0In November in our blog series Week in Sales, we focused mostly on sales relationships, time management and recognizing the real prospects. Which is good, because those are the skills you need the most when closing in Q4. Don’t waste your time and use those connections you’ve built over the year(s).
There’s a reminder for writing irresistible emails and making excuses when you didn’t do a good job.
Learn how to best make use of the connections you’ve made over the years to up your sales game.
Recognizing the real prospects
Sometimes, buyers are too enthusiastic when responding to your presentation – and that is not a good thing. This means that they are actually less likely to buy. The phenomenon is called “The Happy Ears” and it occurs when salespeople hear what they want to hear.
The buyer seems positive and eager to get started with the proposal (without raising concerns or objections), and the salesperson is letting emotions cloud their judgment and forecasting the deal as a “sure thing.”
Unfortunately, as experienced sales professionals indicate, when prospects respond to your demo in a way that seems too good to be true, it often is. Entrepreneur debunks these overenthusiastic prospects and gives us some insight into why the buyers who are too happy about our offer are probably not going to buy.
Time Management in Sales
We’re always talking about efficiency and time saving, which is especially important in Q4 when time can slip away so easily. For instance, checking our email may seem like a quick, harmless couple of seconds of our time, but Jill Konrath talks about how harmful it is to check emails too often.
According to sociologist Judy Wajcman, 70 percent of emails received are checked within six seconds of arrival in our inbox. Jonathan Spira, the author of Overload, claims that a person’s recovery time from any interruption is 10-20 times the length of the interruption, so we lose a big chunk of our time just by trying to recover from the interruption.
Try to schedule your time specifically for reading and answering your emails.
Sales Relationships
Everybody knows that more often than not quality is more important than quantity. And it seems that we all understand that building a strong, deep relationship is far more worthwhile than just “making more calls”, but the management department of many companies keeps on directing salespeople to call more prospects. Spreading too thin is a phrase all too familiar with sales reps.
More isn’t always the merrier when it comes to sales, the differences between the top performers and everyone else is fewer people that generate more business. You need to offer value when building a client base and prioritize the most important prospects.
Emails That Demand Attention
HubSpot advises on writing email newsletters that will actually grab people’s attention and not end up as just a “Mark as read”.
Add a higher degree of a personalization to your lead nurturing endeavor through event tracking on your website to trigger workflows. This is a good way to nurture lost contacts back into the possible buyers’ area.
At the end of the day, it’s all about personalizing and creating smart content. Nobody likes content that isn’t relevant to one’s needs. Putting all of this into practice should bring about more leads in time. Just be patient.
As customers have started to demand personalized engagement, and with the arrival of new technologies like AI, targeting and selling into specific accounts has never been more effective. It’s no surprise that account-based marketing has gained popularity as a strategy and that vendors are budding to meet B2B marketing and sales needs.
HubSpot is yet again teaching us a valuable lesson about connecting with prospects – stop pitching and start building relationships!
They have sent a personalized outreach email to 27 CMOs they barely knew, and in less than 48 hours, almost half of those booked a meeting with them, and they are willing to share their secrets with the world.
Doing Sales At a Startup
One of the most meaningful career paths you can take is being a salesperson – but only if it’s the type of sales that’s right for you. So what can you do to be a part of the sales team in some of the most well-known brands and startups?
Be your own brand – Use the internet to show who you are and to tell your story – go beyond social media and create a blog or a portfolio site which will allow you to differentiate yourself and show off your experience and achievements. Social media is a good place to share your opinions on current events and share relevant articles to show that you’re up to date with all changes in the sales world. One more thing to consider might be publications like Inc. Entrepreneur, Huffington Post etc. which accept guest writers.
Specify your dream job – You have to know what you want in order to get it. Having a vague goal like “wanting to work for a big company” isn’t really what will help you in the long run. Create a list of companies you’d like to work at, choose those that you can imagine yourself working in.
Connect, connect, connect – Whether it be social media like Linkedin or Facebook, meetups, startup events, or with a startup recruiter – your goal is to get your name out there.
No Excuses Please
How many times you’ve given excuses when things go wrong? It’s not a problem to vent at times – but excuses shouldn’t be a way to cope with failure.
For instance, instead of saying “We can’t find qualified prospects”, examine your sales process for anything that might be the root of the problem. Or instead of saying “Our marketing team sucks” try not to blame other departments, and try to resolve the obvious lack of coordination and synchronization between teams.
Month In Sales – Wrap Up
We hope you liked our monthly recap of best sales articles on the web. Stay tuned for our December edition and while you’re here – take a look at our other blog posts!
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