How to Target Your Sales Efforts: From Your Sales Coach

Sell To The Decision Maker

Ask any sales coach and they will tell you, when selling, it is important not to waste much time on a prospective buyer that has no real influence over purchase decisions. If you need to, spend some time with this person to make sure you get your chance to talk with the decision maker. You need to make your way to the decision maker eventually if you expect to make a sale. Ask up front if you are speaking to the decision maker. This will make your life a whole lot easier, and you will be using your time wisely.

Spot the Stringers

There are a couple of types of buyers that will keep you dangling on a string in the sales process. The first type may be the decision maker. They don’t want to tell you no, but they don’t want to tell you yes either. A vital aspect of your sales effort when dealing with this type of customer is to utilize your time accordingly. Spending time with this type of buyer will take your time away from other sales efforts that may be more important. The second type of stringer is the one that loves your product, but they can’t make a decision without talking to one of their superiors first. This is not such a bad thing, because they will be pitch your product for you and may have a close relationship with the decision maker. However, it is important that you ask to speak to the decision maker immediately once contact is made, so that you aren’t running around in circles trying to make a sale.

Meet with the Decision Maker

Successful selling is often determined by the amount of time that you actually get to spend with the people who make the decisions. You can spend a ton of time with a non-decision maker, but it won’t make much of an impact on your bottom line. You might as well be pushing paper behind a desk. It is often difficult to get in front of the people who are in charge, but you need to make every effort that you possibly can if you expect to see good results. If you are having trouble with this, consult a sales trainer or sales coach who will provide you with insights, tips and training on how to get in front of the decision maker. Receptionists may hold you back, but you must devise a strategy to get in front of the people who really matter. Try making an appointment to see the person in charge, instead of going back and forth with someone who has minimal authority.

Happy Selling!

From your Sales Coach 🙂

October 20, 2015April 6, 2021

Sales Offense Vs. Sales Defense

When your sales reps head out on the well-beaten B2B path what is the message they are taking with them? Are they there to make a name for themselves, or are they helping to keep a well-established business at the top? Part of any marketing strategy involves sales skills training to improve the overall approach your sales team is using. Are they on the offense or are they, proud defenders? Knowing this can help you determine if they need sales skills training or one-on-one sales coaching.

Offensive Sales Skills Training

Offensive selling usually a stance taken by newcomers. It means you need to establish yourself in an aggressive market and the best way to do so is to come out guns blazing. In this case, the offensive sales team has to know their stuff and much of that information needs to be details about your competitors. Your team will have to try to knock the competition off their pedestal and set themselves up as the best product/service available. They need to build a reputation as bigger, better, faster, smarter, and stronger.

Offensive selling also requires deep knowledge of your own product or service inside and out. This will show prospects that your team does have the expertise to deliver on their promise. Offensive sales reps also seek out the vulnerabilities of their competition. This gives them a competitive edge and allows them to balance the weaknesses of their competition with their own strengths. Comparing apples to apples works well in the offensive marketing strategy. This separates your product from the crowded market and makes room to solve the problems your competitors may unknowingly be causing for their clients.

Defensive Sales Skills Training

Defensive selling is all about service and is most effective with a well-known and well-established company. It often takes place after offensive marketing has been deployed. This allows the established company to defend its position as an industry leader. The defensive marketing/sales approach uses your experience and years of tried and true service to impress new clients and hold on to old ones. Sales reps have confidence in your product/service because you have a reputable history to stand behind. In the defensive marketing/sales strategy, it is actually more important to deliver on the promise following the sale than it is to deliver a good sales pitch. Following through on your delivery in a timely and orderly manner will guarantee customer satisfaction. The products will sell themselves with minimal outreach, through reputation and referrals. This means your service and inside sales team always needs to go above and beyond to keep the competition at bay.

