Sales Skills For Career Advancement

How to Become a Successful Sales Manager

Your boss just promoted you to sales manager after years of working hard as a sales representative for your company. Now what?

Many think sales managers have it easy because they are devoid of having a sales number on their head. However the role is far from that. Instead of an individual quota, they have a whole team’s. Instead of being measured by their own performance, they’re held accountable for how each of their sales reps perform. Below, we’ll look at how to become a successful sales manager in your company by discussing these three key functions: support through coaching, prioritizing recruitment, and having good communication.

Support Through Coaching

Coaching a sales team is one of the most important tasks a sales manager has. Coaching puts your leadership skills to the test by motivating and helping your sales reps refine and improve their selling techniques to elevate their results. Small Biz Trends explains how people with big egos may not make the best sales managers, because the role entails putting sales reps first. Successful sales managers want to see their team continuously improve and provide them with the right skills, mindset, and support.

Often, it helps to set individual meetings with sales reps once a week. These sessions should talk about how to put a sales plan in action, how to improve on weak areas, as well as how to bounce back when a sale doesn’t push through. It’s important that these coaching sessions also include feedback for the manager about how the rep feels the coaching is going and how the manager can better help them. Moreover, coaching sessions should also positively recognize the sales reps of their existing efforts.

Prioritize Recruitment

Being a manager means taking charge of the hiring and firing of staff. One thing sales managers overlook is the importance of allocating time for recruitment. It’s vital to make time for finding the right person for your team, and being familiar with the different types of recruitment strategies you can use. More often than not companies work with recruiters on either a contingency or retained basis. The Undercover Recruiter defines contingency recruitment as a set up where recruiters are only charged a fee when their candidate takes on a position within the company. This means recruiters are quick to refer candidates, sometimes at the expense of quality recommendations.

Retained recruiters on the other hand charge an upfront fee to conduct a search, but take their time in thoroughly looking for the right candidate for the company. This type of dedicated search is common in all industries, whether it is business or law, in order to find the best fit. Special Counsel details how retained search engagement saves time and resources for a company, while still hiring the very best. Another reason retained recruiters are effective is because they will also have inside knowledge on the industry and where to find the best talent. Investing in quality recruitment ensures that you hire the right people who can achieve the results you need, and when your team succeeds, the whole company succeeds.

Have Good Communication Skills

During the sales process, teams spend a lot of time gathering necessary information about a client. Once a sale has been made and the clients are passed on to another department, these valuable pieces of information aren’t always turned over properly. Michael Ferguson reminds us that inter-office communication is important and can lead a company to having a successful relationship with a client. All Business states that integrating with other departments also helps facilitate a smooth integration for sales reps in their first few months at a company.

Ultimately, the task of chief communicator primarily falls on the laps of sales managers. They need to be able to articulate their teams’ needs to other departments and to the executive level. For example if there are times when the quotas being set are unrealistic, it’s their role to articulate this to upper management to resolve the situation. Not only does proper communication help you as a sales manager, it helps companies move forward as a cohesive workforce.

[Sales Class] How to Not Lose a Deal During the Close – A Lesson by Steve Benson

Closing deals is not a matter of luck, it’s about skill, perfecting your sales process, and overcoming any objections that would prevent a deal from closing.

According to Steve Benson, it’s the salesperson’s primary job to uncover the real reason why people are unsure about what you are trying to sell them. He explains to not let a prospect take time to “think about it” and attempt to follow up with them next week. Mastering how to avoid these “soft rejections” is a must for closing more deals and you need to gauge their interest in the moment and figure out what information they need to hear to better understand the value of your product.

What a prospect is hesitant on can be one of three things, says Steve. First, ask them specifically what they are uncomfortable or unsure about — once you get a better understanding of what they are truly thinking, you can re-engage and go deeper with them on the issue.

All types of hesitation typically fall into the following three buckets: Fit, Functionality, and Finance.

Fit: Give them a free trial or a demo of your product being used in an environment or with a product that is similar to your lead’s product or environment. Introduce them to a company that is already using your product and make a comparison for how it can be useful to them too.

Functionality: If they say they aren’t sure if it will work for them at their unique company, they may believe there is a risk that your product won’t work for them or their business. Uncover what they think the functionality risk is and then overcome the objection. They could be worried the product doesn’t work and need to see a demo. Or they could be worried about implementation and that their employees/customers won’t use the product – show other companies implementing the product. Provide references and case studies of other companies using the product successfully.

