Sales Progress Blog

We all know the importance of social media. We have heard that it will help lead us to prospects, and it will give us more face time with our customers. Deming Hill did some research and put together these statistics:

·    Adults spend 15+ hours on the internet every month
·    93% of B2B buyers use search engines to begin the buying process
·    9 out of 10 consumers will find you when they are ready

This means that your company had better be out ton the Internet for someone to find you, and this is where social media is the most beneficial. The more items you enter into a Facebook page or a blog, the more likely a potential client is to find you. Deming Hill found these statistics out when they did research on the biggest social media site-Facebook:

·    40% of Facebook users become fans or followers of brands/services.
·    60 million status updates happen daily on Facebook
·    50% of users log on everyday and average more than 55 minutes a day
·    If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 3rd largest:
1.China
2.India
3.Facebook
4.USA

More…

admin Sales Training business opportunities, Facebook, linkedin, sales, Sales Progress, social media, Twitter

As managers, it is important to provide your employees with sales training, and a lot of what you teach them is because of successful practices that have been crafted by sales gurus. We can learn from the people who have come before us, the people who have made it to the top because of hard work, determination and good business sense. In 2003, Accenture published a list of the 50 top business gurus, and it is important to understand why their ideas made them successful:

“Strategy 101 is about choices: You can’t be all things to all people.”
Michael Porter
-If you try to satisfy every customer’s need, you will stretch yourself thin. Furthermore, you cannot excel in one area if you are trying to cover everything.

“The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.”
Tom Peters
-Oftentimes, we are so focused on profits and getting customers that we forget about our employees, but they are the ones that deal with clients on a day-to-day basis. So if you want to see progress in your organization, treat your employees with respect.

“Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the people you have working there, and what they carry around in their heads and their ability to work together.”
Robert B. Reich
-Your employees are your biggest asset. They know the products, they know the customers and they have ideas to make the company better. Encourage your employees, and you will see results.”

Read on…

admin Sales Training coaching, linkedin, Results, sales, sales gurus, Sales Training, top 5

Writing thank-you notes has been an idea that has been so reinforced throughout my life that it has just become second nature. As a child, my mom made me write a thank-you card as soon as I opened a gift. There was no exception to this rule. In college, my business classes taught me that it is extremely important to write a card after a job interview. I was told that it would give me an extra edge when the company sat down to consider applicants. We have been taught these things growing up, but it seems that we forget this simple rule the longer we are in the business world.

If writing a thank-you note could possibly help you get a job, what’s to stop it from landing that potential customer or closing a sale? Writing a note is a simple and effective way to impact the amount of sales that your reps make each year. There are multiple different reasons to write thank-yous to clients:

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admin Sales Management business coaching, effective coaching, inside sales team, linkedin, prospecting, Results, revenue, sales, sales coaching techniques, Sales Representative, Sales Success, sales techniques, thank you

Today is an important day for most Mid-westerners because it marks the beginning of summer and the end of those cold, brutal winter months. With all the distractions of summer days, managers may begin to worry about one thing: their employee’s sustainability.

Sustainability - to keep up or keep going.

Everyone has those days, when work is the last place you want to be, and you’ve already started to think about weekend activities…but it’s only Monday. The sun is shining outside, the pools are packed and you’re stuck in an office. As a manager, how do you keep sales up and employees going during the summer months?

There are many things you can do to keep your employees motivated and train them to increase their sales sustainability :

admin Sales Management, Sales Training Add new tag, coaching, effective coaching, Employee Coaching, employee training, Enhance Performance, linkedin, management leadership training, motivation, sales, sales coaching, Sales Management, summer sales, sustainability, sustained learning, teamwork, training reinforcement

How to be the Doc Rivers of the Sales World

So, you want to have a high performing sales team, but you don’t know where to start. You could try reading hundreds of books and learning different methods, you could send your employees to a seminar or you could have turned on the TV and watched the NBA playoffs.

