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How to help your customers through crises

In sales, you can expect ups and downs – from groundbreaking goals to crippling crises.

And while no one has ever seen a crises on the scale of COVID-19, one thing is not unprecedented: Sales professionals have and always will need to help their customers through many kinds of emergencies and difficult times.

How can you help customers in times of turmoil – whether it’s financial troubles, natural disasters, health or personal setbacks, market turbulence or worldwide issues?

There’s a “need for a behavior shift, so it’s even more critical … to get it right,” says Mike Kunkle, VP Sales Enablement Services, SPARXiQ. “If you’re not already thinking about sales in a buyer-centric way to create ‘human differentiation,’ this is the time to start.”

Here are nine factors and strategies to help customers in trying times:

12 sales rules you need to break to win

by Michele McGovern

Sales rules have seen their day.

Too many sales professionals are stuck on old rules that don’t fit in today’s sales environment.

Now’s the time for winning more sales through thoughtful, efficient practices.

How to beat your call reluctance

by Michele McGovern

No salesperson is above call reluctance.

Why does it plague most salespeople at one time or another? So many things make prospecting difficult: Hours can pass with no success. People might be mean. It’s boring. Rejection hurts.

More than 40% of salespeople experience at least one bout of call reluctance, according to research from Baylor University and Behavioral
Sciences Research Press. Most will battle the issue many times in their careers.

The art of storytelling in sales: 24 critical factors

by Michele McGovern

Stories sell. And salespeople who can tell great stories win more deals.

Why? Stories build trust and relationships faster and strong than data and analysis.

When salespeople talk in black and white – with facts, data, analysis – people’s brains only “light up” in two areas, according to research from Ethos3. But when salespeople add some color – people, places, anecdotes – they trigger brain activity in seven areas!

14 soft skills salespeople need to have and hone

by Michele McGovern

The hardest sales demand the softest skills.

Just about any salesperson can learn the hard skills – product and industry knowledge, research and negotiation tactics or pipeline management.

But not everyone knows the soft skills that land sales. Even fewer salespeople bother to learn, improve or hone these essential skills.

Buyers connect with people who master soft skills. Buyers struggle to relate with salespeople who strictly master facts and data.

20 things you never say in sales email

by Michele McGovern

You won’t get responses if your sales email looks like everyone else’s.

Unfortunately, it’s too easy to look like everyone else.

Email is more popular and convenient than sales calls, so buyers are buried under them every day. And most messages are filled with the same old phrases plugged in the same old templates.

To buyers, one email looks like the next, and the next reads like the one that follows.

Never be ‘just checking in’ again: 17 ways to add value

by Michele McGovern

“Hey, just checking in.”

Arghhh … that’s one of the worst things a salesperson can utter to a buyer.

It doesn’t add value to conversations, relationships or the deal.

It’s practically useless.

Of course, this doesn’t mean salespeople should stop following up with unresponsive buyers. It just means you want to follow up with something more valuable than “just checking in.”

8 sales pros tell their most embarrassing sales moments

by Michele McGovern

Think your recent gaffe was the most embarrassing sales moment ever?

We’re here to make you feel better. Show you that awkward sales moments happen to everyone. Even the best sales professionals.

In fact, the best salespeople might be the best because of their embarrassments. Awkward anecdotes, weird words and stressful situations build sales character.

10 ways to motivate sales development reps

by Kim McAvoy

What comes to mind when you hear the term sales development reps? Cold calling, the grind, rejection.

No wonder being an SDR is one of the toughest jobs in sales.

Day in and day out, reps are sending emails and making calls—and ultimately, they may only talk to or touch base with a handful of people. Sales development reps (SDRs) can’t control or predict who picks up the phone or how many meetings they schedule.

The new rules of consultative selling

by Michele McGovern

If there ever was a soft side to selling, it’s consultative selling. And salespeople need to have it in their repertoire.

And now salespeople will want to do more than understand customers’ challenges and needs and offer personalized solutions.

Consultative selling today is about getting prospects to see their needs in a different light, showing them new ideas and driving change that improves their work and/or lives.

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