LinkedIn Workshops | Kraken van de Code voor Social Selling

Linkedin workshops - Top Vraag van Google

Wat is een LinkedIn Workshop

Een LinkedIn workshop is een training die mensen leert hoe ze LinkedIn effectief kunnen gebruiken. Dit zou onderwerpen kunnen omvatten zoals een sterk profiel maken, netwerken met anderen en LinkedIn gebruiken om vacatures te vinden.

Een LinkedIn workshop kan aangeboden worden door een professionele trainingsorganisatie, een hogeschool of universiteit, of een bedrijf dat sociale media training geeft. Het kan persoonlijk of online worden gehouden, en het kan een enkele sessie of een reeks sessies zijn. Het doel van een LinkedIn workshop is om deelnemers te leren hoe ze LinkedIn in hun voordeel kunnen gebruiken in hun professionele leven.

Er is een nieuwe manier om omzetgroei te realiseren...

Koop geen verkooptraining voordat je deze video hebt bekeken…

1. LinkedIn Workshops - Introductie

In het huidige digitale tijdperk is social selling relevanter dan ooit. Het gaat over het verbinden en interageren met klanten op sociale medianetwerken en LinkedIn is de vader van allemaal. LinkedIn is een platform met 720 miljoen B2B beslissers dat bedrijven helpt professionele relaties te vinden en te creëren.

Hoewel LinkedIn oorspronkelijk ontworpen werd als een zoekplatform voor rekruteerders, is het nu de thuisbasis van social selling en business development op het web.

Via onze LinkedIn training workshops leer je alle strategieën en tools om precies jouw doelpubliek aan te spreken. Je zult ook LinkedIn-specifieke functies begrijpen om professionele connecties te ontwikkelen en zowel je persoonlijke aanwezigheid als die van je bedrijf op het platform uit te bouwen.

In deze post bespreken we de basisprincipes van sociale verkoop op LinkedIn en hoe je het goed aanpakt.

Voor meer informatie over LinkedIn training workshops en hoe je een workshop kunt boeken, kun je terecht op de Boek een Gesprek pagina.

2. Maak een professioneel LinkedIn profiel aan

Je persoonlijke LinkedIn profiel is zoals de landingspagina van een website. Het laat niet alleen je persoonlijke merk zien, maar genereert ook leads en nieuwe klanten voor je. Je LinkedIn profiel kan gevonden worden door zowel bestaande connecties als potentiële klanten, die zo hun due diligence kunnen voltooien voordat ze contact met je opnemen.

LinkedIn biedt een handige wizard bij het aanmelden om je te helpen je professionele profiel te vervolledigen. Zorg ervoor dat je verder gaat dan alleen het toevoegen van je expertise en voeg details toe over je professionele kennis en interesses.

3. Bouw aan je professionele netwerk

De meeste mensen op LinkedIn verbinden zich gewoon met potentiële nieuwe klanten en vergeten dan om relaties op te bouwen.

LinkedIn is een zakelijk netwerkplatform, dus nadat je contact hebt gelegd met prospects moet je met hen blijven interageren (niet aan hen verkopen).

Hoe doe je dit? De basis is eenvoudig – Like, Deel en Reageer op hun inhoud.

De realiteit is dat hoe harder je probeert aan iemand te verkopen, hoe meer ze zich tegen je zullen verzetten, vooral op LinkedIn.

4. Interactie, interactie en nog eens interactie

De meeste mensen zijn onzeker over de beste manier om leads te genereren en nieuwe business te winnen op LinkedIn.

De gemakkelijkste manier om dit uit te leggen is LinkedIn te behandelen zoals traditioneel netwerken in levende lijve – als je het niet in levende lijve zou zeggen of doen, doe het dan ook niet online.

Niet interageren op LinkedIn is zoals naar een traditioneel netwerkevenement gaan en dan de hele namiddag in de vestiaire zitten.

Eens je je Ideale Klantenprofiel gerelateerd hebt aan je doelpubliek op LinkedIn, moet je met hen interageren.

Netwerk met collega-professionals en potentiële nieuwe klanten en like, becommentarieer en deel hun inhoud.

5. Focus op geweldige inhoud

Je marketingteam zou al inzichtelijke content moeten delen via je bedrijfspagina op LinkedIn.

Je moet dit dus opnieuw posten en je eigen persoonlijke inzichten en tips toevoegen.

Vermijd het delen van te veel verkoopcontent over je producten en diensten en concentreer je in plaats daarvan op branchecontent die educatief is en je bedrijf positioneert als de materiedeskundige.

Wij adviseren niet meer dan één stuk verkoopinhoud per drie berichten en minimaal één stuk verkoopinhoud per vijf berichten.

Als je geen eigen inhoud hebt, kun je inhoud van andere sites cureren en inhoud van je eigen connecties delen.

6. Technieken voor sociaal verkopen - eerst serveren dan verkopen

In overeenstemming met Emersons wet van compensatie op LinkedIn, winnen gevers.

Prospects zullen pas van je kopen als ze je kennen, aardig vinden en vertrouwen. Als je wilt dat prospects je vertrouwen, moet je eerst waarde geven. Het LinkedIn platform is in wezen een digitaal marketingplatform waarmee je prospects en potentiële klanten kunt koesteren.

Ja, je kan een LinkedIn automatiseringstool kopen en wat wij noemen ‘verschroeide aarde’ campagnes voeren, maar deze tools beschadigen je persoonlijke en bedrijfsmerk en brengen je account in gevaar om afgesloten te worden omdat ze tegen de regels van LinkedIn zijn.

Je moet je er ook van bewust zijn dat wanneer andere gebruikers je op LinkedIn blokkeren, je voor het leven geblokkeerd bent, niet alleen zolang je in je huidige functie werkzaam bent. Dit maakt succes in toekomstige banen veel moeilijker.

7. Maak een inhoudsschema

Regelmatig inhoud posten is een geweldige manier om je bedrijf op LinkedIn te positioneren en een contentschema is een belangrijk onderdeel van je planning.

Uit onze eigen ervaring blijkt dat je maximaal 1 keer per dag content moet posten voor nationale merken en 2 keer per dag voor internationale merken om rekening te houden met de tijdsverschillen.

Het minimum dat we je aanraden om LinkedIn te gebruiken om inhoud te posten om succesvol te zijn is twee keer per week.

Volgens onderzoek van Hubspot zijn de beste tijden om je sales en marketing content op LinkedIn te plaatsen:

Tussen 12.00 – 15.00 uur, 15.00 – 18.00 uur of 18.00 – 21.00 uur.

Woensdag, zaterdag en zondag.

8. Een fundering bouwen

Vanuit het oogpunt van bedrijfsontwikkeling werken je tactieken op de korte termijn mogelijk niet, tenzij je al een sterke aanwezigheid hebt in sociale media.

Zie LinkedIn als een mini-website waar je relevante informatie plaatst. Die informatie is als zaadjes en om daar voordeel uit te halen, moet je ze eerst regelmatig voeden en verzorgen.

Zaai geen zaadjes en verwacht de volgende dag een oogst. Waarom zouden potentiële klanten vanaf het begin zaken met je doen? Deel inhoud die uitlegt waarom.

9. Evalueren wat werkt

LinkedIn is een bewegende doelpaal en wat werkt kan veranderen. Naast het type marketingcontent dat je plaatst, moet je ook het type content evalueren. Short Form vs Long Form, Video vs tekst, Carrousel vs .PDF en Polls. Het zal je verbazen hoe verschillend de resultaten kunnen zijn.

Prestaties vergelijken met een post met één afbeelding en tekst:

Document posts krijgen 2,2 tot 3,4x meer bereik

Polls krijgen 2,1 tot 2,9x meer bereik

Carrousel posts krijgen 1,8 tot 2,3x meer bereik

Tekst en meerdere afbeeldingen (montage) krijgen 1,2 tot 1,6 keer meer bereik.

10. Trainingsformaat

Als bedrijf geloven we in werkgebaseerd leren. Deze manier van lesgeven is erop gericht leerlingen uit het klaslokaal te halen en te laten leren door te doen.

Onze LinkedIn training is ontworpen rond jouw leerprioriteiten en waar mogelijk passen we de inhoud van de training aan jouw behoeften aan. Eerder dan op theorie gebaseerd, biedt elke workshop een praktische aanpak over hoe LinkedIn te gebruiken.

Elke training wordt persoonlijk gegeven, of op afstand online via een workshop van een dag of een halve dag.

11. LinkedIn Workshops

Klozers geeft LinkedIn training workshops zowel in persoon als op afstand online. Onze LinkedIn training geeft je team de uitgebreide training die ze nodig hebben om potentiële klanten te identificeren en met hen in contact te komen. en zo effectief mogelijk aan hen verkopen op een manier die geen spam is.

Onze Sales Trainers helpen je bij het ontwerpen en geven van trainingsworkshops op maat van je bedrijf.

Elke sessie zal voortbouwen op de bestaande kennis van je business development team en hoe zij LinkedIn gebruiken. Wij bieden voortdurende ondersteuning voor uw mensen en uw leiderschapsteam om ervoor te zorgen dat u in contact komt en praat met meer potentiële nieuwe klanten en echte verkoop en inkomsten genereert.

Als je geïnteresseerd bent en meer wil weten over onze LinkedIn Training, dan kan je hier een afspraak maken met één van onze LinkedIn training specialisten.

“Een fantastische leerervaring”

Amanda – Account Manager

Business Development Training | Everything you Need to Know

by Iain Swanston

business development training - Top Question from Google

What are Business Development Skills?

Selling has changed so much in recent years which is reflected in the skills that the modern sales professional needs to be successful. Regardless of the industry every Business Development Professional requires:

Communication Skills
Sales Prospecting Skills
Social Selling Skills
Research and Planning Skills
Networking & Relationship Management Skills

Whilst skills are important, what’s more important are the traits or habits of the individual. For example, are they reliable, are they coachable, do they take ownership or play the victim? Skills can be learned and whilst traits and habits can be changed, most companies simply don’t have the time or resources available to rebuild the character of an individual.

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…

1. Business Development Training - Introduction

Business development refers to the plans and methods used to increase a company’s value and growth. Business growth tactics may include activities such as relationship-building, market expansion, and brand awareness initiatives.

Business development isn’t just about opening new accounts. It should be the process of positioning the business for long-term growth by using a variety of business development strategies and taking a more targeted approach than salespeople do when closing deals with specific consumers.

Business development training has become more important than ever as salespeople find it harder and harder to open new accounts. True business development includes market appraisal, positioning and strategy, not just traditional selling skills.

2. Why is Business Development Important?

Business development helps an organization grow by assisting with expanding and improving its sales, revenues, product offerings, talent, customer service, and brand awareness. It serves as the connecting link between all of a company’s divisions or departments.

Here are three reasons why business development training is crucial

1. It creates vital new connections

Building relationships is important in the business development process. Skilled business developers focus on making connections with senior level decision makers in their prospects C-suite. Making connections is only the start of the process with customers. We still believe that people buy from people and relationship building also plays a critical part of any business development strategy. When done correctly, connections are often made for life and many salespeople have made a career exclusively from their own, personal, black book.

2. It’s an essential strategy for boosting sales and reducing costs.

Every business loses a percentage of their customers each year. Bankruptcies, takeovers and changes in buying teams affect us all. These accounts need to be replaced for the company to maintain its performance, let alone grow. The process of developing a business requires finding strategies to increase the amount of revenue a company obtains while minimizing revenue loss. By having people who are focused on business growth, an organization can decide which markets and products have the greatest profit potential and which deals to pursue first.

3. It can enhance the company’s brand reputation

Business developers can assist a business in developing a stronger brand because marketing is essential in long-term value to a business’s growth. Business developers should collaborate closely with the marketing department using their business experience and skills to create strategies and campaigns that expand the company’s target market and attract the right type of new customers.

3. The significance of business development at different stages of company growth

Business development strategies for a well-established firm with 1,000 plus workers look very different from the business development strategies for a startup with ten employees. This is because there are numerous stages of business development, and the specific tasks within each stage differ depending on the size and maturity of an organization. Of course, budgets and resources also have a major impact on this.

Each type of company—startups, medium-sized businesses, large, well-established businesses—needs a unique business development strategy.

Start-ups

A new company needs to lay a strong foundation to survive and grow. Business development strategies for startups focus on building that foundation by validating product market fit, building use cases in different verticals, and gaining valuable case studies to help scale future sales. Not every salesperson has the skills and tenacity to break new ground, as this can be extremely hard work.

Mid-sized businesses

As a firm grows, the need for more structure and process within sales appears. This can have a negative effect as it impacts the culture of the business. The friendly, team environment can start to wain with the introduction for more management which is needed because there are more people. Nonetheless, new business development becomes even more crucial to the growth of the business. As members of the founding team may have undertaken business development duties throughout the start-up and SME phase, this is usually impossible to maintain as the have a bigger business to run, with more people reporting to them. Business Development can sometimes become swallowed up by the business-as-usual sales, and dedicated teams are often required to avoid this. By enhancing and releasing new products, searching for new markets, winning new “marquee” accounts and investing in expansion, businesses in this stage can continue to expand. A skilled business developer may execute these tasks, allowing senior executives to focus on ongoing operations and other administrative obligations.

Large, Enterprise companies

The resources and client base that larger, more established firms have built up over time are available to the BD teams, regardless they still need to hunt for fresh growth opportunities and partnerships. During this period of business development, winning new accounts can be much easier as they now have the power of a large brand behind them. Bigger budgets allow more focus on finding, cultivating, and putting into practice new ideas from both inside and outside the company, leading to innovation, new partnerships, and strengthened relationships with both present and potential customers.

4. Understanding the Basics of Business Development

In the modern era, sales, marketing, engineering, product management, vendor management, and other divisions are all involved in business development. Initiatives for differentiation, alliances, bargaining, and networking are also active. These many departments and operations are all motivated by and coordinated around the goals of organizational development, business training and leadership skills.

Sales

In most cases the role of the Business Development Manager is usually to focus on a particular market, or a certain set of accounts (Account Based Selling). This targeting must include the companies Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and the Buyer Personas in order to be successful. Sales strategy, planning and management are all pre-requisites for success.

Marketing

Whilst not everyone agrees with our position, we believe that marketing is there to deliver sales leads. Brand building and raising awareness are too often excuses used to justify poor results. From experience marketing should be fully aligned with sales and support business development activities. Marketing should lay the ground work and position the brand before the BD professional even makes contact.

Strategic Partnerships or Initiatives

Partnerships should not be limited to those that can deliver direct sales. It’s advisable to form strategic partnerships and collaborate with companies that have a common target audience to increase your brand awareness in a market. Our recommendation would be to wherever possible always partner with a bigger brand than your own. By leveraging the power of a bigger brand, you will automatically raise your own brand awareness and positioning in the buyer’s mind.

Project Management/Business Planning

Winning any new business is never easy, however, wining new enterprise deals is often the most difficult of all. This requires thorough planning, patience and persistence. Simple tried and proven tools like SWOT analysis, Ansoffs Matrix and OKRs play a vital part in preparing to win at business development.

Product Management

Modern product management simply must be built on differentiation. There are simply too many products and services that have no discernable difference and ends up in buyers making their selection based on price. Features and benefits are not points of differentiation as they will simply be copied by your competitors if they have any value in the market.

Vendor Management

In many cases, growth is simply not possible without the support of your vendors. However, Vendors can play an important part of business development as they can feed into product development, partnerships and sales and marketing. Can you work together with your vendors to co-create the next generation of products and services?

Networking, and Relationships

Much as we love technology, people buy from people. When two products and services are the same the business developer who is the best at building relationships will win. Nobody wants to buy from a salesperson they don’t like or get on with. The best business development professionals have taken their personal skills past what we call the “functional skills level” and have developed leadership skills that are vital for both internal, and external communications.

Cost Reduction

Business development and scaling up isn’t just about adding more salespeople to the team. It’s about knowing your customer acquisition costs and working tirelessly to reduce these. New ideas and strategies that fill the top of the sales funnel need to continuously be tried, tested and measured.

5. Business Development Training - Conclusion

We would love to be your partner for growth and help your team be the best they can be. Our business development training is available for delivery either In-Person, Remote or a hybrid combination of the two.

Our professional business development courses include the latest in remote selling and includes time set out for role-playing. Our sales training follows the work-based learning methodology which is designed to minimise classroom/theory time and maximise the time spent on practical, work-related projects.

Every business development course we deliver is led by a skilled and experienced sales trainer who still sells for a living in the real business world. This ensures they have a genuine understanding of front line selling. In addition, over 80% of the training content we deliver is customised to meet the relevant skills and learning outcomes our clients are looking for. We don’t just deliver generic business development training courses.

“A fantastic learning experience”

Amanda – Account Manager

8 Steps to Crafting an Effective Go to Market Strategy

by Iain Swanston

Go to Market Strategy - Top Question from Google

What is a Go to Market (GTM) Strategy?

A go-to-market strategy (GTM) is a detailed plan made to successfully introduce a product or service to the market. A strong GTM strategy involves target audience identification, a marketing plan, and a sales strategy. GTM strategies should identify a market issue or business pain and present the product as a potential solution.

A GTM strategy is, to put it simply, how a business chooses to sell a product to the market. It is a practical roadmap that assesses a solution’s likelihood of success and forecasts its performance using market research, precedents, and competitor data.

It’s also important to remember that go-to-market strategies aren’t limited to tangible goods. For a new service, a new division of your firm, or even a brand-new venture, you can develop GTM strategies. Lastly, you can develop a GTM strategy to relaunch or reinvigorate an existing product or service.

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…

1. Go to Market Strategy - Introduction

The path to success is littered with failure and whilst failure can be a great teacher, it comes at a cost. The best ideas, whether they be SaaS or a traditional business model, can easily fail without a GTM strategy that can deliver growth and profits.

Without good planning, it’s impossible to tell if you’re pursuing the correct audience, entering a market too early or late, or aiming for one that’s oversaturated with comparable products. You don’t want to waste time and money on developing a product that won’t be successful.

You need to create a well-thought-out, doable, and efficient go-to-market strategy if you want to prevent those potentially disastrous hiccups and hangups. Most of the time, navigating that process is anything but simple.

This information will walk you through all you need to know to develop an effective and successful GTM strategy. This framework applies to B2B companies, startups, and essentially any new business or product you intend to sell, either to existing customers or new customers.

2. Why do you need a Go to Market Strategy?

With 660,000 new startups every year, 20% of which are no longer trading after 12 months and 80% not trading after 60 months, the odds of success are against you. Even if you invest a lot of work, time, money, and resources into producing a new product or service, your project could fail if your go-to-market strategy is poorly thought out.

It’s critical to begin developing a go-to-market strategy as you create something new, one that is tailored to meet the product, your budget and buyer persona.

The majority of errors and oversights that might ruin the launch of a new product can be avoided by developing simply planning a go-to-market strategy prior to launch. Even if the product is well-designed and unique, a launch might be hampered by things like poor product-market fit or perceived oversaturation in the market.

A go-to-market strategy can help you manage expectations and iron out any wrinkles before you invest in bringing a product to market, although it can never guarantee success.

Lastly, your GTM strategy is an important tool for providing a centre point and focus, for your sales and marketing teams.

3. Go-to-Market Strategy vs a Marketing Plan

A go-to-market plan is specifically designed for introducing a new product or entering a new market. A marketing plan, on the other hand, normally provides specifics on how your entire business marketing strategy will be carried out.

A marketing plan, like an annual roadmap or an all-encompassing digital marketing strategy, is a long-term strategy to help you reach your marketing objectives rather than being launch-specific.

Your GTM approach is adapted to a particular launch, but it is based on your long-term marketing strategy.

4. The 8 components of a Go-to-Market Strategy

The essential components of a go-to-market strategy are as follows:

1. VALUE PROPOSITION

Your value proposition is the starting point on the journey that is product/market fit. In the simplest terms your value proposition defines how your product will address your target customers’ needs better than any alternatives.

2. Target Audience:

Who is affected by the issue or pains your product addresses? How much are they prepared to spend on a fix? Can you target your existing customer base in addition to new? How big is the Total Available Market (TAM)? What is their buying process. Are we targeting SMEs, Mid-Market or Enterprise?

3. Position:

Who is the current provider and what makes you different. Who is already providing what you are launching? What is the status Quo? Does a market exist for the product/service, or is it already saturated? What position will help us achieve competitive advantage in the market?

4. messaging:

Words are the most undervalued, yet important sales tool. How do we convey our Value Proposition and Position in words? Are we consistently A/B testing the messaging in our marketing campaigns?

5. Channels: How will the product or service be distributed? A website, an app, or a distributor from a third party? Have we costed each channel?

6. Door opener:

What is our irrefusable first offer that will capture new clients? How do we get that offer in front of our Ideal Client Profile?

7. embed & expand:

In SaaS the onboarding of new customers represents the biggest challenge with 25% of users abandoning apps after the first use. How do we onboard and delight new customers and then spread throughout the organisation?

8. Promote & Refer:

Starting with the end in mind, how do we create brand ambassadors who in turn create a recurring stream of client referrals

5. What types of Go-to-Market Strategies are there?

The best products will fail even with many customers if sales can’t be processed and service levels can’t be maintained. The best products will fail even with many customers delivered by the go-to-market strategy (step forward the revenue delivery strategy and pricing strategy).

The midpoint of this journey does not, however, fit every go-to-market strategy perfectly. Depending on what will be your growth engine, your go-to-market strategy will be different.

There are two options: growth that is driven by products and growth that is driven by sales.

