Sales Tuners

1. Understand How Your Prospect Makes Money: You already know how your company makes money and you already know how you make money once your company makes money. During the sales process, if you really dig in and figure out how your prospects make money, then you can sync your offering with their real incentives. It truly doesn't matter what you sell if you can figure out how your offering impacts their revenue engine. That's the key.
2. Put Yourself Out There: Your network is not just going to build itself. You have to commit time in a given week or month outside your organization. Think about it just like you would building your pipeline. Who are the top 3-5 people you'd like to know? Reach out to them and ask for coffee or for lunch. Be genuine in your reasoning and figure out how you can provide reciprocal value. This effort you put in now will pay off in spades for a long time to come.
3. Own Your Day: It's been mentioned a few times on this show but understanding your own process and the things that make an impact or crucial to real success. Get organized and plan your day intentionally. Block on time on your calendar to do the things you know need to get done and don't let the 5-10 minutes between meetings get wasted with goofing off because you can't get any "real work" done in that short of time. Also, at the end of each day, recap the day and plan for what is going to happen the following.

In the last 5-7 years, there has seemingly been an explosion in the number of companies, both tech startups as well as more traditional businesses, that require salespeople. Unfortunately, in that same period of time there hasn't been any magical creation of new sales talent.

That misalignment has led companies to over-recruit, under-train, and honestly… just hope reps "figure it out." I've had some sales leaders tell me they'll hire 10 reps knowing full well only 4 will work out. What in the world is going on?

Most sales reps actually know what to do — that has been drilled into them over and over. They need help understanding the why (and even the how) behind the what. Today, I'm talking with Vendition's Ashleigh Early about this exact challenge and what both reps and leaders can do to fill the void with context and personalization.

1. Become a Subject Matter Expert: There have been many conversations on this show that have talked about the need to truly understand who your buyer is. Jess took that even a step farther by suggesting that she actually become a licensed health benefits consultant. Think about that. Are there certifications in your industry that could help you better relate to the knowledge your prospects have? Yes, you can learn these things at a high level likely through your companies sales enablement, but what would it take to be able to truly walk in your customers' shoes?
2. Your Questions Prove Your Credibility: Deals are won or lost in discovery. If the questions you are asking can easily be answered, you're not asking the right questions. You want your prospect to actually think about what is being asked and that means showing you know their world. Use the words their peers use. Explain what you've seen other people like them go through. Then ask a question that makes them shift a bit in their seat. When they start showing emotion, you know you're actually on to something.
3. Listen: Simply stated, but not easy to execute. Think about your last discovery call. Were you listening to understand what your prospect was trying to tell you or were you really just waiting for them to stop talking so you could advance the conversation. What does it mean to actively listen? It's the idea of reading between the lines. You hear the words that are coming out of their mouth but know there is a deeper meaning. When that's the case, repeat some of what you just heard, and ask them to elaborate. Remember, people love to talk about themselves. Let them.

1. Speak a Common Language: As Greg was learning to sell, he was taught baseball idioms like 'batting 1.000,' 'drop the ball,' 'be in the ballpark,' and of course, 'touch base.' But to many of you listening, these phrases no longer have anything to do with the game because they've been so ingrained into our normal lexicon. What words or phrases might you be using that make no sense to your prospect? Greg gave the example of the literal translation of 'How are you?', a throwaway phrase we use in America that would make an Eastern European tell you all about their life.
2. Get Your Prospect to Come to Their Own Conclusion: Think about the last time you felt like you were sold something. I'm not talking about when you last bought something, but truly felt sold. How long did it take for buyer's remorse to set in? In every sales cycle, you should make it your goal for your prospect to find your value prop on their own terms. I like to do this by turning my statements into questions, where the answer from the prospect becomes what I wanted to say.
3. Make the Sales Process as Simple as Possible: Regardless of the sales methodology you use, whether it be SPIN or Challenger or Customer Centric, it's important to make the process itself as simple as you can for both you and your prospect. As you adapt the methodology to find your own selling style, you should be able to determine which parts come naturally to you and what needs to be adjusted or