Virtual Sales 3.0 Conference March 20th - 21st 

 

Focuses on aligning people, process & technology through  sales transformation!

 

Four Cornerstones of a Successful Sales Team

By Richard Plaugher

Everything your reps need to sell well can be divided into four critical skill areas:

1) customer knowledge,
2) product knowledge,
3) communication, and
4) time/goal management.

Help them master each of these categories and you’ll have the foundation for a sales team that’s built to last.

1. Customer knowledge.
Ethical salespeople make helping customers a top priority, but to help your customers, you need to know what they want and need. To find out more about them, put your mouth on hold and use your eyes and ears. Develop a list of questions to ask each of your prospects, and make sure your questions help you get the facts on them (including current needs, problems, long- and short-term objectives, product benefits that are most important to them, etc.) as well as their feelings about you and your product. To build your knowledge of customers in general, use the information you gather on each sales call to develop an ideal client profile (a list of five to eight criteria you can use to qualify and classify future prospects).

2. Product knowledge.
With a thorough knowledge of your product and all it can do for your prospects you’ll be better equipped to persuade people to buy it. Be sure you’re familiar with your entire product line; a lack of knowledge about any one of your products could cost you a sale.

Try dividing product information into three categories: features, advantages, and benefits. Features are your product’s specifications, advantages are features unique to your product that set it apart from your competition and benefits tell your prospects how your product will improve their businesses or their lives – they answer the “What’s in it for me?” question. For each of your products, divide a sheet of paper into three sections (one for each category) then fill in the information for that product under each section heading. Before your sales calls, match your prospect or customer’s needs with the items on your product sheet to customize your sales approach.

3. Communication effectiveness.
Communication skills not only help you make a favorable impression on your prospects, they also make you more persuasive. Pay attention not only to what you say but how you say it. Your words will be more convincing if you say them with confidence, enunciating clearly in a voice loud enough for your prospects to hear easily. Match your product’s benefits to your customer’s needs, and when possible, use the same words as your prospects to describe their needs. Listen closely to the way your prospects talk and the language that they use. Mirroring their speech patterns can help build rapport and take you closer to a sale. Customize each presentation, and make sure you don’t say anything to put prospects on the defensive.

4. Time and goal management.
Managing your time carefully can save you enough minutes and hours each week to make dozens of extra calls. To eliminate the obvious time wasters like long lunches and frequent coffee breaks, think about what causes them. Automation can save a lot of time on tedious, non-selling tasks, so make sure you’re using tools like CRM to the fullest advantage. Plan your days a day in advance so you won’t have to spend time deciding what tasks to work on and in what order.

New salespeople are often anxious to get off to a good start, but they might not know enough about selling to know what skills will make them most effective. Pointing out the special importance of customer and product knowledge, communication and time management helps them focus their efforts on the skill areas that will help them close more sales more quickly.