Related: WHAT C-SUITE EXECS REALLY THINK WHEN CONTACTED BY INSIDE SALES REPS

In This Article;

1. The History of Marketing Funnels
2. Examples of Traditional V’s Digital Sales
3. What’s Changed in Digital Marketing Funnels?
4. The Bounce Rate
5. Voice Technology
6. Do Likes and Followers Equal Sales?
7. Content is King in 2020
8. Is it Circular or Funnel Shaped?

Understanding Marketing in the Digital Age

The History of Marketing Funnels

Converting to a digital marketing funnel may seem an intimidating prospect, so let’s look back at the history of marketing funnels.
There has been a significant shift in the past 20 years in how consumers shop and how they locate their preferred products. The pre-internet pattern was;

Awareness of a product – customer considers purchase – the customer buys a product.

Examples of Marketing Funnels

Example A:

It’s 1998, and I need to buy a book as a gift for my golfing enthusiast father. I find the address of two local bookstores in my local newspaper.

I drive to the two local bookstores; one has signage in the storefront offering ‘buy one get a second half off.’ I browse the sports section for a book on golf and find two I like. A natural choice, I bought the two books, and I was pleased that I got a bargain!

The counter staff gift wrapped the books for me for free. I decide on impulse to browse further and buy two more books the staff recommend.

Marketing funnels worked to a predictable pattern before the digital age.
The funnel moved prospective buyers from awareness-interest-to desire, and finally to action.

Mass marketing – advertise in local papers.

Interest – Sales Offers in Store.

Desire – Customer Considers a Purchase.

Action – Customer Buys Products.

Example B:

Now it’s 2020, and I need to buy another gift for my golf enthusiast father.

I open my smartphone and search ‘golf gifts for dads.’ I’m presented with 1000’s of options. I browse the first few websites, and then I see a golf store Golfwithus.com with 50% off golf putters. That seems like a good deal, so I click Buy and leave them in the Cart while I go check out the product.

I open a second browser window, search the golf club’s brand, and read the online reviews. I check the brand’s Facebook page, see lots of good reviews, and link it to a special offer in another online golf store. I also copy and share one of the funny videos on the Facebook page with my friends. I canceled the original golfwithus.com order.

I open the link from Facebook to a second website and find it has 60% off the same golf putter and free next day delivery. I quickly buy the putter for my Dad in the online store.

What I did not do was leave the comfort of my house to browse at the local golf store. I didn’t see the company website or any social media presence. That local store also had 50% off the same golf club.

What’s Changed in Digital Marketing Funnels?

Prospects are walking themselves through the funnel, then walking in the door ready to buy. In both B2B and B2C businesses, customers are doing their own research online.

Everyone has the internet in their pocket.

In 2019 1.37 Billion smartphones were sold worldwide.

A 2016 USA study showed that 88.5% of the population used the internet.

The speed of internet connections has increased year on year since fiber broadband arrived. The world is connected by 3G, 4G, and now 5G. This speed eliminates wait times for a website to load; it also allows you to open as many websites or social media platforms as you want.

Caroline Donahue, CMO at Intuit, oversees numerous web-based products. Donahue says the funnel changes because “with cross-sell and up-sell, you move from awareness to action instantaneously.”

The Bounce Rate

A ‘bounce’ happens when someone visits your website and leaves without interacting further with your site. This is tied into Google’s analytics of your website.

It is very important to keep the bounce rate low. How you keep people interested in your site long enough for them to purchase is the key to a successful digital market funnel.

Your website needs to be fool-proof for sales. It needs to look and feel contemporary. Your marketing team should be making constant small adjustments to keep it up to date and user friendly.

The days of expecting clients to navigate a complicated sales website are over.

Voice Technology

Sales through voice-activated software (Alexa / Siri / Hey Google) are likely to be + 20% in 2020 and growing year on year.

This will require monitoring as voice-activated software requires additional information. Adding words such as ‘near me’ is something that businesses will have to address.

