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Sell Them a Hole
Encourage Sales Talent to Think Through The Prospect’s Mind
When you are doing a little do-it-yourself project on the weekend and you find you need to make a quarter-inch hole in the wall, you go to the hardware store. Why? Are you buying a quarter-inch drill bit, or are you really buying a quarter-inch hole? What the hell do you need a quarter-inch drill bit for unless you need the quarter-inch hole?
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Have Them at Hello
Encourage Sales Starters to Build a Strong Sales Team
Getting a two-way conversation going is crucial to increase sales effectiveness, and questions are a great way to do it. Let’s talk about Sales Starters. One time I was with one of my new hires, Ellen Valudes, at a meeting with a …
How to Increase Your Sales Effectiveness – Don’t Make It All About You
Learn To See Through Your Prospect’s Eyes To Increase Sales Performance Metrics
When I had my call center, I remember fielding a question from a member of my inside sales team after she finished a call. She said, “I just got off the phone with a guy who said he didn’t have time to talk because he was in a meeting. That just doesn’t make sense to me! Why would a decision maker stop their meeting to take a call only to say, ‘I don’t have time to talk’?”
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How to Increase Your Sales Effectiveness – Don’t Make It All About YouRead More »
The Devil is in the Data
Accurate Data is Key to Increasing Sales Performance Metrics
Did you know that poor quality data is costing your sales team at least 30 percent of revenues?
…Cop an Attitude
How Grit and Determination Underpin Sales Effectiveness
There’s an exercise I like to do with management teams and salespeople in which they list attributes that would make their replacements successful. “If you had to hire somebody for your job and would get a bonus of 20 percent of your salary, what are things you would hire on?” I ask. They make a list of twenty or thirty things. But it comes down to three broad categories. At least 60 percent of success is based on attitude—things like grit, endurance, and perseverance. Another 20 to 30 percent revolves around skills like goal-setting and communication. The rest comes down to knowledge of basic theories and education.
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Fake it Until You Feel it
Adopt and Express Humility to Increase Sales Effectiveness
Are you the kind of sales leader who often thinks: “I’m constantly dealing with idiots”? I get it, sometimes it can feel like you’re working on an island managed by six-year-olds. With that perspective, however, it’s likely that not only prospects, but your sales team, will view your self-assured behaviors as arrogant, forceful, and incapable of admitting mistakes. Climbing the organizational ladder requires an extraordinary degree of self-belief, which up to a certain point is seen as inspirational. Yet the most-effective leaders are the ones who don’t seem to believe their own hype. Instead, they come across as humble.
…There’s No Crying in Sales
A Shift in Attitude and Behaviors is Key to Building a High-Performing Sales Team
Does someone on your sales team wear their heart in their sleeve? While a certain level of openness, transparency, and vulnerability can be a good thing and are all signs of a high sales EQ, too much unfiltered expression can work against you. Passion and intense enthusiasm can easily cross the line to become moodiness and outright excitability when the pressure’s on. Nobody likes a crybaby. And in the business world, those who become particularly disappointed or discouraged when unanticipated issues arise are viewed as undeserving of a seat at the grown-ups’ table.
…It’s Not All About You
Taking an Other-Centric Approach to Increase Sales Performance Metrics
Have you ever wondered why people sometimes form inaccurate impressions about you? Do they rush to judge you too quickly? This limited view we have of ourselves, and of others judging us only on what they see of us is called the Iceberg Effect. It’s based on our perception of who we are (identity), and of how others see us (reputation).
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Put Yourself in the Buyer’s Sneakers
Leverage Empathy to Build a Strong Sales Team
Think about the steps you take when you buy a pair of sneakers. Something in your world gets your attention and you come to the conclusion: I need a new pair of sneakers. In that process, you remove doubt because you’re actively looking. Then you start to consider your options, lay them out and say, “Jeez, do I really need these? What pair do I want?” Ultimately, you buy a pair. That’s a simple buying process.
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Self-Regulate to Sell
High performing sales teams exhibit behavioral activity that matches those that they are dealing with, people who go out of their way to make that personal connection. That’s means having a high EQ.
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Red-Ocean Mindset
Revising the Sales Playbook to Ignite Sales EQ
There was a book a few years ago called Blue Ocean Strategy. The concept was that a blue ocean means that the water is deep, has a lot of fish, and has fewer people fishing. Thanks to COVID-19, however, businesses are suddenly finding themselves in a red ocean; shallow water, fewer fish, more competitive fishing, bloody with competition.
…Don’t Be a Battleship
In the early 2000s in the Atlantic, there was a tense showdown between Spain and the US Navy. Essentially, there’s an emergency frequency that maritime uses, and a message went out at night from a what the crew thought was a small Spanish boat to the USS Lincoln, the second largest battleship in the Navy.
…I’ll Take EQ Over IQ Any Day
Have you ever thought about the potential of a $5 bar of iron? If you’ve never seen one, there’s not much to it. Just a simple rectangle, like a bar of gold bullion, though a heck of a lot less expensive. But just because it’s a $5 bar of iron doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. There are actually lots of things you can do to increase its value.
…How to Overcome Sales Objections With the Right Response
We have reviewed how to identify sales objections and separate out true concerns from the trivial pursuits. We reviewed the types of real sales objections that we encounter in the sales process. And we reviewed the best time to address these objections. So now it’s time to look at how to overcome sales objections through our responses.
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How to Overcome Sales Objections With the Right ResponseRead More »
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