A product-led go-to-market strategy

The focus of growth is placed on the product using a product-led go-to-market strategy. The product functions as both a remedy for a company issue and a silent salesperson by enabling clients to purchase, renew, and upgrade without ever leaving the product.

The absence of a salesperson during the discovery and research stages of the sales journey is also crucial to the concept of this self-serve sales model. Theoretically, the product should contain all the information a potential buyer may need, from the features and technical specifications of the solution to the pricing alternatives and contract conditions.

A freemium offer is one of many approaches used in product-led go-to-market strategies to first attract consumers before later converting them to paying clients. The line between product strategy and go-to-market strategy becomes hazier in product-led go-to-market strategies since the product serves as the primary sales channel.

The customer journey is influenced by factors including site architecture, product design, user experience (UX), and copy, which makes these factors more crucial to the go-to-market strategist.

A sales-led go-to-market strategy

A salesman initiates and closes sales in a sales-led go-to-market approach. Even while the product will play a significant role in any sales conversation, the actual transaction (as well as any subsequent renewals and upgrades) happen off the platform.

This strategy is frequently used when a product is so ground-breaking, intricate, or expensive that numerous parties must participate in the decision-making process over several months (Enterprise Sales). Due to the resource-intensive nature of the sales process, the company will concentrate on making fewer sales at greater margins.

Sales-led go-to-market strategies are driven by people rather than the product, which makes the continuing connection to product marketing weaker. Instead, product marketing and go-to-market strategies will collaborate closely to establish the advantages of the solution and the target market at the outset of a sales-led growth plan.

Equally, product and revenue delivery strategies are more disjointed in a sales-led go-to-market strategy, where the product is not the means of processing orders.

6. Go-to-Market Plan Methodologies

The funnel and the flywheel are the two main approaches for establishing a go-to-market strategy. The flywheel technique employs inbound marketing and other strategies to create long-lasting client relationships, in contrast to the conventional, one-off funnel method, which focuses on attracting leads and nurturing them into sales.

The circular flywheel concentrates on luring, enticing, and pleasing prospects, leads, and customers, whereas the funnel is focused on the awareness, deliberation, and decision stages of the customer’s journey. When a lead turns to a customer, the flywheel continues as the business must keep drawing them in, keep them interested, and satisfy them with top-notch customer service, fresh content, and possibly new products.

You should follow these phases in your planning approach whether you’ve chosen to use the flywheel or the funnel.

Make your buyer persona stand out.
Finish the value matrix for your persona.
Specify your lead generation and content strategies.
Modify and refine as you go.
Keep and satisfy your clients.

7. How to build a Go-to-Market Strategy

7.1. Determine the personas and the buying centre

As obvious as it seems, it is a key point, the first step in putting your product on the market is to think about your customer.

A complicated B2B solution often has a buying group of six to ten decision-makers. The “purchasing centre” is set up with these people.

Although it’s vital to keep in mind that some job titles may serve more than one role, each of those buyers normally fulfils one of the following roles:

Users are those who consistently use your product, influencers are those who persuade others to buy it, decision-makers are those who approve final purchases, and buyers are those who control the budget.

Initiator: Someone who initiates a purchase or expresses an initial interest
User: Consistently uses your product
Influencer: One who persuades others that the product is necessary
Decision-maker: Approves the purchase
Buyer: Owns the budget
Approver: The initiative’s final approver who pushes it on a broader scale. (Most likely someone in C-suite)
Gatekeeper: Blocker in the implementation or approval of a product.

Depending on the product, sector, and vertical you’re selling to, these positions change. Gather your team and discuss the various job roles that your solution might affect.

7.2. Create a value matrix to aid in messaging identification

After mapping the personas for your buying centre, it is the best time to map out your value matrix.

Each buying centre persona, their business issues, and how useful your solution is in resolving those issues are broken down into a value matrix.

A relevant marketing message connecting the problem and solution must also be included in the value matrix.

Create a chart with one column for each persona. List the daily pain points that each persona experiences below. Include them in a row if your product can alleviate or resolve any of these issues.

In the end, the message must effectively convey both the value and the pain point. Agitating the pain point is the most effective technique to accomplish this. While most people will take a pain reliever to treat a headache, they are considerably less likely to take a daily vitamin to avoid the pain altogether. Your product’s value should be in relieving the suffering, not in acting as a vitamin.

7.3. Examine your messaging

After establishing your value matrix, it’s time to test your messaging. Utilizing the messages you’ve just generated for various audience members, begin promoting on social media networks.

You will have to test variables to find out what works in your marketing campaigns. The three variables you will test are the channel on which you advertise, the audience you aim for, and the message you convey.

Think about where your audience is before determining where to test. Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are potential paid digital advertising channels. Test different channels, then keep advertising on the ones that convert well. And stop spending money on channels that convert poorly.

7.4. Before putting ANY copy or adverts into widespread use, optimize them based on the findings of your tests

Optimize for your target customers next. Some ad networks offer advertisers settings for highly focused audiences. For instance, LinkedIn provides options for firm size, region, job title and function. To determine which audience is more likely to click or convert, test several possibilities.

Spending money where you’ll get the most return on investment is the key in this situation.

Additionally, you’ll test your messaging to determine which versions are most effective with your audience. Your advertising’ engagement and conversion rates will show you which value propositions and pain points are the most effective.

After gathering this data, you can use the successful insights to guide your larger campaigns.

7.5. Recognize the buying process

After developing your personas and value matrix, go further to comprehend the path a potential client would travel, both from the buyer’s and your company’s perspectives.

From your customer’s viewpoint, the buying process is straightforward. It will essentially go as follows:

After realizing they have an issue, the buyer does some investigation.
The buyer narrows down the list of prospective solutions.
Until a choice is chosen, that list is reduced by speaking with the solution provider’s sales teams and by evaluating different product use cases.

From a business standpoint, the buyer’s journey used to resemble a funnel. The top of the traditional sales funnel has a high level of general interest. As opportunities come off the pipeline, it gradually gets smaller.

The sales funnel is no longer the ideal lens through which to see your buyer’s journey. Instead, we advise employing the flywheel model, which adopts a more comprehensive strategy and centres on your client, converting leads into customers and active promoters.

Customers go through three stages in the flywheel model: attract, engage, and delight.

The period of attraction comes first. This stage of content draws a potential customer in. This might be a blog post, whitepaper, or video. A lead gets here by clicking on an advertisement, social media post, or search engine result.

These actions, however, do not suggest that the lead is prepared to make a purchase just yet.

The engaging step then follows. At this point, a potential customer has shown that they have an issue that your solution can address. This allows you to engage them with educational content through digital behaviours like downloading an ebook or signing up for a webinar.

Marketing normally oversees the entice and engage phases of the lead generation and qualification process, while each firm has its unique divisions. Through messaging and content, your marketing staff must pique the attention of the target audience, raise awareness of the product, and inform them of its benefits.

The prospect should request a price estimate or a trial period at the halfway point of the engagement process. They’re about to choose whether or not to buy.

When the potential customer reaches this stage, the sales group takes over. For large deals, the procedure will typically look like this:

Make contact: The sales representative and lead start talking.
Qualification: To determine whether a potential customer meets the minimal requirements to buy the product, the sales representative learns more about the business, and their customer’s problems, and asks questions.
Demo/Presentation: For SaaS companies there is typically a demo provided by an Account Executive to present the solution.
Business case: To determine whether a product can meet their needs, a prospect may test it out through a free trial or POC.
Evaluation: The organization’s decision-makers compare the product’s price to the outcomes of the business case.
Negotiating: Pricing specifics and feature requirements are discussed by sales representatives and decision-makers.
Close: A contract is reached, and your prospect becomes a client.
Renewal (Optional): The contract or subscription of your customer is renewed.

The lead leaves the engage phase and enters the delight phase as soon as your sales agent closes the deal. When a client reaches this point, you should please them with a simple onboarding procedure and welcoming customer care alternatives.

Then, hopefully, your customer will become a promoter. They increase your consumer base, which keeps the flywheel turning and helps you expand more effectively.

7.6. Select the four most popular sales strategies

You’ve completed all the necessary groundwork; the next step is to choose a plan of action to introduce your product to the market. It’s critical to take into account your method’s complexity, scalability, and cost because no single approach will be effective for every product or market.

Typically, there are four go-to-market sales strategies, each of which is tailored to a particular product and company model.

The Self-Service model.

When a customer makes an independent purchase, it is considered self-service. This business-to-consumer strategy is frequently used when a customer may discover and purchase a product online via a website like Netflix or Amazon.

Simple products with a low price point and big sales volumes are the greatest candidates for this. It’s challenging to construct, but when it does, it has a quick sales cycle, requires no upfront investment to hire salespeople, and is very profitable.

You won’t need a sales crew, but you will need a marketing team to promote your website and increase conversions. This gives you a competitive advantage. Experts in pricing strategy, growth marketing, performance marketing, and content marketing would likely make up the core marketing team, however, there may also be other team members.

The Inside Sales Business Model

The inside sales business model is used when a sales representative must develop a prospect before a contract can be closed. With a product of moderate complexity and cost, this kind of model performs best.

The sales cycle length varies from a few weeks to a few months. In this case, you’ll invest in sales and support teams, but inside sales representatives are less expensive than field representatives.

This business is fairly simple to develop and grow as you add additional team members, and it has the potential to be successful with huge sales volumes. In this arrangement, the sales team is often made up of a sales manager and a small number of representatives.

The Field Sales Business Model

When you have a whole sales organization that closes big business agreements, that is the field sales, business model. These are frequently complicated products with high price tags, which also means that there are frequently few offers and a lengthy sales cycle.

Due to the high salaries and experience of the field salespeople, the sales team in this model is frequently quite expensive. Because it costs time and money to recruit and train a whole sales staff, this model is simple to create but more challenging to scale.

A sales manager, field representatives, sales engineers, a team of sales development representatives (SDR), and sales operations are among the group’s members.

The Channel Model

Finally, in the channel model, a third-party partner or agency sells your goods on your behalf. Building this is challenging since it can be challenging to find and educate potential employees about the advantages of your product. They frequently have lower sales motivation than your own sales team would.

However, because you don’t have to pay for your own sales team, this strategy is inexpensive. It functions best when the product aligns with the partner’s interests.

Depending on your industry or target market, you can combine or contrast these approaches. Instead of investing in an expensive sales team too soon, businesses should scale over time.

7.7. Use inbound and/or outbound techniques to increase brand recognition and demand development

Now you must attract the interest of your target market to fill your pipeline. Demand generation, which may be accomplished through both inbound and outbound tactics, is how this happens.

With inbound, customers find your brand through marketing initiatives and contact you or express interest in you of their own will.

Social media, content, or paid advertisements that lead to a landing page are a few examples of channels that generate organic inbound traffic.

When a salesperson makes a cold outreach contact with a lead, this is known as outbound demand generation. They could accomplish this by calling leads, sending warm emails, reaching out to contacts on a contact list, or gathering leads at trade shows.

The leads are guided to additional instructional information and eventually into the sales funnel once interest has been developed through these tactics.

7.8. Create content to attract inbound prospects

In general, inbound leads are less expensive to acquire and easier to convert than outbound leads. This is because inbound prospects are already aware of your product, partially educated on the business problem you answer, and typically more interested in purchasing it.

The secret to creating that inbound interest is content marketing, which will bring visitors to your website.

By identifying and targeting keywords that your potential customers might use to search for your products or services, your content marketing team will increase the amount of inbound traffic to your website.

Search engine optimization (SEO), which is how a search engine ranks the information on the internet after a query is entered into the search bar, is at the heart of content marketing. This will contribute significantly to your organic website traffic.

Although various products might require various launch strategies, the template and instructions below should help you develop a sound initial plan that can be modified as you go.

7.8.1. Conduct keyword research

Choose keywords that are relevant to your product, determine their volume (how frequently people search for them), the difficulty of ranking for them (i.e., how competitive they are), and find out who is already ranking for them.

7.8.2. Conduct content research

Come up with content ideas that contain that term. Look for existing articles on these subjects to help you plan your content calendar.

7.8.3. Content creation

Put those concepts into action and commission seo optimised articles on those subjects from writers in order to drive traffic to your website.

7.8.4. Design

Make your information more visually appealing and engaging by including pertinent photos, infographics, videos, and other multimedia.

7.8.5. Promote

Share the links to your material on social media or in emails to your client database to increase traffic to your website.

7.8.6. Create links

Make contact with other publishers and request that they link to your work to increase traffic. You get site authority as a result, which raises your SEO ranks.

7.8.7. Conversion rate

Monitor and gauge your content’s engagement and conversion rates. Drop what doesn’t work and continue with what does. Restart the cycle of content generation after that.

7.9. Look for methods to improve your pipeline and boost conversion rates

Selecting a sales strategy and developing a demand-creation process are not sufficient for growth.

Sales is a numbers game, and you can only improve by tracking your success. Volume, conversion rate, and time are the key performance indicators (KPIs) for managing a sales staff.

You should keep tabs on the volume of your pipeline, which measures how many opportunities enter the flywheel.

then keep tabs on how many leads ended up becoming clients. You can determine your overall conversion rate by comparing the volume of opportunities in your pipeline to the number of closed agreements.

7.10. Examine the sales cycle and shorten it

Finally, keep tabs on the length of your sales cycle. This is how long it takes for an opportunity to get from the top of the sales funnel to a closed or successful deal. The conversion between each stage should be sped up. This can be achieved by recognizing typical objections (and iterating ways to eliminate them before they arise), doing continual lead nurturing, and coming up with ideas for how to locate the most suitable clients.

7.11. Lower the price of acquiring customers

You’ll also need to reduce the expense of acquiring new customers as a business owner. At first, this will be incredibly expensive, but as time goes on, you’ll need to optimize your procedures to lower this cost or you’ll end up losing more money than you gain.

The cost of acquiring a new customer or contract is expressed as a cost per $1. The less your marketing activities affect your PNL, the more profit you make per customer, and the lower the cost of customer acquisition.

7.12. Plan out ways to reach out to your current clientele

A well-known proverb in the sector states that acquiring new customers is seven times more expensive than doing business with current ones. This is because if you’re offering a fantastic shopping experience, your current consumers already know, like, and trust you.

Renewals, cross-selling, and upselling are the best ways for businesses to increase revenue and profits.

Many people view sales as a mysterious black box. However, business executives may enhance their processes to increase productivity thanks to analytics and emerging sales AI solutions.

7.13. As you go, modify and improve

Entrepreneurs who possess specific abilities are not the only ones who can build a successful business.

You’ve probably already built your product, and creating a corporation is a fairly similar process. Throughout the process, you must remain strategic and work to improve.

You can create a firm if you take your time and keep improving. Revisit the parts of your plan that need adjustment. Keep track of what is working and come up with ideas for how to build on it.

7.14. Keep and impress your clients

You’ll concentrate on keeping up your client relationships and generating positive word-of-mouth during this time. A flywheel method can be considerably more beneficial in this situation than a funnel that finishes with sales.

8. What's the Purpose of a Go-to-Market Strategy

When properly implemented, the go-to-market strategy will bring all stakeholders together and develop a roadmap to make sure each one accomplishes the objectives and milestones set forth, paving the way for market success.

In general, a go-to-market strategy is employed to produce the following advantages within a company:

highlight your competitive advantage to your target customers in a new market.
A marketing strategy with a distinct direction for all parties involved.
A shorter time for products and services to reach the market.
A higher likelihood that a product or service launch will be successful.
Lessening the likelihood that unsuccessful product or service launches would result in additional expenditures.
Improved capacity to respond to adjustments and consumer demands.
Better handling of difficulties.
A proven route for advancement.
Assured effective client experience generation.
Assurance of legal conformity.

Go-to-market plans can refer to the precise measures a business must take to direct client interactions for established products, even though they are frequently linked with product launches.

Organizations need a thorough grasp of the target market and the working environment to develop a GTM strategy that works. The management system for the GTM strategy should be built, and both new and existing procedures should be documented.

9. Conclusion

It’s essential to develop a comprehensive and effective GTM strategy as part of your overall marketing strategy before launching a new product or service.

A go-to-market plan is an action plan for your business that outlines how the entire team will do market research, introduce products, and evaluate their success. Our suggestion would be to take the key points from your go-to-market strategy, present them to your executive team for approval, then establish deadlines and concentrate on execution.

By following the instructions in this tutorial, you’ll be well on your way to launching a new product that will benefit your potential clients and make money on the market.

“A fantastic learning experience”

Amanda – Account Manager

Sales Team OKRs | Achieving Sales Goals with OKRs

by Iain Swanston

Sales Team OKRs - Top Question from Google

Are OKRs good for Sales?

OKRs (Objectives, Key Results) are good for sales because they help with engagement, productivity and ensure that the sales teams activities are aligned, and delivering against the company’s growth strategy. Sales OKRs are not an alternative to KPIs and actually work alongside KPIs to improve your sales.

“The most useful and best days training I’ve ever had. Love your style.”

Gary CEO

1. Our OKR Journey

As a company we must confess that we have been slow to move away from our traditional Balanced Scorecard based approach to management. We fell foul of the old adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Our Scorecards were ruthlessly simple and served us well for many years as we continued to customise and fine tune them to our business.

Our belief that because we were using and tracking our most important KPIs led us to ignore the OKR methodology, when in reality they are very different and each bring different value to sales and business management.

Our driver for change came from the need to help our clients with managing their sales teams, many of whom were SaaS or IT based business. Our clients were already using the OKR methodology and applying it to their sales function was easier than introducing our previous scorecard approach.

As a company one of our key differentiators has always been that we only teach sales strategies and tactics that we use in our own business. So, in mid-2021 we dropped our traditional scorecards and moved over to the OKR methodology.

They say everything in life has a purpose and timing wise our move to OKRs could not have been better. Since rebuilding the business after our traditional face to face training and coaching business was wiped out by the lockdowns, we have had a huge focus on growth.

Without a doubt, our OKRs have helped us with strategizing, planning and then executing. This resulted in a record turnover for 2021 and an amazing start to FY 2022.

I’ve shared some of our own Objectives and Key Results as examples later in this article for those who would like some more detail. But first…

2. How are OKRs different from KPIs?

Many companies use sales KPIs which is great and we would encourage you to continue doing so. This is because OKRs and KPIs are very different and perform different “roles” within your sales management function.

The primary role of sales KPIs are to measure Performance and or Quality. In the world of sales we have lots of KPIs such as Cost of Customer Acquisition, Churn, Sales Conversion Ratios in fact the list goes on and on. In our experience there is often too much time creating reports full of KPIs that no one has the time to read or action. Over reporting is definitely a problem you should be aware of.

So, to summarize KPIs measure performance and quality in the BAU (Business as Usual) activities of sales. As a simple example, if your sales reps are making out bound sales calls then your KPIs might look something like this:

Number of dials made – Performance KPI

Conversion ratio of dials to demos – Quality KPI

OKRs on the other hand are very different, bigger and more encompassing. But despite this, OKRs are a really simple process to implement and follow. Here’s our definition of OKRs:

Objectives are inspiring BAG goals (Big Audacious Goals). These Objectives typically come from either strategy implementation, change in direction that the company has chosen, an improvement that may have been highlighted by your KPIs, or some form of innovation. Please read on for some examples of each.

OKRs are your driving force for change, improvement & innovation.

Once these Objectives have been chosen you then decide which Key Results would indicate that you were either progressing or had achieved your Objective. You can include sales KPIs in your Key Results as a measurement.

3. How do I Set up OKRs

There are many books and teachings around the Objectives and Key Results methodology and implementation which we would encourage you to read. Our system may be slightly different to those as we have customised them to the world of sales, so feel free to refine our process to your own business. With that said the process we use works and will work in your business as is.

3.1 Start with your ultimate objective

This is your purpose, your why, the reason you exist. In the majority of cases this has already been defined in your Business Plan. Therefore, as long as your purpose and why is still relevant then this should be a very quick exercise.

It’s worth pointing out that no sales rep is motivated by things like increasing profit margins, market share or your exit strategy. Therefore it’s important that your Ultimate Objective resonates with everyone in the sales team, not just the shareholders.

3.2 Next identify your Strategic Sales objectives

These should come from your sales strategy and by achieving these you would have achieved or at least be making progress towards the Ultimate Objective that you have defined. For teams new to Objectives and Key Results, and those with limited resources chose a maximum of three strategic sales objectives.

In terms of implementation wherever possible these objectives should be exiting and motivating to the sales team. Buy in and engagement are key to your success so it’s important that the sales team feel motivated to achieve the objectives.

With our own clients we encourage the leadership team to choose 5 strategic objectives and then ask the sales teams to choose three. By simply including and allowing them a say in the objectives helps dramatically with engagement and performance, when the hard work starts.

With your Strategic Sales objectives it’s important to think big hence we use the phrase BAG Goals – Big Ambitious Goals. Whilst the big goals may seem unattainable and in reality it may even turn out to be unattainable, studies show that most companies achieve 70-80% of their Objectives. Achieving 70-80% of a Big Ambitious Goal delivers much more impact than 100% of a regular goal.

In terms of the time frame, the Ultimate Objective would be at the least an annual goal but more likely a 3 -5 year goal. The Strategic Objectives would be at least a quarterly (three month) goal with larger annual goals for example broken down into quarterly milestones.

Another important consideration is which are of the sales the objectives are. What we mean by this is that every sales team regardless of what they sell has four core areas they need to focus on. We call these the high value areas of sales and they are Finding, Closing, Growing & Developing.

When you focus your time and energy exclusively on finding, closing and growing sales, it’s almost impossible not to sell more. Developing is the continued personal and professional development of the team.

In an ideal world you would pick one objectives that directly correlated with either Finding, Closing and Growing. Circumstances may dictate you need to focus on one are which is fine but we would advise against having all three objectives in the one area of sales.

