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The 10 Minute Test
Sales
Enablement
Assessment Tool
Enabling sales organizations involves providing guidance about best practice processes, techniques, tips and tools that reps need to find, advance, assess and close deals.
We group sales tools into two main categories:
1) Sales Knowledge Tools
- Customer Knowledge
- Industry Knowledge
- Product Knowledge
- Competition Knowledge
- Systems Knowledge
2) Sales Skills Tools
- Initiating Skills
- Discovery Skills
- Aligning Skills
- Justification Skills
- Closing Skills
Our Sales Assessment tool, developed in conjuction with Playboox.com, an MXL Partner firm, has one section focused on the Sales Knowledge that salespeople need to acquire and apply to "prepare to sell." The other section highlights the Sales Skills needed to master consistent and successful execution at each stage of your sales process in order to "prepare to win."
Take the 10 minute Sales Assessment Test and see how you rate. |
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Universal Selling
They should be teaching this stuff in schools. Not just for future professional salespeople, but for those who will someday work in finance, engineering, marketing, law, medicine, even education and other non-business professions.
What are we talking about? It's about fundamental and essential skill sets you'd want in all employees, not just your sales organization:
- Business Development - everyone sells something, and it's not just ourselves, but ideas, attention and expanded impact
- Personal Engagement - we all interact, hopefully well, from introductions to conversations through insightful questioning
- Message Communication - articulate communication, verbal and written, is crisp, clear and structured, and a fading art
- Time Management - prioritized daily use of time, our most limited resource, determines wins and loses in all occupations
- Mental Discipline - purposeful actions toward absolute goals aligned with meaningful perspective withstands obstacles.
The art and science of sales is still often misunderstood and distorted. It is absolutely applicable to the foundations of successful living. I'm reminded that the lessons we teach in sales meetings, keynotes and training sessions are universal and apply well to sales rookies, veterans, managers, executives, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, and everyone in between.
Not everyone carries a quota, but everyone operates daily, at varying degrees of quality, with fundamental and essential skill sets.
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Price Negotiations
It's not as bad as you might think. When your customers balk at your price proposal, the natural reaction is to fear, fret, and consider caving on price to salvage the deal. Assuming your product is a quality offering, research shows that we would be best to hang in there and reiterate our product's value.
A market research firm (North Star Marketing) interviewed 1,000 business buyers and asked them the question: "Would you pay more for a quality product?" Every one of them said yes.
Whether dealing with the direct end-user or with Purchasing, salespeople should stick to their guns (professionally and politely) and emphasize the full extent of the value offering. Truth be told, no serious business customer really wants a cheap product/solution that will cause more headaches and hassles than savings. It's a wise salesperson who doesn't flinch, but stays focused on the real issues.
Are you selling value or price? Read more... |
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Call Report vs Deal Knowledge Management
 Someone recently posted a question to the "Sales Best Practices" group on LinkedIn asking, "What is the best way to motivate my salespeople to complete call reports?" It generated a couple of dozen comments ranging from "that's part of their job" to "that's not what they get paid to do." It was one of the most commented posts in a Sales Management-related LinkedIn group in recent memory.
Our perspective is that this is the wrong question to ask. The question shouldn't be "How can I get more call reports?" It should be "How can I make it easier for my salespeople to capture and share what they learn during a sales call to strategize on how to advance and close the deal?"
Fundamentally, the motivation shouldn't be to increase the number of isolated call reports. The focus should be about developing a system to enable salespeople to more effectively manage, leverage, and communicate the knowledge they gather about a deal as they navigate through the sales process so they can (and here's the key) increase the odds of winning the deal. We refer to this as "deal knowledge management"...
Read more...
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Buyers are Busy - Help Them Shop
As consumers are busy and harried, so is the business buyer. The more complex the purchase, the more moving parts on their end of transaction. What they don't need are salespeople that harangue them and brag about their products, speeds and feeds, features and so-called benefits.
They need shopping help. They appreciate salespeople that help them do their job better and keep them on task.
Effective salespeople do this indirectly and with subtle skill. They prepare in advance and anticipate the buyer's gating questions. They understand the customer's buying cycle and therefore lead the dialogue and conduct their own appropriate qualifying and discovery questions aligned with where the buyer naturally wants to proceed. And finally, effective salespeople create decision milestone lists, like a shopping list of sorts that allow them to synch with the buyer and follow up communication after sales calls.
Yes, buyers need personal shopping help. Great salespeople understand buyers and assist them, not selfishly dominate the process.
Are you helping your customers buy? Read more... |
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Quotation about Sales
"I try to be a smart quarterback. I'm not the fastest or the best athlete, but if I can know what the defense is doing and stick to my job and what needs to be done I can make the plays needed to move the ball and score." - Eli Manning, NY Giants Quarterback and Super Bowl MVP |
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