Online meetings are rapidly becoming the new de facto standard.

Savvy sellers have discovered that the ability to quickly move a phone conversation online yields a richer, deeper interaction with prospects. It enables them to discuss, demo or present using a variety of resources. As a result, prospect engagement goes up, new opportunities emerge, and deals close faster.

That’s a competitive edge worth paying attention to—especially since only 58% of salespeople met or exceeded their quota last year. But right now, most sellers are barely tapping into online meetings because they don’t know how or when to best use them.

Salespeople need to be nimble and ready to pivot. In conversations, they must be able to quickly spot and capitalise on emerging opportunities. It’s even better if they can create these moments on their own.

That’s exactly what savvy sellers do with online meetings. During a phone call, when they spot a need or when inspiration strikes, they immediately suggest:

“Do you have a few minutes? How about we jump onto a quick online meeting?”

That’s sales agility at its best. The key to success with these impromptu online meetings is strategic spontaneity. Savvy sellers are prepared. They know the best times to suggest this option and they know how to do it, seamlessly. They know what they’ll ask, point out, suggest or clarify.

In short, they nail it! These savvy sellers create an “aha” moment that crystallises value and drives differentiation. When the conversation is over, they’ve established credibility, deepened the relationship and moved closer to a signed contract.

1. FOCUS ON PURPOSE

What outcome do you want to achieve from jumping online with your prospect? Always start with this question, then craft a meeting plan that supports it. The best “purposes” are typically aligned with the various stages of a prospect’s buying cycle. These are the three main ones.

Pique Curiosity. If you’re prospecting, know that more than 90% of the people you contact are reasonably satisfied with their status quo— whatever that might be. When you connect, your objective is to get the prospect so interested that they want to learn more—either now or in very short order.

Drive a Commitment to Change. Once you’ve piqued your prospect’s curiosity, their next step is to determine if it makes sense to change. This is your opportunity to help them determine their business case. It’s also a chance to explore the factors they need to consider if they do go ahead.

Close the Deal. When your prospect has decided that changing is worth it, your purpose shifts to that of showcasing why working with your company makes the most sense, provides the best value and is the least risky.

For lead follow-up, try to gauge where the prospect might be in their buying process by reviewing what they’ve downloaded from your website and the pages they’ve visited.

When you know your purpose, it’s time to identify when a “quick” online meeting can help you achieve it.

2. PINPOINT THE OPPORTUNITIES

When does it make sense to have an impromptu online meeting? Start by mentally identifying when it could be beneficial to jump online. Often visual elements are involved and referencing them while you’re talking enriches the conversation.

You might want to consider an impromptu online meeting to:

Spark a new idea. If your offering enables prospects to do something they hadn’t conceived of, pull up a graphic to trigger their thinking. You could also highlight relevant research or data that supports a change from the status quo.

Expand on concepts. Once prospects are ready to change, they want to discuss factors such as configuring the right solution and implementation issues.

Do a demo. Give your prospect a quick tour of your solution. Whether it’s an actual demo, screen shots, or animated, you can gauge their reactions.

Review in real-time. Any time there are questions or concerns re: proposals, pricing, layouts, design and more, the quickest way to resolve them is to jump online. When people post a need or comment regarding an issue you can solve, invite them to a virtual meeting. Again, they’re already online. They just need to be online talking to you!

Research shows that people remember 80% of what they see and do. Online meetings, much more than phone conversations, make you and your message more memorable and engaging.

3. ZERO IN ON VALUE

How can you get prospects to invest the time and energy needed to change from the status quo? It’s your toughest sales challenge. According to SBI, over 60% of forecast deals do nothing. That means you lose to “no decision” more than all other competitors combined.

If this happens to you, it’s likely you’ve been doing too much pitching, trying to differentiate your product/service from competitors. Forrester Research reports that only 13% of executive buyers believe that a salesperson can clearly show they understand customer business issues and articulate a way to solve them.

During your online meetings, focus in on what matters most to your prospects. Be very specific. Increasing sales and decreasing costs is far too generic. Pepper your conversations with value propositions like these:

• Increased sales productivity, enabling 30% more calls/day.
• Reduced customer churn by 2.9% in just six months.
• Stabilised workflow, eliminating 47% of overtime pay.

This is what prospects care about. This is why they’d change from the status quo. Use your online meeting to tailor the value to your buyer’s position.

Don’t get sucked into a “tell me about your [product/service]” conversation. Knowing about your leading-edge capabilities, unique methodologies and unbeatable service will not make people change from the status quo.

Instead, cut to the chase; make it abundantly clear about the value you can deliver to their organisation. That’s what gets people to buy.

4. LEAD CONVERSATIONS

How can you create a meaningful dialogue in a quick online meeting? Huthwaite’s research on 10,000+ reps in 30,000 sales calls revealed that the kind and quality of questions asked during a meeting had more impact on sales success than any other behaviour.

Asking questions allows you to showcase expertise, demonstrate concern, establish trust and build stronger relationships. Additionally, questions enable you to gauge a prospect’s level of interest, expand the possibilities, determine your strategy and find the right solution.

To take advantage of your limited time together during an online sales meeting, consider these suggestions:

Plan questions ahead of time. Brain research shows that it’s impossible to do two things at once. That’s why it’s imperative to figure out the best questions to ask and the right sequence before you initiate contact. Keep them in front of you, but feel free to go with the flow too—if it makes sense.

After asking a question, be quiet – especially if your intention is to make people think. The average salesperson feels compelled to jump in after 2-3 seconds, totally high-jacking the opportunity to learn critical information.

Wrap your questions in your expertise. Lead into them with phrases such as, “In working with other VPs of Sales, we find that …. Is this something you’re struggling with too? Or “In talking to other manufacturers, their three biggest priorities are … How do those priorities compare to yours?”

It’s your responsibility to lead the conversation—and the best way to do it is with thoughtful, provocative questions.

5. CREATE ENGAGEMENT

How can you be more collaborative? Online meetings give you a chance to interact in real time. They can be just as effective as actually sitting in your client’s office, getting a deeper understanding of their needs, and discussing their business challenges.

Here are some ideas to make impromptu online meeting more engaging:

Rather than you doing a demo, try highlighting how easy it is and pass control to your prospects. Let them do it themselves. Sampling simplicity makes them more likely to change.

Use different content. Don’t just show a presentation; change the info you share. Jump from a presentation, to a report, to a website. This on-thefly access to a variety of resources increases interest and involvement.

Bring your recommendations up on the screen and get your prospects’ input. Find out what they like/don’t like. Ask if the solution meets their needs or not— then make appropriate changes. This increases buy-in and the commitment to move forward.

Revise critical documents together. Invariably prospects want to make changes to your proposals, SOWs or contracts. It’s much simpler to actually work on the “same page” as your prospects instead of trying to talk about it. With today’s online contracts, it’s pretty easy to move from conversation to proposal to contracting.

This real-time collaboration capability is also highly useful for internal usage—especially when multiple people from your company are involved in the sales process. It’ll help you get things right before you suggest your prospect jump online for that quick meeting.

6. PICK THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY

What’s the right tool for you to use? Today, 30.3% of sales professionals believe that the online meeting tools they’re using get in the way of sales, rather than helping. That’s not good because it reflects on your competence. The solution you choose can be critical to moving the conversation forward or closing the sale.

To select the right technology, ask yourself these questions:

How easy is it to initiate an online meeting? This is crucial. You need it to be seamless. There’s nothing worse than having to stop the conversation, figure out how to launch a meeting, send an invite, wait while your prospect downloads some software—and then runs into problems. You lose momentum, and your prospect loses interest. Plus, you get frazzled and all your best thinking evaporates into thin air.

