1- What qualities do your salespeople need to develop to improve their results?
Sales is a profession in which there is no medal for second best. That's why, in addition to sales techniques per se, it's essential toapply a sales method to limit the risk of failure and optimize results. A number of recent studies have shown that the application of a sales method - whatever it may be - can boost sales results by 20%!
Without a common thread, you spend your time reinventing your approach to each case, being tactical and reactive. It's exhausting and not very effective.
In addition to method, you need qualities that are specific to this highly relational and demanding mission. You need to be tenacious, organized, mentally strong, have a strong capacity for work, but also be focused on the other person: indeed, in today's sales environment, it's essential tobe able to listen rather than talk!
Finally, a good salesperson who wants to increase his or her performance must be able to makethe best use of the tools and technologies at his or her disposal: first and foremost, CRM tools, but also the various means and media of communication (powerpoint presentations, remote exchange platforms such as Skype...) and above all, the inevitable social networks!
2- How can salespeople make the most of these new tools?
New means of communication, and in particular professional social networks (LinkedIn, for example), have profoundly changed the face of commercial investigation.
Firstly, they facilitate research on the 3 essential topics: the company, its news and its COMEX. But above all, they provide access to valuable information that was previously difficult to access: your contacts' networks are now publicly displayed, so you can systematically check the connections between your respective networks!
It's vital that sales reps activate this contact and recommendation lever, which can have a decisive impact!
Discover the KESTIO webinars, where we discuss
all topics related to sales performance with our experts:
Fabien Comtet, CEO
Dominique Seguin, General Manager
Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director
3- How to stand out from the crowd in a sales meeting?
As everyone knows, the first 20 seconds are crucial!
The aim of the sales meeting is first and foremost to get to know the person you're talking to, their personality and their "territory". It should also enable you to establish a relationship of trust and demonstrate your expertise.
A tall order, given the extent to which buyers are over-solicited and under-available: the challenge is to quickly convince them of the benefits of this exchange for them.
First and foremost, you need to establish a climate of trust. To do this, analyze your interviewer's non-verbal language (gaze, posture, voice rhythm...) to synchronize yourself with him/her and gradually take the reins of the interview.
Next, it's the effectiveness of your pitch (about your company, then about your own role/experience) that will be decisive! It will have to give legitimacy to the appointment for your contact, and immediately dispel his main apprehension: is this salesman going to waste my time?
Beyond the key moment of the opening, what will really make the difference during the interview is your ability to focus on your customer's objectives, not your own! Today, there are a huge number of tools that enable a customer to find out what a supplier is doing, without having to see the sales rep!
We know that 70% of buyers now do most of their research on the Internet before contacting a potential supplier.
The salesperson's role is no longer to present his or her company's offerings, but to provide advice and expertise in order to work with the customer to build the solution that will solve his or her problem or meet his or her objectives.
This requires a considerable mental effort on the part of the salesperson: toforget about closing and the desire to "land an order". To do this, you have to stop classifying the information transmitted by the customer into "favorable" and "unfavorable" signals.
Your sole objective should be to understand the customer's territory and reality, and to build a quality relationship. This is a sine qua non condition for initiating a co-construction process with the customer.
4- What does this co-construction approach entail and what does it mean for the salesperson?
The interview must evolve in an interactive mode towards the realization of the customer's objectives or problem resolutions (a bit like a coaching session!).
Gradually, your contact must become involved, and therefore make an effort (providing information, putting you in touch with a key contact within the company...) that will commit him/her to working with you.
That's why the best salespeople don't look for the right order, they focus on the next step to help the customer achieve his or her goals.
The level of effort the customer puts into this process is the best indicator of their level of commitment to you.
You shouldn't leave your contact without first drawing up a shared action plan. This action plan will be the subject of a report from you, the completion of which will give rise to the organization of a new exchange (for feedback), ideally in the presence of other key contacts on this account.
What happens next depends on the quality of your follow-up process, which can sometimes take up to several months...
The advent of new technologies has enabled business to evolve in many areas, not least in communication and prospecting. To optimize your business, it's essential to integrate these new prospecting methods into your strategy. Find out how with this webinar:
