Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

You need to focus on the customer and manage the competition. Show your customers why you’re the better choice. You win more often when the customer has a clear understanding that you can help them to do what they need to do better than the competition. How do we stack up on those criteria from the customer’s perspective?

Competition 50

Competition Customer Face-to-face Exercises 50

Sales Training Connection

DECEMBER 10, 2012

Measuring customer satisfaction is another trend that hasn’t been written about as much in the medical sales world , but strikes us as one with implications for selling to physicians and other hospital medical staff. In our last blog we posted 4 hospital-physician issues impacting medical sales in 2013: Hospital consolidation continues.

Health Care 108

Health Care Customer Government Trends 108

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

Customers are changing what they buy, how they buy and what they are willing to pay for it. As shared by Lynn Vojvodich , the CMO and EVP of salesforce.com, salespeople must know more about their customers – specifically: Who they are. The cost of not fixing this misalignment is now too high. What they buy. What they like.

Marketing 50

Marketing Customer Sales Cycle Lead Rank 50

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 1, 2012

Congratulations to Dick for being selected as a “Top 10″ post this past week by CustomerThink for his blog – Easiest way to sell more is to focus on existing customers. If you missed the blog post, click here to find it on CustomerThink or click here to find it on the Sales Training Connection (October 19, 2012).

Customer 91

Customer Training Strategy Sales 91

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Yesterday we received this email from Bob Thompson, Founder/CEO of Customer Think … Congratulations! Your post made my “Top 10″ list for the past week. Lessons from IBM – change is the “new normal” in sales. You can find this at: [link]. .

Training 64

Training Customer Course Sales 64

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

No matter how clever your sales strategy or how much value the salesperson brings to the customer, all that is easily forgotten when mistakes emerge. By owning up, you’re telling the customer you acknowledge the mistake. While the customer may still face a problem, they now have an acknowledged partner working with them to solve it.

Face-to-face 91

Face-to-face Guarantee ACT Promotion 91

Sales Training Connection

MAY 16, 2017

The investment required to make a sale is lower when selling to existing customers versus new customers. In the former, there is a relationship in place and you have extensive knowledge of the customer – including challenges, how they operate, and their decision process. This is about identification, not selling.

Customer Service 65

Customer Service Up-Sell Opportunity Sales 65

Sales Training Connection

JULY 23, 2014

This conversation starts with the salesperson asking questions about a problem they believe the customer is concerned about. Time is spent on educating the sales person about a problem the customer already understands. Let’s take a look at what doesn’t work, and then explore what might. What’s the alternative?

Conversion 121

Conversion Industry Strategy Education 121

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

No matter how much value you have previously brought to your customer, it can easily be forgotten when bad mistakes emerge. By owning up, you’re telling the customer you acknowledge the mistake. While the customer still faces the problem, they now have an acknowledged partner working with them to solve it. Act professionally.

Face-to-face 72

Face-to-face ACT Promotion Course 72

Sales Training Connection

DECEMBER 5, 2014

When funding has been budgeted, asking questions about the estimated budget or what the customer has in mind to support the effort is fair and can yield beneficial results. If done correctly this can be helpful to both you and the customer. Here are three best practices for analyzing the alignment between you and the customer.

Lead Qualification 109

Lead Qualification Scale Lead Rank Lead Scoring 109

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 24, 2013

Sales presentations must persuade customers to make a decision in your favor. Unless you have a comprehensive understanding of the customer, you do not have the foundation for crafting a winning presentation. How do you persuade the customer that the status quo is not good enough? Winning sales presentations.

Proposal 129

Proposal Sales Training Groups 129

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 10, 2014

Differentiating Yourself in Your Customer’s Eyes. Perhaps one of the more important considerations for winning in a highly competitive market is the ability to uncover, influence and when appropriate redefine the decision criteria the customer is going to use to decide between you and the competition. How do you stack up?

