Wed, 22 April 2020
How BDRS and SDR Should Use LinkedIn During COVID19!
The coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by storm. Many industries have been affected, even sales. How do you keep selling at this time? One of the ways is via LinkedIn. This episode will talk about how BDRs and SDRs can use the LinkedIn platform amid Covid-19.
Amanda Statton was raised in Virginia Beach and moved to Tampa about a year ago to work for BlueGrace Logistics. She started sales four years ago and she loves it. Jason Behnke is originally from Chicago and came down to Tampa to study at the University of Tampa. Right after college, he worked in sports and event sponsorship and eventually found his way to BlueGrace Logistics.
Selling in time of Covid-19 The pandemic has touched every industry. Several manufacturing companies have shut down. People have been working from home for several weeks now but for sales and logistics, an opportunity has been created to transport products and to get help to those in need.
While Amanda and Jason are still working the same jobs, how they approach a potential customer has changed. They are focused on building relationships, even more than ever before. These are hard times so they do what they can to reach out, see how they can help and make themselves available.
BlueGrace Logistics partners with companies and learns about their supply chain. They look for ways to help them save money and drive out costs within their network. Before Covid-19, Amanda opened a conversation by saying, ‘Hey, I would love to learn more about your supply chain. I want to see if we can help you save money to drive out costs within your network and really get a better understanding of what you’re doing today.’
With Covid-19, the question has changed from wanting to know about a company’s strategies to asking how the company is doing amid the pandemic and how it has impacted their organization. With that information she can then evaluate how her company can help lessen any negative impact. The focus is now helping their current clients ride the road to recovery and offering advice to prospects within the same industry who may be dealing with the same situations.
Responding to inquiries People respond to these inquiries in different ways. Some people are very open to having a conversation and understand everyone is in this together. There are others who are frustrated and wonder out loud why they’re still being asked sales questions even under these current circumstances.
Prospecting today Salespeople are still prospecting, even today. Amanda and Jason still conduct meetings from phone calls, emails, and LinkedIn outreach. They stick to these basic three because this is how people are still operating. There’s still a need to work on multiple channels to target prospects.
Amanda is also getting a number of responses and traffic from the links that she’s sending over email. She’s still seeing activity in clicks-to-links in emails and LinkedIn so these are the people she’ll be reaching out to in the future. People are not as receptive with the direct approach but people are still looking for authenticity. They just want the conversation at a slower pace. This means getting to know the person on a personal level. It’s important for empathy to be the driver from beginning to end and plan to follow up. Make sure you are leaving on a good note.
There are various apps that you can use to keep up with the prospects including Sales Navigator but a simple , “Hey, how are you?” works equally well. If you send out a birthday card, include a personal note. Doing this can open a dialogue and will remind the prospects there is a relationship they can look forward to.
Sharing content Like other small businesses, BlueGrace Logistics is also sharing content with manufacturing companies who are shipping right now. They are acting as a resource for these companies and put up collated information and content for industries. Their service helps their client evaluate their circumstances and adjust their business strategies as needed.
Get into casual conversations People are staying in their homes more so prospects are more open to talking on the phone during odd hours. With most people working at home, it gives sales reps a variety of opportunities to have more casual conversations. We call this an omnichannel approach which means we can be everywhere and can talk to people at different times. Although this has always been the goal, we need to do it even more so today.
Facing the objection Not everyone is receptive to a sales call these days and will react negatively to the approach no matter how it’s done. They may wonder why you’re reaching out during a pandemic. Amanda coached her team to honestly tell them the truth when this objection comes up. She reminded them to tell their client they’re interested in knowing how this pandemic has affected them so they can help ease their challenges.
BlueGrace Logistics has a very long sales cycle that can take anywhere from nine months to a year. They also have partners right now who are going through some major changes in their manufacturing. At the moment, Amanda’s team is being deliberate about how they start a conversation with their partners to ensure they are willing to help in any way they can.
Being empathetic and being authentic are two of the most important traits a salesperson can develop at this time, especially on LinkedIn. Don’t be scared to reach out and ask how you can help. Take advantage of LinkedIn and use its voicemail messaging. It’s the perfect vehicle for your prospects to hear the authenticity in your voice and the sincerity with which the help is being offered.
Donald shares that commenting on other peoples’ content is also a good strategy for those on LinkedIn. Interacting with their posts and other members who are commenting, can launch a great conversation.