Does it have the capabilities you need? When you start out, screen sharing might be all you need. But as you get more proficient you’ll want video capabilities. This makes you more real” to prospects, increases engagement, deepens relationships and drives more sales.

Be sure to check how easy it is to switch between the key documents, demos, or presentations that you want prospects to remember. Also, advanced users may want to highlight certain areas, swap presenters, record meetings and create presentations “on the fly” via new online whiteboarding.

What’s most important is that you select the right online meeting tool for your needs—and that it’s a no-brainer for both you and your prospect.

7. GET REALLY GOOD AT IT

Whether scheduled or impromptu, running a flawless meeting is a skill that needs to be learned. While it may be simple to do, when you’re talking to an interested prospect on the phone it’s easy to flub things up. That’s the last thing you want to happen.

Instead, you want to come across as the true professional you are.

Here’s how you can prep for the maximum impact:

Set the stage. Sloppy desktops make you look disorganized, so get yours cleaned up. Shut down any pop-up messaging too. Or, if your tool allows, select the window-sharing option in addition to full screen sharing.

Know what’s in your virtual briefcase. Being able to quickly locate the exact document, image, PowerPoint slide or resource reflects on your professionalism.

For video meetings, it’s crucial to have appropriate surroundings, de-cluttered workspaces and good lighting. Make sure your webcam mic is clear enough; otherwise, get a headset. Put your computer at eye level so you’re looking directly at the camera. Maintaining eye contact is essential for relationship building.

Do mock meetings with your colleagues. Practice logging on, sending an invite, doing a demo, passing the presenter role and re-taking control. Once you’re proficient, have a colleague role-play someone who’s new to online meetings—like a potential customer. That way you’ll be prepared for that scenario too.

Remember, your prospects judge your competence in every interaction. This is one more opportunity to prove you’re an invaluable resource.

8. FINALISE NEXT STEPS

So now you have zeroed in on business value. You’ve asked great questions. Your prospect is highly engaged. In fact, they’re oohing and aahing about what you’ve covered. It feels like you’ve nailed it.

But have you? It’s easy to get seduced at this point—especially if prospects start asking you all sorts of detailed questions. Sometimes it’s good to put the brakes on to find out what’s really happening.

Try asking, “It sounds like you’re really interested in changing. Help me understand the business case from your perspective.”

If they can clearly articulate it, find out what the next steps are to move the decision forward. Who else needs to be involved? What criteria needs to be considered? How will it be implemented? Or, suggest what you see typically happening: “Based on my experience

working with other companies, the next step is …”

If your prospect can’t articulate the business value, you’ll need to spend more time here. Again, suggest a logical next step: “Usually, at this point, we need to (engage other individuals, do more research, etc.) to determine if it makes sense to move ahead. Let’s get that on the calendar.”

Don’t leave an online meeting without a clear action step. Know what you’re doing next and get commitment from your prospect regarding their responsibilities.

9. TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

How can you get even better leveraging impromptu online meetings? It’s great to be able to quickly jump online with a prospect, but it’s even better when you move from proficiency into mastery. Many service providers today offer the ability to record your meetings—and it’s definitely something you’ll want to take advantage of.

Initially, when you replay your meeting, you’ll find all sorts of personal flaws that will drive you nuts. You’ll hate your voice. You’ll notice every mistake. You’ll realize you weren’t looking at the camera. Note all these and work on getting better.

But then, go deeper. Ask yourself questions like:

• If you were a prospect, how would you feel?
• How was the overall flow? Did it make sense?
• Did you focus on value or get lost in the details?
• Were you able to advance the sales process? If not, what happened?
• Did you miss any important points?
• How else could you have created a better experience?

It’s a good idea to review the recording by yourself first. But that’s not sufficient if you want to really master this tool. If possible, get feedback from your colleagues or boss. Peer coaching is one of the best ways to make giant leaps in performance. Mastery is possible, especially when you get input from others.

THE KNACK OF NAILING IT

There’s great triumph in nailing an online meeting. Striking while the iron is hot enables you to quickly capitalise on an opportunity and moves you one step closer to closing the deal. It sets you apart from competitors, deepens credibility, crystallises value and builds relationships. It can even create new opportunities that didn’t exist before you said:

“Do you have a few minutes? How about we jump onto a quick online meeting?”

As we’ve shown, the key to successful impromptu online meetings is being planful and prepared— strategic spontaneity. That’s what sales agility is all about.

Start by picking just one scenario where an online meeting could add value to your sales process. Then, review the suggestions in this article, and get going. You’ll get better as you experiment with this tool. You’ll have richer interactions, greater connections and even more opportunities. Before long, you’ll be nailing it all the time too.

The post 9 Strategies To Improve Online Sales Meetings And Close More Deals appeared first on Head Of Sales.

So how can you ensure it’s a success? By studying and replicating what top sellers are doing. To start, top sellers spend lots of time preparing for this critical first meeting. They research their prospects in depth. Then, they scrutinise the research looking for ways that they can add value with their products or services.

Here are three critical reasons why most sellers don’t ever make it past the first meeting:
1. They don’t invest enough time preparing for the meeting.
2. They don’t understand the components of an effective initial sales meeting.
3. They focus on their own offering—not the prospective customer’s business needs.

For these reasons, prospective buyers will respond in the following ways:

“Thanks for your time; if we ever need one we’ll give you a call.”
“We’ll think about it and get back to you.”
“It’s not exactly what we were looking for.”

What steps are necessary to pass the first test with an important account and get invited back for a second meeting?

STEP 1 – CONDUCT PRE-MEETING RESEARCH

Prior to meeting with a prospect, it’s critical to invest time understanding their business. Start your information gathering and planning early enough to give you time to create an effective meeting plan.

Start by checking out their website. Look at the “about” section; that’s where companies list important announcements and post financial results. Read the company’s annual report to identify where they’re headed and what their future priorities are. Do an online search for recent articles about them in the press.

Then, go to LinkedIn to find out about the people you’re meeting with. What are they responsible for? Do you have any connections, interests or groups in common? Look for other people you can meet with too; you never want one person to be your sole lifeline for a sales opportunity.

If the person you’re meeting with contacted your company, check out what they’ve done on your website. Did they download any special reports, watch any videos, etc.? Use this context to plan your approach.

Here are seven things to look for while you’re doing research. They’ll help you understand your prospect’s business better.

Primary business: What industry are they in and how do they help their customers?

Business unit/division: How is the company divided? What is the role of each division? Where’s the best fit?

Market segment: Who is their target audience? What characteristics make up their ideal customer profile?

Financial position: Are they growing or shrinking? Borrowing money or cash rich?

Their customers: Who are some of their customers and what are their success stories?

Key strategic initiatives: What specific objectives are they trying to achieve?

Industry trends: What is the growth pattern in the industry? How are the buying patterns changing?

STEP 2 – DETERMINE YOUR POSITIONING

After completing your research, identify where you might have a positive impact on your targeted company. While it’s tempting to say that there’s no way to know until you have a conversation, that’s not the way it works anymore.

Today’s busy, savvy and well-educated buyers expect you to have some idea of the difference you can make prior to meeting with them. And, while you can’t know the specifics of how you can help them, by doing the research you’ll have some good ideas.

The key is to leverage what you know from working with similar companies to set the stage for your conversation and your questions. You need to bring fresh ideas, insights and information to the meeting. When you do, your prospects will be more than willing to do a needs assessment with you. But they need to know you’ve invested time learning about them before they open up to you.