Competition 120

Competition Scale Vendor Influencer 120

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 24, 2014

Geting Your Product or Service into the Customer’s Considersation Set. Customers generally seriously only consider a handful of products before deciding which one to buy. Work with customers to ensure that the number of companies that meet the cutoffs is as small as possible.

Competition 98

Competition Strategy Training Sales 98

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Sales success tends to be built on a foundation of saying “yes” to customers in order to garner those initial sales. But as a salesperson develops a relationship with the customer and becomes engaged in larger and more complex opportunities, always agreeing and continuously saying yes poses a challenge.

Lead Rank 130

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Proposal Training 130

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 22, 2017

Like most salespeople, you can probably imagine one of your customers thinking after the call, “I’m not sure that salesperson really understands the importance of what we were talking about,” or “I think she’s really smart, but I don’t think she quite understands our priorities.”. Listen actively. Think back.

Call-back 82

Call-back Face-to-face Conversion Follow-up 82

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 30, 2013

When funding has been budgeted, asking questions about the estimated budget or what the customer has in mind to support the effort is fair and can yield beneficial results. If done correctly this can be helpful to both you and the customer. Here are three best practices for analyzing the alignment between you and the customer.

Lead Qualification 112

Lead Qualification Scale Lead Rank Lead Scoring 112

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

When the products or solutions are new entries to the marketplace, the salesperson must deal with new customers and new sales challenges, such as: a different buying process, new call points, and new objections. In some situations it’s useful to translate your sales call plan into a meeting agenda that is shared with the customer.

Face-to-face 114

Face-to-face Ideal Customer Profile Decision Maker LinkedIn 114

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 28, 2014

Success in major B2B accounts is based on a salesperson’s ability to get on the customer’s side of the table and do a great job in meeting customer expectations. What makes things more challenging is that customer expectations are a moving target. It is a fair statement that customer expectations have become more demanding.

B2B 110

B2B Training Up-Sell Account 110

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

If salespeople are going to bring value, new ideas, and insight to customers, they must understand the business issues and the challenges their customers face. Well-planned questions go a long way in establishing your credibility particularly when they are framed around issues and challenges important to the customer.

Face-to-face 112

Face-to-face Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 112

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 13, 2015

So, how can saying “no” or disagreeing with a customer become a positive ? Let’s take a look at when and how to say “no”: It brings value to the customer. It becomes a launching platform for sharing expertise that brings value to the customer. Don’t be afraid to say “no” or disagree. ©2015 Sales Momentum, LLC.

Lead Rank 50

Lead Rank Lead Scoring How To Negotiation 50

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

No matter how small establish some commitment for next steps that you and the customer will take that moves the sales cycle forward. Plus it often takes time for either you or the customer to deliver what was promised in the meeting. In regard to your commitment try and deliver a little more value than the customer is anticipating.

Follow-up 124

Follow-up Proposal Sales Cycle Training 124

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 4, 2017

There are no generic customers; hence there are no winning generic strategies – each customer is unique and every winning account strategy must take that uniqueness into consideration. Comprehending the customer. The best practices for formulating a winning strategy all start with developing an understanding the customer.

Decision Maker 73

Decision Maker Competition Account Fashion 73

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 22, 2013

No matter how clever your sales strategy or how much value the sales rep brings to the customer , all that is easily forgotten when mistakes emerge. By owning up, you’re telling the customer you “acknowledge” the mistake. Some additional tips include: Analyze the mistake from the customer’s perspective. Act professionally.

Face-to-face 117

Face-to-face Guarantee Training ACT 117

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

The opening statement should be tailored to each call because each call has a unique customer and should have a unique purpose. It is about gaining agreement from the customer on a customer-focused purpose for the sales call. It is a big mistake to get into areas that the customer feels are inappropriate.

Face-to-face 115

Face-to-face Training Sales Account 115

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 11, 2014

Salespeople must, in a compelling way, make the connection between their solution and the outcomes that are important to the customer. They cannot leave making the connections to the customer because sometimes the customer will and sometimes they will not make the connections. What about customer knowledge ?

