Well, fellow sales professionals and leaders, here we are. Except, like most people, I’m not quite sure where “here” is yet. In the space of thirty days we spiraled from a strong economy, record stock market, and low unemployment to here.
Working with businesses and their owners is an exciting aspect of my job. I admire the accomplishments of this group of entrepreneurs who have the vision and drive to pursue their dreams.
Research conducted by Aberdeen Group showed that 41% of sales teams won't hit their quotas. This is in spite of all of the time and effort put into strategy, planning and quota development. Here are 3 reasons why these teams won't hit their goals and how to determine if yours will hit theirs.
The traditional salesperson is trained to believe that in order to make the sale; you need to get the prospect to make small incremental “yes” commitments that lead up to the big “yes” -- getting the order. There is a better way that will help develop a professional relationship based on trust. If you want the order, allow your prospect to say “no” first.
When is the last time a member of your selling team admitted to being outsold by the competition? Probably not too often. Instead, many times we hear, the price was too high, there was no budget, xyz company had the inside track or any other number of excuses.
There is much research proving that proper sales coaching can lift your sales 20% or more. Not only does coaching increase revenues, it also builds a culture of self-sufficiency, growth, and retention.
If I asked a group of sales leaders, what motivates their salespeople, money is going to come up more often than not. And yes, money is important as it does pay the bills. And for some, money can be used as a scorecard. But are true high performers only motivated by money?
It's so much easier to avoid stalls and objections than learning how to handle them. If we could do that it's just gonna make for a better sales call, better relationships with our clients and prospects.
Todd finally learned that he had lost the large deal. He was confused and thought his demo had gone well. A month had passed since he was told by the prospect that he had “done a good job presenting his software!” What could have gone wrong?