Based on your research of your prospect’s organisation as well as similar companies, think about these questions:

• How are they handling things today without your product or service? What is their status quo?
• What kinds of problems or challenges might they be facing because of how they’re currently doing things?
• Because of their current status quo, what gaps might exist between where they are today versus where they want to be?
• Looking at the problems, challenges or gaps that may be present, what are the potential business implications? (This is important!)
• If this company used your products or services, what business value would they realize? (At this point, it’s a guess. But, if you’ve done your homework you should have some ideas.)
• What difference could your product or service make? (Net it out to the best of your ability, making sure you’re focused on key business drivers that your prospect is measured on.)

STEP 3 – PLAN YOUR QUESTIONS

Good questions are one of the best ways to demonstrate that you’re committed to helping your prospect achieve their goals. They show you care about them, which is important because most people think sellers only care about their commissions.

You’ll want to ask questions that:

• Uncover info about your prospect’s objectives as well as the status quo relevant to your product/services.
• Identify (or confirm) issues, problems, difficulties and obstacles they’re facing that would prevent them from achieving their goals.
• Determine the business ramifications of these challenges.
• Explore the business case for making a change

STEP 4 – DEFINE THE MEETING OUTCOME

As a result of this meeting, what is the logical next step? Research into sales success shows that if you’ve defined an appropriate desired outcome prior to the sales meeting, you’re much more likely to achieve it.

While you might want to walk away with a signed contract, the likelihood of this happening from just one meeting is slim to none. So don’t set yourself up for failure; plan on having multiple conversations from the beginning.

Think process. Today’s buyers don’t make snap purchase decisions. First they need to determine if it’s even worth the effort to change from what they’re currently doing. They’ll likely involve multiple people in this discussion. And, unless it makes good business sense, they’ll stay with the status quo.

Once people decide to change, they need to look at multiple options to ensure they make the right decision.

Use your typical buyer’s journey as a guideline for determining the appropriate and best outcome for your meeting. Here are some “next steps” that you could suggest:

• Meeting with another person involved in the buying process.
• Analysis of a specific situation or problem.
• Demonstration of your product or service.
• Proposal with your recommendations.

STEP 5 – PLAN THE MEETING AGENDA

Good meetings focus on your buyers and what’s most important to them—not your product, service or solution.

The following meeting agenda works well for both in-person or phone conversations. Thinking about what you’ll do ahead of time matters. It gets you clear on where you’re headed. It ensures that you stay on plan and on message, which is exactly what it takes to advance to the next step.

Strangely enough, it also enables you to be more flexible during the meeting. You can be curious about new information you learn, without losing track of where you’re ultimately headed.

Use this sample agenda as a guideline, not an absolute. The timeframes below assume a one-hour meeting.

(1) OPEN THE CONVERSATION (5-10 MINUTES)

Buyers don’t have a lot of time for meaningless chitchat and relationship building these days. Be cordial and friendly, but business-focused at all times.

Make the introductions

Take a few minutes to learn about the responsibilities of the people in the meeting. If others are present, make sure to introduce yourself and learn their names. Find out why they’re attending and what interests they have relative to the business issue.

Confirm times and agenda

Before you get started, double check to see if times have changed since you set up the meeting. If your prospect has to run into an urgent meeting in 30 minutes, you need to adjust your game plan or reschedule for a future time. Reconfirm the purpose of the meeting also to ensure there are no misunderstandings. You might say, “As I explained earlier, we work with high tech firms to increase brand awareness and drive sales. In our time together today, I’d like to give you a little background on how we address these issues, find out what your company is doing in these areas and see if we have grounds for further discussions. How does that sound?” Notice the professionalism and leadership in this overview. It shows that you have a clear plan for the meeting. Buyers feel better immediately; they know their precious time won’t be wasted.

(2) LEAD THE DISCUSSION (40-45 MINUTES)

You want to create a dialogue—not make a pitch. Lay the groundwork by sharing information of high interest to your prospects. Then invite them into a discussion by asking questions that make them think.

Set the stage (5 minutes)

Your prospects will need more grounding about what your company does than the brief one-sentence description given above. When you arranged the meeting, something you said was enticing to this person.

Now is the opportune time to give a brief overview of the business results a specific client achieved with your product, service or solution. Explain the challenge your customer faced, how you helped them, and the results they achieved. Also share your position statement—your insightful ideas on how you can make a positive impact on their business.

Transition to questions (less than 1 minute)

As quickly as you can, shift the focus to your prospect—where it belongs. To do this, simply say, “That should give you a good overview about how we help our customers solve their problems (or achieve their objectives). The most important thing is to find out if this makes sense for your company. In preparing for today’s meeting, I noticed that (insert data re: company’s direction, trigger event, other info uncovered in research). I was wondering how …” Unless you plan your transition, it’s sometimes hard to stop talking—especially if your prospect is goading you on with questions about your product or service. Please realize that this most likely means they’re trying to rule you out. That’s why you need to lead the conversation and why effective transitions are so crucial.

Focus on business issues (35-40 minutes)

Prior to the meeting develop a minimum of ten insightful, powerful questions you can use to lead a business-focused discussion. Decision makers are always interested in talking about their business.

They wouldn’t be taking time to meet with you unless they truly wanted help solving their problems or achieving their goals.

Have the questions handy so you can refer to them. Your prospect will be impressed by how well you’ve prepared for the meeting. But don’t give them the list of questions or they’ll just rattle off the answers.

Ask your questions in a conversational manner—not like a schoolteacher giving an oral test. Questions build relationships, establish rapport, demonstrate your competence and show that you care.

Remember, this is a discussion—not a sales pitch. Listen to their answers. Be interested. Learn as much as you can. Take copious notes of everything that’s said —not just the parts you find interesting.

Always LEAN BACK. The moment you move forward, you’re pitching. The discussion is over and the push is on. Your prospect immediately puts up defensive barriers and raises objections. Getting the sale is going to be infinitely harder unless you immediately recover and get back into the discovery mode.

(3) ADVANCE THE PROCESS (5 – 10 MINUTES)

When you focus on questions, your one-hour meeting flies by. Even if your prospect seems oblivious to the time, it’s important not to overstay your welcome. Draw attention to the clock. See if you’re invited to stay longer. If not, it’s time to wrap up and advance to the logical next step.

Summarise your understanding

Since it usually takes multiple sales meetings to close a deal, don’t try to share everything you know, ask every question you want answered or hand out every piece of collateral in your briefcase at the initial meeting.

Instead, show your professional expertise by summarizing what you learned about their critical business issues and the value of resolving them.

Do not, under any circumstances, get into a discussion about your product or service. This will be the hardest thing in the whole world for you to do, but it’s essential. Remember, buyers don’t really care about your offering—only what it can do for them. They also realize that in a short one-hour meeting, you can’t possibly offer them a well thought out solution. They don’t expect one.

Suggest the logical next step

Then, without making a big deal of it, simply recommend a good option to move the process forward. This is the logical next step you were working toward from the onset.

You might say, “Usually when I work with companies on product introductions, the next step is to have a conversation with the product manager to get a better understanding of the launch plans already in place and where gaps might exist. Can we get a meeting set up with this person in the next couple weeks?”

If you’ve had a good discussion, it’s highly likely that your prospect will have already suggested a next step. If so, great! Get it on the calendar.

If your prospect missed an important step, offer it up as another idea: “Ms. Biggie, I’ll get going on your recommendation right away. Also, based on my experience, we need to talk with the IT department as well. Can we get that set up, too?”

Ending meetings like this advances the sales process to its next logical step. It’s honest and full of integrity. It’s just simply suggesting the next logical thing that you both need to do to determine if your offering is a good fit for their business.