Your Strategic Sales Objectives need to excite, inspire and motivate the sales team. As always, we strongly recommend running personal goal setting sessions and linking the Reps personal goals to the business goals.

3.3 Identify your key results

With your sales team first identify the key results that would indicate progress towards or attainment of your sales objective. The Key Results should be as specific and detailed as possible, and also be timebound.

When defining the Key Results it’s important to understand and include the Lead Indicators and not just the Lag Indicators. Lead Indicators are the KPIs recording the activities and actions that lead to the results.

Here’s an example a client set an Ultimate Objective of creating a new recurring revenue stream. The WHY behind this was to help balance the peaks and troughs in their Business as Usual sales.

They then decided on a Strategic Sales Objective of increasing the LTV (Life Time Value) by 50% by end of Q3. They set themselves three Key Results as follows:

* Increase their Customer Satisfaction Score to 7 by end of Q2

* Increase the number of annual contracts they sold to Enterprise Accounts by end of Q2

* Upsell 15% of users from their Base subscription to the Premium

From these Key results the Team collectively decided what activities they would need to undertake in order to attain the Key Results. (There were many more activities required than this, but we have abbreviated)

The answer to these questions can be used to create a series of milestones within your plan that would be used to track progress to the original Key Results.

Now we have defined our objectives and key results that last step is to create our Sales Sprints and define the activities within the sprints. These are the activities that the sales reps need to undertake in order to achieve the Key Results.

It’s worth reiterating that the earlier and greater involvement that the sales reps have in the design and planning the more engaged they will be. Simply throwing a list of Activities at Reps and dressing it up as a Sprint won’t work.

At this stage it would not be unusual for the Sprint activities to include actions and input from other departments. For OKRs focussed on finding new prospects you may require input from marketing to work alongside the SDRs and create a new sales campaign. Including marketing and indeed any other department is the first step to fully aligning your sales and marketing functions which is always positive.

4. Sales OKR Examples

As previously mentioned, one of the reasons our clients love our Sales Training is how we only train our clients on the same sales strategies and tactics that we use in our own business. We test and prove everything before we include it in any of our training.

The slide below shows our own Sales OKR examples that as a team we are working towards through the year. Not all our Strategic Objectives are on track and some are ahead and we are happy to share what’s working and what’s not.

Here’s a brief summary to help you understand:

Strategic Sales Objective 1

Increase International revenues 300% by end of Q4 – we are currently behind on this but our pipeline suggest we can still achieve this. I think we underestimated how much work was involved in getting set up for this, however, despite being behind this is really exciting.

Strategic Sales Objective 2

Increase Monthly Recurring Revenue 300% by end of Q4 – we are on target for this OKR which is great. With that said, in retrospect we perhaps were not ambitious enough when setting the original Objectives. By achieving this Objective we have now increased our Customer Lifetime Value which helps with our gross profit margin. Lots of wins with this particular goal.

Strategic Sales Objective 3

Increase P1P1 from 30 – 100 by end of Q4 – P1P1 refers to the number of keywords we have at Position 1 on Page 1 of Google which drives our Inbound Lead Generation. The Goal was to increase the number from 30 to 100 and considering we have over 250 keywords on Page 1 itself we thought this was achievable. This has however, proven to be much more difficult than we though and we currently only have 48 Keywords at Position 1. This means it’s taken 7 months to add 18 keywords to the top of Google and we need another 52 in the remaining 5 months. That is still a huge achievement and we still have a little over a Quarter to go so fingers crossed we can make up some ground.

Other Sales OKR examples we have supported our clients with are:

Sales Cycle – reducing the sales cycle which came from a Business Objective which was to improve cashflow in the organisation. Using the sales analytics from withing the clients CRM we undertook a thorough sales pipeline analysis to understand which deals where lagging, why they were lagging and what remedial action could be taken. Reducing the sales cycle was one of a number of activities that contributed to this.

Sales Process – most companies either lack a formal sales process or they have a sales process but their salespeople struggle to follow the sales process consistently. Improvements in sales process re typically linked to KPIs around sales performance.

Quarterly Revenue – as you would expect many companies are keen to drive growth and quarterly revenue is a common OKR that we encounter.

Monthly Recurring Revenue – monthly recurring revenue or MRR whilst predominantly associated with SaaS businesses, is a good indicator for every business that measures the sales from existing customers.

Channel Partners – channel partner development is common for those looking to scale quickly and profitably. Channel Partners, strategic partnerships and affiliate programmes are fast, low cost and proven routes to market.

5. Where does Sales Training Fit in the OKR system?

Sales Training is very different to most business training in that sales results are dependant on so many variables it can be difficult to prove a connection between the training and the new revenue.

Furthermore, without the input and support of the Sales Leadership Team training is often left without reinforcement, resulting in salespeople, resorting to the original behaviours prior to the training starting. It’s a vicious circle.

In addition, many of the issues around sales and growth revolve around these challenges:

How do we align the day to day sales activities with the companies overall sales growth strategy?
How do we keep the Sales People focused on the right type of sales activities and hold them accountable to these activities?
How do we provide an objective way to measure the sales performance and activities of our sales people?
How do we align the remuneration of sales people with the right sales activities that support our sales strategy?
How do we provide an objective way to report sales performance so we can identify skills gaps within sales management and the sales team?

Fortunately the OKR system answers all of these questions and more.

Whether using our own system or that of our clients we work with the Sales Manager to provide weekly sales reports, update sales targets, refine the overall sales approach, analyse lost deals and ensure the sales efforts of each team member are aligned with the sales OKRs.

Our OKR based Sales Team Coaching program provides training as and when required by the Sales Sprints. This ensures that we are providing training and coaching that has a direct correlation to the clients Sales Objectives.

The training therefore is highly targeted, customised and relevant to the participants. This is why our clients get genuine sales success and grow sales consistently.

The most common training and coaching we provide is currently around customer engagement which includes supporting every Team Member with their sales pitch as part of their overall sales approach, sales pipeline analysis, pipeline coaching, individual sales targets – behavioural and commercial.

6. How do I run the Sales Sprints?

Just to recap Sales Sprints are the activities that the sales team choose to undertake in order to achieve the Key Results that signal the Sales Objectives have been met.

There are many experts on Lean, Agile, Scrums, Sprints and Kanban each of which is designed for developers. Sales and Salespeople are slightly different and we have adapted the original Lean methodology to suit the needs and circumstances of our clients.

Here’s some guidance notes based on our experience:

5.1 The sales leaders must include the sales team early in the planning process to get buy in.

5.2 Invest time early on to run a personal goal setting session and then link the personal and business goals.

5.3 Train and Coach the Team Leaders and Managers hard as they are the glue that holds everything together.

5.4 Implement monthly 121’s with the sales managers and the sales team.

5.5 Never force training on the salespeople. Those who don’t want to learn, won’t. As frustrating as it sounds, these people need to be allowed to fail before they can overcome their own ego.

5.6 Every project has ups and downs. The downs are where the deep learning starts and where the biggest gains are to be made.

We run monthly sprints each of which lasts for 3 weeks. This allows the teams a breather from the intensity of the Sprints, for the last calendar week of the month yet maintains the momentum in the Sprint. If training is required our preference is to deliver this during the first two weeks of the Sprints which ensures the team can spend the later half of the month focussing on the Sprint and their Business As Usual activities ie; closing deals.

“A fantastic learning experience”

Amanda – Account Manager

De complete gids voor verkoopcursussen

by Iain Swanston

“De meest nuttige en beste dagtraining die ik ooit heb gehad. Hou van je stijl.”

Gary CEO

Wat zijn verkooptrainingen?

Verkooptrainingen vergemakkelijken de overdracht van kennis die wordt geleverd via een klaslokaal, workshop of online trainingsinhoud.

Alle verkooptrainingen vereisen leerdoelen die worden ondersteund door inhoud die aansluit bij de leerstijlen van het publiek en moeten worden gegeven in een positieve leeromgeving.

Er zijn voornamelijk twee verschillende soorten trainingen: de eerste is product- en branchegerichte training en de tweede is gericht op verkoopstrategie, -tactieken en -vaardigheden.

1. Waarom zijn verkooptrainingen belangrijk?

Verkooptrainingen zijn een belangrijk onderdeel van de Learning & Development-strategie van een organisatie. In de meeste gevallen wordt training gebruikt om:

1. Nieuwe verkopers inwerken om hen te helpen hun omzet- en winstgeneratiepunten sneller te bereiken.

2. Bestaande mensen in nieuwe rollen plaatsen of onderpresteerder gedrag aanpakken. Voor bedrijven die intern werven en bestaande werknemers ontwikkelen, helpt verkooptraining bij het ontwikkelen van vaardigheden en het opbouwen van zelfvertrouwen.

3. Onderpresteergedrag aanpakken. Professioneel verkopen wordt niet onderwezen op scholen en universiteiten en veel mensen leren het gewoon door te doen. Dit is goed, maar veel Sales Managers hebben gewoonweg moeite om de tijd te vinden om vertegenwoordigers te coachen en te begeleiden, vandaar de behoefte aan effectieve verkooptraining.

2. Soorten verkooptrainingen

Open verkoop cursussen

Open Sales Courses worden meestal gehouden in hotels in het hele land en zijn open in de zin dat iedereen uit elk bedrijf kan deelnemen.

Dit resulteert in ongeveer 12-20 deelnemers uit verschillende bedrijfstakken met verschillende ervaringsniveaus, waardoor het voor iedereen moeilijk is om de leerdoelen te halen.

Deze worden vaak beheerd door wat in de sector bekend staat als cursusaggregators, die in wezen marketingbedrijven zijn die cursusruimtes verkopen en dan een onafhankelijke verkooptrainer contracteren om de cursus te geven.

Dit kan voor sommige mensen werken, maar in veel gevallen worden “spookcursussen” in beeld gebracht en deze kunnen doorgaan, maar in veel gevallen als de cursus de vereiste aantallen niet heeft gehaald, worden vaak vier of vijf cursussen geannuleerd en samengevoegd tot één enkele cursus. Dit kan problemen veroorzaken als deelnemers op het laatste moment nog reisarrangementen moeten maken, wat extra kosten en tijd met zich meebrengt.

Het merendeel van onze open cursussen wordt gegeven in de belangrijkste metropolen van het Verenigd Koninkrijk: Londen, Manchester en Glasgow in Schotland.

Inhouse verkoopcursussen

In House Sales Cursussen worden exclusief voor één bedrijf gegeven. Hierdoor heeft de klant meer controle over de data, inhoud en locatie van het evenement.

Deze cursussen kunnen worden gekoppeld aan maandelijkse of jaarlijkse verkoopvergaderingen en worden vaak gekoppeld aan nieuwe verkoopcampagnes of nieuwe verkoopinitiatieven.

Omdat de klant 100% controle heeft over de inhoud, is het veel eenvoudiger om op maat gemaakte Work Based Learning-inhoud te introduceren die de betrokkenheid en leerresultaten verhoogt.

In sommige gevallen zal de klant ervoor kiezen om marketing- en operationeel personeel erbij te betrekken om de hele organisatie een gemeenschappelijke verkooptaal te laten gebruiken.

In House Sales Cursussen beginnen meestal vanaf £3,000 ($4,550) voor een eendaagse cursus met een minimum van 5 personen en een maximum van 12. Voor een tweedaagse cursus betaal je ongeveer £4500 ($5550).

3. Statistieken verkooptraining

Volgens verschillende onderzoeken

Verkopers die hun verkoopdoelstellingen niet halen – 67%

Hoewel het niet mogelijk is om te weten of de Sales Targets ooit haalbaar waren, is het zeker waar dat veel sales professionals moeite hebben om hun Sales Targets te halen.

Verkopers niet voorbereid – 82%

Beslissers zijn beter dan ooit voorbereid op productinformatie, omdat ze vaak al ver in hun koopproces zijn voordat ze met een verkoper spreken. Dit betekent meer dan ooit dat verkopers Thought Leaders moeten zijn om echte waarde te leveren.

Verkoopleads niet opvolgen – 79%

Hoewel dit erg hoog is, geeft het meer dan ooit aan dat Marketing volledig moet worden afgestemd op Verkoop.

Missen van prestatiemijlpalen – 71%

Het missen van prestatiemijlpalen kan wijzen op een gebrek aan coaching door managers, omdat ze moeite hebben om drukke agenda’s te beheren.

Impacttraining is niet effectief – 80%

Ondanks talloze onderzoeken die dit bevestigen gebruiken veel bedrijven nog steeds 1 of 2 daagse Sales Training evenementen die beperkte resultaten opleveren.

Verloren klanten door onverschilligheid – 65%

Als je bedrijf een doorsnee bedrijf is, komt meer dan 70% van de inkomsten van volgend jaar van klanten van dit jaar. Key Account Management is van vitaal belang om je klanten aan je te binden en de concurrentie buiten te sluiten.

4. Een verkoopmethodologie kiezen voor uw trainingsprogramma's

Voordat je begint met een training in verkoopvaardigheden is het belangrijk dat je bedenkt welke verkoopmethodologie je kiest. Dit heeft niet alleen invloed op de manier waarop je verkoopt, maar ook op veel andere belangrijke factoren in je bedrijf. Hoe je je product of dienst in de markt zet en positioneert, de lengte van je verkoopcyclus, de winstmarges die je behaalt, je contractvoorwaarden en zelfs de hoogte van de lonen en commissies die je je verkoopteam betaalt, kunnen allemaal worden beïnvloed door de verkoopmethode die je kiest.

Een sterke verkoopmethodologie kan bijna een religie zijn. Het is een reeks gemeenschappelijke en gedeelde overtuigingen over verkopen, die van invloed zijn op alles van verkoopwerving tot verkooptactieken en -strategie. Maar als je branche en/of marktomstandigheden veranderen, is het omzetten van je verkopers van de ene verkoopmethodologie naar de andere weliswaar niet onmogelijk, maar wel vergelijkbaar met iemand vragen om van religie te veranderen.

Als een bestaand bedrijf er niet in slaagt om zijn verkoopteam aan te passen aan een andere methodologie als gevolg van veranderingen in de markt, kan dit het verschil betekenen tussen slagen en overleven.

Aanhangers en voorstanders van elk van de methodologieën kunnen fel in de verdediging zijn en het is de moeite waard om op te merken dat geen enkele ‘ene’ methodologie noodzakelijkerwijs beter is dan de andere. Het is veel meer een geval van “horses for courses” en de hele reden waarom deze verschillende verkoopmethodologieën zijn ontstaan, was omdat er behoefte aan was.

High-end adviesbureaus zoals Bain & Company, die een consultatieve verkoopmethodologie gebruiken, zouden niet kunnen functioneren met een transactionele verkoopmethodologie, net zo min als uw lokale kabelmaatschappij, die transactionele verkoop gebruikt, zou kunnen werken met een oplossingsgerichte verkoopmethodologie.

5. De beste verkoopcursussen beginnen met een behoefteanalyse

Als je eenmaal een verkoopmethodologie hebt gekozen, is het belangrijk om een vorm van Training Needs Anaylsis uit te voeren om ervoor te zorgen dat de verkooptrainer en de trainingsinhoud overeenkomen met de problemen die je probeert op te lossen en dat ze zo goed mogelijk zijn. Het is heel gemakkelijk om de aandacht en betrokkenheid van Sales Professionals te verliezen als de inhoud van de training niet relevant voor hen is.

Om ervoor te zorgen dat een training effectief en meetbaar is, is het belangrijk om vooraf de leerdoelen af te spreken en deze vervolgens af te stemmen op de verkoopfunctie, verkoopervaring, gedrag, verkoopvaardigheden en verkooptechnieken van de deelnemers. Vervolgens moet je bespreken hoe je de leerdoelen en de toepassing van de nieuwe verkoopvaardigheden gaat vastleggen en meten.

Dit kan betekenen dat er nieuwe structuren en rapportagesystemen moeten worden opgezet om ervoor te zorgen dat de Sales Professionals verantwoordelijk worden gehouden voor het toepassen van de nieuwe verkooptechnieken en verkoopgedrag. In het ergste geval moet je bereid zijn om Reps en saboteurs uit te schakelen die proberen om veranderingen die je aanbrengt te laten ontsporen. Mensen houden niet van verandering en sommige verkopers zullen hun best doen om je veranderingen tegen te houden.

De beste manier om een analyse van trainingsbehoeften uit te voeren is om gegevens uit je verkoopsysteem te gebruiken en te analyseren met welke onderdelen van het verkoopproces de verkoopprofessionals moeite hebben. Bij gebrek aan harde gegevens kan een goede Sales Manager de verkoopvaardigheden die nodig zijn voor succes hebben gedefinieerd als onderdeel van een bredere functieomschrijving en je zou dit als uitgangspunt kunnen gebruiken.

Het is ook mogelijk om het de Sales Professionals zelf te vragen, maar de resultaten zullen variëren afhankelijk van waar het bedrijf zich bevindt in het verkoopvolwassenheidsmodel. Het is mogelijk dat verkopers niet weten wat ze nodig hebben en in die gevallen, zo is onze ervaring, vragen ze om een presentatievaardigheidstraining, wat in bijna alle gevallen gewoon een afleidingstraining is. Dat is training die leuk is om te hebben, maar geen belangrijke vereiste en die afleidt van belangrijkere onderwerpen zoals Leadgeneratie.

Het is ook mogelijk om je salesteam te benchmarken ten opzichte van best practices, zodat de ontbrekende verkoopvaardigheden, -activiteiten en -resultaten worden geïdentificeerd en de training kan worden gebaseerd op de verkoopvaardigheden die nodig zijn om deze activiteiten of resultaten met succes af te ronden.

Het is mogelijk om generieke verkooptrainingen te geven, maar dit is afhankelijk van een ervaren Trainer die de context en nuances kan uitleggen aan het publiek op een manier waar ze zich in kunnen vinden.

Misschien wil je een Sales Training Consultant inhuren wiens rol het is om het business leadership team te helpen bij het uitstippelen van strategieën op lange termijn (meestal 3-5 jaar) over welke Learning & Development-strategieën geschikt zouden kunnen zijn voor het bedrijf. Dit kan het ontwikkelen van Strategische Actieplannen inhouden en zorgen voor afstemming tussen alle benodigde belanghebbenden in het bedrijf.

Een goede Training Consultant herkent ook de noodzaak van een Change Management proces voordat een Sales Training programma van start gaat. Vaak betekent een verandering in verkoopstrategie een complete verandering in de bedrijfscultuur en dit is geen snelle oplossing.

6. De investering in uw training maximaliseren

Zoals bij elk project zijn er bepaalde stappen die je voor en na een training kunt nemen om het rendement op je investering te maximaliseren.

1) Veranderingsbeheer. Overweeg de principes van Change Management te gebruiken om de verkopers te helpen en te ondersteunen bij de veranderingen die je plant. Dit betekent niet dat je een volledig Change programma nodig hebt, maar volg in plaats daarvan de basisprincipes in een Change Management Plan. Verandering kan voor sommige mensen moeilijk zijn en het is een goede gewoonte om deze mensen bij elke verandering te ondersteunen.

2) Stem verkoopinhoud af op leerresultaten. De inhoud moet relevant zijn om Sales Professionals aan te spreken en aansluiten bij hun kennis- en ervaringsniveau. Daarnaast moet de verkooptrainer het verband kunnen aantonen tussen de theorie en de praktijkscenario’s waarmee verkopers te maken krijgen, zodat de vertegenwoordigers betrokken blijven. De trainer moet niet alleen rollenspellen kunnen spelen, maar ook nieuwe strategieën en technieken live aan de klas kunnen demonstreren.

3) Een evenement- of impacttraining van 1 – 2 dagen vereist een vorm van herhaling na de training. Dit kan het beste van tevoren worden afgesproken met de Trainer en de Sales Managers. Dit moet een vorm van online ondersteuning van de Sales Trainer omvatten na 30, 60 en 90 dagen.

4) Trainingsmethodologie. Verkoopcursussen moeten waar mogelijk interactief en praktisch zijn in plaats van gebaseerd op theorie. Daarnaast verbetert het gebruik van Gamification de betrokkenheid, leerresultaten en de algehele leeromgeving. Waar mogelijk zorgt het gebruik van werkgebaseerde leerprogramma’s die zich richten op levensechte verkoopscenario’s voor een grotere betrokkenheid en betere leerresultaten.

5) Verkoopmanagement. Als aanvulling op de sales management training, moeten Sales Managers alle Sales Trainingen bijwonen, zodat ze de volledige context van de training kennen en begrijpen en de Sales Reps na de cursus kunnen helpen met coaching. Salesmanagers moeten zich dagelijks richten op hoe ze het positieve nieuwe verkoopgedrag kunnen versterken totdat het nieuwe verkoopgewoonten worden.

6) Actieplanning. Vaak hebben verkopers het na 1 of 2 dagen afwezigheid zo druk dat ze gewoon vergeten om nieuwe strategieën of tactieken toe te passen. Verkooptrainingen moeten altijd nieuwe 90 dagen actieplannen bevatten om verkopers te helpen bij het plannen en toepassen van de nieuwe strategieën en vaardigheden die ze hebben geleerd.

7) Interne uitdagingen en obstakels. Er zijn vaak wegversperringen binnen een organisatie die Reps zien als een belemmering. Waar mogelijk is het de moeite waard om deze van tevoren te bespreken en waar mogelijk te verwijderen, ook als ze door het management als “smoesjes” worden gezien. In werkelijkheid schijnt dit alleen maar de schijnwerper op de onderliggende oorzaken van een probleem.

