Archive for July, 2013
Getting Back to the Basics – Top Sales Advice
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on July 29, 2013
There are many schools of thought when it comes to sales. You need to wade through all
this information and find out what works for you and your personality. Everyone is different; so you have to be open to finding out new things about yourself as well as the people you are selling to.
Only Sell What you Believe In – This is a good sales advice. You need to believe in the product you are selling. This allows you to be honest about what you are selling. It helps you speak knowledgeably about the product and convince others that it is right for them.
Be Direct – Consumers have become savvier than ever before. Because of this fact, it is important that you are direct. When you try to skirt around issues or concerns it seems as though you are hiding something and that does not bode well for the sale.
Know the Art of Pressure – There is a particular art to putting pressure on people. Mentioning things once in order to cause uncertainty or doubt with current products is good, but don’t bang it over the head. If you keep bringing it up, the client will dislike you rather than trust you.
Learn About Your Client – Do your research. You should learn about your client before you call if possible. You can sell to them better if you know what they want or need.
It’s All About Presentation – Taking the time to build up a presentation is important. The more prepared you are, the better you will come off as well as your products. You want to have all the facts well organized so people can easily follow you and your thought process.
Follow Up! – It can be discouraging sometimes and hard to make a second call but you should always follow up. Taking the time to call back or visit again can mean the difference between making a sale and not making a sale.
Know the Answer or Find Out – Don’t try to flub your way through something, if you don’t know the answer to a question don’t make one up. It is much better to say something along the lines of, “what an interesting question, I will have to look into that for you.” This gives you further reason to follow up.
Work with Humor – Humor is the ultimate ice breaker. It is a good idea to work in some comedy to your presentation as it helps the client identify with you. This connection goes a long way towards making a sale.
Learn from Every Failed Sale – Don’t beat yourself up over a failed sale but rather learn from it. Even a truly great salesperson is not going to be able to make every sale and you should try to figure out where it went off track and learn from that. You can then tackle the problem differently in the future.
Don’t Avoid Questions, Answer – Finally, make sure to answer questions, even if you feel like the answer is not entirely positive. Avoiding questions makes you look untrustworthy and that will not build the relationship necessary to make a sale.
Three Keys for Building a Sales Pipeline
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES LEADERSHIP on July 18, 2013
You know what a sales pipeline is and you know that you have one, but how do you build and manage that pipeline to take your sales to the next level? Building sales pipeline success depends on the sales pipeline’s effectiveness, strength, and results, the three keys to building sales pipeline value. Take the first step towards building sales pipeline success by focusing on and managing these three keys to the sales pipeline.
Building Sales Pipeline Effectiveness: Maximize Your CRM System
The customer relationship management system you are using is only as useful as the information you put in. In other words, if you are putting in outdated, incomplete, or otherwise unhelpful data, the CRM will not be able to help you succeed. Yet consistently and properly updated CRM systems are one of the keys to building sales pipeline effectiveness. Make sure that you are using CRM to maximize results by:
– Habitually and thoroughly updating the system with new leads, status on existing leads, and other information as it is acquired.
– Avoiding removal of leads unless those leads are out of business or have requested no further contact. Leads that are unqualified and may be qualified later, or have said no but may be more open in the future, should be flagged with the appropriate time horizon for follow up.
– Checking your CRM daily to guide your activities for prospecting, follow up, and scheduling, and updating your activities as you work.
Building Sales Pipeline Strength: Quality In, Quality Out
A large part of building sales pipeline strength – that is, ensuring that there are healthy numbers of leads, prospects, and closes in the pipeline at all times – rests on getting quality leads into your sales pipeline. Getting as many leads as possible may seem like the right idea, but you will probably find more success in maintaining and building sales pipeline strength if you focus on quality, rather than quantity, of leads. To do this, you can:
– Start qualifying leads before you even make first contact, so that the contact you make can build on information you already have rather than starting at the beginning when you reach a live prospect.
– Be realistic about prospects’ qualifications and readiness to buy. Over optimistic projections can harm your productivity and sales pipeline results.
