Sales Process

The sales process gives sales its structured, systematic approach, which will enable the staff to close more deals, increase margins and get more referrals. These posts provide guidance.

How Customer Success can unlock growth in existing accounts

by Michele McGovern

Existing accounts have the highest potential for growth.

So why don’t salespeople build more business with them?

They’re crazy busy and over-committed to finding new business.

Enter customer success – the person or people who can maximize business with existing customers. They hold the key to growth, according to research from Gartner.

Here’s why: The performance of a product or service doesn’t have a significant impact on customers’ decision to buy more. Aggressive selling doesn’t. And – surprisingly – exceeding customer expectations doesn’t impact their decision to buy again much at all either.

But when customers are confident in the people who helped them – salespeople, customer success reps and any other support pros – they’re 11% more likely to buy more. When the sales team creates “customer improvement” – giving a critical, unique perspective that helps customers succeed – they’re 48% more likely to buy more.

“Exceeding customer expectations through service doesn’t increase their likelihood to increase buying,” says Scott Collins, VP at Gartner. “But ‘customer improvement’ does increase the likelihood to buy.”

15 skills sales development reps need to master now

by Michele McGovern

Good sales development reps hit goals. Great sales development reps smash them.

What makes the difference? Great sales development reps go beyond learning certain skills. They master critical skills so they can fill the pipeline with highly qualified prospects and make revenue grow.

Here are 15 skills sales development reps (SDRs) want to focus on mastering:

How Customers Buy: The DNA of the customer buying journey

by Martyn R. Lewis

Working with my clients’ sales forces, I started to see repeating and quite frankly alarming patterns. Because for the most part, we were working with good salespeople from good organizations marketing good products, yet far too often the results suggested otherwise.

It was obvious that something was wrong, something needed fixing.

Now, I have always believed in the value of talking to actual customers, so I introduced a singular, and at the time somewhat radical element to our methodology. I insisted that we research our clients’ customers as comprehensively as we did our clients’ sales teams.

From talking to ever more customers about how they buy and why they don’t, we came to regard this process as a journey, the Customer Buying Journey.

We developed a model that enabled us to effectively decode and map the elements, the “DNA” as it were, of each buying journey. The DNA concept of an actual identifiable code meant that the Customer Buying Journey could now be mapped.

Here’s what we found.

43 cold calling statistics that will rock your sales world

by Michele McGovern

Don’t let anyone convince you cold calling has one foot in the grave. Cold calling statistics prove it’s very much alive and one of the most effective ways to gain new customers when prospecting.

The more you know about what you’re up against – and what’s working– the more effective you can be at cold calling.

10 top-notch prospecting techniques to keep your pipeline full

by Ken Dooley

It’s imperative to keep the pipeline filled with prospects. As a result, the prospecting process must come to occupy a primary place in a salesperson’s list of priorities if success is to be achieved.

Here are 10 prospecting techniques that will bring you a steady stream of qualified potential customers:

Is your sales process killing you? Ask yourself these 10 questions

by Ken Dooley

When was the last time you took a close look at your sales process, starting with lead generation and working right through to the close?

It may have become more complex or intricate than it needs to be, which may burden prospects with needless, time-wasting activities.

And that could be killing your sales.

4 things ‘lucky’ salespeople do right: They’re prepared

by Michele McGovern

You might think the best salespeople are in the right place at the right time.

But when it comes down to it, they do things that allow them to take advantage of what happens around them — but not in a negative way.

For one thing, so-called lucky salespeople are almost always positive people. They see the glass as being half-full, and they drink it all — or offer it to a client in need.

5 ways your customer experience might be hurting sales

by Michele McGovern

The ideal experience motivates customers to buy again. Yet, many companies’ practices and policies discourage loyalty. Do you commit any of these common mistakes when it comes to customer experience?

These are the things that frustrate customers most when they try to buy a product, schedule a service or get help during their journey.

“When you give customers value and ease, they have little reason to go to your competitors,” says Kate Nasser, a management and customer service coach.

That’s why you want to avoid the customer experience issues that turn off customers:

Power questions your salespeople can ask to build relationships

by Ken Dooley

Sales success usually begins with the ability to ask good questions and then listen — really listen — to the answers. Some salespeople fail to ask the right questions. Others ask the right questions but don’t listen properly to the answers.

Questions give salespeople control and credibility. They help the prospect uncover or reveal their real objections without any pressure from the salesperson. Questions also shift the focus from the salesperson to the prospect, where it belongs.

One of the objectives of questioning is to get the prospect to do most of the talking and become emotionally involved. Prospects usually find it flattering to give opinions and have someone carefully listen to them.

The key ways salespeople can cultivate customer loyalty

by Ken Dooley

Salespeople used to organize themselves to meet the needs of the products and services they were selling. That’s changed.

Customers aren’t what they used to be. Now they expect salespeople to concentrate on meeting customer needs.

Here are three reasons why customer relationship management is critical today for every salesperson:

Sales Process

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