Google can handle two keywords, but voice-activated searches will ‘listen’ to a full sentence.

Do Likes and Followers Equal Sales?

One of the most challenging aspects of digital marketing sales is finding the balance between content marketing costs and sales revenue.

Luxury brands will often have millions of followers, but not millions of customers. However, without that brand awareness, they will fall out of fashion with those who can afford the products.

A good example of a successful digital marketing strategy is the Oreo cookies brand. Oreos have over 40million online followers—more than fashion behemoth H&M.

Oreo grew in popularity as they produce daily video content, including how you can make a fun dessert or drink using Oreo cookies.

This requires a large marketing team, but it also translates into worldwide sales of an affordable product. In New York or Tokyo, you can buy a pack of Oreo Cookies.

In 2019 the Oreo brand reached $3.1 Billion in net sales globally.
Its standard cookie sells twice as much as the nearest competitor in the USA.

This success is down to an aggressive marketing strategy online. Understanding who their consumer is and what life stage they are at.

Content is King in 2020

You need to speculate to accumulate and grow your output.

Spread across multiple social media sites and produce regular content.

Keep them interested, understand what your target audience likes; sport, art or cooking, etc.

Reacting to trends is vital. What’s everybody talking about on social media?

B2B email sales need to be 1:1 and personal. No more generic mass marketing.

Is it Circular or Funnel Shaped?

While the marketing world tries to keep ahead of the game, new maps of marketing techniques are cropping up. The fast-paced changes are creating difficulty for companies.

The circular ‘Customer Decision Journey’ is the connection between purchase and advocacy. Where the CDJ fails for some experts, is that advocates do not equal sales.

You may have a lot of advocates for your company online, but it’s not guaranteed revenue streams.

In 2020, round, funnel, or spiral, one truth that’s universal and cannot be ignored is that it’s no longer a linear market funnel, it’s ever-changing and evolving.

Engaging potential buyers to garner interest in your sales website long enough for them to purchase is the key to a successful digital market funnel.

If you enter a website and search for an item, and it’s not visible in a few clicks, you will leave and move on to the next site in approximately 2 minutes.

Imagine a Sales Rep. trying to sell a product to a new client in 2 minutes.
This is why a strong marketing team is essential to a successful business

Do you think the Digital Marketing Funnel is the best option for marketing teams?

Let us know and Comment Below :

Up Next;

• SALES IS NEVER GOING BACK
• 8 TIPS TO AVOID SALES SLUMPS
• COLD MESSAGING: HOW TO EMAIL SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW

In the age of data, it is easily forgotten that those revenue streams are all related to, and dependent on, a person – your employee. A motivational leader understands the human behind the job title; they appreciate that each team member needs an environment of trust and mutual respect to effectively carry out their work.

RELATED: 7 STEPS TO GAIN RESPECT FROM YOUR SALES TEAM

In this Article:

1. Encouragement
2. Open Communication
3. Lead & They Will Follow

How Can A Leader Develop Motivational Skills?

Encouragement motivational leader

A motivational leader cannot solely be a criticizing presence; instead, they will understand that encouragement is equally essential for team morale. When you offer praise, you are telling your team that you appreciate and acknowledge their efforts. A little praise can go a long way to motivate your team to face the next hurdle.

If your team has been asked to push themselves to reach a new goal or target, fatigue can set in and lead to indifference towards the task. A team that is only ‘going through the motions’ is a team that needs encouragement.

As a sales leader, you need to boost morale and take time in meetings to praise previous efforts. The urge to always look forward to the next goal, can mean that the praise for previous successes is forgotten. You need to reward your team for all their efforts. A team bonus or OTE is the ‘official’ thank you from the company, however, a pat on the back from a manager is equally motivating.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
—Bill Gates

“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” – Sheryl Sandberg (COO, Facebook)

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor but without folly. —Jim Rohn (Entrepreneur & Motivational Speaker)

Open Communication

Clear communication is how we make ourselves understood. As children, before we speak we point, and we use eye contact. We strive to communicate from childhood.