The post 5 Steps To Master Sales Meetings appeared first on Head Of Sales.

1. Be a market expert

A successful Business Development person knows the playing field of their industry. They understand the ebbs and flows of the market. They know the key players and their respective unique selling points.

Most salespeople know information on their own business, but not necessarily that of the competitors whom they are up against. These are the alternatives that your prospect may be weighing up and comparing you to. When you know the fuller picture, you know what questions you need to ask, you know the types of problems the client may be encountering. You know how those problems can be fixed and which businesses (including yours) can resolve them.

As you ask better questions (and knowledgeable of the pain points and solutions) your value increases and the client see you as an industry expert.

Be and act as thought leader of your field – be seen as the authority

2. Mindset

Success, your opinion of the world and how you operate, all starts in your own head. It starts with how you decide to view the world.

Empowered are those that have decided to adopt the stance of:

‘I choose how I view my situation’,

‘I’m in charge of my thoughts’

‘I don’t let what is happening outside of me affect my mindset’.

Seeing each interaction as a lesson of how you could have made better choices – being able to rise above and think ‘what can I learn from this, what can I improve next time’.

Planning and practising what you could say next time to hard wiring the circuits of your brain and reprogram your mind to choosing a better future response.

Take time to breathe, to slow the mind down. Ditch what may not be serving you, be it alcohol, caffeine, bad choice of foods, recognising and managing any other negative influences. Reframe yourself positively on what you do have and look at the situation through new eyes. Take care of your number one asset – you.

Adopt a position of gratitude, put things into perspective.

3. Be aware of your value

Often, we get caught up in our own product that we don’t see what the implications are for the buyer. To know this, you need to know innately what pain your prospect is experiencing, for how long, what solutions they have tried, what they liked and didn’t like. Be informed about the different solutions available to them and the uniqueness of each.

What do you personally bring to the table? Are you professional, reliable, consistent, helpful? People ‘buy into’ people. They are buying into you to trust what you are selling them. Ensure you are always operating at your best, so they (and indeed your colleagues) see the best version of you.

4. Work smart

Working smart starts with planning days, weeks and months ahead.

“He who fails to plans is planning to fail”. Winston Churchill

Know who to target, when, how much time it will take. Know which prospects and clients will have the biggest positive impact on your bottom line. Prioritise the most profitable clients and focus on how you can engage with and bring them value.

The best Business Development people remove distractions. They know what approach to take and have practiced and refined what questions to ask and what compelling solution(s) they can put forward.

5. Get more business

Do what others will not do.

The client says ‘no’. So what? Learn, be resilient and move on. The world will not stop spinning. Lessons are everywhere. Opportunities are far and wide.

When you are with a potential client, abandon all assumptions and baggage of what they will or will not buy. Be present and focused on them and their situation. The more you understand them, the more you can help them.

Unfortunately, most salespeople are too preoccupied with getting their own message across, without first fully understanding the client. This mistake means the client doesn’t feel heard, isn’t fully understood and all opportunities to serve them are missed.

If you are regimented in your engagement you will be running the meeting your way, missing signals and not putting the client first. Your job is to run every engagement in a meaningful, relevant way – make it about them.

The person with the most behavioural flexibility gets the sale.

6. Take action consistently

Most salespeople are stuck in a reactive mode and not in a proactive mode.
Knowing that when you engage with more people, you will get more business. This means you have to carve off time to focus on giving the more profitable potentials more of your time and energy.

Conclusions

Sales is a profession. To demonstrate to the client that you are professional, trustworthy and a leader in your field, you need to act likewise.

Sales is an intelligent interaction where you are using sophisticated interpersonal skills and communication methods to help a client solve a problem.

The post 6 Steps For Business Development Success appeared first on Head Of Sales.

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.

Our newly hybrid world and the massive adoption of LinkedIn presents a greater opportunity to cast your net wider and network online. Why? Because that’s where we are all spending the majority of our time.

Without peers sitting behind us, less rushing from here to there for meetings and reduced travel, decision-makers are more accessible and more open to communication. Periods of social isolation has been tough and we are all yearning for connection and collaboration.

How can you improve your online presence to bolster your networking efforts? By giving your LinkedIn profile an overhaul!

Before we start though, click on the edit pencil in whatever section you are working on, scroll to the bottom and ensure that the slide bar is set to ‘Off’.

Check this setting every time you save changes, noting that notifications are very good announcements if you have changed roles, been promoted, recently completed an MBA or some other significant studies.

(1) Headline

Aside from your name and picture, your Professional Headline is the only part of your profile that is instantly visible in LinkedIn search results. It also follows you everywhere on LinkedIn, when people find you in searches, when you comment, in companies and on the top of your posts. This is why you have to use these 220 characters to grab people’s interest, so they’ll want to click on your profile.

Your headline should sum up who you are and the problems you solve, but there’s no need for it to be bland. Most users (approximately 70%) simply have their name and company here, as this is what LinkedIn defaults to. However, you’ll stand out from the crowd by being a bit more creative with your headline.

Firstly, it’s important to think about keywords. Just like Google, LinkedIn uses keywords to determine how highly your profile will rank in search results, so you need to be thinking about the keywords that are most relevant to what you do. Try to put yourself in the mindset of your ideal client or prospective employer – what search terms would they use if they were searching for someone to solve their pain?

Once you’ve established the most relevant keywords to use, you can start thinking of more creative ways to put them together, such as giving yourself a catchy slogan. Think of yourself as a brand and consider how do you want to sell yourself?

As LinkedIn is highly visual with almost everyone having a background banner these days, you should consider making your profile more graphically appealing and memorable by separating your keywords with emojis rather than just writing them as a list.

Pipes are okay – but having been abandoned by LinkedIn and other sites a few years ago, they may look old school…

(2) Background banner

Your background banner has a lot of prominence on your profile so if you have not yet replaced the LinkedIn default blue background, you’re not going to stand out and you will not get noticed.

The image you choose should depend on what you want your LinkedIn profile to achieve. If you want your employees to increase the company’s brand reach, offer each employee the option to upload an image that has a company logo – as all the best companies do.

If your employer has not yet provided a background banner, the image you use should reflect your value proposition. If you’re promoting services or products, it’s a good idea to reduce barriers by including contact details in the image – if this doesn’t make it too cluttered. Tag lines or a description of what the company does is also helpful in converting your audience to buying customers.

Do not have a beach scene or something that infers you wish to be on holiday! LinkedIn is a professional platform and accordingly, your banner needs to further your professional goals.

(3) About section

Your About section really needs to start as strong as possible, as only the first 270 characters are visible on desktop before the person viewing your profile has to click on “See More”. Of course people only click when they are interested, so you must ensure your first 270 characters form a hook, and make a real impact. A great way to do this is to start with a question, or an intriguing statement.

If your initial sentence or two are interesting enough, you should be expecting users to click on “See More”. This is why it’s important to have something extra to offer those who do. You should then explain not just what you do, but why you do it.

With a total of 2600 characters (approx 360 words), it’s vital that your About section contains information about the value you can offer clients or prospective employers, that your competition can’t. State clearly how you can make their lives easier, for example, by explaining how you solve problems using your particular skills and experience.

Employers are always looking to recruit new employees whose values align with those of their business, and similarly clients want to know that you are genuinely committed to solving their problems. It’s important to let readers know your why, what makes you tick, and what made you choose your particular field – because we all connect more easily with people who care about the same things as us.

Crucially, be authentic and reflect who you are in a realistic way, rather than simply aiming to please the people you’re hoping to attract. By being yourself and highlighting your skills and interests to your best advantage – you will attract people you truly want to work with.