Verkooptraining kan zeer effectief zijn onder de juiste omstandigheden, maar meestal vinden we dat hoe meer tijd en aandacht wordt besteed aan het plannen en voorbereiden van een training, hoe beter de resultaten.

7. Voordat je aan een verkoopcursus begint

Om de meest voorkomende valkuilen te vermijden en de verkoopcursus succesvol te laten zijn in het leveren van de resultaten waar het bedrijf naar op zoek is, raden we aan het volgende te controleren:

1) Inkoop op directieniveau

Veel bedrijven willen een signaal afgeven aan hun verkopers dat de training geen modegril of modeverschijnsel is. Om de resultaten te leveren waar ze naar op zoek zijn, zorgen ze voor sponsoring op Exec-niveau en volgen ze deze op door Execs deel te laten nemen aan de initiële Sales Team-trainingssessies.

Dit laat het team zien dat ze het trainingsprogramma serieus nemen. Voor grotere organisaties betekent dit niet dat de CEO erbij hoeft te zitten, maar als vuistregel zouden er twee managementniveaus boven de verkopers moeten zitten in elke training. Voor de meeste bedrijven betekent dit gewoon de Sales Manager en de VP of Sales of Sales Director.

2) Nieuwe verkoopmanagementstructuren

Om ervoor te zorgen dat een training effectief en meetbaar is, is het belangrijk om vooraf af te spreken op welk verkoopgedrag en welke vaardigheden de training gericht is en hoe je de leerdoelen en het behalen van de leerdoelen gaat vastleggen en meten.

Dit kan betekenen dat er nieuwe structuren en rapportagesystemen moeten worden gecreëerd om ervoor te zorgen dat de verkopers verantwoordelijk worden gehouden voor het toepassen van de nieuwe vaardigheden en gedragingen. In het ergste geval moet je bereid zijn om vertegenwoordigers en saboteurs uit te schakelen die proberen om veranderingen die je aanbrengt te laten ontsporen. Mensen houden niet van verandering en sommige verkopers kunnen hun best doen om je veranderingen tegen te houden.

8. Ervaren verkopers mengen met beginners

Veel organisaties hebben een mix van verkopers wat betreft hun ervarings- en vaardigheidsniveau en dit zorgt vaak voor een dilemma bij het geven van training: moet je de vaardigheids- en ervaringsniveaus door elkaar gebruiken of moet je aparte programma’s maken?

Dit is afhankelijk van de inhoud en de context, want een goede Sales Trainer zal de ervaren verkopers gebruiken om de groep te versterken en voorbeelden uit het echte leven te geven. Dit helpt de nieuwe Reps echt en creëert een geweldige leeromgeving.

Dit helpt echter niet noodzakelijkerwijs de ervaren vertegenwoordigers om te leren, dus er moet genoeg nieuwe of geavanceerde inhoud in de training zitten om hen betrokken te houden. Nieuwe verkopers zijn altijd geïnteresseerd in het leren van nieuwe of geavanceerde inhoud, dus het is veel gemakkelijker om ze betrokken te houden.

Het is ook belangrijk om Sales Managers bij de training te betrekken, zodat ze precies begrijpen wat de Trainer de Reps aanbeveelt. Op die manier kunnen ze hen verantwoordelijk houden voor de afgesproken acties na de trainingssessie.

9. Onderwerpen & leerdoelen verkooptraining

Er zijn veel verschillende onderwerpen in Professional Selling en het is essentieel om de inhoud af te stemmen op de behoeften van organisaties en verkopers.

Bepaalde onderwerpen hebben een zekere mate van overeenkomst tussen vertegenwoordigers, zoals sociale media of essentiële verkoopvaardigheden, maar andere onderwerpen zijn meer specifiek voor een individuele verkoopfunctie, zoals training in key accountmanagement.

De onderstaande lijst is weliswaar niet definitief, maar is wel een goed uitgangspunt en is op te splitsen in de drie hoofdgebieden van Professional Selling: nieuwe kansen vinden, nieuwe kansen benutten en bestaande klanten laten groeien.

Een ander goed startpunt is sales management training, want zonder effectief sales leiderschap zal de impact van elke sales training afnemen.

Sales Management training is van cruciaal belang voor elk bedrijf dat een consistente en duurzame toekomstige groei wil.

Elk verkooptrainingsprogramma moet een leertraject bieden en ten goede komen aan de verkoopcarrière van de deelnemers. De deelnemers moeten er iets aan hebben en hun verkoopcarrière moet belangrijk voor ze zijn.

MODULES VOOR VERKOOPTRAINING	MODULES VOOR VERKOOPTRAINING MET LEERDOELEN
Verkoopboodschap	Leerlingen kunnen een verkoopboodschap opstellen die duidelijk maakt wat ze doen, voor wie ze dat doen en wat het voordeel is voor de doelgroep.
Sociale media	Leerlingen zijn in staat om hun LinkedIn profiel en onderzoek te optimaliseren en nieuwe verkoopleads te genereren met proactieve verkoopstrategieën
Leads genereren	Leerlingen zijn in staat om een consistente stroom van nieuwe verkoopkansen te genereren
Consultatieve verkoopvaardigheden	Leerlingen kennen het proces van consultatieve verkoop en kunnen dit toepassen.
Verkopen op waarde, niet op prijs	Leerlingen zijn in staat om bedrijfspijnen bloot te leggen en te kwantificeren en vervolgens een duidelijke ROI aan te tonen aan prospects in relatie tot onze producten en diensten.
Rapport opbouwen	Leerlingen kunnen het DiSC-profiel van een prospect en zijn Primaire Sensorische Dominantie identificeren en deze hulpmiddelen gebruiken om een goede verstandhouding op te bouwen.
Sales Pipeline ManagementLerenden zijn in staat om hun verkooppijplijn te meten en te analyseren en gewogen verkoopprognoses te makenHandling Stalls & ObjectionsLerenden zijn in staat om te gaan met stagnaties en bezwaren van klanten en deze te gebruiken om de verkoop voort te zetten. onderhandelingSales Negotiation SkillsLerenden begrijpen de belangrijkste onderdelen van effectieve verkooponderhandelingen en demonstreren dit door hun eigen BATNASolution Selling te creërenLerenden begrijpen en kunnen navigeren door een complex verkoopproces met meerdere beslissers in meerdere afdelingenKey Account ManagementLerenden begrijpen het Key Account Management proces en beginnen dit toe te passen op genomineerde accountsVerscheiden luistervaardighedenLerenden kunnen geavanceerde luistervaardigheden demonstreren aan de hand van rollenspellenControlling the Sales Conversation zijn in staat om geavanceerde luistervaardigheden te demonstreren door middel van rollenspellenControlling the Sales ConversationLerenden zijn in staat om een verkoopgesprek te controleren met behulp van een vragenfunnelPresentatievaardighedenLerenden zijn in staat om krachtige presentaties te maken en af te leverenVergevorderde vaardigheden in het stellen van vragenLerenden begrijpen en creëren vragenfunnels op basis van een Root Cause Analysis van bedrijfspijnenTelefonische verkooptrainingLerenden zijn in staat om onderzoek te doen, een telefoongesprek met een koude prospect live voor te bereiden en uit te voerenNetwerkenLerenden begrijpen de basisprincipes van netwerken, inclusief hoe de juiste evenementen te benaderen en introducties uit een netwerk te genererenRolenspelLerenden zijn in staat om live een echt verkoopscenario te demonstreren om een verkoopprospect te voedenCross Selling & Up SellingLerenden hebben een duidelijk begrip van klanttevredenheid en zijn in staat om effectieve verkoopstrategieën te creëren om cross selling en up selling te verhogenVerkopen aan de C SuiteLerenden zijn in staat om het stap voor stap verkoopproces te beschrijven dat gepaard gaat met het verkopen aan zakelijke organisatiesHoe onderzoek te doen naar prospectsLerenden zijn in staat om te demonstreren hoe een prospect te onderzoeken op basis van een Perfect Prospect Hoe prospects te kwalificerenLerenden kunnen meerdere criteria aantonen wanneer een prospect niet past in de algemene groeistrategieHoe ons te onderscheidenLerenden kunnen aantonen hoe ze hun producten of diensten kunnen differentiëren via differentiatie en niet via de prijsCommercieel bewustzijnLerenden kunnen de balans van een bedrijf lezen en begrijpen, winst en verlies enVragen om verwijzingenLerenden kunnen de kenmerken van een goede prospect identificeren en hoe om verwijzingen te vragenGoal SettingLerenden kunnen 90 dagen actieplannen gebruiken om hun productiviteit te verbeterenStory TellingLerenden kunnen zowel proactief als re-actief klantverhalen creëren en voordragen

10. Rollenspel verkooptraining

Er zijn veel verschillende onderwerpen in Professional Selling en het is essentieel om de inhoud af te stemmen op de behoeften van organisaties en verkopers.

Een ander goed startpunt is sales management training, want zonder effectief sales leiderschap zal de impact van elke sales training afnemen.

Sales Management training is van cruciaal belang voor elk bedrijf dat een consistente en duurzame toekomstige groei wil.

11. Verkoopcursussen - Voorbeeldoefening

Technieken voor vragen stellen Voorbeeld

1. Open / gesloten vragen – Open vragen worden gebruikt om meer informatie te verzamelen en gesloten vragen moeten worden gebruikt ter bevestiging.

2. Samenvattende vragen – Een samenvattende vraag wordt gebruikt om te bevestigen dat je goed hebt begrepen wat de prospect heeft gezegd. Dit wordt gedaan door de prospectverklaring samen te vatten of te parafraseren en aan het einde een bevestigende vraag toe te voegen.

3. Funnelingvragen – Een funnelingvraag wordt gebruikt om het verkoopgesprek naar een bepaald gebied of onderwerp te leiden.

4. Redirecte vragen – Redirecte vragen worden gebruikt om het gesprek te controleren en te voorkomen dat de prospect verder gaat in het verkoopproces als de verkoper nog niet klaar is om verder te gaan.

5. Opposing Redirect – Een opposing redirect vraag is een vraag beantwoorden met het tegenovergestelde antwoord dat de prospect zou verwachten en er een vraag van maken.

6. Vermoedelijke vragen – Een vermoedelijke vraag is een vraag waarvan we weten/veronderstellen dat de prospect het antwoord niet weet.

Rol twee dobbelstenen waarbij één dobbelsteen wordt aangewezen als de vragendobbelsteen. Dit betekent dat op welk nummer de dobbelsteen ook valt, de verkoper dat type vraag moet stellen. Als de dobbelsteen bijvoorbeeld op 2 valt, moet de verkoopvertegenwoordiger een samenvattende vraag stellen.

De tweede dobbelsteen heeft betrekking op de stadia van het verkoopproces, dus als de dobbelsteen voor het verkoopproces op 1 valt, moet de verkoopprofessional een samenvattende vraag stellen die hij gebruikt om een prospect te kwalificeren.

Om de oefening leuker te maken kun je een stopwatch toevoegen, zodat de Reps de vraag in minder dan 15 seconden moeten beginnen. Iedereen zal in de eerste ronde falen, wat belangrijk is omdat dit de angst om te falen meteen wegneemt en de oefening veel leuker maakt. Het is niet ongebruikelijk dat een hele klas dit met gemak in 45 minuten afrondt en als je het gedurende 4-6 weken herhaalt, wordt het een tweede natuur en heel gemakkelijk.

12. Verkoopvaardigheden en verkooptechnieken

Het aanleren van nieuwe verkoopvaardigheden en verkooptechnieken is een belangrijk onderdeel van elk trainingsprogramma, maar het is belangrijk dat alle nieuwe verkoopvaardigheden worden verankerd en niet worden vergeten.

Verkopers leren, net als ieder ander mens, door te doen, dus het is van cruciaal belang dat een deel van je planningsproces bestaat uit stappen om versterking, coaching en verantwoording te bieden.

Dit is waar effectief verkoopmanagement van cruciaal belang is. Elke verbetering in verkoopprestaties zal van korte duur zijn, tenzij nieuw verworven vaardigheden en verkooptechnieken grondig worden ingebed door salesmanagers.

Het is belangrijk om feedback te verzamelen en de kwaliteit en resultaten van elke trainingssessie te evalueren.

Onze eigen feedbackformulieren geven deelnemers de mogelijkheid om commentaar te geven op wat wij beschouwen als de drie belangrijkste gebieden van elk trainingsevenement:

Leeromgeving – heeft de gebruiker een positieve en ondersteunende leeromgeving ervaren?
Kwam de inhoud van de training overeen met de leerresultaten en was deze van hoge kwaliteit?
Was de trainer behulpzaam en deskundig in het onderwerp.

Het is ook belangrijk om inhoud te verzamelen op de dag van je verkooptrainingen, omdat het moeilijk kan zijn om inhoud achteraf of digitaal te verzamelen.

Ons doel is om een Centre of Excellence te bieden voor professionele training en coaching.

13. Verkooptrainingen voor beginners

In het verleden waren veel generieke verkoopcursussen gericht op verschillende niveaus en rollen, bijvoorbeeld basisvaardigheden voor beginners en gevorderden voor mensen met meer verkoopervaring.

Klanten erkenden echter dat als de inhoud van de training niet generiek was en op maat gemaakt voor het publiek, het mogelijk was om de vaardigheidsniveaus van de deelnemers te mixen. Dit heeft als bijkomend voordeel dat er Peer Learning ontstaat, waarvan bewezen is dat het een hogere ROI oplevert dan generieke training.

Door beginners te mixen met meer ervaren sales professionals helpt elke groep elkaar. Ervaren verkopers kunnen bijvoorbeeld specifieke context geven aan verkoopmateriaal en nieuwe verkopers pushen de training, omdat ze nieuwe concepten sneller absorberen, omdat ze oude methoden en mogelijk negatief gedrag niet hoeven af te leren.

De meerderheid van de mensen in de verkoopindustrie heeft geen formele verkooptraining gehad en ziet verkoop helaas niet als een carrièrekeuze. Zonder de nodige vaardigheden hebben veel verkopers het moeilijk en gaan ze door of verlaten ze de sector. Succes en het bereiken van je volledige potentieel in de verkoop gaat net zo goed over persoonlijke ontwikkeling als over professionele ontwikkeling en levensvaardigheden.

14. Online verkoopcursussen

In het verleden waren veel generieke verkoopcursussen gericht op verschillende niveaus en rollen, bijvoorbeeld basisvaardigheden voor beginners en gevorderden voor mensen met meer verkoopervaring.

15. Kosten voor verkooptraining

De kosten voor verkooptraining in het Verenigd Koninkrijk variëren van gratis online cursussen en gratis workshops tot £20.000, afhankelijk van vele variabelen. De meeste beschikbare cursussen zijn echter een- of tweedaagse cursussen en deze kosten meestal tussen £1200 en £1500 per persoon, per dag.

We hebben een selectie van cursussen beschikbaar vanaf £1200 per dag die gaan over Business Development Training, Onderhandelingsvaardigheden, Customer Relationship Management, LinkedIn Selling, Consultative Selling Skills, Sales Management Training en Key Account Management Training.

“Een fantastische leerervaring”

Amanda – Account Manager

16. Locaties voor verkooptraining

We hebben het geluk dat we snel groeien en hebben onlangs regionale kantoren geopend in Duitsland, India en de VS om onze internationale klanten van dienst te zijn. In het Verenigd Koninkrijk hebben we drie trainingscentra, maar zoals je zou verwachten reizen we naar veel van onze klanten voor persoonlijke training. Ons volledige cursusaanbod is ook beschikbaar voor internationale klanten via ons online portaal voor verkooptraining en enablement. Neem contact met ons op voor meer informatie.

16.1 Verkooptraining in Londen

Veel open trainingen worden gegeven in en rond Londen. Onze eigen cursussen worden gegeven in de buurt van de luchthaven London Heathrow voor gemakkelijke toegang tot Europa, Londen en de M4-corridor. Personen van elke organisatie kunnen deelnemen en de cursusprijzen, data en beschikbaarheid zijn online beschikbaar via onze pagina voor het boeken van cursussen.

16.2 Verkooptraining in Manchester

In het noorden van Engeland worden de meeste cursussen gegeven in en rond Manchester. Onze eigen cursussen worden gegeven in de buurt van de luchthaven London Heathrow voor gemakkelijke toegang tot Europa, Londen en de M4-corridor. Personen van elke organisatie kunnen deelnemen en de cursusprijzen, data en beschikbaarheid zijn online beschikbaar via onze pagina voor het boeken van cursussen.

16.3 Verkooptrainingen in Schotland

De meeste trainingen in Schotland worden gegeven in Edinburgh of Glasgow. Onze eigen cursussen worden gegeven in Edinburgh, op loopafstand van Edinburgh Waverley Train Station in het historische gedeelte van de “Old Town”. Personen van elke organisatie kunnen deelnemen en de cursusprijzen, data en beschikbaarheid zijn online beschikbaar via onze pagina voor het boeken van cursussen.

De meeste aanbieders van trainingen geven open en interne trainingen op een locatie van jouw keuze, hoewel je meestal een minimum van 6 personen moet inzetten.

Cold Calling Training | Skills + Practice = Success

by Iain Swanston

Cold Calling Training – Top question from Google

How do you Train for cold calling?

HERE’S THE SHORT ANSWER:

Thoroughly research your target audience and what’s important to them
Ensure you know exactly how your product or service impacts your customer and the value it delivers
Plan your day and make sure you have prepared your call lists in advance
Use a CRM or other tool to track every call you make
Use email and social media in combination to increase your success
Slow down – build rapport first and add value before you ask for anything
Embrace the NO’s, don’t take it personally and understand, success is following your process consistently
If you are not getting more No’s than Yeses then you are not talking to enough people
Test everything and keep testing everything, so you can learn and improve

Some sales people dread the thought of cold calling, and many customers hate receiving endless cold calls from various companies trying to sell them products or services that they don’t want.

In this changing world, many of us don’t even make a phone call in our personal lives, as we swap traditional phone calls for instant messaging and social media.

However, cold calling is a tried and tested sales channel which has been used for decades to secure new customers, and can still play an important part in your outbound sales strategy.

Whilst cold calling might not seem to be the in thing, most companies still have some form of cold calling operations. In fact, cold calling is considered to be the most used sales technique in the world.

1. Cold calling is dead, long live cold calling

The way in which modern buyers operate has changed. Many buyers are more savvy now, and don’t like to be sold to, but they do like to buy.

With this in mind, you might think that cold calling has had its day, and should be consigned to the bin. Whilst the world has moved on, cold calling can still be a really effective sales tool.

Salespeople do however need to adapt their practices to suit the modern buyer. Gone are the days of aimlessly working through a spreadsheet, today’s cold callers need to work in a much more targeted and smarter way.

If you’re considering using cold calling as a route to market it’s important your sales reps are properly trained and not simply “winging” it on every call. Our telephone cold calling course will help your sales reps develop a positive attitude, refine your cold calling process, improve their objection handling skills and sales techniques.

2. What is the definition of a cold call?

A cold call is simply when you telephone a stranger who is not expecting your call. At some stage it is highly likely that we have either cold called someone, or been cold called ourselves, either in a work capacity or in our personal lives.

If you have met the potential customer previously at a trade show or had some previous communication with them, then that is not a cold call.

Similarly, if you have corresponded with the prospective buyer before, maybe sent them some promotional material either via email or LinkedIn, this is not a cold call.

The latter examples are called “Warm Calling”, which typically has a much higher success rate, but as you would expect, lead in times and costs are more expensive for warm calling.

3. Cold Calling Training

Many sales people do not get sufficient cold calling training, either in terms of quantity or quality. This may be because companies they are reluctant to invest in their teams and assume that in cold calling the volume of calls is king.

However, this approach is counterproductive to creating and maintaning a good brand, securing new customers and increasing profits and revenue for your company.

One bad cold call could have ramifications for your business, as it could give a negative impression of your business and destroy your brand reputation.

Not only can this mean that the person being cold called will be very unlikely to order from your company, but they may tell their colleagues and business network of their poor experience, starting a chain of dissatisfaction. If this happens time and time again, it could become a major problem for your business.

Cold calling is a difficult job, there is no getting away from that. As you are jumping into the unknown you have no idea as to who is on the other side, they could be aggressive towards you, or just look to play with you and waste your time.

However, all of that anguish can be overcome by the feeling of success in pulling off a sale or booking a meeting, where originally there may have been little chance of success.

Like most things in life, you get out of cold calling what you put in. If you are willing to learn, and put in the hard graft of calling a seemingly endless array of people, you will get some success.

Making cold calls and repeating the cold calling process will help cement those practices into your sales pitch, but it may take thousands of calls for you to perfect it.

Unfortunately, somewhere along those thousands of calls, you are likely to encounter a troublesome customer and a lot of rejection. It is important that you don’t let this put you off.

Klozers offer specialist cold calling training courses, which can be a useful investment if your cold calling isn’t getting the right results, or you want to try to source new customers via cold calling techniques.

There are also a whole host of videos and books on sales training (and specifically telephone sales), which can give great tips and insights. However, for many, this is only a substitute for good sales training and experience.

Our cold calling training is popular with both new sales reps, and existing people who want to improve their cold calling techniques.

4. Marketing vs Telesales

Unsurprisingly, almost all marketing executives will tell you that telephone prospecting is a waste of time, and companies should focus their attention on marketing – resulting in greater budgets for their teams.

Marketing is hugely important, however, it is reactive and not pro-active, and that might not work for you.

As an example, if you have a proven niche software solution and are selling into a vertical such as Hotel Chains within the Hospitality sector, would you wait on all the Hotels seeing your marketing material and then contacting you, or simply get your business development team to contact them directly?

