Prospecting like fishing?
Ever gone deep sea fishing? Have you thought about the parallels between fishing and prospecting? After a four day trip to Alaska this week and 30+ hours on a charter boat, and over 225 pounds of fish (caught the limit…
Need a “MEDDIC”?
On day one of new hire training, the SVP of Sales at a high-growth Bay Area tech company covers two things in his one hour presentation – 1) expectations for his sales team, and 2) the MEDDIC approach to managing a sales campaign. Want to add some science and realism to your sales process? Want to close more deals, and live by a forecast that you can count on? Read on…
The MEDDIC approach to selling:
Metrics & ROI – Do you know what the true ROI will be on the project? What is the payback period? Does the customer agree with this asssessment? Did they participate in building the ROI model? And have you reviewed it with the Economic Buyer?
“When to say when”
At the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals National Leadership forum in May of this year, one of the speakers gave guidance to someone in a break out session that as an employee of an organization, you have to know…
What can a Sales Professional learn from the 2010 US Open?
Learn from the 2010 US Open:
There are “Graeme McDowell’s” in the making, can you spot them and hire them on your sales team?
Sometimes even the best athletes need to check their ego at the door and go back to the drawing board. Tiger earned $300k, 5 strokes away from a coveted US Open WIN and $1.3M. Are some of your “A Players” holding back from being an A Plus? What can you do to help them realize, and re-connect with their goals? For Tiger, it was clearly his mental game, he has the physical part down. If someone can help him figure that out, that could be the added 5 strokes.
NEVER burn a bridge. Flying directly over the course just a few minutes into the round was a sign that read “Tiger, are you my Daddy?”. Tiger burned a bridge with a lot of fans. In sales, be professional or it may just bite you down the road.
The “sales compensation equation”
From my experience, and as I learned from my MBA, part of the value of a job – are you learning and growing your career? So, the equation becomes: Total Compensation = Base + Commission + Equity + LEARNING. Never underestimate the value of LEARNING. When you can align yourself with a sales mentor who can teach you new things, it’s hard to put a value on that. PRICELESS. That said, the same Professor said that you will learn 80% of what you will ever learn within 18-24 months when working with a sales leader.
Sales Manager Tip – Hiring Sales Professionals (Reading a resume vertically)
How does one “read a resume vertically?” Simply read the first or second word of each line on the resume. Look for themes. You can tell very quickly if this person is a sales person, a business development person, a marketing person, etc. Examples…
Virtual Selling Best Practices using WebEx, Gotomeeting, LiveMeeting, or any other web meeting tool
Tip #3 Listen for buying signs & objections – How great would it be to have a microphone in your prospects office immediately following your meeting, once you’ve left? With web meeting tools, you can. You simply put the phone on mute, and tell the prospect your’re going to play a short customer testimonial (WebEx allows integrated video with sound), and then listen. 9 times out of 10 the prospect will discuss what they like or dislike about your product, what competitors they are using and more when you use this simple tactic.
“The back of the baseball card”
If you've had the chance to manage a "traditional" ISR team that is aligned with field reps, and you know anything about baseball, you'll appreciate this... Consider a major league baseball player playing for a team who wins the world…
The “sniper shot” vs. “shotgun approach” to Target Account Prospecting
Step 4: If your company has a lot of customers, odds are one of their prior employers was a customer of yours!
Step 5: Email the person (through Linked In, or directly by looking up their email address in Jigsaw), and mention that their prior employer ABC CO. is a satisfied customer of yours, and wouldn’t they like to see similar business benefits at the company they work for now (benefits include: x, y, z).
Prediction 2015: Inside Sales will Outpace Field Sales… in total volume of transactions
CSO Insights reports that today (2010), Inside Sales Teams are driving 12% of a typical companies revenue, and by 2015, that will be upwards of 20%. In terms of number of transactions, this 20% of revenue may represent up to 70% of a companies total transactions.