Never use third-person perspective (referring to yourself by name), and instead use I and You to give readers the sensation that you are speaking to them directly. It will appear aloof and distant to talk about yourself as if you are not yourself. If you are not convinced that you should use I and you then check out this 1.22 minute video on how our language needs to match current trends in leadership style…

(4) Skills endorsements and recommendations

Your Skills section is all about proving that you have the know-how to do the work you do. It also appears to feed the ranking when someone searches for your skills, so as much as it pains me to say this, more is currently better… Just be careful you don’t dilute your number of endorsements by mentioning similar skills twice (Eg Management and Leadership).

Keeping in mind that only three of your skills are immediately visible on your profile, it’s important to make sure those skills are the ones that best align with your goals and describe strengths that are most relevant to the job/client/industry you are pursing. You can reorder your skills by unpinning, clicking and dragging on the four lines on the right of each skill as pictured and shown in the video here and pictured below.

You must have your skills endorsed by others if you want people to feel they can trust you. Try pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and casually ask for endorsements every time somebody praises your work. You don’t have to be pushy, as people are often grateful to have a way to help – if you approach them in a friendly and low-pressure way.

Similarly, don’t be shy. If you are looking for a new role, and you know your peers are too, consider asking (gently) if you can write each other a recommendation, being specific in what you would like mentioned.

Personally, I find that giving recommendations feels good. If you are a leader in an organisation, consider normalising both recommendations and endorsements by monthly reflecting on the performance of individual team members and endorsing their skills, writing recommendations for specific projects and accomplishments. Why should you do this? Because these days, few people care about acknowledgements unless the whole world sees it… Take comfort that you can always delete recommendations at a later date if the employee does something terrible.

Concerned that your employees will leave if you endorse them? That is like the cartoon below…

Recommendations and skills endorsements demonstrate trust and foster employee loyalty and commitment in a way that few reward and recognition programs can achieve. All at no cost. Plus, a higher number of endorsements and recommendations will lift clients perception of the quality and talents of your team members – growing sales conversions.

(5) Experience section

Don’t ever cut and paste your resume to your LinkedIn profile, instead stop and consider again your LinkedIn objective. If your goal is to attract more clients, it will look weird for your profile to read as a resume – and certainly few clients will want to hear about your successes in sales. Instead clients want to hear that you are skilled in solving their problems.

If you are sprucing up your LinkedIn profile to attract a new employer, or influence how your peers perceive you, cutting and pasting your resume into your LinkedIn profile gives the reader no reason to contact you with questions. Instead keep your statements short, strongly action-orientated and focussed on the difference you deliver.

Keep in mind that you can use symbols instead of bullets in your all-important experience section of your profile, as demonstrated in my friend Robert’s, who in having permitted me to use him as an example years ago of how a profile could be arranged, was subsequently approached about a new role because of his profile on LinkedIn. Robert was not, and most certainly is NOT looking for a job – but he kindly permits me to still use him as an example.

(6) Adding media

A frequently underutilised area of LinkedIn is Media, and Featured. A great profile is far more sophisticated than a résumé on steroids — it is your digital reputation, validating who you are and the expertise you hold.

However we often connect with people who simply don’t know all that we have accomplished, causing the undervaluing of our skills, talents and services.

You can build on how others think of you without constant bragging and hero statements by adding media. Sitting in the Experience section of your profile and relevant to each job, these are evidence of previous successes, awards and presentations in the form of external news articles, photos, website links, videos and SlideShare presentations. 

To ensure these show to those that are just skimming your profile (and who do not scroll down to the experience section), it is crucial that you use the Featured tool to highlight key messages and achievements.

As you can see pictured here you can highlight articles, landing pages or company websites in the Featured section. 

These additions are powerful evidence that you are a specialist and a subject matter expert!

Noting that only a little over two are immediately visible on desktop and only a little over one on mobile, just ensure that you change the order so the most relevant is first.

(7) Customising your URL

Lastly, if you want to make an impact – you will need to be memorable and easy to find. A custom URL makes you look like you take care of the online image you’re presenting – something that is even more critical in this Covid-impacted time.

If it seems like too much effort don’t be fooled – the more memorable you are, the more job offers, clients and opportunities you can expect to get!

Remember, everyone under 30 has grown up digitally literate and millennials don’t even have to think about presenting themselves as tech-savvy – they do it automatically. No matter what age or level, you need to keep up to look relevant.

Don’t worry if someone else on LinkedIn has the same name as you – you can use your URL as an opportunity to stand out even further in your field, by adding your job title or industry sector after your name, for example Joe-Bloggs-Accountant or Joe-Bloggs-Supply-Chain.

While this modification will look especially great on your resume, if you use business cards don’t forget to have your URL printed underneath your phone and email address because we all need to remember that LinkedIn is where your customers are increasingly searching for the services and technical expertise they need!

To point out the obvious: While LinkedIn is a personal branding tool where you control what is said about you, in this new world where we are unable to meet face to face, it is crucially one of the few places where you can generate job and business leads, represent your company, or find and reach out to old contacts to explore new opportunities.

As LinkedIn is a social selling and recruitment tool that works on the basis of relationships, when you craft your LinkedIn profile, it is important to think about who you are and how you want to be perceived.

Be authentic and let your character show through because we need to see who you really are to connect, communicate and collaborate…

The post LinkedIn Hacks – 7 Practical Steps To Overhaul Your Profile appeared first on Head Of Sales.

#5 Leadership Q&A with Ricky Chanana of Twitch  

Ricky Chanana is the Head of Sales for Twitch ANZ, where he believes in utilising consumer research, actionable insights and market awareness to help his clients supercharge their digital campaigns and drive business results.  
Read more…

#4 10 Psychological Triggers To Become Highly Influential

If you don’t understand the psychology of selling, then the words are going to fall flat if they’re not used in the right context. You need to understand why your prospects behave the way they do.
Read more…

#3 Leadership Q&A with Ghay Haidar of FarmaForce

Ghay Haidar is the Sales Director of FarmaForce. Eight times, across different organisations, Ghay has led teams who have won the coveted PRIME Awards’ “Sales Team of the Year” in Primary & Secondary Care.
Read more…

#2 Five Signs You’re An Order Taker And Not A Salesperson

Order-taker is a derogatory term used to describe a person who has a sales title and job description but does no actual selling. Here are five telltale signs that indicate that a person is really an order-taker and not a salesperson.
Read more…

#1 The “So What” Card

As a prospective customer of yours: It’s not my job to care, it’s your job to make me care. During your presentation dry-run, every time you make a statement which relates to your business or your solution, hold up your ‘So What’ card.
Read more…

Congratulations to Cian McLoughlin for authoring the most read article on Head Of Sales. We thank all of our lead authors for their contribution to a successful launch.

A special mention the top five contributors who were Tony Hughes (22 articles), Anthony Iannarino (14 articles), Charmaine Keegan (14 articles), Sue Barrett (11 articles) and Mark McInnes (10 articles).

Subscribe to the email newsletter to receive high quality articles to your inbox.

The post The Most Read Articles appeared first on Head Of Sales.

There are millions of reasons that salespeople fail, and there are even more ideas about how to help them improve and succeed. But the primary reason that salespeople fail is something that is irreparable; it is something for which there is no available remedy that can be administered. Training won’t help. Neither will mentoring or coaching.

Here are five telltale signs that indicate that a person is really an order-taker and not a salesperson.

1. You Don’t Do Any Prospecting

The first sign that you are an order-taker is a serious lack of prospecting activity. Order-takers don’t embrace the fact that the value that they create for their organization and their clients begins with opening the relationships that open opportunities.