Turning a spotlight on your communication style can help you understand the dynamics required to lead by listening. Round table discussions will encourage two-way open dialogues that prevent future confusion on tasks and goals.

You learn as much by actively listening as you do by speaking. Motivational leaders create a culture where asking questions and seeking support is encouraged. This is not a leadership flaw, but a strength that allows a team to enjoy a relationship of mutual respect between them and their leaders. If an individual on your sales team is struggling, by actively listening to them and working on the issues as a team of two, you will get to the root of the problem and have a good opportunity to resolve and learn from the experience.

Karen Martin, a respected executive business coach, says the chances of achieving success without complete clarity are slim. Martin wants you to ask ‘WHY,’ not ‘what’ your business is.

In her acclaimed book, Clarity First: How Smart Leaders and Organizations Achieve Outstanding Performance, Karen Martin discusses the following topics:

• Provide greater transparency about true versus assumed performance.
• Build strong problem-solving and critical thinking capabilities throughout the organization.
• Develop personal clarity to be a more direct, purposeful, and successful leader.
• Eliminating ambiguity is the first step for leaders and organizations to achieve strategic goals.

Karen Martin champions the idea of understanding that your business is only as strong as your employees. By not allowing the standard practice of a “tolerance for ambiguity”, a company can focus on the purpose of the business.
Most Sales teams have experienced the ‘meeting that could have been an email’. Your team does not need to be bamboozled by KPI metrics at every sales meeting. Like your clients and customers, the relevant information is all that is required. Overwhelming your sales team with data will lead to ambiguity. They will miss out on the message you are trying to communicate.

Martin has encountered in her work the number of employees of a company who do not know ‘why’ the business is operating, they only know ‘what’ it is. The core message is drowned out by ambiguity.

Lead & They Will Follow

‘Do what I say and not what I do’ is the wrong example to set as a leader. Your team should look up to you as an effective leader and role model. If they see you putting your all into your work, they will follow by example.

A managerial position can pull you in many directions. You won’t always hit the mark, failure is a part of business. If you are willing to own up to your own failings in a crisis, this will encourage your team to do the same. Fostering a climate of honesty in your sales team helps everyone grow together.

Delegation can be difficult however, the urge to control everything is not feasible. If you are a motivational leader, you understand your individual teams’ strengths and have established an environment of mutual respect. Dividing up tasks is a good way to tell your team that you trust their ability to succeed. Taking on the more difficult tasks yourself is a good way to display leadership.

Earn your leadership every day. –Michael Jordan (NBA Allstar)

It’s okay to admit what you don’t know. It’s okay to ask for help. And it’s more than okay to listen to the people you lead – in fact, it’s essential.” – Mary Barra (CEO, General Motors)

“A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” —Arnold H. Glasow (Renowned Businessman)

Motivational leadership is democratic, not autocratic; expecting only obedience will create a negative working environment. Look after your sales team, and they, in turn, will look after your business.
.

What’s your view on motivational leaders? Have they helped you in the past?
Let us Know in the Comment Section below

Up Next :

• WHY SOME SALES MANAGERS FAIL
• A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SALES DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTATIVE (SDR)
• THE BEST WORDS THAT SELL EVERY SALES TEAM SHOULD KNOW

RELATED: How To Develop A Next Gen Sales Rep w/Mor Assouline @Practice Panther

In this article:

1. What Successful Sales Professionals Have in Common
2. Why Sales Success Decreases over the Years
3. Evaluating a Sales Representative’s Performance
4. Different Types of Salesperson Skills
5. The Sales Associate Skills That Make a Great Representative

11 Top Sales Skills Every Top Performer Should Have | What Makes a Good Salesman or Saleswoman

Click here to jump to the sales skills list infographic.