Finance: “This seems too expensive for me.” To overcome this, find out the real objection behind the price objection, since price might not be the real reason. Find out if they don’t think your product is valuable and help them add up the value to show them that your price is fair. Another tip is to show them the cost of not using your product, or how your product will save them time and money.

You may find that a prospect’s concerns fall into several of these categories. Try to narrow down what the primary objection is and focus on educating them in order of what is most important until all of their questions are fully answered. From there, you can continue discussing your service offerings and pricing.

Steve’s Steps to Overcoming A “Soft No.”

Gauge interest
Uncover true objection
Overcome objection
Ask questions like “if I can prove to you that you can master the product within a week, would you buy the product?

Through your questions and by reading into the prospects answers, you can uncover additional objections and address them as needed. Remember to include why your product is a good fit, how it will function properly to fit their business needs, and why it is a smart financial decision to use your product.

[Sales Class] How You Can Close Larger Sales More Consistently with Terry Hansen

How you sell is one of the biggest differentiators between you and your competitors. By using methods like the PIMAT discussed here in Terry’s video, you can overcome common sales speed bumps and maximize your potential to land larger deals.

Speed bumps in closing large deals:

Long sales cycles

Figure out a way to shrink the sales cycle. Decrease the amount of time between when you meet a prospect and make the sale. Sometimes this can drag on for months or years.

Tough sales objectives

If you can’t overcome the prospects concerts about your product the likelihood of you selling them on large deals is weakened.

Stiff competition

Getting into price battles with our competitors. Differentiate yourself from them with your value and not just your price.

Low value deals

Try not to focus on the smaller low value deals and instead on bigger deals that can move the needle. An example would be for a printer to take an order for a $50 business card order vs $5,000 for a catalogue order.

PIMAT – 5 important topics that we need to talk about with a prospect during the “Needs Analysis” stage of the sales cycle.

1. Introduction

2. Needs analysis

→ [P.I.M.A.T]

3. Sales presentation

4. Close the sale

P: Problem – When you start your needs analysis conversation, ask about the goals they want to accomplish and where they are currently. The gap between where they are and where they want to be is the “problem.”

I: Impact – What damage are the problems causing to the company. This could be a financial oriented problem, time oriented problem, or employee moral/personal oriented problem.

M: Money – Figure out a budgetary range that you can use to create solutions for the prospect. GIve them different price ranges to solve the variety of problems that you have uncovered.

A: Authority – The “who” factor. Who is the decision maker and who else should be involved in the decision to approve a deal. Also ask what factors they are going to consider, if there is a timing perspective to the decision, and what process they go through when making the decision.

T: Technical – The nitty gritty details. If you are building a car, its asking what’s the make, model, color, and interior elements. You have to determine how you will customize what you are selling to suit their needs and create a win-win for both of you.

As you go through the PIMAT process you can eliminate any and all objections that the prospect has upfront and prevent any objections from coming up at the end of the sale.

[Sales Class] Understanding Buyer Psyche with Zach Barney

Zach Barney has valuable insight into the different aspects of a buyer’s psyche, and in this video he explains why understanding the mind frame of a lead can make or break your chances at eventually landing a deal with them.

If you’re familiar with sales and marketing then you know that a buyer’s journey is the process a client goes through when moving from being just a prospect to being a signed customer.

An example of a buyer’s journey is: Prospect -> Awareness Stage -> Research Stage -> Consideration Stage -> Decision Stage -> Customer. As a salesperson, you have to be their guide and take them through these stages while overcoming any obstacles that you encounter along the way.

The problem with the traditional buyer’s journey, Zach explains, is that it misses the analysis of your Total Addressable Market (TAM).

When you reach out to a company for the first time, you need to pay attention to the “signals,” that speak to their interest in needing your product. The signals can be conversations a colleague had with them, company press releases, public information, etc. These, along with your initial conversation with them, will help you gauge which of the below TAM buckets they fall into.

30% of your TAM know they do not need you
30% of your TAM don’t think they need you
30% of your TAM doesn’t care
7% of your TAM is open to a conversation
3% of your TAM is actively trying to solve a problem you can fix

A lot of people think the purpose of their initial conversation with a lead is to take them through the entire buyer’s journey of not knowing about you to being a signed customer. Instead, Zach says, your job is to get them from “I don’t need you” to “I don’t think I need you.” Next, you need to get them from “I don’t care” to “I’m open to a conversation” and so on and so forth.

It often takes time to move a prospect through these stages, so focus on the long game. By understanding their buyer psyche, you can make them aware of the benefits they gain from working with you, address any objections they have, and take them through the TAM stages until they are your newest client.

