We’ve assembled a collection of ten solid sales principles which effectively prove that certain notions in sales are unaffected by cyclical trends. When seriously considered, there are most likely to make you re-evaluate your attitude towards sales.
Here are the ten articles which have made the greatest impact on our readers and in which these notions are presented.
10 best sales tips to implement today
- Organize the different roles of your sales force
- Know what to look for in a good sales representative
- Assess your department with a sales-specific sales force evaluation tool
- Establish regular communication within your sales managers
- Maintain an efficient sales process
- Analyse your corporate data to improve your EBITDA
- Improve your cold calling skills
- Increase your profitability
- Be consultative and ask the right questions
- Hire and promote excellent sales managers.
1. Organize the different roles of your sales force
Every organization will defer from the next, and this is dependent on many factors. The roles of the sales team will also be affected, and dependent, on these same factors.
As a company matures, the representatives will find their roles becoming increasingly targeted towards specific tasks, much less diversified. The sales manager should have a clear understanding of these aspects in order to ensure a seamless transition between a simple, to a more complex, sales force organization.
Learn about the different roles of a sales organization.
2. Know what to look for in a good sales representative
According to our sales statistics, only 6% of salespeople make up what we call an elite sales representative. The will to sell and sales DNA encompasses many competencies to perfect in order to join the successful 6%.
Discover what makes a good salesperson.
3. Assess your department with a sales-specific sales force evaluation tool
You’re only as good as the tools you use. In the sales leader’s case, this means adopting the tried and tested techniques proven to help develop and grow your sales force.
A sales force evaluation should help understand the real causes of sales performance problems. It’s an analysis of potential efficiency gains within the sales force.
To be effective, it needs to answer questions like: Can we be more effective? To what extent? How can this be achieved? How long will this take?
Discover what is and isn’t a true sales force evaluation.
4. Establish regular communications within your sales managers
How can I help you with your work? This question, among many others, is the starting point towards optimizing and determining the current state of your sales force.
These are the 18 questions every sales leader should ask their sales manager, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
5. Maintain an efficient sales process
It’s possible to remove all obstacles between your representative prospecting a possible client and obtaining a final closing signature. A comprehensive study of your industry will determine the steps needed to maintain a productive and short sales process.
These are the five steps of an efficient sales process.
6. Analyse your corporate data to improve your EBITDA
The real challenge involved in doubling your EBITDA is to identify what short-term strategy can boost it. There’s much more to this than a simple Excel formula.
Knowing how to appropriately characterize your sales data and quantify the monetary impact of market trends allows for a clear portrayal of what could be a very successful succession plan, if that is the plan.
7. Improve your cold calling skills
It’s time to stop blaming cold calls as old-fashioned and tired, and actually admit to our own responsibility in being unable to successfully carry them out. Though times have certainly changed, there’s no reason not to adapt your techniques and make cold calling, once again, a vital tool in your repertoire.
Here are the 5 worst cold calling techniques to avoid.
8. Increase your productivity
Total commitment, perseverance, introspection … these should be a few of your favourite things! These traits should, in reality, be of paramount importance if your end goal is success.
This isn’t to imply that attaining this will be easy. Hard work, coupled with “soft skills,” is the winning formula.
Here are the 5 things great salespeople do differently.
9. Be consultative and ask the right questions
Quality and quantity. It’s a fine line to walk.
Our evaluations have revealed that representatives are not spending enough time asking their clients the hard and important questions. The questions which reveal your client’s relevant reasons to buy.
Though this seems negligible, asking questions differentiates you from your competitors, the ones who rush to their presentation without having taken the time to establish a trusting and credible relationship.
Read this article to learn more about how to become a better consultative seller by simply taking the time to research and ask the appropriate questions during the consultative stage.
10. Hire and promote excellent sales managers
A sales manager’s main priority in leading an efficient and productive team is ensuring that their team is following the established strategies.
The sales manager must, to make sure this happens, practise these tactics daily: sales coaching (including pre-meeting coaching sessions, post-meeting debriefings and co-development sessions), motivating (understanding what drives the rep), sales recruiting (maintaining a pipeline of potential candidates), and holding their sales team accountable (ensuring quality control).
Last but not the least, these are the different roles and responsibilities which a sales manager should be devoted 80% of their time to.
Conclusion
Sales is a constantly evolving field. Salespeople and their leaders need to continuously improve the aptitudes and competencies to remain competitive and dominate the competition.
The first step is to evaluate your sales force with a sales-specific, predictive sales force evaluation.
