sit up and take notice.
   
   
2. Validate the customer’s point of view (even when it’s something you don’t want to hear). Let’s say your customer says something not so pleasant, like: “Now’s not the time to explore this. We are currently working on XYZ, and that’s our greatest priority right now.” Or: “We’ve been working with (your competitor), and they seem to be doing a great job.”
   
   How do you respond? “Tell me more.” That way, information flows freely, and you uncover the truth.
   
   If your response is, “Yeah, but…” then the message to the customer is clear: There is a consequence to sharing negative information. So, they learn to just keep things on the surface. (Kind of like having a bad meal at a restaurant and knowing you’ll never return – when the server asks how everything was you’ll likely just say, “Everything was great. Thanks.”) 
   
   
3. Dig to uncover the customer’s truth. Recently, a very competent seller was presenting a solution to our marketing team. During the presentation, the seller stopped to ask, “Tom, you sound a bit skeptical; what do you think about ____?” I told her my concerns – information I wouldn’t have shared if she hadn’t asked. She knew if I didn’t have a clear understanding of what our concerns were, she couldn’t address them. Her response was perfect, and we moved forward. Brilliant!
   
   Bottom line, customers often bury the truth and it’s your job to uncover it. Here are a few areas where “digging” is required:
   

• Concerns. Most customers have learned that sharing concerns leads to conflict. Therefore, gently probe to determine their fears about moving forward (e.g., value of what you offer, ability to deliver, experience). 
• Relationship with the competition. Most don’t enjoy sharing bad news, and positive information about your competition is certainly not good news.  
• Decision maker. People don’t jump at the chance to tell you they have limited power. 

Tip #4: Present Using “Word Pictures” 

With virtual selling, you need “word pictures” to help customers “see” your offering and increase the likelihood of moving the conversation forward. 

Word pictures can help you sell a high-end, expensive product by conveying feel, the cost of shortcuts, or why the expensive materials really matter. Word pictures can also help you sell an offer that’s simple to understand or easy to misjudge (like insurance or medical supplies). 

Here’s how to develop word pictures for your offering. 

1. Figure out and rank the most difficult but important concepts required to sell your solution. 
2. Develop three to five word pictures for your most critical but complex concepts. You need a variety so you can match your customer’s personality types and preferences: some people like sports analogies; others don’t.   
3. Test it. Some of the seemingly best word pictures fall flat when delivered live. Test with an audience of colleagues and refine them accordingly.

Want more expert selling insights to help your salespeople close deals while working from home? We recently partnered with Selling Power to produce a timely Webinar about virtual selling skills every sales team needs to know. Download the report today: “How to Help Your Team Master Virtual Selling.”

How to Equip Your Team for Virtual Selling

Today's blog post is by Ben Taylor. He is the content marketing manager at Richardson. He has an MBA in finance from LaSalle University and over a decade of business and writing experience. He has covered content for brands such as Nasdaq, Barclaycard, and Business Insider.

 

Virtual selling requires more than a camera.

Sales teams are discovering that virtual selling is different from executing normal sales conversations in front of a screen. They are learning that being effective over video requires more than simply transferring in-person selling skills to a video interface. 

Understanding these new skills is critical because virtual selling isn’t temporary; it will become an accepted method of business as selling organizations become accustomed to the time and money saved with an approach that doesn’t require travel or logistical burdens. 

Let’s look at the top selling skills salespeople need to move sales forward and close deals while working remotely. 

Skill #1: Pace yourself so you have energy to engage customers.  

Selling virtually can be unexpectedly draining. 

During in-person sales presentations, individual sales professionals have an opportunity to catch their breath as they hand off the floor to a teammate. In a virtual setting, this recovery time is not possible. Every sales professional is always on camera. Therefore, they must be engaged – and engaging – from beginning to end. 

Maintaining continuous engagement is difficult because a virtual connection often lacks the energy sharing that occurs when everyone is in the same room. The spontaneity of lively discussion can feel dampened as individuals wait for their opportunity to talk or when customers choose to mute themselves. 