[Sales Class] How to Build Better Sales Presentations with Alli McKee

Alli wants to help sales teams be better at three things: Develop a compelling narrative, present with better visuals, and use presentations to make sales more effectively.

Often times every rep on a sales team has a slightly different “franken-deck” that they present from, and most of the good marketing content goes unused. Instead, every rep should tell the same story using the same assets all while can customizing it in their own way to walk the prospect through their specific needs.

How to build your presentation:

There are several elements to building an effective presentation. First, Alli explains, is that you need to start your presentation off by showing how your product improves things compared to the “old way,” whatever that may be for your business. Next, discuss the value of your product and what they will gain by using it, followed by some type of proof like a reputable case study or testimonial. Throughout the presentation, there should be a compelling storyline to keep the audience engaged and interested.

Start your story with “Change” – Show the old way of doing things and the problems associated with it compared to the new, better way of doing things (and how your product plays into that). Focus on the pain of point A to show why getting to point B is valuable.

Talk about what is gained from your product – Discuss the gains from the perspective of the customer, not from your perspective or your product’s perspective. You want them to leave with a clear understanding of the outcome they can achieve with your product and the value associated with your service.

Show proof – It’s not just about volume (showing a ton of logos on a slide). Instead, say “everyone like you is using this” and provide relevant examples.

Add a storyline – Narrative matters, and pitches that include a compelling story have a higher success rate of bringing the discussion to the next stage.

How to deliver your presentation:

How you deliver your presentation is one of the most important pieces to the equation. This is where you get the attention of your audience and have the opportunity to take them on a carefully constructed journey using a clean slide layout, simple graphics, and a discussion that comes off as free-flowing.

Slide layout – When you have text-first slides, your audience is reading, not listening to you. When you have visual-first slides, your audience will look at the slide while listening to you talk about it.

Dont present directly from the proposal – Use slides with less text to help guide the conversation, as opposed to slides with a lot of descriptive text which can be sent to those who weren’t there for the meeting.

Simplify your visuals – Use easy to follow, simple graphics. Graphic overload can confuse the audience and lead to them being disengaged.

Keep it brief – Try to keep your presentation to under 9 minutes. If you go over 9 minutes, try to use that 9 minute point to switch to a demo or an interactive part of the conversation.

Following Up

By going through these steps you can show your audience that you’re conscious of their specific needs and not just going through the motions of a cookie-cutter presentation.

Follow up with a message laying out the audience’s situation today. Address their roles, teams, processes, tools, timing, and goals. Next, take the three biggest concepts/pain points that were discussed and show how specific benefits from your product will solve each of the three problems. This follow-up template can then be turned into their buying guide.

By taking Alli’s advice on building better presentations you can take your sales pitches to the next level, make an instant connection with those you present to, and land more deals.

[Sales Class] Negotiating Tactics and Countermeasures with Tony Perzow

In this course Tony Perzow lays out some of the most commonly used negotiating tactics and how to countermeasure them with authority and confidence.

Having a plan when going into a negotiation is the most important thing. Many of us go into negotiating overthinking everything that can go wrong, but good negotiators can push those worries aside and focus on shaping the conversation to get what’s best for them.

Tony also explains that negotiating involves taking risks and one of the biggest but most uncommon risks that a salesperson will take is saying “no.” Below he discusses how to use saying “no” to your advantage and to be an effective negotiator in the process.

Negotiating Tactics

The Nibble

One of the most popular tactics is called the Nibble. A nibble is a small and insignificant ask that isn’t a deal breaker and is usually brought up in the final stage of the deal closing.

Counter measures to nibbles:

-Saying “no, I’m sorry we never give that for free.”

-Saying “are you kidding?” which will catch them by surprise and not try to

-You can say “Yes, I’ll give you that, but since we are revising our agreement, i need to check with legal and it might take a few weeks” which will make them not want to deal with going through that process

-Say you need to speak with your boss first

The Squeeze

The squeeze is when a buyer nurtures and woo’s the salesperson, making them believe you are going to strike the perfect deal, but at the last minute say they need to have a better price.

When this happens, its suggested that salespeople stick to their original pricing and instead say they are willing to negotiate but can’t come down to the price they are asking for.

You need to speak with confidence when discussing pricing, this can include not over explaining pricing and taking a silent pause after quoting your price.

Countermeasures to the squeeze:

– “The Clinger.” The clinger is when you turn the focus of the conversation right to the 1 winning topic, 1 main pain point that you are going to solve for them, and remind them of the value you are already bringing at the original price.

