Here are key insights from the study.

1. A Clear Brand Promise.

People often make a buying decision with their heart, and then try to justify it with logic afterwards. In sales emotions matter and it is important that we send out a very clear message to our prospects about our customers’ experience.

60% of respondents do not have a clear brand promise.

2. Well-defined Products And Services

Sales organisations have trouble articulating to their customers exactly what they are trying to sell to them. Half of all respondents do not have a clear definition of their products or services which poses the question – are we confident that our Prospects and Customers understand our products and services right from the start?

Half of all respondents do not have a clear definition of their products or services.

3. A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) And Killer Business Introduction (KBI).

Your value proposition must be more than a mere motherhood statement, such as: “We really care”. Instead, it needs to be hugely credible and must easily distinguish your business from that of your competitors, and you need to be able to back your statement up with evidence.

80% of respondents do not have an effective selling proposition with which to attract and engage their ideal customers. This often creates a huge top-of-the funnel problem with insufficient sales leads and poor conversion rates.

80% of respondents do not have an effective selling proposition.

What is your Unique Selling Proposition? I.e. can we clearly state what makes our business and its offerings unique, and why a buyer should absolutely be interested in what we do? What makes us and our business different from that of our competitors?

4. Who is my ideal customer?

Just under half of all respondents are unsure of who their ideal customers are. This often results in poor prospecting results and wasted lead generation efforts, leading to frustrations and low morale.

Just under half of all respondents are unsure of who their ideal customers are.

There is little point in engaging with the wrong kind of prospects. You are better off engaging with the right kind instead.

How clear are we on what our ideal customers look like, in terms of industry sector, size of their business, their geographic location, job title, their challenges, their opportunities, their ambitions and motivations, etc.?

5. Where do I find an ideal prospect?

More than 60% of respondents are unsure of WHERE to find their ideal clients. This creates problems with prospect engagement, poor sales quota attainment and loss of market share.

More than 60% of respondents are unsure of WHERE to find their ideal clients.

6. Access and engage the effectively.

A combined total of more than 80% of respondents do not know HOW to engage their ideal customers in a sales conversation. This is THE KEY CHALLENGE IN SALES TODAY. Ineffective prospect engagement kills your pipeline, waists your sales leads and creates an army of unimpressed prospects for your brand.

More than 80% of respondents do not know HOW to engage their ideal customers in a sales conversation.

Once you know WHO your ideal customers are, and WHERE you can find them, the question turns to HOW to engage them in a meaningful way that draws them into a sales conversation.

7. Skills to eliminate competitors

More than 70% of respondents say they are ill-equipped to fend off their competitors. This results in too many lost deals that should have been won, unpredictable forecasting and messy pipelines.

More than 70% of respondents say they are ill-equipped to fend off their competitors.

Let’s say you successfully engaged with a prospect. You are in the running now to win this deal. However, very rarely will you be the only seller in this race. Instead, you will most likely have to beat off any number of competitors.

How good are we at fending off our competitors, and ending up our Buyers’ one and only choice?

8. Using a sales proposal process to close more deals

There is often a degree of confusion between the sales proposal content and the sales proposal process. Sure, what goes into a sales proposal is important, but the way it is presented is also critical to its success.

More than 70% of respondents say they do not have a sales proposal process to help them win more business.

9. A superior pre, during and post-purchase customer experience

Most businesses understand how mission-critical the customer experience is to the success of a business at every step of the way. But do we really know how well, or how poorly, we are doing in that regard?

70% of respondents don’t seem to be fully focused on their customers.

Is this something they just don’t take seriously in their business? Is it a matter of culture? Is it a matter of leadership? Are the wrong KPIs and metrics driving this behaviour?

10. Keep customers loyal, win repeat business and to turn them into advocates

The experience our customers have with us does not end with a purchase or a transaction. The post-sale experience is critical insofar as it will determine whether they will choose to come back to do more business with us, or not.

Just under 60% of respondents admit that they do not have the ability to turn their turn customers into repeat customers and advocates who refer new business.

Will your customers rave about you, or will they rant? Is their experience a pleasant one that will make them recommend you to their friends and colleagues? Or is it one that will more likely make them warn people off doing business with you?

Conclusion

No business should rest on its laurels, there is always room for improvement.