Order-takers talk a good game. They know someone at such-and-such company. They met someone at a party; it’s sure to work out as a deal. Someone’s brother works as a supplier to the big dream client. It sounds too good to be true—because it isn’t true.

Order-takers avoid prospecting like the plague. They buy the hype that there are easier ways to build a pipeline because they desperately need to believe it. It means they can keep the lie that they are really a salesperson and that they can succeed without prospecting.

2. You Love and Embrace the RFP Process

Real salespeople struggle with the RFP process. In an attempt to create a level playing field (something that salespeople know isn’t likely to benefit either them or their clients), the RFP process eliminates the salesperson’s ability to create the value that they create for their dream clients.

Order-takers love the RFP process. They feel like a real opportunities, and they provides a lot of work that makes the order-taker look and feel busy. But instead of prospecting and creating real opportunities, these so-called opportunities find their way to the order-takers desk, allowing them to avoid prospecting.

3. You Try Desperately To Take Credit for Other People’s Work

Because they have too few real prospects in their own pipeline, order-takers try to insert themselves into other deals. They work on clients who are already being pursued by inside sales or by their operations team members.

These opportunities don’t need their attention, and in some cases their involvement only makes things worse. But their involvement gives them something to talk about and something to put on their sales reports.

Order-takers want to make a contribution. They just don’t want to do the real and difficult work that is sales.

4. You Are Great In Front of Clients and Can’t Wait to Present

Order-takers believe that they are great in front of prospective clients. They believe that because they are personally likable, that this translates to effectiveness in and of itself. It doesn’t.

Order-takers aren’t tremendous value-creators because they don’t have enough appointments to get better at making sales calls. They don’t have the business acumen to really diagnose their dream client’s needs, and they don’t follow an effective sales process.

When an order-taker is fortunate enough to find themselves face-to-face with prospective clients, they present. They believe that by telling their prospective client what their company does, they can make an effective and compelling case. They can’t. It doesn’t work.

5. You Work On Renewing Existing Client Accounts

Existing clients will need to have their contracts renewed. And there is no reason to win an account if you aren’t going to do everything in your power to work on increasing and improving your wallet share and retaining the client.

But sales is about the acquisition of new clients, not just the maintenance and renewal of existing clients.

Order-takers make way too much of renewals, pretending to themselves and to everyone else that renewals are time-consuming and complicated affairs that need their direct attention.

These are all telltale signs that the person in question is an order-taker—not a salesperson. Salespeople don’t wait for deals to walk themselves in; they go out and make it rain.

Conclusion

The primary reason that salespeople fail is because they aren’t really salespeople. These people have job titles that suggest that they are in sales, and they work in the sales department of an organisation. They even report to a sales manager. But even though all of these things are true, they are salespeople in name only.

The reasons this group of people who we call salespeople fail in their role as salespeople is that they have never embraced selling. They don’t embrace selling, and they don’t see themselves as professional salespeople.

They are uncomfortable prospecting because they don’t believe in what they are doing. They suffer call reluctance because they don’t feel strongly enough about what they are doing; they don’t feel right asking for an appointment.

They are uncomfortable asking for and obtaining commitments, and they reject using any commitment-obtaining language.

Occasionally, they make some deals because they are good, hard working people. But because they never embrace sales, they never really succeed. Instead they move from one sales job to another sales job, usually because they want the high rewards that come with success in sales, rewards they never obtain.

The post Five Signs You’re An Order Taker And Not A Salesperson. appeared first on Head Of Sales.

We have a heightened sense of awareness when interacting, meaning our ability to stay close and keep pace with the client is easier, as is guiding them along and ensuring we uncover all their needs.

We can see if they are excited, confused, worried, if they are nodding in agreement or pondering a thought. We can read if they are processing. Silences are comfortable on video conferencing. In ‘real life’ being next to a client, there is a natural ebb and flow in the conversation. There are natural pauses. On the telephone we may be less confident in reading any of this and the lack of visual cues can make some people uncomfortable, panicky and usually inclined to speak too much.

Swapping the phone for the screen will be the best decision you’ll ever make.

1. Get intimate

Intimate with a platform that is. Whether its Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, Cisco, Google Meet, or another – you need to know it really well. You need to be confident in knowing how to set up an appointment, how to share the screen, how to get it on gallery view and ‘manage’ the meeting.

2. Practice

Simply essential and yet so few people do it. You absolutely have to practice navigating yourself around the platform. Showcasing your solution. Look at the display, how are they viewing you in your setting? Are you clearly visible, well lit, do you need a background? Sharing a screen, is your desktop tidy? Is it easy to flip from you chatting to showing them something and back again? Is the sound OK? What distractions are there at your end and how can you manage them? Practice at least 3 times so that you can be confident.

3. Amend your intention

Up to now your intention may have been to get your client onto a phone call, and now it’s to shift them onto video conferencing. There’s a reason I say do steps #1 and #2 first: it’s so that you are confident to transfer your client from phone to video conferencing. If you skip the groundwork in #1 and #2 you will be less successful in persuading your client to jump on Video Conferencing as you yourself would be uncertain of your abilities. Set out with a clear intention that ‘face time’ is more beneficial.

4. When is the right time to use VC?

I would say almost all the time. Some people use it only at the ‘I’m showing you my solution’ stage but I think the most important message you want to give your client throughout is that you are the trusted advisor. You want them to feel that as soon as you can, therefore get ‘face time’ at least a few times during your exploration of their situation, and then absolutely again when you pitch how your solution will serve them.

5. Get the client onboard Video Conferencing

OK, so now you need to ensure you are very clear as to what is in it for your client when they jump on VC. You’re fully aware of the benefit to you – but clients are not after that, they need to know the value to them. VC is a slightly higher bar to scale than a phone call. For most hopping on a call is seamless and easy. Clients even carry that device around in their pocket so they can call or be called at anytime. VC on the other hand requires some planning, clients need to feel presentable and not multi-task.

Draw up a list of why instead of a phone call, VC is better for them, peel off a powerful sentence and use it. You need a compelling reason, so they want to engage and want to listen. Practice your sentences, as you need to sound confident, in control and certain (not desperate and needy).

6. Be slick

Not often I say that, but I mean you shouldn’t be making a big deal about jumping on a video call. I often email a client back with ‘great, I can chat then, here is a zoom link if you are able to jump on, makes it easier to show a few things I think may be of value’. You have to reduce or eliminate the mental barrier and make it seamless, obvious and natural as then you project same. Reduce the font size when copying and pasting the essential meeting link details, removing any of the unnecessary information. I’m implying, this is easy, jump on.

7. Be prepared

Practice. Sit tall. Ensure you look act and behave professionally. Do you have food in your teeth? Removed all distractions. Turned off your phone. Turn off your computer notifications (no ‘pinging’ when an email arrives). Check you have a professional looking background in your room and you have got the lighting on your face (being backlit is a sure way to look dodgy). Remember you are building trust here! You have all the videos, content, material etc. that you may require either easily accessible or already minimised on your desktop. Your desktop is clear and organised.

If you are showcasing your wares and sharing the screen, let’s quickly discuss your desktop image. Consider if it’s a new client and you are scratching around for a rapport then you could use your own desktop to create some banter (well, that depends on what it is – keep it professional!). If not, best to be plain – the focus and attention needs to be on you and what you are showcasing, not on the zebras crossing the savannah.

8. Be sold

Being sold or not sold on your solution is going to come across in your posture, voice and language. It will come across in the questions you ask them and how you welcome questions back. Most notably it will be in what you say and how you say it. You need to be sold on what you are selling plus the investment (the cost). If in doubt, get someone else to explain. You need to be 100%, upside-down, inside-out certain of the value it will bring them. You also need to know where else they can get a similar solution and what the differences are.