What Successful Sales Professionals Have in Common

There are 5.7 million sales professionals in North America — and perhaps millions more throughout the world. And yet, only a few can claim to reach stellar performance or results.

What makes a great sale representative reach the heights of Zig Ziglar, Grant Cardone, David Ogilvy, or Dale Carnegie?

What separates the good from the truly great? And what sales techniques help reps get more business, handle objections, and have better overall sales conversations?

We made a sales skills list of the top sales skills from the best sales reps, and you know what? Talking people into buying things wasn’t high on the list.

Why Sales Success Decreases over the Years

Data from the Miller Heiman group shows that only 53% of sales professionals are hitting or exceeding their quota. This percentage has steadily decreased from 63% over the last five years, indicating that something is wrong when it comes to sales performance.

Do sales professionals lose their sales negotiation skills even with constant training, practice, and use? Or do they lose sight of their goals because of the challenges of today’s market?

XANT studies have shown that leadership activities like coaching and mentoring positively impact the growth and retention of top performers, maximizing investment in people and processes.

In B2B organizations, transitioning just 15% of sales reps from lower-performing groups to higher performing quadrants can lead to a significant revenue increase.

So, how do you find the top sales skills that allow some sales representatives to constantly over-achieve and break records — and weed out the behaviors causing others to underperform?

Evaluating a Sales Representative’s Skills and Performance

Evaluating a sales representative’s skills and performance and skills should be an ongoing process. To be able to rate sales professionals on a scale, sales leaders can look at key metrics, such as:

• Closed revenue
• Sales conversations
• Qualified leads
• Number of sales activities

However, the numbers only tell part of the story.

How you get to these numbers is a matter of perseverance, communication skills, and hard work. There’s no silver bullet.

Different Types of Sales Representative Skills

Before anything else, do note that there are different types of sales representative skills. There are hard skills, soft skills, and specialist skills.

Hard Skills are skills you can measure and teach directly to people. For example, reading and writing are hard skills.

On the other hand, Soft Skills aren’t measurable and are often subjective in terms of whether or not you have them. Some examples of soft skills are communication skills, leadership skills, and persuasiveness.

These are the two main categories of skills. However, there is also something called Specialist Skills.

Specialist sales representative skills are simply a set of skills particular to a specialist’s role.

With that said, there are certain Hard and Soft Skills you need to have as a sales associate.

The Sales Associate Skills That Make a Great Representative

To become a successful salesperson, there are key skills to have.

Some sales associate skills and duties can be developed through training and experience, while others can reach their sales goals through existing qualities.

We asked sales managers what top sales skills make a great salesperson, and here’s what we found out. This is our sales skills list:

1. Active Listening Skills

Sales professionals are in a position that requires strong communication skills, and that doesn’t necessarily mean their talking ability. It means hearing out your customers and finding out what’s best for them — not for you, as painful as that may sometimes be.

Whether you’re doing face-to-face selling or cold calling prospects, it’s essential to give your clients ample time to talk. Most of the time, your buyer willingly shares their pain points if you let them.

“Successful salespeople don’t try to convince customers that their product or service is right for them. Instead, they begin by listening and finding out if the potential customer is a good fit before leaping for the sale,” said Joe Zente, CEO of The Alternative Board in Austin.

He added, “This prevents them from coming off as pushy and saves time and money that would otherwise be spent on chasing unlikely leads.”

“Great salespeople need to understand the prospect, their problems, and goals,” added Steve Benson, founder and CEO of Badger Maps. “They communicate solutions that enable them to be more successful,” said Benson.

“The only way to understand your prospect is through listening,” adds Matt L. Schmidt, Sales Director of Diabetes Life Solutions – “however, very few salespeople take the time to listen.”

“If you listen carefully to a client or prospect, they will tell you exactly what they need or want,” said Schmidt.

Building long-term relationships with clients involve having a productive conversation and practicing active listening.