The solution to these challenges is to enter every virtual sales presentation and discussion with the expectation that it will require enormous energy and stamina. Knowing this aspect of virtual selling in advance prevents the unexpected exhaustion (which some are referring to as “Zoom gloom”) that can set in during the second half of the call. 

Tip #2: Embrace difficult questions to advance the sale. 

Your customers face new and unexpected challenges right now. In nearly all cases, the customer’s challenges have intensified and become more near-term. 

Many customers are seeking ways to maintain revenue and preserve capital amid growing threats from diminishing GDP. This reality of our current economy has changed the dynamic of the sales conversation. The customer’s challenges will shape your key selling challenges. 

Helping customers clarify the specific nature of these challenges is critical to properly positioning the right solution. The problem: Seeking clarity on these issues means asking the kinds of questions that may yield unpleasant truths. Sales professionals who fear this discomfort choose to avoid sensitive topics.

A better approach: Face this stress directly. Sensitive questions are necessary. In fact, avoiding such questions “can be economically costly,” according to social science research from The University of Pennsylvania. The researchers worked with nearly 1,000 participants in their study. After reviewing the findings, they determined that “question askers believe that asking sensitive questions will cause greater discomfort than they actually do, and they expect that asking sensitive questions will harm the respondent’s impression of them more than they actually do.” So, go ahead and ask sensitive questions. 

Doing so often fosters a sense of candor that advances the relationship and encourages openness among the stakeholders.    

Tip #3: Safeguard against external distractions.

Distractions have an outsized influence on virtual selling. Stakeholders are either at their screen or in a conference room with their phone or individual laptop nearby. As a result, they are still exposed to the alerts, updates, emails, and notifications that have become the “white noise” of our daily lives.

In an in-person setting, these distractions are limited because social norms keep people focused on the speaker. However, in a virtual setting, stakeholders can listen to and respond to these distractions inconspicuously. Therefore, sales professionals need to take a proactive stance against distractions that are unseen but not uncommon.

Sales professionals can overcome this characteristic of virtual selling by asking individual stakeholders for their feedback. This person-to-person approach keeps stakeholders alert because they know they may receive a question about their opinion at any time. This interactive approach encourages participants to keep their video and microphone on.

The key is to avoid a one-way conversation in which the sales professional merely presents information. A conversational approach is more effective because it keeps distractions to a minimum, and it enables the sales professional to understand the details behind the customer’s challenges and goals.

Succeeding in selling virtually requires understanding the new rules of engagement. As this approach to business normalizes, sales professionals need to develop heightened energy, incisive questions, and a proactive approach to distractions to succeed.

For more insight about transitioning your sales team to sell virtually, check out Richardson’s Virtual Selling Training Program.

How to Embrace Transparency and Win More Sales

Steve Schmidt is an executive partner and a member of the ownership team with Integrity Solutions. Since joining Integrity Solutions in 1996, Steve has played a key role in business development and managing strategic account relationships. He also contributes to Integrity Solutions alliance and partner programs. Steve resides in the Phoenix, AZ, area.

 

As they weigh purchase options and evaluate vendors, B2B buyers expect sales teams and their companies to behave in ethical ways. 

Working with ethical salespeople and companies is a basic requirement among buyers. Harvard Business Review reported on research conducted by Bain, which has taken the 40 distinct kinds of value that B2B offerings provide customers and organized them into a pyramid with five levels. According to their report: “At the base of the pyramid are the table stakes: meeting specifications at an acceptable price in compliance with regulations while abiding by ethical standards.” 

Selling with ethics and integrity is about behavior. You can talk about it all you want; what matters is how it manifests itself in the everyday actions of your salespeople.

Transparency Is Key to Creating an Ethical Sales Culture 

At a fundamental level, ethical selling is about being transparent — even when it feels risky or uncomfortable. 

I recently worked with a company dealing with a product issue. The manufacturer had had some slipups, and that had created a big upheaval internally. 

Naturally, they didn’t want their customers to know about all the drama going on behind the scenes. At the same time, their salespeople didn’t want to make false promises or feel like they were engaging in some kind of coverup. 