9. Keep their engagement

If you want to keep your client’s engagement this is what you need to do… EARN IT!!

a. How do you earn it – make it about them! Get them talking, they are then a participant, an active contributor in a two-way conversation and not a passive observer being ‘talked at’.

b. Give them your full attention. When someone is in rapport with you, they will match you. So, if you permit distractions, it’s saying they too can allow distractions. So, no looking away to a different screen for notes – even looking down at a note pad can be swapped for touch typing on a word doc which is placed up near the camera.

c. The camera is your friend, stop looking at yourself, rather keep eye contact with your client. It’s OK, you look fabulous.

d. Make the interaction all about them, ask them questions, listen – be present – ask more questions, seek to understand their situation. Ensure the order and sequence of selling is intelligent questions first, listen to understand, listen some more then lastly, pitch your perfectly aligned solution. You don’t know what they need, want or desire until they have explained that, so you need to be all ears and no mouth.

e. Prepare as if it’s a face-to-face presentation (which it is) in other words, if something you were going to show the client now isn’t applicable (as you have just gathered further intel about their situation) then dump it. You should have a tight compelling reason for them to use your services. Anything that doesn’t fit needs to go or it becomes distracting. This means you are adapting as you go.

f. Heighten your awareness. Read what they are saying and what they are asking. Observe when did they lean in or lean back, when and how did they ponder and consider what you said?

g. They need to be 100% sold if they are to sell it onto someone else. They need to be your ambassador if they are to get someone else to ‘buy’ into it. So, check your timing and don’t rush off the VC call. Too many people leave the ‘selling’ to the email. Whilst on a VC call you have 100% of their attention so ensure they have bought in to you and your solution.

h. Is it appropriate to record the call? That’s up to you. If you check that the client is OK, then flick it on. Whilst it does mean you can go back and learn from the conversation, it also means you will double up on time, so choose wisely who you do this with.

i. Be professional. How you act, behave and communicate is going to be what they are buying into. If you say you are going to do something, then do it. You are saying ‘I’m reliable, I’m going to do what I said I’m going to do’.

10. Post VC

If your VC meeting was an exploration, review your notes, and if you recorded the meeting download and review it. You may cringe at how you sounded. Watch it again, learn this time, see what you may have missed and call them back. Get as much exploration as you can before you send over a final solution.

If the VC meeting was delivering your solution, then ensure you follow up with appropriate notes, answering questions and clarifying the offer. Be timely on this. You are, at all times, demonstrating that you are efficient and effective.

Considering ‘sales’ is really just a normal conversation where they need something and you have that something, the conversation should flow organically through to a sale. The conversations should be seamless and natural. If they don’t have a response for you straight away, then hopefully the engagement has been such that they will openly tell you what’s happening next.

Learn and improve each time. Smile, we are lucky to have this technology.

The post Video Conferencing – 10 Practical Tips appeared first on Head Of Sales.

I’ve been in professional selling for more than 3 decades and during that time I’ve been a sales rep, sales manager, sales director of public companies, and Managing Director of my own businesses and also for the Asia-Pacific region of global operations. I’ve written a best selling book on sales leadership and I teach sales master classes for the MBA program at the University of Technology Sydney.

YOU’D THINK I WOULD BE MASTERFUL AT HIRING THE RIGHT SALES PEOPLE. BUT I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE – IT’S INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT!

What defines the right sales person and how do you screen-out those who look good but can’t deliver? Once you’ve got a short-list, how do you get past the masterful façade being projected? How do you differentiate the candidates and find those with the right attitude and values? I’ve written about the importance of cultural fit and how to best execute a job interview but for the employer or recruitment consultant, how do you uncover the truth about their capabilities, values, and weaknesses?

Without doubt, the biggest mistake a manager can make is to hire the wrong person. This is because it damages your own personal brand and wastes huge amounts of time and emotional energy in managing the person out. It also has devastating consequences on revenue and lost momentum. Finally, it can also damage corporate relationships in the market-place. Never hire the best of the bunch. Only hire the right person – the one you feel strongly will be successful in the role and fit within your team culture. Here is what I regard as the best process for hiring and also rules that should never be broken if you are committed to managing risk.

Go beyond the job description and qualifications. Forget generic job descriptions! Instead write an ad that talks about what the person is expected to do and how they will need to execute. Ask them to write a one-page letter, attaching their CV, highlighting why they are the ideal candidate to join your team. Don’t accept something that merely plays back the advertisement and obviously reject those who do not have prerequisite qualifications and experience. Does their CV provide evidence of consistent high performance? Have they been with past employers for sustained periods of time? Do they possess the necessary qualifications and experience?

Progressive screening to qualify out. Now that you have an initial group of candidates who have the necessary qualifications and responded as requested; it’s all about a progressive qualification process to continually screen down to a short-list.

Can they write? If they could not write a good letter (structure, grammar and spelling) or failed to do basic research and adapt their pitch, then reject them immediately. The covering letter and CV should also have been tailored to show relevancy for the role. You don’t want a generic sales person and neither do your prospects and customers. Seriously, this is important because if you hire someone with poor written communication skills, you will forever be editing or rewriting proposals or correspondence – you don’t have time. Worse than this, they will submit losing proposals that miss the mark with prospects. In complex B2B selling, written skills are essential.

LinkedIn social proximity. LinkedIn is phenomenally powerful and it is likely that you know someone who knows someone who knows your candidate. Use your network to check the candidate out informally. Do it as an ‘off the record’ conversation, nothing official. Ensure the conversation is nuanced and that you pick-up the subtext of commentary about the individual. None of these conversations should be with a formal referee listed on the CV and certainly not with their current employer.

Psychometric Testing. The next step is to conduct psychometric testing (intelligence and operating style) and personality profiling (if not incorporated into previous). Here is something controversial: I don’t hire amiable personalities for business development roles – they have no chance of executing concepts such as Challenger Selling. Anyone who has a personality that avoids conflict or tension will be high maintenance and struggle to execute – you will forever be pushing them. The HR department will not like this, nor will they be in favour of informal ‘social proximity’ conversations but you cannot afford to get the hiring decision wrong, and you must take all necessary steps remove risk from the hiring process.

Written Exercise. Can they write under pressure? Before you run your ad, take the time to create a realistic sales scenario with a two page brief supported by a subset of your marketing collateral. This should be tailored for the sales role (field sales versus inside sales versus pre-sales / solution architects). Only give the candidates 24 hours to respond. For a business development role, ask them to write a two page executive summary that would lead a formal proposal. You’re looking to see whether they can construct a relevant, concise, professional, logical, evidence-based letter that focuses on business value rather than features of your company or functions of your product, service or solution.

The Interview. This is where you are laser-focused to determine cultural fit. They have already demonstrated that they have the skills and qualifications to do the job but now it’s all about their values, work ethic, attitude and personality. Put them under pressure and ask them to provide real examples of how they’ve dealt with difficult situations. Ask them these kinds of questions: 

• How do you define ‘strategic selling’ – what do you do that makes you ‘strategic’?
• What was your biggest loss and what did you learn?
• How do you qualify an opportunity?
• What was your biggest win and how did you create value and manage risk?
• What’s your approach for building pipeline and how do they leverage LinkedIn and other social platforms and tools for monitoring and research?
• What are the professional development books you’ve read in the last 12 months?