People are going through things that aren’t normal life right now. If you get negativity make the next call as fast as you can. #KeepPushing
“How BDRS and SDR Should Use LinkedIn During COVID19!” episode resources As a sales rep, keep pushing through because the current circumstances won’t last forever. Maintain your positivity, lean into the chaos and make something out of it. Don’t let an objection keep you from making the next call. You never know what people are going through. Make the next call immediately. You can reach both Amanda and Jason via their LinkedIn accounts. Go ahead and reach out! If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald about it. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to. You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill. |
Fri, 17 April 2020
How To Build A Sales Engine That Will Land Massive Deals – Repeatedly
Every sales person wants to build a sales engine that will land them improve their business, earn massive deals, and generate future sales. In this episode, we’ll talk about how to move toward these goals.
Lisa Magnuson’s whole career has been in sales, specifically in sales management and sales leadership. Sales has always been Lisa’s passion and getting into Clorox, which is used in homes and businesses around the world, is where she experienced closing big deals.
The struggles in generating sales There are several struggles companies face when trying to generate sales. During a crisis, the most difficult phase of the sales cycle is prospecting which is hard enough without added pressures. During a time when everyone is already cautious you have to be careful about coming off as self-serving. Just conducting regular business can isolate potential clients. This is a concern that is applicable for both BDRs and SDRs. No one is exempted.
Lisa is an expert when it comes to knowing the right strategies you can use to prepare your team to get through a crisis. There are mindsets you can incorporate in your process to make sure you hit the ground running when we get back to the new normal.
Building your sales engine Regardless of who you are, we were all left feeling that elements of our lives were cut short. This pandemic has affected all of us and we are trying to figure out how to pivot and thrive amid the challenge. The best way to do that is to serve and offer a hand to someone else.
The focus should be to keep the dialogue going. All the stages in the prospecting process are important. The mantra for this time is “lead with your heart, then offer a hand”. That’s how you build your sales engine. That “hand” may look like a valuable idea you got from one of your customers or clients and you’re able to pass it on to others.. You need to keep it simple and interesting for your clients. You can drop a message inviting your prospects to a virtual coffee and talk about the idea that may resonate to them and you go from there. There are also other things that you can do to land opportunities that are worth five times more than your normal contract size.
Do more soft prospecting Sending an email template to people you have never met before is hard prospecting. Soft prospecting is sending out emails to the people you know and already have a personal connection with. Take the time to reach out and ask how they’re doing. Once you know the kind of help they need, you can lend a hand by sharing what is working for your other clients. Give them an opportunity to receive this information to see if it resonates with their goals.
When soft prospecting, just remember:
Maintain your sales engine Because of the coronavirus, many sales people are having to deal with the disappointment of cancellation and postponement. We may not be landing the deals we thought we would but this doesn’t mean we should stop the push to find new opportunities. Lisa’s new book, The TOP Sales Leader Playbook: How to Win 5X Deals Repeatedly, talks about sixteen plays to build those 5X deals, many of which can be done right now.
Scoring your opportunities You can continue scoring your opportunities without any customer interaction. Decide on the characteristics of your big deals and score them. Gather your account team together and work on a strategy. This is the time to do research. If you want the big deals, there is a need to do more than the usual.
Part of the strategy for growth is relationship mapping. Know the key decision makers and players who will be involved in the deal and make soft connections with them. Use LinkedIn and other social media to find the common connections. You can set yourself up for the big deals right now by investing your time in making those connections and building your network.
The 4 parts to Lisa’s book include:
Sales leader Lisa’s book is primarily for sales leaders and account quarterbacks. Sales leaders take the lead in looking out for the big deals. Big deals can be messy and they don’t follow your normal sales process. A leader and quarterback knows how and when to move forwards and backwards as needed. The sales team needs direction. The sales leader’s role is to tie all the information together to ensure that the message and goal is clear for everyone.
Develop your methodology Sales people may have a distaste for methodology and process but these are important resources for a sales team to embrace. Your methodology is your company’s way of going after the big deals and these include:
Your methodology plays a big role in making sure your sales engine generates big deals in a way that’s duplicatable.
Execution and Culture Execution means that you commit to the plan and work it. You’ve already laid out your methodology and you’ve done account strategy planning. It’s time to execute the plan.
Lisa knows if her client has a “big deal culture” or not. Companies tend to talk about their big deals, share their stories, and show off new virtual walls and logos. Salespeople stick with these companies because they feel the fulfillment of their success and they feel well compensated and included within the culture. Does this sound like your company? Everyone should feel they are celebrated in the wins and a loss means a lesson learned together. Behind every deal there is a team that works together, from executives to account managers to sales managers to sales reps.