-Buy more time. If a buyer is trying to get a better price off of you, say “I understand that price is something we need to address, but before we do I want to make sure I understand your needs to make sure we can do everything we can to make this deal as valuable as possible for you.” By saying this, you open up the door to ask them more questions and take time to address last minute concerns and explain your value.

-Use the “if you” rule. Simply saying I will give you this if you give me this. A simple trade that makes the two parties even.

The Trial Balloon

The goal of the “trail balloon” is to say or do something to test the other party and get information about where they stand in the negotiation.

Try throwing a trial balloon at them like “can you help me understand what you’re looking to achieve with a 20% reduction in price.” Either they will give you a concrete answer that fully explains why the 20% reduction is warranted, or they will stumble over an explaination and show they are just playing a game with you, to which you can say “I’m sorry, the price is the price.”

The last tip and trick to counter measure someone’s negotiating tactic is to send a message that you are taking a few moments to genuinely calculate the price they are asking for to then come back and simple say “I’m sorry, I just can’t do that.” It makes your no a real and honest no because you showed them that you took the time to consider the offer.

Both new and experienced negotiators can benefit from trying out these tactics the next time someone tries to lower them on price. The key is sticking as close as possible to your original quote and don’t sacrifice anything without getting something in return.

[Sales Class] – How to Leverage Sales Automation to Land More Deals – A Lesson by Krish Ramineni

In this video course, Krish Ramineni explains that effective sales comes down to two things: your ability to be a great salesperson, and your drive to reach a large number of leads.

His theory is that the more people you reach out to and follow up with, the more chances you will have to be a great salesperson and close deals. To save you time and energy you can implement several easy sales automation tools and processes to manage and personalize your outreach messaging.

Sales automation has three main pillars:

The three pillars below are the main elements that will be in play when setting up any type of sales automation process, and each is equally important to make sure your strategy is successful:

Process: Your playbook, what you and your manager are figuring out to help you send out the right type communication to the right person.

Data: Your CRM needs to be updated, your leads list needs to be accurate

Tools: Leverage tools ot take advantage of the process and data that you have in place. Take 1 to 1 communication and turn it into 1 to 100.

Three key parts of Process:

Within the element of “Process” there are three factors: Outreach, Follow-ups, and Data Entry.

Outreach: Number of people you are reaching out to, number of emails you’re sending, “top of the funnel.”

Follow-ups: You need to follow up consistently, sometime up to 7-8 times, before finally getting a response.

Data Entry: Keep CRM and other systems updated so you know what your next steps after each outreach/followup.

Three key parts of Data:

Within the element of “Data” there are three factors: Conversations, Activities, and CRM.

Conversations: Qualitative information, asking questions, and insight into if a deal with close or not.

Activities: Actual actions you are performing. Number of calls you’re making, number of emails you’re sending, how busy you are

CRM: The CRM fields that tell you what stage a deal is, how big a company is, how many employees there are, what domain they are in, what job titles you are reaching out to, etc. This helps you understand and organize your information.

Three key parts of Tools:

Within the element of “Tools” there are three factors: Email Sequences, Dialers, and Scheduling.

Email sequences: Email outreach tools that allow you to create templates, craft personalized messages, schedule follow up emails, and track results.

Dialers: Power dialers that help you call outbound dialing lists and notify you when someone picks up.

Scheduling: Tools like calendly that help you schedule meetings with people without needing to email or communicate back and forth trying to pick a date.

Data tools:

Krish provided a list of data tool examples, including Clearbit, Fireflies, and Zapier.

Clearbit: Allows you to upload information from LinkedIn into CRM and do lead scoring.

Fireflies: Enters information from meetings into CRM by recording and transcribing the conversation.

Zapier: Allows you to take all the information that is collected from your apps and load it into your CRM.

How to be more effective at sales:

Outreach is important, but the other part of it is personalized and unique messaging. One way is to manually personalize the initial message, and automate the follow ups.

Leveraging new channels: Don’t just email and phone call, look at other channels that you can reach leads through. Examples can be through Facebook groups, LinkedIn, or Twitter.

Product Triggers: Reach people when they are visiting your website, or using your product. You can then send personalized messages related to their recent interaction with your product.

Sales automation helps you manage, optimize, and personalize customers journey. Even though it gives you the power to reach tons of new leads, it comes at the risk of becoming “spammy” so you must keep a balance of what is seen as friendly, personal outreach and generic and overly persistent messaging.

[Sales Class] Call Coaching – A Lesson by Lauren Bailey

In Lauren Bailey’s video on call coaching, she explains that call coaching was recently ranked as sales leaders worse skill.