In the end, the leadership recognized that the more transparent they could be about what was going on, the more their customers would be willing to forgive the problems, and the more trust they’d build with them over time. As that trust grows, these customers will become their net promoters – spreading the word about how that company puts their customers’ interests first. 

It’s worth noting, however, that this wasn’t just an ethics problem. When salespeople aren’t selling in sync with their own values and their belief in the product, it will inevitably impact their performance. Solidly ethical organizations grow so successfully because they build the trust of both their customers and their employees.

Transparency Starts with Sales Leaders  

Not only does leadership have a responsibility to be as upfront as possible about what’s going on, they need to support, model, and praise the behaviors they expect to see. 

Sales managers also need to be able to coach their salespeople to have those customer conversations effectively. Your sales team’s ability to meet the customer’s perception of sales ethics will depend on 

• how prepared they are, 
• how well they understand what the customer needs, and 
• whether they can provide value as a trusted advisor.

Sales training is also an important component of creating an ethical sales culture. Effective sales training that defines selling as a mutual exchange of value – as something you do for and with people, not to them – absolutely aligns with and reinforces ethical selling practices. 

That said, we all face unexpected challenges (like a manufacturing issue that causes problems with customer orders, for example) that sometimes test our code of ethics. This is why it’s so important to not only define what ethical sales means in your organization but to also communicate it in a tangible manner, coach to it, and make transparency, integrity, and ethics bedrocks of the culture.

In many ways, it comes down to purpose: your organization’s purpose, but also your salespeople’s purpose — the reason they get up every day and sell what they sell. The paradox about purpose is, the more you’re focused on serving the needs of others, the more meaning you’ll enjoy and the more motivated, energized, and successful you’ll be. Selling gives people a great platform to serve others. And, when everyone in the organization views selling through this customer-focused, ethical lens, everyone wins.  

Ethical sales practices build trust. Ethics in selling means different things to different people, and the precise definition can depend upon your industry, experience, regulations, and other market factors. But one thing is certain: Your customers know it when they see it — and when they don’t.

How to Really Speed Up Your Sales Process

Today's post is by Dave Kurlan, founder and CEO of Objective Management Group Inc. and Kurlan & Associates, and author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling: How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know About the Game of Baseball. Download his latest eBook, 63 Tips for a Huge Increase in Sales.

 

Most sales teams want to know how to speed up the sales cycle so they can close deals faster. A quick Google search on “speed up sales process” reveals 8,010 results! If you remove the quotation marks, the search balloons to 240,000,000 results. (For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll use “sales process” and “sales cycle” interchangeably – with the understanding that “sales process” includes all the stages and steps in your sales cycle.)

Can Technology Speed Up Your Sales Process? 

The results on the first page are dominated by the likes of Salesforce, Hubspot, OnDeck, WordStream, PandaDoc, Vainu, OptinMonster, and AutoKlose. 

And therein lies the first problem with shortening or speeding up your sales process: These posts are all from marketing technology companies, not sales experts. The truth is, most sales technology tools don’t actively shorten sales cycles or speed up the sales process. 

Yes, some sales tech tools might help with some of the heavy lifting at the top of the funnel, during the process, and at the end of the process. But the sales process is about hitting strategic milestones by having the right conversations with the right prospects at the right time. Sales technology tools can support salespeople in the quest to close deals faster, but the tools don’t do the job all by themselves.  

How Do Customer Relationships Impact the Sales Cycle? 

Here’s another thing that won’t speed up your sales process: customer relationships. 

I can’t tell you how many companies I’ve worked with over the past 30 years where I was told that the key to bringing in, maintaining, and growing accounts is relationships (and the companies don’t want that to change). It’s not that good customer relationships don’t matter in sales. They’ll help you maintain and grow accounts, yes, but donuts, coffee, and free tickets to games or shows don’t really add value anymore. 

And to wait for a customer relationship to flourish as a requirement for bringing in new business has the opposite effect of speeding up the sales process. It slows the sales cycle to a crawl – and, even then, all you might have is a relationship. 