Integrity trap. If the candidate comes from a competitor, ask them what they can bring to role beyond their skills and experience. Ask them what IP they possess that can help them accelerate their success. If they say anything other than their insights, domain expertise and relationships; don’t hire them. Anyone who offer to bring a contact database, pipeline report, or any other private and confidential information belonging to your competitor will most likely do the same to you when they leave. Integrity is everything – yours and theirs. There are also obvious legal issues you could become embroiled in. Your personal and corporate reputation is everything so reject anyone who shows poor moral judgement.

Reference checking. Never delegate reference checking and never make it an afterthought. Always select the people you want to talk with rather than the ‘buddies’ listed as referees on the candidates CV. You know they will say nice things and report back to the candidate afterward. Instead select the most senior contact of a large deal they won, or a senior contact with their biggest channel partner. The hiring manager (the person who the candidate will directly report to) must do the reference checks personally, over a coffee if possible rather than a phone call.

Hiring the wrong person is the biggest mistake you can make. It will cause you enormous pain and damage your own career. When in doubt about a candidate, don’t hire them. Wait, be patient, get it right. If you use a recruitment consultant, make them earn their fee by ensuring they understand your culture and that they define value in fewer CVs rather than more CVs. Don’t let them bombard you with marginal candidates or send you anyone that is not both technically and culturally qualified. The very best recruitment consultants work with a ‘less is more’ ethos and invest the time with you to understand your culture.

Here is the sales aptitude test absolutely free. I won’t use your email address to market to you – no spam. The self-assessment takes approximately 50 minutes but there is no time limit. Upon completion, summary scores are provided for the following seven competencies in professional selling:

1. Sales Process
2. Communication
3. Knowledge, Attitude and Skill
4. Opening
5. Closing
6. Objections
7. Opportunity Development

The post Hiring The Right Sales People Is Incredibly Difficult. appeared first on Head Of Sales.

However, this isn’t the case. The word “sales” was originally derived from the Scandinavian phrase “to serve”; a good sales person does exactly that. A salesperson that is truly good at their job doesn’t need to be conniving or manipulative – they simply need to understand the features of what they’re selling, ask questions to determine how these features translate into benefits for any particular client, and make these benefits known. Hard-selling isn’t necessary; once the benefits are explained, all that is left to do is ask the client to take that next step.

Personally, I find that when the sales process runs smoothly, it’s merely a matter of going through the motions – and before you know it, they’re signing that dotted line!

What is sales scripting?

Sales scripting is basically the process of transcribing your sales call – from questions and jokes, through to stories and how you close the sale.

Sales scripting is a very useful tool, as it ensures that the sales process is the same each and every time. Once you determine what works well for your business, a sales script allows you to roll out a “recipe for success” to all of your sales staff.

A carefully planned sales script has the ability to make the world of difference to a business, and I can’t recommend it enough. It also goes a long way to helping people overcome what I identified in a recent post as the seven self-destructive sales mindsets.

How do you create a great sales script?

So how do you even go about setting up a sales script? It may sound like a mammoth task, but when you break it down into steps it’s relatively simple.

Here’s how it works:

1. Gain an understanding of how sales actually works.

Whether you’re selling a revolutionary product or an everyday service, the sales process doesn’t actually vary that much. Many businesses believe that their situation is different to others; however this perception is generally the result of an inconsistent sales process.

In actual fact, 90% of all sales interactions are the same. With this being the case, it makes it quite easy to script your sales process – you just need to understand how your average sale works!

2. A scripted sale doesn’t equate to being fake.

In fact when carefully planned, a scripted sale can have quite the opposite effect.

A lot of sales people fear that a planned sales script will leave them sounding insincere and even deceitful – however, this isn’t the case. Think about a story you frequently tell your friends and family – perhaps of a special time in your life or how something horrible once happened to you. Surely the more you tell this story the better you get at telling it, and the more engaging it becomes to the listener.

Are you being insincere and deceitful? NO, you’re just sharing the truth in a more engaging way. The same principle applies to sales; once you find the right story (i.e. one that resonates with your clients), it makes sense to continue using the same narrative.

A great story doesn’t make a salesperson any less genuine. Rather, a great story will increase your confidence and in the process improve client engagement levels –  motivating them to buy.

3. Break it down into steps.

If creating an entire sales script seems daunting, break it down into steps or “chapters.”

After the enquiry/cold phone call for an appointment, it’s possible to break the sales process down into fourteen critical stages or steps. Of these fourteen steps, the seven critical points to remember are:

• Establishing trust and building rapport
• The introduction and creation of an agenda
• Probing questions
• A presentation
• Stories that demonstrate success
• A trial close
• Closing of the sale

4. Record and review your sales.

The best way to start creating your business sales script is to record three or four sales appointments (with permission from prospective clients) and then listen to the recordings.

Some sales meetings run more smoothly than others – it should be fairly easy to determine which were the most successful. Transcribe the best meeting and use this as a basis for your sales script. You may also find that some meetings had successful components; select the parts that worked well, and add these to your sales script where applicable.

5. Create a list of pros and cons.

No matter what you’re selling, customers are going to perceive both benefit and potential problems from your product or service. These are what I like to call “elephants in the room”; they may be uncomfortable to talk about, but you can bet your bottom dollar prospective clients will want to discuss them. You may think it’s best to avoid them and hope the client doesn’t bring them up, however, I can guarantee that this isn’t in your best interest. Avoiding these elephants may not lead to the client asking about them, but it is likely to lead to the dreaded response: “let me think about it.” It is best to get them out there and in front of them.

Create a list of both the tangible and intangible benefits of what you’re selling, as well as a list of any potential elephants you may need to address. These elephants or objections may be concerns such as service issues or past product defects.

The best way to address these elephants is to create stories of why these were past issues, but are certainly not a problem anymore. Alternatively, stories of a person “just like them” that had the same concern are effective. These stories should explain how shortly after using the product or service, the person had a specific success – and what they were concerned about never eventuated.

In my post “Story Telling: The Key to Sales Success” I describe in detail how stories can help you overcome elephants in the room and build credibility. However, for now I will just say pick your best one for each elephant, have them recorded and transcribed, and then work out how to fit them into your script.

6. Set up a presentation folder.

A presentation folder makes sales progression much easier for sales people. Your folder should include:

• Client-probing questions
• Brochures
• Quotation sheets
• Testimonials from past clients (and these should back up your sales stories)
• Required paperwork to close the sale
• After-the-sale leave behinds

7. Seek professional advice – there’s always room for improvement!

There is always room to improve each component of your sales script. YouTube is a useful resource and a great place to commence research.

When I was just starting out, YouTube took me from a shy introverted kid that took 93 doors to make my first sale, to the top performing sales person in the nation in just a matter of weeks. Start like I did, by focusing on one component of your sales script at a time. For each new chapter of the script, take a look at what the “sales experts” recommend to gain the knowledge and then go out to test and increase your skill.

Once you have researched and improved each component of your sales script, it may be worth consulting a master sales coach – they’ll be able to offer further insight and improvements.

Sales success is only a script away!

A carefully crafted sales script allows you to take control of the sales process – and this means far less is left to chance.

While it may take a couple of months to perfect, a great sales script has the ability to transform your sales process from unpredictable and disjointed to smooth and successful.

Getting prospective clients to sign that dotted line isn’t about being manipulative or pushy; it’s about telling a great story and letting your clients come to their own conclusions. Great sales people (with great sales scripts) find that getting a “yes” comes naturally – and they also find the journey enjoyable!

Before you go to work, leave me a comment below and let me know what kind of concerns (if any) you have about sales scripting and I will direct you to the right advice. As a bonus, let me know what you’re going to do now that you’ve read this post.

Finally, if you think your friends/network would find this useful, please share it with them – I’d really appreciate it.

Publishers note – Originally published at https://matthewpollard.com on August 11, 2015.

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