Yes, in an ideal world they will be familiar with your brand before the sales reps contact them, but the point is you would never advocate sitting around waiting on them to contact you.

Effective modern businesses should look to combine both of these techniques. Cold calling has its place, but marketing should always be viewed as the main lead generator for the business.

4. What makes a good Telesales Team?

* Preparation

When we think of cold calling, we might think of sales reps being in an endless rush, jumping from potential customer to potential customer without a thought. However, proper preparation is an important part of successful cold calling. In some instances, scripts can be a useful tool. If scripts are used then the sales rep should prepare and learn the script, so they can sound engaging on the phone, rather than robotic.

* Record Keeping

Keeping track of your progress as a cold caller is an important part of the cold calling process. It can be demoralising making call after call and getting making no progress, but if the company or sales person keeps an efficient log of call rates then this can motivate the sales reps. For example, if a cold calling sales team know they have a success rate of 1 in 50, and the sales person has made 15 calls without any success, they know that this can be a common occurrence and if they use their skills correctly a sale may be round the corner.

* Plan for the day ahead

Modern business is full of statistics, and every last detail can be logged somewhere. This can be useful in looking at the success rates of cold calling. Are there particular times of the day, days of the week, or parts of the month when telephone prospecting is more successful than others.

If clear patterns emerge then sales teams should double up their efforts to take advantage of the successful patterns. When cold calling is less successful then this time could be better spent on team training or meetings. It would be poor team planning if a weekly meeting was scheduled on the most successful time of the week!

If it takes you a couple of calls in the morning to full get into the swing of things, then you can always keep your best prospects back a couple of hours, or even keep them until the time/day when you know cold calls are more successful. You will however, need to work around the availability of the buyer.

* Follow Up

Following up with a cold call contact is vitally important. During the phone call you might think that the person isn’t interested, but even a short follow up email could bring them onto your side. The buyer may not have heard about your company before, and be sceptical of your business claims.

If they are provided with some material material and links to your website, they can corroborate your information themselves, which is a powerful tool. Emails which are sent after a cold call have a surprisingly high open rate.

* Practice makes permanent

If you want to be good at something you need to practice, practice and practice some more. It is thought that to become a cold calling expert you need to dedicate 10,000 hours to doing it.

You will need to guard against practice making bad habits permanent. It can be easy to rid ourselves or our sales teams of bad traits if they don’t do it too often or they have just started, but once they are embedded it can be much harder to get rid off.

Therefore, it is important that salespeople receive training prior to starting cold calling, and that regular sales training and review procedures are in place to avoid problems becoming permanent.

* Share ideas and experience across the team

Sales people are naturally competitive people, they will want to beat their colleagues in the number of sales or appointments secured. However, there is a lot to be said for teamwork. Debriefing at the end of the day can be used to refine sales pitches to what works and what doesn’t work. Sharing experiences both good cold calls and bad can also be reassuring to colleagues.

Cold calls don’t always go to plan, and it can be a good idea to expect the unexpected, and prepare as an individual or as a team for what response you should give in unexpected circumstances.

5. What makes cold calling so difficult?

As we said earlier cold calling is difficult, but don’t let that put you off making it an important part of your sales strategy. Modern buyers have become more adapt to fending of pushy salespeople, especially if it is via a cold call.

Cold calling has a low conversion rate, meaning that cold callers will need to make a significant number of calls to secure an appointment or order. It is thought the average conversion rate of securing an appointment via cold calls is between 1 – 3%.

Inevitably not everyone who agrees to an appointment will place an order, so its success can be low.

Securing a telephone number of a prospective client can be a difficult task in itself. Many major businesses do not advertise the relevant information, leaving salespeople to bounce between departments trying to find the right person.

6. Cold Calling Training Courses

Klozers offer specialist cold calling courses for any industry, which can help your sales team improve their cold calling skills and success rate. Courses are suitable for new salespeople and experienced salespeople who might need a refresher.

Sales Courses can be tailored to the needs of the attendees, so if there is an issues which is specific to a particular industry, it can be addressed in the training. Whilst not technically cold calling, our courses can also include how to convert incoming sales calls.

Cold calling training can include high paced boot camps which cram a lot of learning into one day. The fast-paced environment of a boot camp training session is well matched with the fast pace of cold calling.

As people learn through experience, many training sessions include live demonstrations of cold calling skills, and role play to improve learning outcomes.

Some companies limit the amount of participants from any one company attending a training session together. This ensures that the sessions aren’t dominated by the concerns of requirements of one single company. It also allows the sharing of ideas from different companies to benefit everyone.

Like many businesses cold calling providers have adapted their practices in response to the changing world of COVID-19. Online cold calling courses are now far more common than they would have been a few years ago. This can reduce the time and expense of travel.

Bespoke training packages are available, which includes ongoing 1-2-1 sales coaching, which can be useful to continuously motivate your sales team, keep their performance fresh and vibrant and ensure that bad habits don’t creep in.

7 redenen waarom u Webgebaseerde Verkooptraining zou moeten overwegen

by Iain Swanston

Webgebaseerde verkooptraining - Topvraag van Google

Is Online Verkooptraining Effectief?

Online verkooptraining is doeltreffend omdat het organisaties helpt

Verkort de reistijd naar live-evenementen
Zorgen voor een beter evenwicht tussen werk en privéleven door de tijd die verkopers van huis zijn te verminderen
Lagere leveringskosten voor verkooptraining
Snellere communicatie en samenwerking
Versterking van nieuwe verkoopstrategieën en -tactieken na de initiële opleiding
Verbeterde verantwoording om verkopers te helpen met nieuw gedrag
Voortdurende ondersteuning voor bestaande en nieuwe verkopers

Online verkooptraining is sterk verbeterd en moet worden beschouwd als onderdeel van uw algemene verkooptraining.

Webgebaseerde verkooptraining of online verkooptraining is een essentieel aspect geworden van verkooponderwijs, sinds de komst van lockdowns en de daaropvolgende trend van thuiswerken.

De kunst van de virtualiteit is voor elke bedrijfstak een voordeel geworden om te werken of te studeren terwijl men thuis blijft.

Desondanks hebben veel bedrijven moeite om een uitgebreide business case te maken voor online training ten opzichte van de meer traditionele klassikale aanpak.

Hoewel persoonlijke training nog steeds een belangrijke rol speelt in de verkoopopleiding, zijn hier enkele gebieden die u kunt overwegen bij het evalueren van de verschillende beschikbare opties.

#web based sales training

1. Verminderde reistijd

Traditioneel werden “face to face”-opleidingen gegeven in de vorm van een- of tweedaagse evenementen. In de meeste gevallen werden deze gehouden in hotels en conferentiecentra. Nu steeds meer bedrijven verkoopteams in dienst hebben die geografisch afgelegen zijn, kunnen sommige deelnemers een dag reizen om het evenement bij te wonen en een dag reizen om naar huis terug te keren. Dat zijn drie dagen voor één dag leren.

Met Web Based Training hoeft u geen honderden kilometers meer te rijden om te komen werken. Je hoeft niet vroeg op te staan om het spitsverkeer voor te zijn en je hebt geen enorm budget nodig om te beginnen.

2. Evenwicht tussen werk en privé-leven

Voor veel mensen is tijd voor het gezin een belangrijk deel van hun werk geworden. Hybride werken heeft veel mensen in staat gesteld om lange woon-werkverplaatsingen te vermijden, waardoor ze extra tijd met hun dierbaren kunnen doorbrengen.

Webgebaseerde verkooptraining maakt deel uit van die oplossing en biedt hetzij zelfstudie, hetzij gestructureerde online lessen, die verkoopteams van thuis uit kunnen volgen.

3. Leveringskosten

Traditioneel werden trainingen voor verkoopteams gegeven in klaslokalen en vergaderzalen van hotels. Voeg daarbij de kosten voor overnachtingen tijdens persoonlijke opleidingsevenementen, en de kosten kunnen snel oplopen, zelfs voor een klein team.

Veel verkopers van opleidingen zullen de vermindering van de leveringskosten doorberekenen aan de klanten, aangezien zij zelf kosten besparen op reis- en verblijfskosten voor hun verkooptrainers.

4. Snellere samenwerking en communicatie

De meeste traditionele trainingen zouden “impact training” genoemd worden. Het gaat om eenmalige evenementen die de aanzet moeten geven tot leren en ontwikkeling.

Hoewel er nog steeds een plaats is voor dit soort training, hebben veel bedrijven ontdekt dat verkopers hulp nodig hebben wanneer ze hulp nodig hebben. Zij willen hun vraag niet bewaren voor de volgende verkooptraining over drie maanden. Webgebaseerde verkooptraining biedt leren on tap, wanneer de verkopers het het meest nodig hebben.

Klozers online training biedt real time ondersteuning aan onze klanten via zowel live chat als e-mail. Ons webteam biedt ondersteuning aan onze klanten “in het moment”, zodat ze kunnen leren terwijl ze werken.

5. Versterking van de opleiding

Veel studies hebben aangetoond dat deelnemers tot 95% van de inhoud van één- en tweedaagse trainingen kunnen vergeten zonder enige vorm van versterking.

Ongeacht de kwaliteit van de verkooptrainer of de inhoud van de cursus kunnen verkopers eenvoudigweg niet alle informatie absorberen die ze tijdens één- en tweedaagse verkooptrainingen ontvangen. Verkooptraining correleert direct met groei in persoonlijke ontwikkeling en dit gebeurt niet van de ene dag op de andere.

Veranderingen in verkoopstrategie, verkooptechnieken, verkoopproces en verkoopvaardigheden dragen allemaal bij tot verkoopsucces, maar moeten worden benaderd met een langetermijnvisie. Er is geen toverstokje in de verkoop en verkoopsucces komt zowel door hard werken als door het ontwikkelen van uw verkoopteam in termen van algemene verkoopprestaties.

Webgebaseerde verkooptraining wordt meestal gespreid over langere perioden en werkt door middel van een druppeleffect waarbij de inhoud wordt geleverd in een “beetje en vaak” formaat dat gemakkelijker te absorberen is.

6. Verantwoording van de verkoop

Een van de belangrijkste onderdelen van de beste verkooptrainingen is de implementatie en ondersteuning nadat de training heeft plaatsgevonden. Niet alleen uw verkopers zullen ondersteuning nodig hebben, maar ook uw sales management zal hulp nodig hebben om veranderingen door te voeren in het verkoopproces, de verkoopvaardigheden en het gedrag van het sales team.

Helaas volgen veel verkopers een opleiding om vervolgens terug te keren naar hun baan en te blijven doen wat ze altijd al deden. Dit is geen recept voor succes.

Verandering is voor ieder mens moeilijk en de meesten van ons hebben steun nodig om dit te kunnen doen. Met web based training biedt Klozers doorlopende coaching ondersteuning voor zowel de cursisten als hun sales managers om ervoor te zorgen dat eventuele veranderingen in het verkoopproces, nieuwe verkoopvaardigheden en gedragingen volledig worden overgenomen.

7. Lopende steun

Veel bedrijven blijven ook na een opleiding nieuw personeel aannemen. Dit kan zijn om verkopers te vervangen die vertrokken zijn of als onderdeel van hun uitbreidingsplannen.

Het is vaak financieel niet haalbaar om bij elke wijziging in uw verkoopteam een verkooptrainer in te schakelen en de mogelijkheid om nieuwe medewerkers online training te geven, is dan ook enorm belangrijk.

De meeste webgebaseerde opleidingen zijn zelflerend en kunnen worden opgenomen. Dit kan vervolgens worden gebruikt om een bibliotheek op te bouwen die doorlopend toegankelijk is voor zowel bestaande als nieuwe verkoopprofessionals.

Traditionele persoonlijke training zal altijd een plaats hebben in de moderne verkoopopleiding, maar het is belangrijk om de alternatieven te overwegen. Hoewel altijd rekening moet worden gehouden met budgetten en individuele omstandigheden, is webtraining een blijvertje en een belangrijk onderdeel van elk doorlopend verkooptrainingsprogramma.

Klozers biedt een volledig scala van zowel face-to-face als webgebaseerde verkooptrainingen. In elk van deze programma’s is er live training met interactie tussen de deelnemers.

In aanvulling op onze training bieden wij voortdurende ondersteuning via verkoopcoaching. Als uw verkoopteam hulp nodig heeft met het ontwikkelen van uw waardepropositie, sales prospectie, het verkorten van uw sales cyclus, verkoopvaardigheden, het winnen van repeat business of sales presentaties dan willen wij graag met u praten.

Ons doel is u te helpen uw bedrijfsdoelstellingen te bereiken, uw verkoopdoelstellingen te verkleinen en het verkoopsucces te behalen waarnaar u op zoek bent.

Sjabloon voor evaluatie van verkoopprestaties

by Iain Swanston

Verkoop Performance Review Sjabloon Cover

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…

Sales Performance Review Template - Top vraag van Google

Hoe schrijf je een Sales Performance Review?

Om een eerlijk en evenwichtig evaluatiegesprek te schrijven, moet je:

Maandelijks functioneringsgesprek
Gebruik een sjabloon voor de evaluatie van de verkoopprestaties om consistentie te verzekeren, acties vast te leggen en verantwoording af te leggen
Waar mogelijk de evaluatie baseren op gegevens en niet op meningen
Koppel verkoopprestaties aan coaching, salaris en loopbaanontwikkeling
Verkoopresultaten koppelen om de ontwikkeling van nieuwe verkoopvaardigheden aan te moedigen

Vul het formulier rechts in en download onze Sales Performance Review template.

U kunt dit aanpassen aan uw unieke situatie en binnen een uur beginnen met het stimuleren van verkoopprestaties.

Waarom functioneringsgesprekken belangrijk zijn

Veel bedrijven en sales managers zien het belang over het hoofd van regelmatige en gestructureerde sales performance reviews met hun verkopers. Soms weten ze hoe belangrijk deze gesprekken zijn, maar glippen ze uit de agenda door andere druk binnen het bedrijf.

Vaker wel dan niet worden werknemers gereduceerd tot een jaarlijks functioneringsgesprek, dat weinig doet om hun prestaties te evalueren, laat staan om professionele groei te stimuleren.

Er zijn talloze redenen waarom u tijd zou moeten maken voor deze vergaderingen, waarschijnlijk geen betere dan voor het behoud van werknemers. De kosten voor het vinden en aanwerven van goede verkopers stijgen, dus is het zeker zinvol alles in het werk te stellen om onze mensen na deze investering te behouden.

De pandemie, lockdowns en thuiswerken hebben er allemaal toe geleid dat verkopers hun levensstijl en levensdoelen heroverwegen. Uit de statistieken blijkt dat in 2021 48 miljoen mensen hun baan zullen opzeggen, 41% van de wereldwijde beroepsbevolking overweegt zijn baan op te zeggen en 46% overweegt in de komende 12 maanden naar een andere locatie te verhuizen.

Bedrijven en verkoopmanagers die hun management- en werkprocessen traag bijsturen, zullen zeker moeite hebben om hun beste verkopers te behouden.

Verbetering van de verkoopprestaties

Functioneringsgesprekken en 121’s zijn een cruciaal onderdeel van niet alleen de vooruitgang van een werknemer, maar ook zijn welzijn. Professioneel verkopen kan stressvol zijn en geestelijk welzijn is enorm belangrijk.

Ze zijn een uitstekende manier om ervoor te zorgen dat zowel de doelstellingen van de onderneming als die van het individu worden gehaald en dat het carrièrepad van de werknemer wordt erkend.

Als een sales professional uitdagingen heeft in zijn werk of privéleven, is een functioneringsgesprek de gelegenheid om dit te bespreken met zijn sales manager.

Een functioneringsgesprek moet een veilige plaats zijn voor de verkoper om te bespreken wat hij wil, waar hij goed in is en waar aan gewerkt moet worden. In plaats van een angstwekkende en beangstigende ontmoeting met de baas, moeten zij een plaats zijn waar zij iemand hebben met wie zij in vertrouwen kunnen spreken.

Als manager wilt u weten of uw werknemers mensen zijn die u kunt vertrouwen. Op hun beurt moeten zij hetzelfde van jou voelen en 121’s zijn een geweldige manier om dat te doen.

Het vaststellen van verkoopdoelstellingen, het bespreken van wat zij echt willen van de baan en waar zij naartoe willen, zijn een cruciaal onderdeel van hun functie. Als de werknemer zich erkend en gehoord voelt, zal hij meer geneigd zijn zich in zijn functie te ontplooien en naar zijn beste vermogen te werken.

Sales Managers moeten minstens elk kwartaal functioneringsgesprekken houden, maar idealiter zouden ze elke maand gehouden moeten worden, zodat u, als sales manager, de rol van de verkopers en hun verwachtingen kunt managen, en het meeste uit hen kunt halen.

Wat moet ik bespreken in een Sales Performance Review?

De moderne verkoop heeft nu zoveel verschillende rollen dat het moeilijk is om een one size fits all formule te bieden voor iedereen in de verkoop. De prestatiebeoordeling van een SDR zal bijvoorbeeld heel anders zijn dan die van een accountmanager. Wij raden u ten zeerste aan om specifieke beoordelingen en kerncijfers te ontwikkelen op basis van de verschillende rollen in de verkoop.

Het beoordelingsproces moet vrij informeel blijven – het is geen disciplinaire vergadering, het is een veilige ruimte voor uw werknemer om open en eerlijk te zijn. Uw verkoopvertegenwoordiger moet zich op zijn gemak voelen om in een privé-omgeving vragen te stellen en eventuele problemen te luchten.

Bij Klozers is onze Sales Management filosofie opgebouwd rond de vier hoogwaardige gebieden van verkoop, te weten:

Finding – wat doen wij consequent en proactief om nieuwe verkoopperspectieven en -kansen te vinden?

Klozing – als we nieuwe deals vinden, volgen we dan ons verkoopproces en maximaliseren we de opportuniteit?

Groei – zijn we actief in het vergrendelen van nieuwe accounts en het verhogen van de inkomsten uit hen?

Ontwikkelen – wat doen wij persoonlijk om onszelf te stretchen, te groeien, te leren en te stimuleren?

Combineer deze met uw Visie en Kernwaarden en door u op deze vier gebieden te concentreren, is het gewoon onmogelijk om niet meer te verkopen.

Uw verkoopvertegenwoordigers moeten gemotiveerd en energiek naar huis gaan. Een 121 is een geweldige manier om sterke relaties met uw verkoopteam op te bouwen en te onderhouden. Feedback moet altijd worden gegeven, vooral wanneer het personeelslid functioneringsproblemen of dingen waar hij moeite mee heeft, naar voren brengt.

Constructieve feedback is nooit slecht, maar de prestaties van werknemers nemen alleen maar toe door lof en erkenning van alle goede dingen die zij hebben bereikt.

Als ze de hele maand hard gewerkt hebben en dit het enige moment is waarop u ze kunt bijpraten, dan is dit hun enige kans om lof en prijs te horen, waardoor ze zich goed zullen voelen en harder zullen werken.

Als de Sales Professional nooit iets hoort van zijn manager en nooit te horen krijgt wanneer hij het goed doet, kan hij zich soms paranoïde en niet gewaardeerd voelen – niemand wil dat zijn Sales Team zich zo voelt.

Routekaart & Carrièrepad

Een cruciaal onderdeel van het beoordelingsproces is het stimuleren van professionele groei, het stellen van carrièredoelen binnen het bedrijf: waar willen ze heen in deze baan? Hoe kunnen ze daar komen?

Kunnen zij ervaring opdoen in verschillende afdelingen? Is er extra training die ze kunnen doen om hen daar sneller te krijgen?

Duidelijk gedefinieerde leertrajecten zijn veel gemakkelijker dan de meeste bedrijven denken en het is essentieel dat elke werknemer eenvoudige mijlpalen krijgt die hij kan volgen om vooruitgang te boeken.

Een Sales Professional moet worden behandeld als een persoon die groeit binnen het bedrijf, niet alleen als een nummer. Het bespreken van verschillende carrièrepaden is dus een geweldige manier om de verkoopprofessional te laten zien hoe ver hij kan gaan.

121's voor verkopers die op afstand werken

Als u verkopers heeft die op afstand werken, dan is een 121 even belangrijk als functioneringsgesprekken. Hoewel thuiswerken het evenwicht tussen werk en privéleven van veel verkopers heeft verbeterd en hen heeft geholpen productiever en kosteneffectiever te werken, kan het voor velen ook isolerend en eenzaam zijn.

Veel verkopers zijn “mensen mensen”. Ze doen het goed in de buurt van andere mensen en dat is een van de redenen waarom ze zo graag in de verkoop zitten. Thuiswerken is voor velen een echte cultuurverandering en een schok voor de meeste verkopers.

Verkoopvertegenwoordigers zijn soms terughoudend om zich uit te spreken en vragen te stellen in een groepsomgeving, of als er geen verstandhouding is met de verkoopmanager. Elke verkoopprofessional moet zich op zijn werkplek op zijn gemak voelen – ook al is hij thuis.

Voor nieuwe werknemers zijn 121’s en teamvergaderingen ook goede ijsbrekers en een manier om je collega’s te leren kennen. Op die manier zullen zij zich meer op hun gemak voelen om naar u te komen als zij hulp nodig hebben of een probleem hebben. Begin met een kennismakingssessie.

Deze zijn heel informeel in vergelijking met een functioneringsgesprek en een geweldige manier voor jullie beiden om elkaar te leren kennen. Bespreek voorkeuren en afkeren, hobby’s en interesses, wat ze graag doen in hun vrije tijd. Door dit in eerste instantie op een persoonlijk niveau te houden, zal het personeelslid zich zeer op zijn gemak voelen en zal het zich waarschijnlijk gewaardeerd voelen dat u de tijd hebt genomen om hen te leren kennen.