Can Demos Speed Up the Sales Cycle? 

We’ve also been told demos are supposed to speed up the sales cycle. A significant part of the U.S. market is made up of SaaS companies selling cloud applications. They tend to generate interest by pushing willing prospects to take a demo. 

Demos create engagement but, in most cases, that equates to “this product would be nice to have” as opposed to the more important “must have.” 

In addition, these demos are usually given to people who don’t have the authority to make decisions – and, when the application is only perceived as “nice to have,” they lack a compelling reason to either get the decision maker engaged or get the money approved. 

Increasing the metric to deliver more demos does not shorten the sales cycle or speed up the sales process.

Three Things That Really Will Speed Up Your Sales Cycle

Three things that will shorten your sales cycle:

1. A formal, structured, staged, milestone-centric, and optimized sales process. Many salespeople lose their way during the sales process. The top 5 percent of salespeople are 850 percent stronger at sales process than weak salespeople. It’s a real differentiator.
   
   
2. Reaching decision makers. What’s the biggest reason salespeople don’t close sales? They fail to prioritize talking to decision makers. My data shows opportunities are 90 percent more likely to move to the closable stage when the salesperson is meeting and/or talking with the decision maker.
   
   
3. Slowing down. What’s the second biggest obstacle to closing more sales? It’s counter-intuitive but, if you slow down, listen, and ask more and better questions – and uncover the prospects’ compelling reasons to buy – you will create the urgency required to speed up the sales process.

If you want to cycle faster through the sales process, your best bet is to actually slow down. Slowing down allows you to focus on having conversations that help you define value for the customer. Along the way, you’ll uncover opportunities where you can deliver that value. That will help you close your deals more quickly.

How to Master the Sales Discovery Process and Get Powerful Results

Today’s post is by Anita Nielsen, bestselling author of Beat the Bots: How Your Humanity Can Future-Proof Your Tech Sales Career. She is a sales enablement consultant and performance coach with over 20 years of experience in B2B sales and support and is also the president of LDK Advisory Services, LLC. As an advocate for salespeople, Anita is dedicated to coaching and equipping them for long-term success. Selling Power magazine named Anita on its list of Top Sales Enablement Consultants in 2018 and 2019.

 

Time and again I hear from sales leaders that most B2B sales professionals on their teams don’t know how to articulate a value proposition. 

I like to ask these leaders, “What does ‘value’ mean?” I can tell you, I have yet to get the same answer twice. 

Now, that’s not too surprising, because value is in the eye of the customer. In other words, the customer defines what value is. 

The Customer Defines Value 

If that’s the case, then how are you supposed to figure out what value means for each potential customer? You start solving that equation during the sales discovery process. 

The ideal way to determine precisely what value means to each buyer is to ask high-impact questions (HIQs) during discovery. This requires salespeople to be curious. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know. The only way to learn is to ask questions and listen well.   

The sales discovery process is the means by which you obtain the information required to create personalized value – and personalized value is the only true way to differentiate. Discovery helps you get to why the individual is buying – not just why the company needs to make the purchase. Understanding the reason your customer wants to make a purchase will then help you understand what’s valuable to him or her. 

Three Ways to Identify Value during Sales Discovery 

High-performing sales professionals elevate discovery to an art form. They focus on three important actions throughout sales discovery that position them to identify and create differentiating value:

1. Do thorough research.
2. Ask high-impact questions (HIQs).
3. Practice active listening. 

Let’s examine each action in more detail. 

Action #1: Thoroughly research your prospect. 

Effective discovery begins with thoughtful research. At bare minimum, leverage the usual suspects (Google, Discover.org, LinkedIn, and your prospect’s company Website). 

High performers know to also look at sites like Glassdoor, Reddit, Twitter, and various buyer forums. Research will show the customer that you’re prepared. It will also help you ask targeted, meaningful, and relevant questions, which will help you gain credibility. 

Action #2: Ask high-impact questions (HIQs). 