She explains that the majority of call coaching that happens is informal, and many people do not have structured call coaching meetings, training sessions, or conversations. This is because sales is one of the busiest jobs and most call coaching is done informally on the fly.

76% of managers say they coach 3-6 hours per month per rep, but half of reps disagree with that statistic. This might be because when managers interact with reps, they may speak in a “coaching style” but it is not a formal coaching moment as seen by the rep.

Tips for improving call coaching for managers:

Keep a consistent calendar for call coaching meetings. Be on top of these meetings and don’t let them slip into an irregular schedule. When coaching meetings are cancelled or changed last minute it can lead to rep disengagement.

The top 6 mistakes or “coachastrifies” to avoid.

Call coaching is not deal coaching, its rep coaching, its rep engagement time.

Don’t ask the rep to “be more like you.”

In a call/meeting – Take notes on your observations and turn them into questions for the rep.

Find the right level of questioning to make the rep think about the scenario in an actionable way.

The biggest way to drive rep impact, let the rep choose what they will work on.

You get 10x the commitment by letting the rep choose what they work on.

Steps in Coaching:

C – Clarify Expectations (We’re going to start a formal call coaching program and look at examples)

O – Observed behavior (“I heard you did this on this call, and the outcome was ____. Let’s talk about it.”)

A – Ask Questions (Ask at least 5 questions)

C – Commit to Action/Improvement (Why don’t we work on this, what do you think?)

H – How can I help? (Why don’t we rollplay it right now, or do you want to shadow another rep?)

N – Next steps (Ask what prevented the sale, look at the call impact, ask if anything affect the call positively or negatively and make adjustments for the next call)

Remember, managers should not focus on coaching for a specific deal, they should focus on building up the sales rep as a whole.

And of course, don’t forget to give the “atta boy”/”atta girl” approvals as they come in the moment.

How To Make A Sales Introduction

A Lesson On Introductions

Lauren Bailey from Factor 8 lays out some of her most useful introduction tips when making cold calls as a sales rep. It’s easy to fall into a routine of mediocre and mundane intros that often lead nowhere. Her insight below will stop that and help new and experienced sales reps become more effective at cold call introductions.

6 Sales Intros to Avoid

1. “The show-up and throw-up”

They are saying hi and going into company backstories, awards, and numbers without giving them any time to talk or respond. The person answering the phone will get off the phone as soon as possible.

2. “The yeah, it’s my value prop”

Sometimes starting with the value prop is mistaken for an intro like the “show up and throw up,” and the person answering will try to get off the phone.

3. “The get out of jail free intro.”

In your pitch, you may say: “Are you the person in charge of [job title]?” But, again, be more compelling than starting by asking them if they are in charge of their prominent role.

4. “The good for you intro”

“I’m just calling to introduce myself” – Good for the caller, but not always suitable for the answerer.

5. “The setup intro”

Asking a question they can’t say no to… “would you be interested in saving money?” People can tell they are forced to answer a question to keep the conversation going.

6. “The toucher intro”

People don’t want to be checked in on or have their bases touched.

Good intros should be SWIFT

So What’s In it For Them = Swift.

The key is not to tell them who you are and what you do. The key is to get them talking about what they do and what they need help with.

When starting a call, use the name of the person you are calling during your intro to get their attention. Then, tell them who you are and who you work for in a quick, abbreviated way. Finally, quickly explain why you are calling and how your services will benefit them directly.

Once you have their partial attention, you can lead off with questions to get them talking. The bottom line is that people care most about saving time and making things easier for themselves.

Pick a feature or aspect of your product that will make the prospect’s life easier. Try to use the word “Value” when possible.

“Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help save you time on ______.”

“Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help you increase your profit margin.”

“Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help make ____ easier.”

“Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help make sure you’re the hero when it comes to ____.”

“Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help ensure you’re protected from ____.”

Here’s an outline to jump into this method:

Don’t just ask if they can tell you more about their company. You should know everything about their company already by researching online. Go into the phone call with swift questions. These are meant to be closed questions (1-5 word answers), not open-ended questions.

Their name
Your name & company (quick version)
Swift purpose (what’s in it for them)
1-3 swift closed questions

When they ask, “who are you with again?” go into your value proposition and ask open-ended questions.

Tips For Sales Managers

Don’t let reps call to “touch base”
Count and track decision-maker conversions over 2 minutes long
Add intro training to coaching forms
Reward reps with longer average talk times
Hold team contests for who can get on “first base” the most with cold calls
Do A/B testing with reps to refine the best introduction methods.

Are you ready to take your sales career to the next level? Join Rainmakers now!