Het opvolgen van beoordelingen van verkoopprestaties

Veel verkoopmanagers zijn managers en geen leiders. De beste sales managers werken hard om hun verkoopteams te ondersteunen, in tegenstelling tot degenen die hun verkopers aansturen en spreadsheets volgen.

Vaak is het verschil tussen een manager en een leider gewoon de dingen die ze voor de verkopers doen. Wat voor de manager onbeduidend en onbelangrijk lijkt, kan voor de verkopers het tegendeel zijn. De beste managers zijn in de eerste plaats gericht op mensen en pas in de tweede plaats op werk.

Dit gezegd zijnde, lijdt het geen twijfel hoe moeilijk dit kan zijn met de constante druk om de verkoopdoelstellingen te halen of te overtreffen.

Als verkoopmanager moet u ervoor zorgen dat u de acties opvolgt die u in het functioneringsgesprek hebt besproken. Er moet altijd een verslag van de vergadering worden gemaakt, zodat de verkopers een overzicht hebben van alles wat werd besproken.

Dit biedt ook een routekaart van waar ze naartoe gaan werken, tot het volgende functioneringsgesprek en helpt hen en de salesmanager verantwoordelijk te houden.

Dit is een geweldige manier om de voortgang te bewaken, omdat het zowel de salesmanager als de salesprofessional de gelegenheid geeft om eerdere doelen te bekijken en te bespreken waar ze staan ten opzichte van de afgesproken doelen en waar nog aan gewerkt moet worden.

Sales Managers zijn misschien wel het belangrijkste onderdeel van elk sales team. Zij leggen de lat voor de prestaties van de werknemers en voor wat aanvaardbaar is en wat niet. Goede verkoopteams hebben goede sales managers nodig – investeer nu in uw sales management.

SDR-verkoopopleidingen die werken

by Iain Swanston

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

Don’t buy Sales Training until you’ve watched this video…

SDR-verkoopopleidingen - Topvraag van Google

Hoe train je een SDR?

De meeste SDR-trainingen benadrukken de volgende stappen, of vergelijkbare stappen, om uw SDR-team te helpen trainen:

Gebruik een sjabloon voor verkooptraining.
Duidelijke leerpaden bieden die zijn afgestemd op progressie
Stel verwachtingen.
Bouw aan een cultuur van samenwerking.
Geen-zoiets-als-een-stomme-vraag beleid.
Maak een sjabloon voor SDR/Account Executive-vergaderingen.
Leer je Sales Development Team om nieuwsgierig te zijn.
Voortdurend bruikbare feedback geven
Geef je team de tijd.

Wij denken dat je veel meer kunt dan dit.

Het trainen van je team van Sales Development Reps kan beginnen in het klaslokaal (virtueel of anderszins), maar dit is slechts het begin van het leertraject. Om een succesvolle verkooporganisatie op te bouwen, zijn er veel andere gebieden waar je rekening mee moet houden.

Hier is het korte antwoord - Geef een 1 Day Sales Bootcamp

Sessie 1 – Verkooppsychologie. Creëer de mindset, doelen en activiteiten van een Sales Winnaar. Ontdek de psychologie achter elke verkoop en hoe u dit in uw voordeel kunt gebruiken.
Sessie 2 – Ontdekken en kwalificeren. Om te verkopen moet je bij de juiste mensen zijn, op het juiste moment, met de juiste boodschap. Doe dit goed en de verkoop wordt een stuk eenvoudiger.
Sessie 3 – De complexe verkoop onder de knie krijgen. Hoe identificeer je verschillende besluitvormers met verschillende en vaak concurrerende prioriteiten.
Sessie 4 – Je verkooptrechter vullen. Ontdek korte- en langetermijnstrategieën om nieuwe salesaanvragen te genereren en uw productiviteit te maximaliseren. Deze sessie omvat onze omnichannel lead generation aanpak en zal demonstreren hoe u de telefoon, koude e-mail en LinkedIn in combinatie kunt gebruiken om uw sales funnel te vullen.

Hoewel er geen twijfel over bestaat dat doorlopend leren via de “weinig en vaak” filosofie belangrijk is voor de ontwikkeling van sales, zijn Sales Bootcamps een geweldige manier om het leerproces een kickstart te geven.

SaaS Sales Training Bootcamps zijn meestal 1 of 2 daagse verkoopcursussen. Ze zijn van nature intensief en bieden SDR’s een enorme hoeveelheid informatie waar ze op terug kunnen grijpen. Sales Bootcamps werken het beste als ze worden gebruikt in combinatie met een bestaande verkoopcampagne en voortdurende verkoopcoaching.

De bootcamps bieden de training, dat is de kennis, en de sales coaching helpt de sdrs met de praktische toepassing van de kennis.

Naast SDR-trainingen zijn Bootcamps populair voor trainingsonderwerpen zoals Sales Fundamentals-training, die is ontworpen voor mensen die helemaal nieuw zijn in sales en snel veel informatie nodig hebben als onderdeel van hun inwerkproces.

SDR Verkooptraining

De baan van een vertegenwoordiger voor verkoopontwikkeling (SDR) is een uitdagende en gewaardeerde functie binnen elk bedrijf. Het is belangrijk om ervoor te zorgen dat uw SDR’s zich bewust zijn van hun impact binnen het bedrijf en hoe hun prestaties het bedrijf zullen helpen groeien.

Helaas hebben de meeste Sales Development Reps de neiging om na een jaar te vertrekken. De meeste bedrijfseigenaren zullen u vertellen dat de SDR’s niet geschikt waren voor de functie of dat hun SDR’s vertrokken om elders de verkoopladder te beklimmen.

Hoewel we bij Klozers geloven dat dit gedeeltelijk waar kan zijn, is het vaak een complexere situatie.

Mensen vertrekken meestal omdat ze niet meer verliefd zijn op hun sales manager en het bedrijf. Onderdeel van salesmanagement is het bieden van de best mogelijke training en vervolgens blijven voortbouwen op bestaande verkoopvaardigheden om SDR’s te helpen regelmatig de targets te halen.

Modern salesmanagement omvat het aanbieden van professionele ontwikkeling gekoppeld aan een carrièrepad, zelfs als dat betekent dat de verkoopmedewerker het bedrijf moet verlaten om zijn verkoopcarrière te ontwikkelen. Hoe meer je in ze investeert, hoe langer ze zullen blijven.

Geen enkele salesprofessional wil verkoopdoelen missen, niemand wil werken in een bedrijf waar verkopen is alsof je door stroop waadt. Mensen willen winnen, ze willen verkopen en een groot deel van verkoopmanagement bestaat uit het succesvol maken van je team.

Een SDR-training is hiervoor een eerste vereiste en zal uw verkoopteam helpen bij het verbeteren van cold calling, social selling, communicatievaardigheden en andere verkoopvaardigheden die uniek zijn voor uw service.

Het werk van een Salesprofessional houdt nooit op, er zullen altijd prospects zijn om van dienst te zijn! Het is alleen maar logisch om doorlopende verkooptraining te organiseren om SDR’s op de hoogte te houden van nieuwe verkooptrends, concurrenten, nieuwe productreleases, nieuwe trainingstools, enzovoort.

Dit zal niet alleen de efficiëntie van je bedrijf verbeteren, maar ook het behoud en de tevredenheid van je werknemers.

De sleutel tot een succesvolle SDR-training is om het eenvoudig te houden en duidelijke verwachtingen te stellen over wat u van uw verkoopteam verwacht en wat zij van u kunnen verwachten. Dit betekent dat er een sterke cultuur van communicatie en samenwerking binnen het team moet worden opgebouwd.

In aanvulling op verkooptraining zouden we je willen aanmoedigen om te overwegen een uitgebreid leerprogramma voor je verkoopteams te ontwikkelen dat het volgende omvat:

1. Bedrijf

Geschiedenis, mensen

Verkoopvisie en -waarden

2. Wat we verkopen

Producten en diensten,

3. Welke problemen lossen we op?

Pijnpunten, waardepropositie,

4. Aan wie we verkopen

Ideaal klantprofiel, perfect prospectprofiel

5. Hoe we verkopen

Verkoopproces

6. Verkoopcompetenties

Voor een lijst van onze 21 aanbevolen verkoopcompetenties kun je hier ons SaaS Sales Playbook downloaden.

Onderwerpen voor verkooptraining

De meeste SDR-trainingsplannen bevatten onderwerpen zoals doelen stellen, training, mentoring, cultuur, afwijzing en klantpersona’s. Onderwerpen zoals klantpersona’s zijn bijvoorbeeld essentieel voor blijvend marketingsucces.

Inzicht in klantpersona’s helpt uw SDR’s te leren wat prospects drijft om uw product of service te kopen. Dit helpt uw SDR’s ook om het klantprofiel te begrijpen dat uw bedrijf aantrekt en helpt uw SDR-team om te bepalen wat de prospect van uw bedrijf wil.

Dit is ook een geweldige manier voor je vertegenwoordigers om een natuurlijk maar gericht gesprek te voeren, of dat nu per telefoon, e-mail of persoonlijk is.

Bij Klozers gebruiken we twee verschillende modellen voor klantpersona’s. De eerste is het ideale klantprofiel of ICP dat verwijst naar de bedrijven die aan onze criteria voldoen en de tweede is het perfecte prospectprofiel. Dit profiel is specifiek voor de verschillende kopers binnen een organisatie en de verschillende pijnpunten die ze kunnen hebben.

Een heel belangrijk onderwerp om te behandelen in je SDR-training is afwijzing en mindset. We hebben allemaal dagelijks te maken met afwijzing, dus waarom is het zo ontmoedigend als het gebeurt wanneer we met potentiële klanten spreken?

De meeste SDR’s zijn nieuw in hun rol en willen hun waarde bewijzen. Verkoopprospectie kan ontmoedigend voor ze zijn en ze snel demotiveren. Als je in de verkoop niet vaker ‘nee’ dan ‘ja’ te horen krijgt, dan praat je niet met genoeg mensen. De eerste ‘Nee’ die een SDR ontvangt, zal de eerste van vele zijn.

Een goede manier om van deze ervaring te leren, is om je prospect te vragen waarom hij of zij heeft geweigerd. Bekijk de verkoopstrategie van je SDR en oefen luistervaardigheden en reacties.

Nee’ te horen krijgen is heel gewoon in de verkoop. Hoe je verkoopmedewerker met dat gesprek omgaat, is de sleutel tot zijn vooruitgang in de verkoopwereld.

Oefeningen voor verkooptraining

Voordat een Sales Professional een prospectiegesprek voert, moet hij of zij altijd klaar zijn om de vier belangrijkste vragen te beantwoorden die potentiële klanten tijdens het gesprek kunnen stellen, zoals:

Waarom neemt de SDR contact op met de prospect?
Waarom zou de prospect met de SDR moeten praten?
Welke informatie heeft de SDR nodig van de prospect?
Welke vragen of twijfels kan de prospect hebben?

Een goede manier voor je salesteam om zich voor te bereiden op deze vragen is om rollenspellen te spelen met hun collega’s. Vraag uw SDR’s om in de schoenen van uw prospect te gaan staan.

Een interessante manier om het team hierbij te betrekken is om één SDR te kiezen als de beller, en de andere SDR’s om een rollenspel te spelen als de potentiële nieuwe prospect.

Vraag elke SDR in de rol van prospect om deze vragen in een snel rondje te stellen. Met deze oefening kan je SDR die de rol van de beller speelt, snel zijn bij het beantwoorden van vragen.

Een andere geweldige oefening is om elke SDR in je team te vragen een korte toespraak te houden over hun favoriete onderwerp voor de rest van het team. Daag de andere SDR’s in je team uit om te noteren hoeveel opvulwoorden de spreker gebruikt, zoals, eh, uh, nou, dus, oké enz.

Het doel van deze oefening is dat de spreker zo min mogelijk opvulwoorden gebruikt. Dit zal uw SDR’s helpen om professioneler en zelfverzekerder over te komen en hun waardevoorstel aan hun prospects over te brengen.

Gratis SDR-trainingen

Met zoveel beschikbare gratis verkooptrainingen zijn we soms niet de eerste keuze van iedereen. Een snelle zoektocht op het internet laat zien dat er veel gratis SDR-trainingen en -materialen online beschikbaar zijn, maar het kiezen van de beste voor jou en je bedrijf is het lastige deel.

Veel van de gratis online cursussen zijn vooraf opgenomen en bieden geen kans om vragen te stellen of te communiceren met de verkooptrainer. Dit is geen geweldige leeromgeving.

Naast het belang van Live Training, begrijpen we ook dat iedereen anders leert. Daarom is het belangrijk om 4 belangrijke en eenvoudige stappen te volgen: Consistentie, hulp, oefening en progressie.

1. Consistentie

Zorg ervoor dat uw training voor uw SDR-team consistent is. Het inplannen van de training voor je team toont je betrokkenheid bij je team om hen te helpen de beste Sales Reps te worden die ze kunnen zijn.

Het is belangrijk om je aan je trainingsschema te houden om je team te laten zien dat je hen en hun ontwikkeling waardeert. Dit is een geweldige manier om uw SDR’s binnen uw bedrijf te houden.

2. Bijstand

Help je team bij het leren. Iedereen leert anders en in zijn eigen tempo. Door verschillende leerstijlen te onderzoeken, zoals rollenspellen, cold call games en live call feedback, help je alle verkopers in je team. Dit is een geweldige manier om ook elke SDR bij de training te betrekken door verschillende voorbeelden na te lopen.

3. Oefenen

Hier bij Klozers geloven we heilig in oefening baart kunst. Het is belangrijk om te onthouden dat de meeste SDR’s weinig tot geen ervaring hebben in verkoopontwikkeling. Een geweldige manier om je SDR-team op weg te helpen, kan zijn om een taak in te stellen die je moet voltooien.

Neem bijvoorbeeld de koude gesprekken van uw SDR op en speel ze af. Vraag je SDR-team om 3 dingen te geven die ze denken te kunnen doen om dat gesprek te verbeteren. Moedig uw SDR’s aan om na te denken over hun toon en de taal die ze gebruiken tijdens het gesprek. Dit kan hen helpen te begrijpen wat ze succesvol doen en wat ze kunnen verbeteren.

4. Progressie

Progressie is wat alle SDR’s willen bereiken, dit is een reden waarom veel verkopers het bedrijf verlaten om elders een carrière na te streven. Het maken van een trainingsplan waarin de voortgang van de SDR binnen het bedrijf is opgenomen, is een geweldige manier om ze op koers te houden en inzicht te krijgen in de waarde die ze toevoegen aan uw bedrijf.

Alle Inside Sales Professionals willen hun waarde bewijzen en laten zien dat ze het werk aankunnen, maar zorg ervoor dat je je SDR’s niet laat lopen voordat ze kunnen lopen!

Een eenvoudige tip zou zijn om 1-1-gesprekken te plannen met de salesmanager om hun voortgang en verkooppijplijn te bespreken, feedback te geven en samen een ontwikkelingsplan op te stellen voor elke SDR.

Advanced Sales Training | From Good to Great

by Iain Swanston

Lees meer

Coaching Sales Behaviours | Bringing out the Best

by Iain Swanston

Coaching Sales Behaviours – Top question from Google

How do you coach a sales person?

Unfortunately like sales there is no one way to coach a sales person that works every time. After all sales people are all individuals and therefore different so what works with one, may not work with the next.

With that said there are many commonalities and examples of best practice that will get you started on the path to success.

Mindset. Success in sales like many other areas in life is hugely dependant on mindset. Confidence, self belief, imposter syndrome, phone fear and self sabotage are all to common in sales people. With the right support these problems can be overcome, however, there is one area of mindset that many ignore – hunger. The best sales people are all hungry. Hungry to learn, hungry to help others and hungry for their own success. Whilst Vision Boards and Goal setting undoubtedly have a positive impact if the sales person you are coaching is not hungry for their own success you have a major problem. Many sales people ended up in sales by accident and many sales people are simply stuck in their current role and find it easier to stay than move on. Research from the Objective Management Group shows that between Sales Management & HR, 77% of sales hires are the wrong people. You can teach strategy, you can teach skills, but you can’t teach hunger.

Planning. Many companies and sales managers lack the time to implement personal development plans to their sales teams. Coaching often then becomes ad hoc, unstructured which in turn is reflected in the outcomes. In order for sales coaching to be successful and deliver an ROI, some simple planning needs to take place. In our experience it’s always best to work backwards from the objectives and tasks that the business need to happen. From there managers should document the skills required to successfully complete the tasks, followed by a GAP analysis, highlighting where the sales people are now, versus where they need to be. Lastly, this should all be documented and progress tracked to show the benefit for both the business and the coachee.

Focus. When coaching sales people it’s important to find a balance between what should be done and what can be done. Rather than giving sales people 3-4 different objectives after the coaching, we have always found it best to only give the coachee one objective to complete before the next session. This allows the sales rep to focus on one skill and perfect it before moving on to the next. A laundry list of objectives is rarely completed to any level of competency that the business would desire.

Data. It’s important for sales coaching to be both objective and fair in order for it to be successful. Where possible we therefore always advocate a data led approach. Data demonstrating the success and best practice of others is difficult for sales reps to deny. This in turn leads to the importance of CRM in any sales organisation, as this is where the majority of data resides.

Coaches. For obvious reasons coaching is different to management, so a sales coach cannot force a sales rep to do anything in terms of the outcomes of each session. Conversely, if Sales Managers are doing the coaching then they can instruct the sales people to do things, however, if the manager has to “tell” the coachee what to do, then there is typically a problem with the mindset and any success will be limited.

At Klozers our Sales Performance coaching uses Sales Scorecards, which ensure accountability for the students. This is first used to identify a baseline, which is used to kick start and structure the sales coaching. To be effective, sales coaching should look at sales in a holistic manner. This will include addressing the all the key components of sales success, which are Mindset, Sales Craft, Activity and Development.

All successful sales people have the right mindset for success. Throughout a sales career, it is impossible to achieve success on every call or presentation. As such, salespeople need to be resilient and bounce back from rejection. Controlling our mind is a hugely important part of a successful career in sales.

We can use simple Vision Boards to identify personal and business goals. Once these have been identified it’s important to draw a correlation between the two which helps ensure sales people are focussed on the goals of the business not just their own.

Craft covers the key sales skills and competencies required to be a successful sales professional. Most modern sales roles require a huge variety of sales skills, some of which are forever changing given the fast paced nature of sales and marketing.

Activity covers the important aspects of preparation, goals, sales planning and sales actions. Development covers an ongoing commitment to improving sales learning. Reflecting on past performance is an important aspect of this section. At regular intervals it is important that salespeople reflect on their performance and use this to adapt their techniques or seek additional coaching or training.

Often when reflecting, salespeople and most sales managers tend to focus on the negative aspects of performance (e.g. the bits that didn’t quite work), but it is equally as important to reflect on the positives. If a certain sales pitch has been successful, then salespeople should reflect on what went well, and how that can be implemented in other sales pitches.

Sales coaching can be conducted online or in person, in a group setting or on a 1-2-1 basis. Regardless of the delivery method, the same coaching models are used.

How do you coach an underperforming sales person?

Sales coaching can motivate and enthuse an underperforming sales professional or team more widely. People are hard wired to resist change, and as such sales coaches need to be mindful of this and adapt their coaching methods to suit.

With that said, if you have an underperforming sales person you should follow this process (dependant on the HR laws in your country of residence).

Via a one to one meeting have an open and honest conversation with the sales rep around why the business thinks they are underperforming and what will happen if it continues. In most cases this does not necessarily mean they will lose their job. It could mean they have to retake initial training or have additional coaching. Every situation will vary but it’s important to have this conversation.

Work with the sales rep to understand the root cause of the problem and once you have done this work with them to develop an action plan that will help them overcome their current performance gap. It’s important to include the sales rep in the planning to get their buy in. The plan should detail the responsibilities of the sales rep and the level of performance required.

Lastly, the company and the sales manager should do all they possibly can to help and support the sales rep throughout the coaching period. This includes reviewing their own management and leadership style.

In some cases the sales rep may have already mentally checked out as no one wants to stay in a role that they are not performing in. In some cases, however, it is possible to turn results around and it’s always worth the investment in time and training given how much it costs to replace a sales person.

What is the key to coaching a successful sales team?

The key to coaching a successful sales team is ensuring that there is a culture of learning and growing throughout the team. In order to feed that culture you will require a continuous programme of training and coaching in place. There is no quick fix to achieving the best results.

As identified earlier, one-off sales training courses may have a short-term impact, but after only 30 days its success will ware off. As such, a continuous programme of professional development needs to be in place.

Employees want to feel valued by their employers, and now expect employers to contribute towards their professional development.

Without this in place, there is a concern that your best salespeople will look for other jobs. Recruiting new staff is a resource heavy and expensive process, and you still may end up with the wrong sales staff.

Hiring the wrong sales staff can have direct (lost sales) and indirect (damage to your brand) consequences for your company, so retaining the best staff is vital.

Sales coaching techniques

Sales coaches can use a range of techniques, and some coaches prefer certain techniques more than others. Whichever technique is used, sales coaching should be driven by data and be as factual as possible.

To be effective sales coaching should question the students, and a mixture of directive, non directive and collaborative style questioning can be used.

After sales coaching has been conducted it is important to measure the effectiveness of the coaching to see if it has delivered a suitable ROI.

If the sales coaching isn’t providing to be effective, then amendments will need to be made to it, either in the form of its content, delivery or programme.