The Boston Celtics managed to transform from an average regular season team that was thought to be too old to compete into a stellar playoff team that was a force to be reckoned with. How did they do it though? Simple. Practice, determination and the non-stop coaching of Doc Rivers.

Every team has the same the same type of players: find out more…

admin Sales Training basketball, business coaching, Celtics, effective coaching, Enhance Performance, free sales training, Leadership, learning strategies, linkedin, management leadership training, sales, training reinforcement, training techniques

It is not always easy to build and maintain a high performance inside sales team. Team members have to know their product inside and out, they must understand need based selling, and most importantly, they must have a desire to succeed every day. However, employees do not just learn these skills; it takes practice, and behind every great team, there is a manager that gave them the tools and them to achieve their bottom line.

The following are key attributes that should be impressed upon sales team members and managers:

-Always learn and practice. A true sales professional is someone that will practice and truly make a commitment to getting better at his or her craft.

-Needs based selling expertise. Inside sales professionals must have the ability to uncover customer needs and frustrations associated with the particular products or services being sold. It is imperative that a team member use….

Finish reading………

admin Sales Training Employee Coaching, Enhance Performance, learning strategies, sales, Sales Coaching Methodology, sales skills

Download this FREE whitepaper now for a 4-Step process to creating your own social media strategy for selling, including a look at specific ways to use popular social media sites to increase leads and sale.  Use these sales techniques to increase sales now.

Download:

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training lead generation, prospecting, sales, Sales Staff, sales techniques, social media

Nurturing leads has become more important and more difficult than ever for creating business opportunities:

• Research firm Sirius Decisions says that during the last five years, the average sales cycle has become 22% longer, typically with three more decision makers participating in the buying process.
• According to Forrester Research, companies that excel at lead nurturing are able to generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost per lead.
• According to CSO Insights, companies that excel at lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps make quota, and enjoy a 10% shorter ramp up time for new reps.

Follow up opportunities are a great way to nurture your leads, and they don’t always have to include a closing sales pitch.  Keep reading to check out some innovative follow up ideas to nurture your leads and keep you in front of your prospects with out looking desperate.

1. Send a referral:  This is a GREAT one.  Call up your prospect and tell them you have the name of a potential new prospect FOR THEM!  You establish yourself as a trusted resource, and should that prospect turn into a client for them, you can bet they will remember you when it comes time to make a purchase decision.
2. Send an article:  We pass this tip on to all of our clients, but still many won’t take the time so it’s a great way to set you apart.  Set up a Google news alert for articles, news, or how-tos written about your prospects industry.  Check the news alert once a week, and if there is information that may be relevant to your prospect forward it on.  Again, you position yourself as a resource, and are keeping your name top of mind with out becoming obnoxious.
3. Send them a relevant success story or testimonial.  Keep an up to date list of references, success stories, and testimonials on file. Then when a similar prospect pops up send them a quick email with the attached reference piece along with contact information of the source.  Encourage your prospects to contact your reference.  The easiest way to convince a lead to buy is to give them a trusted testimonial from one of their peers.
4. Communicate new products or features.  Every time your company comes out with something new, or updates something old use it as a way to get back in front of prospects.  A personal phone call is best, but if you have a large list, target the most promising prospects to call while sending an email to the rest.  This new product development may just be the the feature that resolves their hesitation to buy.
5. Give a response to questions.  Of course the best sales people try to be prepared for everything, but sometimes this is just unrealistic.  When a prospect asks a question you can’t answer use it as an opportunity to follow up with them later with a clear and specific response. You will get through again easier if you can say, "I have an answer to your question," as opposed to "I’m just following up."

Have your own creative way to follow up?  Share it with us in the comment section below!

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training Enhance Performance, lead nurturing, prospecting, sales, sales effectiveness, Sales Manager, sales skills, Sales Staff, sales techniques, self directed learning skills

1. An inability to teach.

Being able to sell ice to an Eskimo is great, but once your in that management role those skills can render useless unless you are able to pass them on to your team.  Managers are often promoted because of their superior skill, but are rarely trained how to effectively train their staff and pass on their skills.