When you’re trying to uncover what matters to your customer, you have to be deliberate about the types of questions you ask. HIQs are a powerful type of question. Think of them as open-ended questions on steroids. 

HIQs help you probe deeper and uncover more information. The magic of these questions is they allow space for the customer’s emotions to emerge. Understanding emotion is crucial, because people typically buy based on emotion – then rationalize the purchase using logic. HIQs are questions that would make a terrific therapist or psychiatrist jealous. Remember, psychologists are trained to bring out human emotions. 

Here’s the great news: It’s fairly simple to create HIQs! Here are some phrases to help you frame your HIQs:  

• “Can you describe…?”
• “How do you think about the issue of…?”
• “Can you tell me more about…?” 

For any specific customer, use your research to fill in the blanks. For example, if your prospect is facing a competitive threat, you could ask, “Can you tell me more about how you plan to differentiate your offering from XYZ Company’s newly launched offering?” 

#3: Practice active listening. 

After you’ve asked these probing questions, listen. Active listening is crucial to building customer trust. 

As sales professionals, we can sometimes be guilty of not really listening to our customers because we are trying to figure out our response. People know when you are listening on a shallow level; it makes them feel like you don’t care. It’s important to be conscientious of this and remind yourself, in the moment, to return your attention to the customer. People love to talk about themselves. More than that: They love feeling heard. We humans have a tendency to equate how much we matter to someone with how well they listen to us. Take some time to learn active listening skills – they will positively change how your customers interact with you and how they perceive you. 

Personalize Your Customer Interactions to Deliver Value 

When you know what the customer feels is valuable, you are ready to personalize your interactions and messaging to deliver that value. Think about what they have shared with you and what matters to them on a personal or emotional level. What can you do to help them achieve what they hope to? Make that happen. Differentiation lives in the way you address the customer’s unique personal goals, needs, and wants. 

Sales discovery is the key to unlocking the information – emotional and rational – that will help you create something meaningful for your customers. Remember: You can’t create personalized value if you don’t do a thorough discovery and understand your customer’s heart and mind. Top performers know the secret sauce: The human-to-human connection helps you deliver personalized value, win the deal, and win customers for life. 

Want a complimentary sample sheet of HIQs designed to draw out your customers’ emotional and rational needs? Email me at anielsen@ldkadvisory.com with the subject line “discovery questions” and I’ll send you one. 

Is Your First Impression Advancing the Sale?

Today’s post is by Justin Zappulla, managing partner at Janek Performance Group.

 

As the old chestnut says, you have only one chance to make a first impression. And, in today’s time-crunched business world, your first opportunity might be the only one you have to get further in the sales process – so you need to know how to impress right from the jump. 

These are the things you need to keep in mind.

1. Research prospects and customers, and prepare well in advance of the meeting.
   
   Most of your time should be spent researching the client and the people you’ll meet. Yes, there will be a discovery process as part of an initial contact. But you want to be able to use discovery to really drill deep into a client’s needs, objectives, and situation – not just rehash the basics that are surface-level and easily available.
   
   Also, think about this: The more you come in knowing about a buyer, the more likely they are to be impressed, because you’ve demonstrated that you’ve done the hard work to get to know them as much as you can before the meeting.
   
   
2. Ascertain buyers’ communication style as quickly as you can and adapt to it.
   
   There are four fundamental communication styles – expressive, business-oriented, visionary, and cautious/skeptical. One of the keys to making a great first impression is to determine which one is predominant for the buyer and adjust accordingly.
   
   For example, an expressive communicator will enjoy small talk and chit-chat before getting down to the purpose of the meeting, whereas the business-oriented communicator will want to get straight to the point and the relevant information.
   
   The communication style speaks not only to the flow of the discussion, but the content and evidence. A visionary communicator will want to hear how your solution fits in the grand scheme and vision of the future, so imagery of what their life or work will be like after the purchase resonates powerfully with them. Conversely, the cautious/skeptical buyer will be much more likely to raise objections or challenges, and will need space to reflect on what you’re communicating to them.
   