Face-to-face 91

Face-to-face Competition Engineering Account 91

Sales Training Connection

DECEMBER 12, 2014

In the article the author makes the following point when discussing trend Number 1: “customers don’t value old-school high pressure manipulative sales methods. Customers value subject-matter experts. As customers increasingly value subject-matter experts, salespeople need refined consultative skills.” . Customer knowledge.

Consultative Selling 99

Consultative Selling Trends Selling Skills Training 99

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 8, 2014

Inquire why and you’ll hear comments like these: a great product will sell itself if I just talk about  or my customers tell me they want to know everything about our new  or  if I am talking I know the customer will forget about that objection.And of course, we’ve all heard thatnature abhors a vacuum..

Exact 114

Exact Objections Course Up-Sell 114

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 18, 2013

After all whether you lose a sale to a real competitor or to a customer who decides to do nothing, or to a customer that decides to spend its resources on something else – you still lost the sale! Sometimes the most challenging competition is the customer “doing nothing.” What is passive competition ? ©2013 Sales Momentum ®.

Strategy 117

Strategy Competition Face-to-face Resources 117

Sales Training Connection

JUNE 15, 2012

Over the years we’ve had the opportunity to observed hundreds of sales reps making sales calls and have isolated four traps they tend to fall into when asking questions : Interrogating the customer. And customers expect sales reps to do just that! Manipulating the customer. Failing to ask, listen, then talk.

Face-to-face 136

Face-to-face Intent Training Objections 136

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Because of the foundational nature of this idea, it is always a good idea to pay attention when someone adds new insight about how customers buy. Rather, they talk about the Customer Decision Journey that is anything but linear. Second, the customer may not start at the beginning of your sales process.

Buying Cycle 120

Buying Cycle Study Sales Process Proposal 120

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

This is one of the reasons why it is so important to have a comprehensive understanding of your customer’s company and industry. It is difficult to take a problem solving approach if you do not have that customer and industry information. What’s the most likely response from the customer? Talk less and listen more.

Negotiation 122

Negotiation Strategy Face-to-face Proposal 122

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 10, 2015

According to Bain & Company, B2B sales executives have seen tremendous disruption in how customers buy in recent years – and they see no reason to think it won’t continue. Customer Expectations. First, focus on how customers are buying in today’s market. Sales Mastery 2015. How well are companies meeting the challenge?

Hiring 50

Hiring Face-to-face Survey Sales Coaching 50

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 6, 2014

Plus, you must possess an encyclopedic command of product and customer information. In major B2B sales the problems the customer is looking to solve are extremely complex. You simply miss the mark and thereafter are in a backtracking mode with the customer. Answer – ask, listen, then talk.

Lead Qualification 111

Lead Qualification Account eBook Training 111

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

While developing trust has always been important for sales success, today developing trust has taken on a new urgency due to a shift in customer expectations. Today, customers want fresh ideas and creative insights for addressing a set of needs and opportunities that are both new and challenging. Here are seven skills to get started.

Industry 50

Industry Sales Customer Conversion 50

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Each year sales managers spend a substantive amount of time and effort helping their sales team use their time with the customer more effectively. What they often fail to do is make a commitment to help them have more time to spend with their customers. Some is necessary; a lot is not.

Top of Funnel 116

Top of Funnel Funnel Sales Management Coaching 116

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

Doing a good job positioning your competitive advantages to the customer is an example of selling value. Selling value is all about helping the customer understand how you can help them make their business better. It all starts with developing an in-depth understanding of the customer’s needs, issues, and challenges.

Ideal Customer Profile 121

Ideal Customer Profile Face-to-face Training Engineering 121

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

Have no doubt this lack of teamwork will be visible to the customer. The Customer responds with “About six months ago.”. But even before the Customer can answer, the technical person asked yet another technical question. The sales players get frustrated and the customer gets confused.

Call-back 108

Call-back Software Software Conference 108