RELATED: Sales Effectiveness Metrics for Evaluating Your Team

2. Have Resilience and Grit

“Sales suffer from one of the highest attrition rates of all professions, which is why it serves to recruit salespeople who show resilience and grit,” explained Calum Coburn from the Negotiation Experts.

“Sales pros have to deal with rejection a lot. They do not get calls back; they do not receive feedback after investing a great deal of energy and time on a proposal or sales pitch,” said Calum.

He further said, “So when recruiting sales managers and leaders, you would do well to recruit those who have staying power.”

“You can measure grit or fortitude,” added Calum. “As well as looking for grit from previous roles in the form of sticking it out in the face of knockbacks, ask your sales applicant about their hobbies and extra-mural activities.”

“If they stuck with something for two years or more, this shows staying power. One year is the bare minimum,” Calum continued.

Jon Gorman, sales manager at Fundera, added that he looks for salespeople who are hardworking and resilient when hiring. Sales reps who don’t give up even after multiple buyer objections are those who become great sales leaders in the future.

“If you’re behind on your numbers for the month, how will you deal with it? Are you going to call it in, or work harder, double down, and catch up?” said Gorman.

“The right attitude goes a long way in sales, and if you are hardworking and resilient, you will be better at your job,” he added.

3. Show Empathy

Show empathy to prospects and understand their pain points.

Being empathetic is also one of the most incredible sales representative skills that’ll allow you to tune into customers and anticipate their needs and wants.

When you’re empathetic, you can build better relationships with your prospects by truly understanding what their pains are. Plus, it helps you identify what your clients and prospects need.

Not even the best sales skills and abilities can help you if you can’t provide prospects with solutions.

“Great salespeople are empathic. They need to listen to the prospect and care about their issues,” said Carrie Pobre, trainer at Sandler, a Sales skills training school in Los Angeles.

Pobre further stated, “The key here is listening with an unbiased ear. They are humble — they need to be willing to put the prospect and/or client first before themselves and their company.”

“A great salesperson knows what the customer wants before they even know it, and guides them to the perfect product or service,” adds Eddie Kane, sales manager at Tadi Brothers.

“If the customer has confidence that the salesperson will find the perfect product, it will be a closed deal. The customer will be happy and repeat purchase,” said Kane.

4. Be Prepared

Cold calling isn’t dead — it’s reborn in the digital age with new tools to incorporate into the sales process. Sales reps now spend a few minutes researching each prospect or contact before calling them to ensure they have the right person, so they can personalize the message.

Plus, prior client research helps the sales team prepare for possible objections during the negotiation process. Reps can create a script they can refer to when their clients and prospects become a bit difficult to deal with.

According to Coburn, the best sales pros recognize that every client interaction is a negotiation, so they prepare beforehand.

Some of these ways include:

• Doing a quick SWOT analysis to help them gain valuable insights
• Researching their key accounts and who they’re selling to on a company, industry, and personal level

SWOT Analysis Definition: A process in strategic planning that allows someone to see and analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of an organization or a person.

BONUS TIP: Research Is One of the Most Important Sales Skills; Use It Wisely

Different types of research are needed for different kinds of prospects.

Even if one prospect is in the same organization and the same industry, you shouldn’t consider them as one when researching. You have to pay attention to their pain points and what they expect from their initial conversation with you rather than what you want from them.

When researching a prospect, you have several places to look into. Some of them are:

• Social media pages, like LinkedIn, help you keep track of their recent professional activities as well as their work history.
• Competitor Press Releases: This gives you an idea of who they’re working against.
• Your Prospect’s Company’s Press Releases: This is to give you a summary of significant things that have been going on in the company.

These are only a few of the different places you can look into that’ll help you be prepared for that conversation with your prospect.

5. Self-Motivated and Competitive

According to Pobre, “Great salespeople are self-motivated and competitive. Most often, they put forward sales goals themselves to motivate them, and don’t wait for company direction. They also identify opportunities.”

