- You’re talking to the wrong companies, too often.
- You’re talking to the wrong people in the right companies.
- You’re talking about the wrong things to the right people in the right companies.
- Your sales team isn’t capable, yet.
These are the first four things I look at when I’m trying to help someone who needs to get their sales team on track.
You would think most sales and marketing teams have #1 figured out… not so much. The good news is this is easy to correct and a big win for revenue. Give your team the right bullseye to aim for and magic will begin to happen. You’ll become better as a team at knowing where you compete best and why. Your deal sizes will grow, your sales cycle will shorten, you’ll waste less time and resources, and your team will gain confidence. Here’s the tool we developed as a guide for our clients to find their “Target Account Profile.”
Bigger, more profitable deals are always behind the door of the C-suite. Decision makers make decisions! Everyone else just does what they say. To keep your big deals on track and to close on time with favorable terms, decision makers must be involved early. The key for the sales team is knowing how to get there. We call it “negotiating to power” and every successful B2B sales team knows how to do this well. Make sure your team is learning the important skill of “negotiating to power.” This is a game changer! Here’s a 3-minute video that will help.
Decision makers make big decisions to keep the company growing, profitable and risk free. They think in terms of strategy, risk avoidance, profit growth, customer retention, etc. They are looking for big impact once their challenges are resolved and are willing to pay big money (AKA the 3X rule) in return. It is NEVER about our product, it’s about the solution it provides specifically to solve these important issues! As sales professionals, we generally talk too much, and when we do, we are commonly talking to much about us… a true deal killer habit. Check out the video above for help with this also.
There are four kinds of salespeople, one is powerful, the rest are not:
- Those who can’t and won’t sell.
- Those who can but won’t sell.
- Those who can’t but will sell.
- Those who can and will sell.
If you want to experience a paradigm shift when it comes to understanding the makeup of a successful enterprise salesperson, take a 5-minute read on the Modern Science of Salesperson Selection.