Sales, are often the elephant in the room. All our organizations need it to consistently grow and sometimes that can be a struggle. Top management and leadership will push teams for more sales and the front-line staff will always come back with reasons why the “environment” is not conducive to the achievement of targets and expectations. B2B sales training is often ignored and teams are expected to just go out and perform which is sure to cause some angst amongst the team.
In this piece I’ll share some essential skills that sales teams and organisations must have and why those cannot be overlooked.
Number 1: Attitude. It all begins with the attitude, if the attitude is wrong, then no matter what leadership tries it will have no effect. The team and those on the team must have the “can do” attitude. They must believe in the product or the service, the company and in their ability to go out there and get the deal. The attitude has to be of service, it has to be one of giving and not receiving. Giving the most energy, giving the most time and giving the best possible options. If teams start going out with this mindset then things are off to a great start.
Number 2: A prospecting list and routine. Often sales teams are waiting for leads to fall into their lap. They expect marketing and PR initiatives to drive some traffic their way. They also wait for repeat business and customer referrals to come their way. While all of this is great, they are surely not going to break any sales records doing this. Sales people must prospect, it’s the most important thing in sales. They must have a list of their top 10 organisations they want to acquire and also the names of 3-4 people in that organisation who can open the door to sales in that organisation. A prospecting routine is essential, you have to set aside 60-90 minutes every day on your calendar to reach out to your prospects. Remember that one of the rules of prospecting is that if you stop prospecting even for a day, you will find a drop in sales 30-60 days down the line. If your sales graph sometimes looks like a roller coaster then it was because when you had a full order book, you stopped prospecting. Never ever stop prospecting, no matter what.
Number 3: The follow up. Write this down to someone and write it down in big bold letters, then put it somewhere where you can see it every day. “The fortune is in the Follow Up” If you aren’t following up on your leads and your prospects, you’re dead. Also follow up has to be unique and cannot be just picking up the phone and asking for orders and dropping the same repeated emails asking for when they will make their decision to buy. The worst possible thing you can do is of course start sending good morning WhatsApp messages, it is the best way to get blocked and possibly never get an entry into the organisation. Sales teams must understand that getting the same is about building relationships and also giving value to the customer. Relationships aren’t built in a day but they are built daily. Keeping that in mind the follow up routine has to offer some value to the prospect, this could be in the form of sharing new developments that they could benefit from, it could be about sharing information pertaining to their industry or their competition, it could be about a book that you read that you think might interest them, or a podcast that you may think would resonate with them. The interesting thing is that the outreach method that you use needn’t be trying to sell them directly but just keep you on their mind, so that whenever they are ready to buy or refer to you, your name should be the first one that comes to their mind. Research and studies show that only 2% of people buy from you the first time you reach out to them and 80% of all sales close between the 5th and the 12th contact, sometimes even longer. You need to figure out your follow up game, or you will struggle with getting the sale.