Sales coaching models

There is a wide range of sales coaching models available, however, at Klozers we use either the PEDAL model which is Directive Coaching or the GROW model. The easiest way to explain the differences are:

PEDAL – Directive in style. Solving someone’s problem for them.

GROW – Non Directive in style. Helping someone solve their own problem.

In the PEDAL model the process is:

P = Position. The coach positions the reasoning/need for a new sales skill or sales process.

E = Explain. The coach explains how the new skills work.

D = Demonstrates. The coach demonstrates how to execute the new sales skills.

A = Assess. The sales professional practices the new skill and the coach assesses their competency and provides feedback.

L = Links. The coach then links the new skill to the sales reps role and key objectives.

The PEDAL coaching model is commonplace in areas where the correct execution of a skill is paramount and no choice is allowed. For example, when sales professionals need to comply with regulatory procedures, or when sales people need to follow a prove sales process.

But what does the GROW model involve?

GROW stands for:

G = Goal. What are the salespersons goals for the session?

R = Reality. What is the current reality?

O = Obstacles. What obstacles are holding the salesperson or team back?

W = Way. What way and actions do you commit to taking to move forward?

Sales Performance Coaching

Selecting the right sales coach is an important step towards improving the sales performance in your team. Quota carrying sales managers can often be swamped by their own workloads, leaving them with little time to fully dedicate towards coaching sales behaviours.

In these circumstances, to avoid missed opportunities and good staff leaving, external sales coaching could be the answer. Our expert coaches at Klozers can help you with all of your sales coaching and training needs.

How to Build an Outbound Sales Team

by Iain Swanston

How to Build an Outbound Sales Team – Top question from Google

What is outbound sales?

Outbound sales is the process of a sales team or salespeople initiating engagement with potential and existing customers. This could encapsulate trying to secure new customers, up selling to existing customers, or general account management. In contrast, inbound sales relies on a company’s marketing strategy to drive customer interest, and customers will contact the company to enquire about their services. This blog post will tell you how to build an outbound sales team.

Preparing to go Outbound

In the rush to go outbound many companies either overlook or pay little attention to the core foundation of every successful outbound sales campaign – their value proposition. Without this most campaigns will fail at best, at worst, they will fail you will lose market traction. you will lose your best sales people and you will also lose a lot of money.

A Proven Value Proposition

Many companies make the mistake of trying to scale their sales operations without a proven value proposition with disastrous effects. Whether you chose to build your own outbound team or to subcontract to a specialist you need a proven value proposition. The more time and money you invest on proving your value proposition will be returned ten fold in your results. This does not just apply to Startups. Those that believe they have already proven their value proposition can equally benefit by refining and fine tuning what they have.

Words Sell

Whilst most of us would accept the importance of words in the world of Business to consumer few people in B2B dedicate sufficient time and energy to finding the right words to describe our products and services. Ask and Pay per click specialist who is restricted to 30 characters for the headline and 90 for the description of the importance of word choice. That’s characters not words.

Technology

We are blessed in the modern sales world with lots of great outbound technologies which makes the outbound process both easier and more productive. From intent data, to auto diallers, to call recording and artificial intelligence there are a plethora of great tools to choose from that will help your outbound team be successful. Be sure to invest the time and budget to arm your sales team with the technology they need.

Sales Leadership

An often overlooked area of business is sales management. Many sales managers have come from a sales background and were at some stage a top sales rep. Unfortunately the skills required for modern sales management are very different to just selling and the position of sales manager is a key hire for any business. Without a great sales manager your best sales reps will leave and the worst reps will stay which is the exact opposite of what you want to happen. Company culture is hugely important in any business and no more so than in an inbound and outbound sales team.

In short, without a proven value proposition and good sales management, you will spend more money and take much longer to get where you want to go. These three areas are an essential component for a scalable outbound process.

Building an Inhouse Team or Outsourcing

When developing an outbound sales team, sales managers and company owners have two choices. They can build an in-house sales team or they can outsource the process to an external agency or group of salespeople.

Each option has its own positives and negatives, and sales managers and company owners should consider these carefully before making any changes.

Through outsourcing their outbound sales operations, companies can hire people with a proven track record of success that they might not otherwise be able to afford.

Outsourcing can be more economic for some companies, as they do not have to resource staff training or office space for them. It can also provide more cost flexibility, as the salespeople will not be tied down to long-scale contracts.

In-house sales teams are much more likely to develop excellent product knowledge over time, which they can convey to prospective clients. Outsourcing can also result in a lack of control of the sales process, and the company cannot guarantee that the leads generated are of a sufficient quality until much later.

There are also concerns that an outbound sales team may not be as “bought into” your product, company or company ethos, and this could be purveyed to prospective clients.

Remember, a poor outbound experience is the fastest way to destroy your brand. Badly executed outbound calls will have a negative impact on your brand and could lose you valuable market traction.

Outbound prospecting particularly cold calling, is very different to responding to inbound sales leads. Your sales team and lead generation strategy should be built with this in mind.

What are outbound sales activities?

Outbound sales requires salespeople to go to the potential clients. In contrast, inbound sales where potential clients come to the company, either for more information or to buy their product/service.

Therefore, traditionally outbound sales does not include any marketing or product development tasks.

Outbound selling can be very labour intensive, and in the case of cold calling it needs a high volume of calls to have a meaningful impact on sales. This is because:

80% of cold calls go straight to voice mail – Sales Intel

It takes an average of 18 attempts to reach a technology buyer – Gartner

In addition to being labour intensive, outbound sales has a high churn rate in terms of staff. Many companies struggle to retain the people they have, let alone build a high performing team of SDR’s.

Lead generation is the starting point of an outbound sales process. Some company’s will have a dedicated in-house lead generation team, whilst others leave it for their general salespeople to handle.

In most cases when outbound sales is left to general salespeople it simply doesn’t happen. Sales people have a skill of always finding something “more important” to do than lead generation.

Outbound sales is a contact sport, pure and simple and requires salespeople to contact prospective customers. This could be by telephone, email, LinkedIn or face to face, however predominantly this is done via phone and email.

From our own experience SDR’s who use a multichannel approach are much more successful than those who are only using the telephone or email.

Often as part of the outbound sales role SDR’s will undertake what is known as sales qualification process. This involves a salesperson determining whether or not the lead is likely to become a customer or not.

Once the leads have been qualified, leads are typically then passed to a Business Development Rep whose responsible for any form of product demo and closing the deal.

In more traditional sales organisations this may include setting appointments for the companies field sales reps. The length of the sales process will depend on the target market, the industry and the customer.

As an outbound sales person you will be expected to do the following:

Research leads
Generate new sales leads
Qualifying inbound sales leads and build a sales pipeline
Setting appointments with potential or existing customers and follow the sales process
Follow up proposals
Cold and warm calling
Cold and warm emails
Social Selling
Customer service calls, with a view to upselling
Product demos
Account Management

Outbound prospecting is especially vital for companies with little or no marketing budget. This is this because in these circumstances, prospective customers are unlikely to come to the company in great numbers, and as such the company will have to go to the potential clients.

Outbound sales strategy

Having a great team of outbound sales reps important, but if they don’t have a good sales strategy to follow, they are unlikely to be successful. Creating a sales strategy should be one of your first tasks when establishing an outbound sales team.

A good outbound sales strategy requires the right sales playbook (script, methods etc.) and the right methods to measure success. Opinions on sales scripts vary, but if you develop a good sales script, it ensures a consistent approach and can help new sales reps get up to speed faster.

Our research here at Klozers, find that sales teams with playbooks are 33% more likely to be high performers. If a sales script is used, preparation should be used so the salesperson will appear to be talking as naturally as possible.

Different sales methods should be explored to see if they will result in more successful sales. For example, consultative selling could result in an increase in sales.

Preparation is key for a successful outbound sales strategy. Salespeople should have all of the data, scripts and tools they need before they start calling. They should also have an excellent knowledge of the products or services.

Whatever sales strategy is used, it is important that there are processes in place to monitor its success. If certain aspects of the strategy haven’t been successful, then either the sales strategy can be amended, or extra training and coaching should be organised.

Data can be used to monitor the most successful times to make outbound sales calls. For example, if the data shows that outbound calls are more successful on a Wednesday afternoon, then greater focus should be placed on this time, and team meetings should be avoided at that time.

Outbound and Inbound Sales Support

At Klozers the inbound and outbound sales process that we teach in our sales training is based on the success we have had in our own business. We will show you exactly the sales strategies and outbound methods that we use every day to target customers, qualifying leads, make a sales call, cold calling, cold emailing and drive customer engagement.

Furthermore, if you would like to optimise your inbound and outbound channels we can teach you how we use content marketing combined with search engine optimisation, to turn our website in to a lead generation machine.

We have a number of ways we support SaaS companies. From advice on recruitment and value proposition development, through to telesales, social selling training and strategy training, we can help you win more business, grow your business. and have more fun along the way.

Klozers has been selected among the Top Lead Generation Companies by Designrush

Consultative Sales Training | How Customers Want to Buy

by Iain Swanston

Consultative Sales Training – Top question from Google

What is a Consultative Sales Approach?

Consultative selling is very different to more traditional forms of selling, as it doesn’t actually focus on selling. Instead, it focuses on building relationships with customers, listening to their problems and only then, offering them solutions to their problems.

Asking open-ended questions and active listening are key components of any consultative sales approach. This approach works because potential buyers are more motivated to buy products or services that meet their own needs, rather than the needs of the sales professional.

A consultative selling truly puts the buyer first. Instead of just selling any old product, or what happens to be on promotion that month, sales professionals using the consultative sales approach will look to sell products and services that match the exact needs of their buyers, which makes for more productive business development results and satisfied customers.

Instead of a scripted sales pitch, sales teams can use conversational skills and listen to their buyers personal and business needs. Only then do they provide advice and guidance, which includes being adaptable to the different challenges buyers may face.

Consultative selling is highly effective and can lead to far greater results for your business and better long term customer relations. Using other sales techniques typically results in salespeople chasing leads that are not a good match for the buyer. Whilst they may well win a first order, if the product isn’t right for the buyer and their customers, it is unlikely that they will build long term relationships.

However, using the consultative approach, the sales rep needs to listen to the customer needs and provide meaningful solutions, meaning your new customer can come back time and time again for your product or services.

It has become increasingly popular in recent years as sales professionals and sales managers managers have realised that traditional sales techniques have become less effective, because buyers have become wary of sales pitches. Instead of being sold a product, people prefer sales professionals to take a genuine interest in them as a person and their business.

If your product or service matches the criteria below you should consider using consultative selling:

Direct route to market
Low volume of sales but high profit margins – less popular but still relevant with transactional sales
Requires high level of industry knowledge with experienced sales people
Higher cost to employers, with lots of training required
Medium to long length sales cycles

Consultative selling requires a change in mindset. Instead of going out to sell, salespeople will need to have a conversation with potential buyers, in a structured and reputable manner. Building trust first with any potential buyer is just one fo the key selling skills required.

Initially, many sales professionals struggle to adapt to the consultative sales method, as they are almost hard wired to sell products and services via the traditional features and benefits method. However, if you choose to adapt a consultative sales approach, it is important to stick with it, as modern buyers have become more resistant to being sold product.

Steps involved in Consultative Selling

1. Research potential buyers thoroughly before contacting them

Before engaging with potential buyers, it is important that the salesperson researches the potential customer, thoroughly and effectively. If the salesperson is used to a more traditional fast-paced sales environment, taking the time at the onset of the sales process to research may seem like an alien process.

However, first impressions matter, and considering the consultative selling method prides itself on expert knowledge, you need to make sure that you have done enough research. Similarly, consultative selling involves asking probing questions, and without enough research it can be difficult or almost impossible for salespeople to ask probing questions.

2. Define the Symptoms – What are the symptoms of the problem the potential customer is facing?

During this first step the salesperson will try to get an understanding of the issue at hand. Here the salesperson will play a role of expert consultant, where their expertise of the industry can be used to discuss the issues.

It is likely that the buyer may only have a surface-level knowledge of the symptoms, therefore the expertise of a consultative salesperson is vital.

At this stage, it is vitally important that the salesperson doesn’t revert to a more traditional techniques and try to sell products or services. This is because, it is very early in the process, and it is unlikely that the salesperson will have formed a fully rounded understanding of the issues at hand, and could recommend the wrong solution.

3. Root cause analysis – ask the buyer questions to understand and diagnose the underlying causes.

During this stage, the salesperson will need to dig deeper into the problem, and find out what is causing it.

By digging deeper into the problem, the salesperson can use their knowledge to generate powerful questions that will reassure the buyer that they are dealing with an expert in the field, and that they can use their expertise to offer solutions to their problem.

This step can be a really powerful tool to build the buyers confidence in the salesperson.

4. Business impact – Ask how the issue is impacting on the business. Does it impact on morale, performance, profitability or all three?

At this stage, the salesperson and the buyer have agreed on a diagnosis of the issue, and they will now begin to understand how this impacts on the business.

If the issue has very little impact on the business, in terms of profitability or revenue, then it is very unlikely that the buyer will look to make a significant contribution (either financially or with their time) to finding a solution.

If this is the case, or if the salesperson knows that their product or service isn’t the solution to the buyers problems, then the salesperson should cut their losses here.

5. Financial Impact – Find out how much the problem will cost the business if they do not fix it.

Identifying the financial impact of the issue is another major milestone in the consultative sales method. This can be easier to measure in objective measurements, such as monetary values, rather than subjective measurements such as staff morale or culture, which are far more difficult to monitor.

If the financial impact runs into the hundreds of thousands of pounds each year, and the solution only costs £10,000 then this could be a very attractive proposal for the buyer. Alternatively, if the solution costs £100,000, and it would only save the company £10,000 each year, it will be a much less attractive proposition to the buyer.

6. Personal Impact – Find out how the problem affects the buyer personally – how does it affect their day to day job?

Potential buyers are far more likely to be convinced by a solution, if the issue directly impacts upon them. This is why when using the consultative selling skills, it is vitally important to make sure that you are speaking to the right person.

If the salesperson and buyer are involved in a complex sales solution, it is likely that the 6 step process above may need to be repeated. It may also need to be repeated with different departments and stakeholders. Whilst this inevitably adds to the time taken to sell a product or service, patience is an important aspect of consultative sales.

What do you need to be a good consultative salesperson?

Consultative selling requires some key selling skills which aren’t necessarily associated with more traditional selling methods. This includes:

Active Listening – traditionally salespeople aren’t renowned for their listening skills, but under the consultative selling method, using active listening is a key requirement. Not only does it help understand the buyers issues, it also helps you stand out from the crowd. As buyers are being turned off by hard sales pitches, if a buyer needs to choose between two similar products, they may choose for the one with the sales person that genuinely listened to their issues.

Emotional intelligence – This covers peoples ability to evaluate, perceive and control emotions. Buying and selling remains an emotional process, and it is important for salespeople to respond to the buyers emotions.

Expertise – Because consultative selling requires the salesperson to really delve deep into issues, it is important that sellers are experts in their field. However, no one wants to be overawed with information, so the salesperson will need to communicate their expertise efficiently.

Domain knowledge – Similar to expertise, salespeople will need to have a specialised knowledge of the whole domain. Not only do salespeople need to know what their customers want, they need to know what their customers’ customer want.

Self-awareness – Consultative salespeople will need to understand and manage our thoughts and the impact that can have on people.

What questions to ask?

Asking the right questions is probably the most important part of consultative selling. Asking aimless questions or having an unstructured conversation with a potential buyer, is unlikely to either build rapport or project confidence. Whilst consultative selling doesn’t involve hard selling, salespeople can still funnel a conversation one way by using structured and well designed questions. Using specialised questioning techniques when combined with active listening and the required expertise can be a winning combination.

There are several types of consultative selling questions. They are:

Open ended questions – These are used to gather further information

Closed questions – Should be used for confirmation

Summary questions – Sales professionals should will summarise or paraphrase the prospective buyers statement and turn it into a question. These are used to confirm the correct understanding of issues.

Funnelling questions – These channel the conversation through a particular area.

Redirect questions – Sales Professionals should use these questions to control the conversation and move the sales process forward.

Opposing redirect – These questions is answering a question with a question back to the buyer.

Presumptive questions – Presumptive questions are questions when the salesperson knows or presume the prospective buyer does not know the answer.

Which Products and Services are best suited to Consultative Sales Techniques?

The great thing about Consultative sales techniques are that they can be used in almost any industry, or with any product or service. Our own clients sell a wide range of services from Waste Management through to Aircraft Manufacturing each using a consultative sales approach.

Furthermore, once you have mastered the system it can be as flexible as possible. We have clients using a consultative sales approach and closing deals on one inbound sales call, and we also have clients using the exact same consultative approach to close large enterprise deals through a six month sales cycle.

What is Consultative Sales Training?

Consultative selling requires a change in mindset and as such effective training is vitally important. As a specialist sales provider we offer training in consultative sales, and a range of courses from giving people a solid baseline understanding of the method through to those seeking to master the sales techniques.

As an international training provider we believe that sales teams learn better if they are doing the task, rather than reading text books or watching a presentation, and as such part of our training includes role place sessions. Consultative sales training also cover all aspects of the sales process, including social selling techniques.

It is also important to remember that consultative selling requires ongoing reinforcement training, so you should consider booking in several sessions, to ensure that your sales team do not revert to their natural selling habits.

Outside of training, under any sales technique it is important that sales professionals have enough support and encouragement. This is even more important under the consultative selling technique. Sales coaching from a sales manager between training sessions, can be a vitally important resource.

You can check out our course on consultative sales and book online here.

Klozers Sales Training

More than just sales training, we train salespeople the essential sales skills that turns them into a top performer. We work with your sales team taking them on a journey from Business Development and winning new customers, through to creating long term relationships.

Consultative Selling is more than just asking probing questions, it’s also when and how to ask them in a way that fosters and builds trust.

We help you identify the key areas that your sales team needs to uncover customer needs, become problem solving gurus, and close more deals.

Telefoon Verkooptraining | Het Geheim van Meer Verkopen

by Iain Swanston

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Best B2B Sales Blog | International Recognition for Klozers

by Iain Swanston

Best B2B Sales Blog

Edinburgh based, Business 2 Business Sales Training specialists Klozers have been recognized as one of only 12 companies worldwide for their Sales Blog in the Top Sales Awards.

Klozers blog was a Finalist in the Top Company Sales & Marketing Company Blog, and the only UK company represented in this category of the prestigious sales industry awards.

Created in January 2020 Klozers wanted to use the blog to demonstrate best practice in Inbound & Outbound selling.

Founder Iain Swanston explained:

“When the lockdowns started in March 2020 we lost all of our order book, as we were like every other traditional training company in that our training was all delivered face to face. We regrouped and introduced online learning, but we also doubled down on our blog, as we knew it could help with lead generation.”

With an average Google page rank of 16.4 the blog has over 120 articles listed on page 1 of Google.

These articles have helped the company grow through the lockdown period, with new inquiries generated from the blog accounting for over 30% of revenue in 2021.

The blog has helped raise brand awareness for Klozers abroad, helping them secure new clients in the US, Eastern Europe and the Far East.

Klozers founder, Iain Swanston was delighted with the award and commented:

“As a company we have put a lot of effort into both the strategy, and the blog content itself, so it’s great to see the results in terms of real sales orders and the recognition from the Top Sales Awards body. As the only UK company in the Finals for this category we had stiff competition from some of the US and worlds best sales and marketing experts, so I’m really proud of what our team has achieved.”

As a company Klozers works with small to mid-market organisations to help them compete with the giants and large brands in their industry and win.

Klozers has a full compliment of B2B sales training and coaching courses available online and specialises in helping organisations maximise their Inbound and Outbound sales capabilities.

SaaS Demo Best Practices | Hoe geef ik een goede SaaS Demo

by Iain Swanston

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Coaching for Sales Leaders – how coaching drives growth

by Iain Swanston

How do you coach a Sales Manager? – Top question from Google

How do you coach a Sales Manager? – the short answer

To coach a sales manager, you must have an agreed sales strategy and a sales plan with KPI’s. The role of the manager is to execute the plan in line with the KPI’s, which is where they may need sales coaching.

Coaching Sales Leaders – here’s a more detailed look at what you can do to support your sales leaders.

Many sales managers have been promoted based on their sales skills and performance. Whilst these are valuable, the role of a sales manager is very different and thus requires different skills. The simplest example is coaching itself. Most salespeople have never coached another sales rep and the whole process is often new to them.

1. What are the business benefits of sales coaching?

The benefits of sales coaching are an important part of building a business case for your coaching programme, no matter how big or small. Whilst every business is different, we would suggest you take a data led approach to evaluate the “size of the prize” – the potential revenue benefits.

Let’s pretend that our top sales rep generates £500K in revenue per annum in an average year. In bigger teams of 10 plus sales people you should take the average of the top 3. There is no rule to follow here other than it must be truthful.

Next, take the average revenue figure that your B players – the middle sixty percent of your team generate per annum and as an example lets assume as a group they average £400k per annum.

The potential opportunity from sales training and coaching is therefore £100k per sales rep. In most cases the size of the opportunity is circa 10 x the cost of the training and coaching.

We encourage every client to work these figures out for themselves. Once everyone has agreed these figures then the business can work with the Sales Manager to create a coaching plan and set some KPIs.

2. How do you coach effectively in sales?

Effective coaching starts before the coaching itself. As a business we believe that coaching is not for everyone, as not everyone is coachable. This can be for a number of reasons, however, in our experience there are two main reasons as follows:

People are not motivated to learn and improve themselves
People do not believe that they need to learn and improve themselves

Your business will be no different – some people will be interested and respond to training and coaching and some people will only attend because they are told to. From our experience, Sales Leader have to make difficult choices and whilst there is no one size fits all we recommend the following:

Segment your sales team by current performance.