– Create standard processes for how and when you qualify and prospect for a system that can deliver you reliable results, every time.
Building Sales Pipeline Results: Know What You Need to Do to Reach Your Targets
If you want to reach your sales targets for the month, the quarter, and the year, you need a roadmap to get there. It is not enough to rely on your ability to sell and a constant stream of incoming leads; you need to know how many of each type of lead, prospect, and customer you need to have in your pipeline to reach your sales goals. This is easy to accomplish if you have been tracking your sales and activities over past periods.
– Look at your quarterly performances and analyze how many leads you followed up on, how many of these were viable prospects, how many of these were presented, and how many of these closed.
– Calculate averages for how long converted leads took you to close from the day the lead was initially entered to the day the contract was signed, categorizing these in ranges according to the contribution each made to your targets.
– Use these numbers to determine how many new leads, calls, presentations, and closes you need to have in your pipeline every quarter to meet or beat your targets.
Building sales pipeline effectiveness, strength, and results depends on your ability and commitment to update and maintain your pipeline through various tracking activities. However, the time that you spend on these activities will pay you back with interest as your more targeted approach to selling using the sales pipeline yields results.
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This article was originally posted in the SalesForce Search Blog by Matt Cook on July 9, 2013.
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Are You Selling at Every Level?
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on July 13, 2013
While many companies promise to build their organization around the needs of their customers, few companies can claim that they organize themselves around the needs of their salespeople. Yet the two are inevitably linked: in a sales-focused culture in which the entire company (not just the sales department) is involved in selling, salespeople are more successful and customers are more satisfied. Highly successful companies not only create customer-focused organizations but also back up their commitment with sales-focused cultures.
What are the elements of a sales-focused culture? Ideally, a company sells at three distinct levels. At the C-level, top executives set the tone for the organization by clearly articulating the company’s mission, vision, and values. While the company’s mission describes the noble purpose of the organization (selling meaning), the vision statement induces people to aim their effort toward greater future achievements (selling inspiration). The description of the company’s values provides a sensible guide for creating relationships (selling trust). For a true sales culture to exist, C-level executives need to continuously sell meaning, inspiration, and trust to the company’s employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders. Research shows that companies whose employees understand the mission, vision, and values enjoy a greater return than other firms.
At the middle level, sales and marketing departments create messages that are in sync with the company’s mission, vision, and values. While marketing creates the brand promise, sales delivers by elevating the customer relationship to a branded sales experience. The key to a true sales-focused culture is to align sales and marketing.
At the street level, salespeople act as company ambassadors who are fluent in two languages: the customer’s language and the company’s language. They are able to diagnose the right problems and deliver the right solution. Ideally, the sales team’s internal and external relationship skills will build a competition-proof connection between the company and clients that will ultimately extend from the mail room to the boardroom.
To borrow an analogy from the world of music, C-level selling is like an overture that offers a preview of imminent excitement and drama. Mid-level selling engages people with a catchy tune that resonates pleasantly in the customer’s mind. Person-to-person selling is more like jazz, which is the art of the moment. Good salespeople can instantly improvise and hit the right note at the right time to turn the right prospect into a happy customer.
Very few companies are able to act in concert from top to bottom. It takes an enlightened CEO and highly talented sales and marketing teams to create a sales-focused culture with all members of the organization playing their part in a symphony that inspires the customer’s delight. It’s easier said than done, but the results can be magic for top-line and bottom-line growth.
This article was originally posted on the Selling Power Blog by Gerhard Gschwandtner on April 9, 2013.
Respect Your Competition
Posted by Rick Pranitis in MARKETING on July 9, 2013
Product managers and marketers are naturally competitive. They want their products to win in the marketplace, and they want to beat the competition. This trait is important to the success of a product manager or product marketer.
However, it’s important to balance support and bias toward your product with the realities of the marketplace. There’s a difference between being a champion for your product and being blind to the market, customer needs and perceptions.