Real leaders are not afraid to admit they don’t know something and that they can always learn something new.

Real leaders are not afraid to ask for external help, advice and guidance.

The report clearly shows that there are enormous untapped opportunities for improvement, to lift sales, to give customers a better experience, and to grow the business.

What are you going to do about it?

The post 10 Costly Mistakes In Sales Engagement appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Building a great sales team and culture is not an easy task. For starters, everyone is selling themselves when they go into a job interview and salespeople are no exception. And with terms like “tenacious”, “a way with people”, “a drive to exceed goals” as standard buzzwords in sales recruitment ads, you’re likely to be interviewing similar candidates. So how do you identify the good from the great?

Everyone is time-poor, but sales managers and leaders cannot afford to skimp on hiring great talent when it comes to sales. That’s why we put together 50 Pro Sales Tips for 2020, an ebook full of valuable advice from sales culture to self-improvement and working with others, to lead generation and negotiation skills. Because it’s time to look past the buzzwords and down into what skills are really behind the best sales reps. And the very best way to understand that is from the experience and expertise of other sales professionals.

Use these insights as you develop your job description, hire and coach the reps on your team.

Know your customer inside out

All good sales reps know their product, but the best ones know their customer even better. They put themselves in the shoes of their target market to build trust and ongoing loyalty.

According to Aaron Tobone, Chief Information Officer at Provider Assist, a good sales rep understands the importance of timing and context to build a customer relationship.

“Be proactive in understanding what is happening in your customer’s business so you can have contextual conversations and provide valuable advice. This is how you build continued trust,” says Aaron.

Building on the facts

Just like you can’t build a home with weak foundations, you shouldn’t build a relationship with flimsy data.

A lot of sales reps will talk about opportunities and forecasting deals without a lot of hard facts to support them. The best salespeople, however, start with the facts and develop a strategy from there.

“When selling, customers want to see results you have achieved for relevant businesses. Always start with the facts, make sure you backup your stories with hard data,” says Nick Hultink, Sales Director, Commercial at Salesforce.

These reps usually input lots of data into a CRM like Sales Cloud, they don’t just look narrowly within the data, either, but try to find patterns across multiple accounts.

Not confined to silos

With 78% of customers expecting consistent interactions across departments, a good sales rep will break down silos between teams. They will also take the time to initiate a constructive discussion about lead scoring and qualification to improve the entire sales process. After all these, teams are working towards the same goal.

“If your marketing and sales teams are not aligned it can impact your ability to find prospects and convert them into customers. If you have a marketing team that is feeding leads from campaigns to your sales team, you have ‘warm’ leads ready to be nurtured,” says Josh Harding, Head of Client Sales, Criterion Conferences.

This kind of cross-functional thinking applies to other areas of the business too. Sales reps that see the benefits of communicating with marketing, service and even finance teams, to find mutually beneficial outcomes are the sales reps you want to invest in.

Technologically literate

Salespeople like to move at pace, so most don’t want to be bogged down by unoptimised spreadsheets and administration. When interviewing your next sales rep, get a sense of the tools and technologies they use to get a deeper understanding of their customer.

A sales rep that embraces and understands the benefits of artificial intelligence technologies is an empowered sales rep. AI can streamline work and help reps make smarter decisions, particularly around customer behaviour predictions.

Can work on the fly

Recent events have shown the positives of staff being able to work from anywhere. And while sales reps may be virtual sellers for now, when they return to face-to-face selling you want a sales rep who can optimise their time when they’re out and about.

There are an abundance of apps available for sales teams to turn their phones into an indispensable sales tool. Good use of business apps can help reps act with urgency to whatever their customers and employers need.

Look for someone who loves learning

“A rut is a coffin with both ends kicked out”, says Marcus Cauchi Fism, Channel/Enterprise Sales Expert at Sandler Training UK.

Great salespeople will take the lead on their professional development by looking for insights from anyone. Be that from their managers, peers, and even their customers.

“What worked 10 years ago might not be what works today. Read, watch, listen every day. Study sales like any other profession to stay current,” says Marcus.

On top of learning, a good sales rep will constantly evaluate themselves to ensure they’re improving and moving forward. There should be a sense of fulfilment from learning something new just as there is from crushing a sales quota.