How can I combat this? If your company doesn’t offer training for mangers, you should take it upon yourself to find some. Read books on coaching or managing effectively, take a vacation day and attend a workshop (even if it’s at your own expense),  or take online courses over your lunch break.  Your investment will be worth it when your team excels, as this will reflect positively on you and your ability to lead and develop your team.

2. They lose touch with reality

Becoming a manager doesn’t mean your done spending time in the field.  It’s true that with management status comes more responsibilities that have less to do with everyday selling, but you can’t lose touch of your selling reality.  As a manager your biggest asset to your team is to know what’s going on in the field, on a day to day basis.

How can I combat this? Ride along with your staff as often as is possible, continue to call on customers even if it is just to check in, and spend time with your staff discussing obstacles or difficult customers and coaching reps to overcome them.

3. They want to be everyone’s friend.

We all want to be liked, it’s human nature. HOWEVER along with your increase in pay and responsibility came the expectation that you are no longer just one of the group.  It is often difficult to step into that leadership role, especially when a manager is promoted from with-in.

How can I combat this? It is still important to build rapport with your team, but relationships should shift into one of coach and team member.  Set clear expectations and roles for your team, and stick to them.  When responsibilities and roles are clearly defined there is no room for confusion; this will make portraying your role as leader easy. By sticking to these expectations,there will be no blurring the lines of your authority.

Did we miss anything?  Tell us what you think the top reasons sales managers fail are.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Training business coaching, coaching, effective coaching, employee training, Enhance Performance, goals, management leadership training, Manager, Results, sales, Sales Coaching Methodology, Sales Manager, Sales Staff, Skills, training and development, training reinforcement

Last week we talked about a post from Selling Power discussing the top issues on the minds of sales leaders in 2010.  Shortly after posting I came across these interesting new stats published in the December/January edition of E-Learning Magazine from the Spring Board Project.  I would say these statistics create a strong case for why we need to continue to train our employees.

50% of employers say they currently have such a serious gap between their needs and employees’ skills that if affects their productivity.  In today’s business world, there is no room for drags on productivity.  According to this statistic 50% of businesses could improve their productivity by providing additional training for their employees.

48% of employers do not provide ongoing education or skills training primarily because of cost.  Budgets are tight so this is certainly a valid point, HOWEVER if you are one of those company’s whose productivity is struggling due to lack of training you may be costing yourself more money to your bottom line because you won’t spend the money to invest in your employees.

80% of workers show keen interest in pursuing further education and training.
Give the people what they want, it just may be what your company NEEDS.

62% of workers say a convincing reason to pursue training is that the future economy will be extremely demanding, and if their skills are not to up to date, someone will pass them by.  This is very true; you could also take this stat to a broader view.  Given that the economy will be demanding, if you do not update the skills of your employee who is to say that your customers won’t pass you by for a competitor with better-trained employees?

Certainly training your employees can be expensive, and in tough times there may not be the financial resources available to run a true training program or to hire an outside resource.  With that in mind it’s time to get creative.  Take advantage of free resources available via the web.  Article sites, blogs by sales trainers, websites like Selling Power which offer thousands of free resources, coaching your employees, role playing, all of these things are free and can be beneficial to the needs of your employees.

If you know someone is struggling with handling price objections you could first send them an article on handling price objections, and then schedule time to role-play and practice handling those objections.  These two simple things can really spring board the employee ahead, and will cost you nothing but a little bit of time.

This year stop using budget as an excuse to not train your employees, and get creative with free resources.  Your bottom line will thank you.

Shannon Gburzynski Sales Management, Sales Training coaching, Leadership, sales, sales coaching, Sales Management, Sales Managers, Sales Progress, Sales Representative, sales skills, Sales Success, Sales Training, sustained learning