There are countless examples of former industry leaders who underestimated their competition and were beat by scrappy upstarts. There are also countless examples of scrappy upstarts who have underestimated the reach and resources of industry leaders. In many of these cases, objectivity toward the market was overpowered by hubris.
Successful product managers and marketers walk a fine line between being completely objective and being a die-hard super-fan supporter. Here are two simple tips on how to respect your competition when it’s natural to be focused on how much better you are than them:
– Consciously seek out objective viewpoints. Spending all of your time in the office with colleagues or interacting only with happy customers isn’t going to provide you with a real picture of what’s going on in the market. Rather than hiding in a self-congratulating bubble, actively seek out places where you will get objective viewpoints. Go to a conference for an industry where you’re not the market leader. Reach out to customers who have left you for another vendor. Find places outside your product’s comfort zone and keep your ears open and your mouth closed. The feedback will be enlightening.
– Be conscious of the many roles you need to play. In a given week – or day – product managers need to wear a number of different hats. One hat might be the one you wear when you’re working a trade show booth and trying to make your pitch to prospects. Another hat might be the one you wear when you’re making your case to senior management for more funding to address weaknesses in your product. You wear another hat when you’re enabling your sales force and yet another when you’re conducting market research. In each of these scenarios, you’re in a different mode, that requires a particular attitude. Your “rah rah” attitude should be in full effect when you’re making your pitch to prospects at a trade show booth, but it should be put in check when you’re conducting site visits as part of a market research project.
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This article was originally posted to the Sirius Decisions Blog by Jeff Lash on 22 May 2013.
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Five Keys to Building an Effective Social Media Strategy
Posted by Rick Pranitis in MARKETING on July 1, 2013
The social media world seems like a whirlwind, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants territory. After all, with the demanding work of posting content multiple times a day—every day—who has time to actually think about creating a strategy and goals? Having a purposeful plan for your company, though, is invaluable to making your work translate into results.
Before diving into the social media storm, develop a strategy. Building one out can result in benefits like demonstrating your company’s expertise in the industry, improving SEO traffic to your website, and developing leads and prospects. Here are some important key steps that will put you on the road to developing an effective social media strategy:
1. Pick a relevant theme.
Find a theme that will resonate with your target customers—and your company. For example, “increasing collaboration and efficiency in the workplace” may be a good focus for an HR solutions company. You don’t necessarily have to share this theme with your followers. It’s more for yourself so you can guide your content development. The key is to find something that you can talk about knowledgeably, find articles and posts on, and provide value to your prospects.
2. Find the top influencers in your industry.
If you want your voice to be heard, find the people who “matter” in your part of the social media world. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. Share their content (making sure it’s relevant to your theme and strategy), and ask them to share yours. Ask them to guest-blog for you, and offer to guest-blog for them. Tools like Little Bird, Klout, and Traackr can help you find your industry’s influencers.
3. Set up a social dashboard.
This may seem like an obvious step. But are you using the one that works best for your goals? There are a vast number of options available—the trick is finding one or several that work for you. Hootsuite is a great way to monitor and post to all your accounts. Buffer is great for queuing up lots of content and seeing immediate post results. A measuring tool like RivalIQ or SproutSocial can show your social growth over time. Explore, try out different tools, and see what works best for your goals.
4. Post value-add content.
Whether you’re curating or posting original content, providing value-add content is vital. Don’t constantly post about why your company is awesome and what products are for sale. Instead, at least 80 percent of the time, post valuable content that will present your company as an industry expert and influencer. Share posts that your prospects will want to read and learn from. Over time, your prospects will see your expertise and keep you in mind when they’re ready to buy.
5. Use SEO keywords.
To help drive SEO traffic, use the SEO keywords from your site in your social media work. Revamp your company’s “About” section on each social media profile, especially for LinkedIn and Google+, so it contains the core keywords from your site. Use relevant keywords in your Google+ and blog posts so they’re more likely to show up in natural search results. Also, make sure you use important keywords in some of your daily tweets.
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This article was originally posted to the Heinz Marketing blog by Meghan Bradwell on June 27, 2013.
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