   
3. Be authentic.
   
   Most people are able to detect when someone is being insincere or inauthentic. So it’s important to speak and act as you would in a normal situation. If you put on a pose or try to be someone you’re not, the buyer can pick up on that – and this can plant seeds of doubt as to your honesty and whether you’re hiding some critical information they need to know.
   
   
4. Rehearse the conversation beforehand.
   
   You know how comedians, public speakers, and professional athletes make their work look effortless and easy? It’s because they’ve practiced – sometimes with hundreds or thousands of repetitions beforehand – until it’s become second nature to them. While you likely won’t have the time to do that yourself for every single meeting (or even most of them), the takeaway is still the same: Run through your opening, your main points, your intended questions, and your next steps as frequently as you can.
   
   
5. Set a pre-meeting agenda and distribute it ahead of time.
   
   Even if it’s short, write an agenda and give it to the people you’re meeting in advance. Not only will it show that you’re on top of things, it will help the buyer know what to expect and allow them to perform their own preparations for the conversation (such as questions they want to ask, what they’re hoping to gain from your solution, etc).

A positive first impression sets the stage for building a fruitful, mutually beneficial relationship that progresses through the sales process and sales pipeline and continues even after the sale. Utilizing these strategies and tips will help you  achieve your objectives.

For more expert, actionable advice on how to advance your selling skills, visit Janek’s resource library and sign up for Janek’s free monthly newsletter. 

Boost Your Situational Awareness to Win More Sales

Today’s post is contributed by Dr. Leff Bonney, vice president, research and product innovation at VantagePoint Performance, a leading global agile sales training company for sellers and frontline managers. Leff is also head of Florida State University Sales Institute.

 

We heard about a study where pilots went into a programmed simulation and were stopped halfway through without warning. After stopping, they were first asked things about their virtual flight, like altitude, speed, and enemy location. Then, they were asked about what they thought was going to happen next based on their experience to that point.

There were correct answers to these questions, because the simulation had been fully programmed, and the pilots had the training and knowledge necessary for appropriate anticipation and reaction. This research was testing the pilots’ ability to be situationally aware – because that skill is literally a matter of life and death. And, it got us thinking.

Many Factors Contribute to Salesperson Awareness

While deal viability and probability are not on par with national security or military safety, they do have enormous impact on organizational health. So, we wondered:

• What about salespeople and their situational awareness in client meetings – and what does that ultimately mean for deal outcomes?
• How would consistent performance affect this awareness?
• What impact would, or could, sales managers have on meeting awareness?
• Finally, is there anything else that contributes positively and/or negatively to reps’ consciousness in meetings?

Research from Florida State University found that high-performing salespeople are typically more alert in customer interactions, but that level of situational awareness often diminishes in reps who have recently been top performers – because they tend to become overly confident. It’s as if continued, consistent success numbs reps’ senses. That means ongoing management check-ins and coaching are critical for the situational awareness of all your reps – and not just those who are average or underperforming.

Speaking of coaching, we also found that management coaching styles influence all levels of salespeople. If your managers are very prescriptive in discussions prior to client meetings, our research shows that your salespeople will have lower situational awareness. This is because they will essentially be going through a mental checklist about what to do and when – and focusing less on what’s unfolding in the room. As a result, they will have lower awareness about what is actually happening in their meeting, which will impact their perception of how it is going.

But, if your managers take a collaborative approach with your reps, that helps the salespeople think through contingencies and possible alternatives – and increases situational awareness in the meeting itself.

Finally, interactive presentations (such as whiteboarding) increase situational awareness, while more scripted approaches (such as standard, “canned” decks) decrease situational awareness. Your managers need to develop and choose wisely because the types of content and presentation tools you provide, and the expectations you set for prep, will affect salesperson awareness in customer meetings.

Salespeople Need Strong Situational Awareness to Win

Just like fighter pilots, salespeople need to develop their situational awareness. Without it, they might fall victim to their own success, become overly dependent on pre-call coaching, or fumble their presentations. Therefore, it’s important to monitor your reps’ ongoing meeting outcomes, your managers’ involvement in prep and planning, and the resources your teams are using to execute.