We all got cut short when Covid-19 hit and caused us to pivot. The best way to do that is by lending a hand. #SalesHelp
The importance of scoring Scoring is very important because big deals take a long time due to their complexity. Sales leaders need to be able identify which deal is worth paying attention to and which teams to designate to each project. Lisa’s scoring tool has eight criteria which include evaluating the customer’s and account team’s commitment.
Build your own playbook Lisa interviewed 41 sales leaders to build her playbook. She asked them about their priorities, their challenges, and they’re methodology. Through the knowledge she’s gathered, you’ll have the structure to plan your own playbook. Also, as suggested by one of her interviewees, Lisa has included yellow flags and red flags that you might want to look out for as you go through your scoring process.
Lisa estimates that a 5X deal can take around 9 months to close. Use these months to work your playbook to move the team toward a massive close. If they know in advance how to pre-call, account plan, strategize, map out interactions, do the scoring, etc you can cross the finish line together. It’s worth the effort.
“How To Build A Sales Engine That Will Land Massive Deals – Repeatedly” episode resources Sales, whether you are a rep or a leader, is all about finding opportunities and committing to a process that will close a deal. Lisa can help. Visit Lisa’s site, Top Sales. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald about it. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to. You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill. |
Mon, 13 April 2020
How To Evaluate The Efficacy of SaaS Programs That Your Sales Team Subscribes To
Is your SaaS program effective? Is it making you money or costing you more than your return? Ankesh Kumar is with a company called Let’s Chat and the company focuses on personalization outreach to make sure your dollars are being spent well.
Let’s Chat helps a conversation run smoother. It does this by providing a co-extension that identifies LinkedIn topics that are of interest to your clients, it gives suggestions about how to break the ice, and generally makes it easier for sales reps to speak with their prospects in a more personal way.
Let’s Chat also looks into social platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and others to identify the person or client sales reps are going to talk to. It’s important for first meetings to be friendly, without crossing the line. Let’s Chat also uses its AI capabilities to prioritize the data based on the time spent on a particular topic, the frequency looking at topics and the topics a client might want to expand on.
Evaluating your SaaS program There are various tools that a sales team can use to evaluate their SaaS program, the amount depending on the size of the organization. Ankesh’s company ensures their app works with the company’s current workload. There are many competing platforms like CRM, other sales engagement platforms, and sales outreach. With so many to choose from, there comes an added concern that incorporating all these different platforms may change the workflow of the sales team. You want to make sure that your team isn’t managing so many tools that their time isn’t spent on actual sales.
Salesforce slows down the process Ankesh shares how products such as Salesforce can actually slow down the sales process. Salesforce adds data to the system record. It tracks activity so everyone can see how clients are interacting with the information, from receiving the proposal to what executive levels are looking at what was sent. As a result, there can be an imbalance between how much time a sales rep spends on Salesforce data and how much time is spent actually interacting with a client and making a sale. Ankesh’s company uses a plugin tool for LinkedIn because that’s where people are and the most actual interaction can take place. .
Maintain your team’s efficiency By Ankesh’s estimation it’s not the cost of the software that can impact a company’s budget but the time a sales rep spends on specific software. The CRM budget can vary but the value of return is the added value the software brings to the workflow process.
Ankesh cautions about adding additional software and plugins without regularly checking whether or not this software is benefiting the sales force and ultimately, the company. One thing he suggests, when you’re considering new software, is assigning some of your sales reps to be beta testers before you go company-wide. Be unique By now, almost all sales people and their clients know the process of prospecting by email. Even before a company sends that second or third email, they can almost predict the content of ensuing correspondence. As a sales rep, you need to be unique and stand out from the crowd. Instead of sending 10 predictable touch emails, do something different. Use snail mail and send along a little something they can use, like a $5 Starbucks gift card. Once received, you already have one foot in the door before you connect the second time.
Personalization can work but it’s also a lot more time-consuming. Salespeople need to understand that what works now may not work in the next 2-3 years. The industries are changing and our approach to clients and prospects will change too.
Emails that work Ankesh says that there are three buckets of personalization that work when writing emails: business, professional, personal. Look for ways to connect in these areas and your customer will know you’ve taken a professional interest to reach out in a personal way.
“How To Evaluate The Efficacy of SaaS Programs That Your Sales Team Subscribes To” episode resources Be social when you’re dealing with your customers and clients. Work smart and take the time to personalize your communication. If you are interested in more sales stories, you can talk to Donald about it. Reach him via these channels: LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook about any sales concerns. This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. It will help them elevate their sales game. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can go and visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals also call us at (561) 570-5077. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes so tune in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can also leave comments, suggestions, and ratings to every episode you listen to. You can also read more about sales or listen to audiobooks on Audible and explore this huge online library. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free trial. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill. |