While not every sales rep you hire will have all the skills listed, recognising their ability to build these skills is what will set a good sales rep and an eventual great sales rep apart in an interview. And they’re the sales rep you should aim to hire for your team.

Find more ways to build the best sales team with our 50 Pro Sales Tips for 2020 ebook.

Read more from Salesforce:

It’s time for sales leaders to rethink how they lead

Introducing the 50 Pro Sales Tips for 2020 eBook

The post Six Traits Of Great Sales Reps appeared first on Head Of Sales.

The best salespeople make it seem like an art form. Today, more than ever, it’s an art that flourishes with a disciplined approach, when backed by science and engaged with by a team empowered by the best digital and cultural tools.

Great works include a comprehensive CRM, a refined sales funnel, aligned departments, diverse teams, great culture and a strategic approach to AI-powered tools. And the artist’s handbook? Our new ebook of 50 pro sales tips from the best in the business across Australia and New Zealand.

Death of a salesman? Not so fast.

Customers can now buy whatever they want, whenever they want, from whatever device they prefer. What’s more, thanks to the internet, they can do their own research into a product or service or just check social media to see what’s being said.

Many feared the internet would see the end of the need for salespeople. What could they possibly say or do if customers were already as informed as them?

Instead, successful sales teams have discovered that rather than being shut down by the digital revolution, it’s given them a million new colours to paint with.

For example, AI-powered tools allow sales reps to offload time-consuming, manual tasks and focus on what they’re really good at – being trusted, insightful advisors to their customers. AI is transforming the way sales teams identify, nurture and convert leads and is bringing predictive power to play so that sales reps can anticipate customer needs.

And Cloud-based CRM is now a priority for high performing businesses who want the power to make sales anytime, any place with up-to-date data that is fully integrated into their other platforms.

Are you ready for the sales renaissance?

The digital revolution has driven a renaissance in the way sales are conducted. There’s never been a more exciting time to be building sales strategies and developing the teams to execute them.

The 50 Pro Sales Tips for 2020 ebook brings together unmissable insights from the best in their fields to give you a head start on the new decade’s challenges and opportunities. Balancing guidance on how to get the most out of new technologies with advice on how to nurture high-performance mindsets and successful cultures, the eBook gives you the tools you need to become a master of the art of sales in 2020.

Here’s a preview of what you can look forward to.

Five insights from the ebook

Tip #04 on building a great sales culture

In this one, CXC’s Corporate Solutions Director, Paul Chiswick, says their high performing sales team are involved every step of the way in developing and optimising client solutions. Rather than separating the sales team from that process, they’ve become integral to creating the customised models and tailored solutions they know their client needs. Expanding your picture of what your sales team is capable of might be the best move you make in 2020.

Tip #13 on lead prioritisation and growth

Sally Fallow, General Manager at Para Mobility, encourages you to match the passion of your sales team with the insight of your data. All the data in the world is no good if it can’t support the particular needs of each client. Using AI-powered tools to strategically mine your data is just one way data can boost sales revenue. Think lead prioritisation, forecasting and personalisation.

Tip #27 on social selling

Daniel Jurczyszyn, National Sales Director at Destined, cautions businesses to be authentic, or else. Customers won’t stand for inconsistency or perceived hypocrisy from a brand. By showing you believe in your brand and owning mistakes when they happen, you’ll be rewarded with customer loyalty online and off.

Tip #37 on negotiation

If you want to connect with your audience then you need to have empathy, says Kathy Rhodes, Chief Alchemist at the Thought Alchemist. Instead of communicating your value and making it about your brand, understand what your audience needs to hear and communicate that. A great sales pitch is one that offers understanding and solutions.

Tip #47 on building customer relationships

Phil Cleary, Senior Director of Sales Enablement here at Salesforce reminds us that we must know our customer better than they know themselves. Just when you think you’ve got all your personas down pat, drill deeper. With AI-powered tools, sales teams can further refine the customer journey and access personas they didn’t know existed. Step into your customers’ shoes: it’s one piece of sales advice that’s never gone out of fashion.

And what’s my sales tip for 2020? Find out by downloading your copy of the 50 Pro Sales Tips ebook and make 2020 your best sales year yet.

The post Introducing the 50 Pro Sales Tips for 2020 eBook appeared first on Head Of Sales.