A Group – the top 20% of your sales team that mostly hit target.

B Group – the middle 60% that miss targets but are motivated to improve, want to learn and will respond to coaching and training.

C Group – the bottom 20% of people who never hot their sales target and whilst they may need training and coaching they have no interest in it and won’t respond.

Next, work with the A players to develop a coaching plan based on what they do that makes then A players. Where possible use the A players to co deliver some of the training and coaching to the B players.

The most important part here is to make sure that you hold the B players accountable to what has been agreed and taught.

This just leaves the C-Group. The easiest thing that any sales leader can do is ignore under performance. Some people end up in sales by accident and they are simply a round peg in a square hole. They may not admit it but these C players are unhappy, as no sales rep likes to be unsuccessful. The most difficult task of any sales leader is to let someone go, even under performers but that’s why they are a leader, that’s what drives success.

As a Sales Leader when you retain underperforming sales reps you are subconsciously self-sabotaging your own sales team. You’re a – player salespeople will look around your office and say to themselves “why should I work hard, why should I go the extra mile, when Jonny is still here and never hits a sales target?”. Before you know it they will have resigned and you are left trying to hire there replacement.

The best salespeople want to work with others at the top of their game, they want to train and get better, that’s what makes them the best.

So if you want your coaching to be effective you must first find people who want to be coached.

3. What is the key to coaching a successful sales team?

There are many key components to coaching a successful sales team and from our experience we would suggest:

The best coaching is based on data because data is difficult to argue with
Coaching needs to be regular and consistent to for the business and individual to benefit
You should follow a coaching process such as the GROW Coaching model
Coaching should be a KPI for both the coach and the coachee
Coaching should be based around established best practice and not theory
Each coaching session should be documented so you can demonstrate progress
Each coaching session should have an agreed list of actions as an outcome that are revisited.
Coaching sessions are not opportunities to critique salespeople or performance. They need to be positive and supportive.
Coaching should focus on the lead indicators of success not the lag indicators.

4. What does good sales coaching look like?

In our experience, the best starting point for good sales coaching is capturing and documenting what best practice in sales within the organisation currently looks like. Once documented this provides a baseline that no one can deny is achievable.

By best practice in sales, we mean the entire sales process from opportunity creation through to post sale whereby the customer is completely satisfied and happy to provide referrals.

In most cases lead generation is the biggest obstacle for salespeople, so demonstrating via real life examples of where a new enquiry converted to a sales and a subsequent referral to another client helps break down the “this won’t work mentality”.

Once you have identified this best practice, it’s important to map out the sales activities at each stage of the sales process. Again, in most cases the biggest problems are typically found at the start of the sales process when your team are trying to generate new sales leads.

Next up, document the type and number of activities that the top sales performer within the organisation does in an average week. This then becomes the baseline for sales activity. Be sure to document the lead indicators or KPI’s and not the lag indicators.

For example sales revenue is a lag indicator and if we use this as a KPI in an organisation with a 6 months sales cycle then it will be six months before we know if we have been successful. Look for the lead indicators – the sales behaviours that lead to the revenue.

Now the sales coaching process can start. For example, if the average sales activity of the top performer is 50 dials a day, 5 discovery calls and 2 presentations from which they close one deal, then the role of the sales coach is to bring every other member of your sale team up to this level.

5. What challenges do you face when coaching salespeople?

The majority of challenges when sales managers are coaching salespeople revolves around two main areas:

Sales activity or behaviours – we call this Productivity. These are the actual sales behaviours required to generate new leads, close deals etc. The majority of these sales behaviours have no immediate impact or reward, and in a society that is heavily influenced by the instant gratification of likes and shares, many salespeople struggle with the discipline of constantly prospecting when the reward can be months down the line.

Skills & Knowledge – we call this Performance. Whilst productivity coaching is focussed around getting more done, performance coaching is about increasing conversion. Increasing the number of leads that convert to an opportunity and the number of opportunities that convert to deals can have a dramatic effect on profitability.

Whilst these areas are important there is a much bigger challenge we often find when coaching and it is simply motivation. The top performers are so self-motivated they find their own answers to the points above.

Motivation or rather a lack of it can be caused by a multitude of things, however, unless the sales manager can find a way to help the sales team motivate themselves then they will struggle.

Motivation can come from within and it’s important to tie the business goals to the personal goals of the sales team. Whilst goals are important, what’s more important is to find a “cause”. A cause is self-fuelling, it has an energy all of it’s own that drives people forward.

6. The Impact of Coaching on Sales Performance

Coaching impacts an individual in two different ways. The first is tangible and therefore quite easy to measure, however, the second is intangible and arguably more important, but difficult to measure.

What we mean by the tangible impact are mostly skills based activities such as questioning, telephone, discovery, presentation, negotiation skills and the plethara of other skills that the modern sales person requires to be successful.

There are a number of ways and different tools that can help you measure the impact of skills coaching. However, it’s worth first thinking of the journey that learners go on as they learn new skills.

As demonstrated by the Theory of Learning, learners move through four stages of learning before they reach peak performance.

a) Unconscious Incompetence – the learner is inept at the skill but unaware of this.

b) Conscious Incompetence – the learner is inept but is now aware of this.

c) Conscious Competence – the learner can perform the skill well but needs to think about it

d) Unconscious Incompetence – the learner can perform the skill without thinking about it.

The speed by which learners move through the four stages is dictated by the time invested in learning the new skill, the learning support available.

Unfortunately in sales, sometimes people need to fail first before they understand there might be a different approach that they could benefit from adopting. These people are not coachable and will always resist any form of intervention.

Next up is the intangible impact on the individual which as we said is much more difficult to assess. In sales one of the most important intangible benefits is confidence. Without confidence salespeople will simply never be successful.

It takes a certain level of confidence to prospect, to present, to negotiate etc, however in sales confidence is fragile, it gets shipped away with every unsuccessful call, every no from a prospect and every failed negotiation.

The biggest killer of confidence is often the empty sales pipeline. Once it’s empty is usually much harder to refill your sales funnel as your confidence becomes overwhelmed with desperation and you enter a vicious cycle of decline.

In addition to confidence, another important intangible impact from coaching comes in the form of Emotional Intelligence. In short Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the art of identifying and managing emotions both in ourselves and those around us.

Sales can be a rollercoaster of emotions and controlling these is never easy but also managing the emotions of the people around you is hugely important. At a presentation, a negotiation or a simple sales conversation the emotions of your prospect and how you respond can be the difference between winning the sale or not.

7. Talk to us

Klozers provide Exec Sales Coaching and Sales Performance Coaching services across four time zones. Our sweetspot is working with small and medium size businesses to help them take on the big brands within their industry and win.

Our team a have a wealth of experience and are happy to provide an initial consultation at no charge.

Selling Information Technology Services | Everything you need to Know

by Iain Swanston

How to sell IT services?

Selling it support services is very similar to selling other intangible services.

Build your brand and make it as attractive as possible
Develop a detailed ideal client profile and create a niche for yourself
Link your intangible services to tangible deliverables that are important to your customer
Lear as much about your products and services as possible and how they impact your customers
Develop your relationship building skills and your emotional intelligence

As a business owner selling technology, managed services or custom development client satisfaction plays a key role in your long term success. Clients expect Rolls Royce service at competitive prices as competition in the technology industry is fierce.

1. Building your brand

As you would expect building a Brand in a competitive market like IT is not an overnight job. There are however, many companies who have successfully entered the market and gained rapid market share by being more agile than existing brands.

For example, the introduction of Microsoft Office 365 allowed new players to enter the Microsoft Channel while the existing partners continued to focus on Small Business Server sales.

New companies specialising in Cloud services and SaaS have disrupted the market by starting off with very niche services and expanding out as they grew.

In our experience the best way to build a brand is to first focus on your Inbound Sales Channel which inevitably will raise your awareness in the market and start to generate inbound sales leads.

For more information on developing your Inbound Sales Channel or any of our other consulting services please get in touch with one of our coaches via the contact us page.

2. Ideal Client Profile – who are you selling to?

Success in selling technology will require in depth research and creating your ideal client profile. This is something that most companies either forget or fail to see the importance of. The result is – if you’re trying to sell to everybody, you will end up selling to nobody”.

Taking time to thoroughly research your target market and identify the business pains they have that you intent to help them solve is one of the most important parts when selling information technology services.

At Klozers we use both an Ideal Client Profile which is focussed on the types of companies we sell to and a Perfect Prospect Profile which is targeted at the individuals within the ideal client profile that we sell to.

You can access the template below and many more via the SaaS Sales Playbook contained within our Resources section.

3. Your Value Proposition – what makes you different?

The reality is that many IT service companies appear the same – one Microsoft Partner can look the same as many others. Yes, it’s possible to differentiate with the area within the Microsoft stack that you focus on, such as SharePoint or Teams, however, what makes you different to all the other Partners focussing on those same technologies.

How you differentiate your value proposition is key because, unless you get this right, you will be seen as a “me too” player which means that you will end up competing on price. The best way to discover how you differentiate your business is to research both your target audience and your competition and find the gaps.

Initially these gaps may seem too small to build an empire, however, they are there as starting points as your brand will evolve over the years.

In addition to your differentiation you should also ensure that you have a strategy to make your entire team Subject Matter Experts.

Your company and your people should be seen as Thought Leaders and be the first to market talking about new products, services and trends. You don’t even have to deliver these new services, just talking about them puts your personal and company brand out there.

4. The Complex Sale

It’s important when selling technology services to remember, in nearly every case there will be multiple people in your customers decision making unit.

Studies show that most technology sales fall into the category of the Complex Sale meaning they will have anything between 14 and 23 potential people involved with 80% of them having senior roles.

The addition of extra decision makers elongate the sales cycle and further complicates the sales process. Many of the decision makers will be in different departments and often have competing priorities.

For example, when looking for Marketing Automation software the marketing department will typically want what they perceive to be the best marketing solution.

The decision makers from sales may want an automation platform that integrates with their existing CRM system.

5. Stages of the Sales Process

As with any complex sale it’s important to have a strong sales process that both your team can follow and works for your customers.

Nearly every organisation has their own unique sales process, however, it’s worth noting, any process is only as good as those implementing it and detail and consistency are king.

If you are selling to large enterprise organisations it’s important to understand these companies will not change their buying process to match your sales process. The vendor needs to first understand what the Enterprise Buying process is and then align their internal process with this.

Whilst having a sales process is important, what’s equally important in our experience is understanding:

What “qualifies” a prospect to move from one stage to the next?
What soft skills do I need to move a prospect from one stage to the next?

My first experience of this was with the 10 stage Microsoft Solution Selling Process (MSSP). This was not necessarily a bad sales process but little thought had been given at the time as to how you could move prospects through the process.

Microsoft have since invested heavily in their whole sales process and sales enablement and have some of the best training and support available.

6. Selling a product vs selling a service

Before the advent of the cloud and SaaS solutions, IT was predominantly a product sale. “Shifting boxes” and “selling tin” were common phrases among IT Sales Professionals. Selling servers and IT hardware were predominantly products, and the solutions were mostly the mixing and configuration of the different types of hardware with some custom development software thrown in for good measure.

SaaS has changed this forever as fewer and fewer companies have on premise hardware or software. With everything now hosted in the cloud, many companies now only have Laptops, a printer and a modem on premise.

This move from what was largely a transactional and tangible sale of a product, to a more solution orientated, intangible sale, has proven difficult for many sales professionals as one is

Most people find selling a product much easier than selling a service because your prospects get to see, touch and experience a product. Human beings communicate through our five senses and these are extremely important in selling. Next time you’re walking past a coffee shop or your local bakers I’m sure the aromas will be trying to entice you in the door.

Car salespeople love getting potential buyers to sit inside a new car as the small of the new car, the feeling of the leather seats and comfort of sitting down creates a desirable experience for most of us.

Compare these scenarios with Insurance or Pensions or cloud based technology solutions where the five senses are rarely engaged by the “product”.

7. Technology Sales Models

When it comes to Technology Sales Models there are many different models to choose from:

SPIN Selling developed by Neil Rackham in the late 80’s focussed on S – situation, P – problem, I – implication and N – need or payoff. This is still hugely popular, however, some people believe this SPIN is much better suited to simple transactional sales with few buyers, rather than the complex technology sales of todays market.

Solution Selling as the name says focusses on selling a solution rather than a product and is widely used among technology sales professionals. Solution Selling involves much more time in the early stages of the sales uncovering the prospects needs and pain points and uncovering the underlying problems that are causing the pain. Furthermore, solution selling is better suited to selling technology services as it also helps uncover different decision makers and stakeholders within the business.

Consultative Sales Methodology is very similar to Solution Selling, however, where Solution Selling is based around selling a technology Consultative Selling is more focussed on the pre-sales consulting stage and building relationships through empathy.

Whilst choosing the right sales methodology is important these are all things that can be learned. What’s more important, are the values and work ethics of your team.

8. Selling Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS Sales Campaign in a BoxTraditionally software was sold as an on premise solution and was often customised to the individual company’s requirements. The advent of SaaS has changed this dramatically and reduced the amount of custom software development undertaken in house.

The Custom Development of software was expensive, time consuming and in some cases took so long that the original requirement had either changed or was no longer required by the time the software had been built and deployed.

SaaS software is essentially a switch on and switch off service allowing greater flexibility with the added benefit of lower entry costs as the software or platform is being resold multiple times. No more high up from capital costs with SaaS providing the perfect Op Ex solution.

Selling SaaS solutions are different to selling technology services. Whereby most SaaS sales are focussed on the software, features and benefits and demos these things are sometimes never touched on when selling managed services.

SaaS companies also have a slightly different methodology with most using MEDDIC or even CHAMP.

MEDDIC is probably the best known SaaS sales process with M standing for Metrics, E standing for the economic buyer, D stands for Decision making criteria as in why choose you. The next D stand for Decision making process, I stands for Identification of the pains and lastly C stands for Champion, who will help you sell internally.

CHAMP – is a simpler version with CH representing Challenges, A standing for Authority, M standing for Money and P standing for Priority.

9. Selling IT Managed Services

Managed Services or Managed IT Services are what we would describe as the Business as Usual IT services that a business needs to keep the doors open.

As a services business very large part of your market will be SME’s and you will be dealing with the Business Owner who may have little or no knowledge around technology.

As always when selling technology risk avoidance for these clients is key as they will need reassurance certain disaster scenarios are covered.

Whereas historically these would have included a lot of hardware sales the modern Managed Services contracts predominantly involve delivering services such as licensing, patch updates, remote monitoring, technical support and advice, deployment and possibly configuration of SaaS software.

The outsourced managed services model is particularly popular with Small Medium Enterprise (SMEs) organisations who typically are not large enough to have their own in house IT Department and therefore outsource the IT function in their business via a Managed Services contract.

The alternative to outsourced managed services is sometimes referred to as a break-fix contract where the customer is simply charged on a form of pay as you go.

Break-fix contracts now seem to be very rare as most services businesses prefer to sell the security of a Managed Services contract whereby the clients know the costs every month and can plan around this.

Many larger organisations will also outsource part of their IT function but often retain some specialist IT staff to manage the contracts and deal with specialist IT projects unique to their organisation.

10. IT Professional Services

Selling information technology services may involve what’s called IT Professional Services. These are typically intangible services based around:

Fault Diagnosis and Problem Solving. Let’s pretend that you’re organisations IT system develops a fault and no one internally is capable of identifying the root cause of the problem an fixing it. You may choose to approach an external contractor who provide IT Professional Services and they will supply a specialist to find and fix the problem.
Consulting. With technology moving so rapidly it’s almost impossible to keep up with everything. Your organisation may choose to hire an IT Professional Services firm to benchmark where you currently are from an IT perspective and then make recommendations based on your current and future requirements. Examples of this could be moving from On Premise to the Cloud or some form of Business Process Automation.
Bespoke Solutions. Some organisations require completely bespoke solutions designed and built for them. This may require business analysts, project managers in addition to the technologists in order to achieve the outcomes the client desires.

Both Professional Services and Managed Service contracts are classed as Business to Business (B2B) Sales. Largely speaking, Professional Services sales tend to be to larger enterprise organisations, with Managed Services contracts more suited to SME and Mid Market companies who have a limited IT Department.

11. Turning your IT Product Knowledge into powerful sales questions

Product knowledge when selling technology services as you can imagine is hugely important, however, it’s not for the reasons you may be thinking.

Everyone has heard the saying “when you’re telling you’re not selling”. Modern selling regardless of which sales methodology you are using is based around intelligent questioning. The value of any sales professional is not in the information they give, but in the information the gather.

Technology sales people have previously earned a reputation of talking “bits and bytes” which left the non-technical buyers even more confused.

The most successful Technology Services reps now focus on selling business solutions that solve business problems. The technology in many cases is completely irrelevant to the user, its what the technology enables them to do that is important. Those are the reasons people will buy.

Product knowledge in any sale has only two benefits as follows:

The product knowledge should be turned into powerful sales questions that make the prospect stop and think: “wow what a great question”, “wow, why didn’t I think of that”, “wow this sales rep has done this before”, “wow this sales rep really is a subject matter expert”, “wow I wished my sales reps were as good as this one”.
The product knowledge should provide the self confidence the sales rep needs to go into any board room and not be intimidated or fearful. The product knowledge should allow the sales rep to say to themselves “this company may be great at abc but they need me because I am an expert in xyz. Without confidence in the boardroom sales people will be outmanoeuvred by both their competitors and savvy buyers.

12. CIO’s and other Buyers you need to target.

In many cases the CIO or Head of IT is at the very least involved in the decision making process when selling technology services if not the final decision maker. This has however, changed for line of business applications over the years, with the advent of SaaS or cloud-based software.

In some cases where companies have developed very specific SaaS solutions that will only be used within the one department the “Line of Business Head” would fulfil the role of the CIO.

For example, purchases of a SaaS solution such as Digital Signature software that will be used to allow the companys sales people to get contracts signed digitally would typically not involve the CIO.

It’s also worth noting that studies show 93% of B2B buyers will require a business case before they can make a decision. In general a Business Case usually means that something is going to require board approval which takes us back to the complex sale.

CIO’s are highly valuable buyers and they know this. With many being introverts they often keep a low profile on social media and are difficult to start relationships with.

With this in mind it’s important to be armed with research, data, insights and case studies to demonstrate the value.

As previously mentioned these clients expect and require in depth research before approaching them, a track record of successfully delivering services in their niche with a high level of client satisfaction.

Linkedin workshops - Top Vraag van Google

Wat is een LinkedIn Workshop

In dit artikel zullen we behandelen...

Er is een nieuwe manier om omzetgroei te realiseren...

1. LinkedIn Workshops - Introductie

2. Maak een professioneel LinkedIn profiel aan

3. Bouw aan je professionele netwerk

4. Interactie, interactie en nog eens interactie

5. Focus op geweldige inhoud

6. Technieken voor sociaal verkopen - eerst serveren dan verkopen

7. Maak een inhoudsschema

8. Een fundering bouwen

9. Evalueren wat werkt

10. Trainingsformaat

11. LinkedIn Workshops

business development training - Top Question from Google

What are Business Development Skills?

In this article we will cover...

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

1. Business Development Training - Introduction

2. Why is Business Development Important?

Here are three reasons why business development training is crucial

3. The significance of business development at different stages of company growth

4. Understanding the Basics of Business Development

5. Business Development Training - Conclusion

Go to Market Strategy - Top Question from Google

What is a Go to Market (GTM) Strategy?

In this article we will cover...

There’s a new way to deliver sales growth…

1. Go to Market Strategy - Introduction

2. Why do you need a Go to Market Strategy?

3. Go-to-Market Strategy vs a Marketing Plan

4. The 8 components of a Go-to-Market Strategy

1. VALUE PROPOSITION

2. Target Audience:

3. Position:

5. What types of Go-to-Market Strategies are there?

A product-led go-to-market strategy

A sales-led go-to-market strategy

6. Go-to-Market Plan Methodologies

7. How to build a Go-to-Market Strategy

7.1. Determine the personas and the buying centre

7.2. Create a value matrix to aid in messaging identification

7.3. Examine your messaging

7.4. Before putting ANY copy or adverts into widespread use, optimize them based on the findings of your tests

7.5. Recognize the buying process

7.6. Select the four most popular sales strategies

The Self-Service model.

The Inside Sales Business Model

The Field Sales Business Model

The Channel Model

7.7. Use inbound and/or outbound techniques to increase brand recognition and demand development

7.8. Create content to attract inbound prospects

7.8.1. Conduct keyword research

7.8.2. Conduct content research

7.8.3. Content creation

7.8.4. Design

7.8.5. Promote

7.8.6. Create links

7.8.7. Conversion rate

7.9. Look for methods to improve your pipeline and boost conversion rates

7.10. Examine the sales cycle and shorten it

7.11. Lower the price of acquiring customers

7.12. Plan out ways to reach out to your current clientele

7.13. As you go, modify and improve

7.14. Keep and impress your clients

8. What's the Purpose of a Go-to-Market Strategy

9. Conclusion

Sales Team OKRs - Top Question from Google

Are OKRs good for Sales?

In this article we will cover...

1. Our OKR Journey

2. How are OKRs different from KPIs?

3. How do I Set up OKRs

3.1 Start with your ultimate objective

3.2 Next identify your Strategic Sales objectives

3.3 Identify your key results

4. Sales OKR Examples

5. Where does Sales Training Fit in the OKR system?

6. How do I run the Sales Sprints?