Consider working with a one-on-one sales coach or engaging your team in sales skills training. One-on-one sales coaching will work wonders for offensive sales. Your sales rep will know what they are selling inside and out after working with a professional sales coach.

Sales skills training will work best to improve your defensive sales. Your entire team will go through a sales skills audit and brought together to help them deliver a consistently great product/service.

Do you like what you just read? Visit our resource center and download any or all of our 17 Executive Sales White Papers to help improve your sales skills training and build a successful sales career.

October 12, 2015February 8, 2019

Doing More with Sales Teams

If you hope to succeed in the world of sales, you must have a skilled sales team in place. Personal selling is a thing of the past, because it does not even come close to driving the same level of results as what teams accomplish. When teams collaborate for the good of the company as a whole, rather than to meet individual goals, great things can happen. Not only do you have to engage your team in sales training and add new sales personnel often to succeed, you have to offer continual training for your sales employees that already exist as well. This is the only way to ensure that your sales employees are up to date on the latest sales strategies and trends.

Personal Selling vs. Team Selling

Companies that work on a sales team model, instead of personal selling, find that employees are much happier overall, their mental attitudes are much more positive, and they perform greater than those who work alone to reach their sales quotas or goals. Productivity is the ultimate goal. If your sales staff works alone, it is unlikely they will have the same level of motivation that they would have in working as part of a team. The important thing to do is to evaluate your sales force, to determine where things need to be improved. To evaluate your team effectively, try using a sales skills index assessment. If you expect your sales teams to achieve success, then you absolutely must listen to their input. If they feel as if they are part of the solution, then they will be inspired to reach for new heights.

Sales Teams and Productivity

Sales productivity can be tricky. Companies have found that working with sales teams can improve their sales long-term. Companies that do not use teams find that although their sales figures may look good on paper, they could suffer in the long run if sales members are offering subpar service. Individual sales members just do not have the same level of knowledge as teams do. When great minds collaborate together, overall sales are greatly improved. It is clear that teams are the way to go when companies are building their sales forces. Having a solid sales force can mean the difference between soaring profits and negative balance sheets. Spend the time to make your sales staff great.

Start doing more with sales teams that you manage!

Happy Selling!

October 9, 2015February 8, 2019

Doug Dvorak now joins the “Elite Ranks” as a Certified Executive Coach.

Doug Dvorak attended the Integrity Executive Coaching Certification in Scottsdale, AZ. Doug now joins the “Elite Ranks” as a Certified Executive Coach.

Integrity Coaching® is a developmental process that equips managers with the knowledge, skills, and tools to improve sales performance and develop people to their highest potential. It is based on the belief that coaching begins with building people.

Integrity Coaching Includes:

A simple 5-step coaching system
Strategies for coaching different Behavioral Styles
An eight-week follow-up course with accountability for application
A leadership model that focuses on achieving a balance between developing people and reaching goals
Strategies for breaking the Law of Limited Performance

Sales Leaders who participate in Integrity Coaching will:

Develop stronger coaching skills
Build performance through building people
Empower people to solve problems and make decisions
Keep people from plateauing
Help people develop strong goal clarity

Integrity Coaching Principles

Integrity Coaching is based on the fundamental beliefs that coaching is:

Building people and helping them build your team and organization
Identifying potential in people
Helping people set goals and accomplish them
Believing in someone at a greater level than they believe in themselves
Equipping people to become self-sufficient in their growth
Sincerely caring about the success of others and investing time and energy to promote that success
Helping others develop a sense of purpose and vision for their professional and personal life
Working with someone to identify meaningful, tangible, and attainable goals

Timeline for Behavior Change

The objective to Integrity Coaching is to support the consistent application of new coaching behaviors. Coaching processes and tools are introduced in highly interactive one-day seminar.

Skills are reinforced during a structured eight-week follow-up course where participants practice developmental coaching, report on progress, and learn from coaching experiences of their peers. These one-hour follow-up modules can be delivered through classroom, teleconference, or webinar.