She also adds, “Great salespeople are competitive. It’s just in their blood.”

“One of the oddest things I’ve found in sales is that a ‘love of people’ is actually not required. Some very successful salespeople actually don’t really like people,” she pointed out.

Adding further: “What they do have is a desire to help others and the sales job skills to help the prospect figure out if their product/service is a fit.”

Being a salesman or saleswoman can be difficult at times, especially when you get rejected frequently. This can be demoralizing to some people.

Thus, having the ability to motivate yourself and learn the art of competitiveness helps develop that much-needed drive. It’s especially important during those days when you’re not motivated.

How to Remain Motivated as a Salesperson

Becoming self-motivated isn’t as easy as it sounds. It can be quite challenging to manage when you’re not used to the multitude of rejections that salesmen and women face regularly.

With that said, here are several ways you to help you become more self-motivated:

a. Always Have a Plan

To keep yourself in line and not feel lost, you should make a plan for yourself. Aside from a primary goal within a year, you should also highlight the steps necessary to reach those goals.

Having a plan and following through with it helps you get less distracted by a few bumps on the road.

b. Connect with Motivating Salespeople

If you surround yourself with high-achieving sales reps, their presence is more likely to motivate you.

You’ve probably heard that quote about being the dumbest person in the room and all that. This doesn’t mean you should refuse to learn — it just means you should be with people that have something to teach you.

c. Disconnect from Your Work Sometimes

Sometimes, you need to take a step back to see the bigger picture clearer. At this point, it might be better for you to step back a little and take a break.

You’ll be surprised just how a short break can help you be better at your job.

6. Establish Trust with the Customer

Prospects think twice about closing a deal with a sleazy salesperson but not with someone they built a trusting relationship with. How can one build trust without sacrificing maximum sales opportunities?

By combining all the sales associate skills of top performers together, a great salesperson can compel a prospect to close a deal.

Bombarding clients with products and services they might not need forces them to become wary of your presence. Instead, be a consultant for your client.

Figuring out what more they need to strengthen their brand is already a skill in itself. Build trust from there.

If you can figure out their organization’s problem, then they’ll trust you to provide a solution to that problem as well. Follow through with quality service or products, and you’ll have a loyal customer who’ll think of you first when another problem arises.

It also helps to establish a trustworthy billing process. This way, they’ll be sure to know all transactions they made with you are legitimate and legal.

7. Ask the Right Questions

Practice the art of asking the right questions to truly connect with prospects.

If a prospect says no, they’re either not ready for your offer or haven’t recognized their issues yet. A good salesperson tries to find another way to turn this around.

Instead of forcing your service on them, ask the right questions. This way, you’ll be able to determine their reason for saying no and probably work around that.

Rejection doesn’t always mean failure. Tenacious people see it as an opportunity to gain more knowledge and craft new strategies to overcome other possible refusals in the future.

This is where your listening skills become useful, but don’t stop there.

How to Know When You’re Asking the Right Questions

To know if you’re asking the right questions, you have to know the two different types of questions in sales: the open-ended questions and closed questions.

If your question aims to continue the conversation in some way, then ask an open-ended question. On the other hand, if you intend to ask a multitude of yes or no questions to narrow down on specific information on your prospect, then closed questions are ideal.

Remember, your questions should follow the conversation and not vice versa. That way, it sounds more natural and less like a one-sided interrogation.

8. Be the Authority

No one builds trust with a person who doesn’t know what he’s selling.

To gain more respect in the sales industry, you need to know your product backward, forward, and sideways. The more knowledgeable you are, the more trustworthy you become to your client.

Gaining their trust and respect can move your entire sales transactions to a more positive side of the scale.

Aside from product knowledge, a top-performing salesperson should also strive to update his/her selling skills.

Whether it’s about delivering excellent customer service, enhancing verbal communication, or developing people skills, you need to continue learning more skills and improving techniques to become an authoritative sales representative.

Society, technology, and industries evolve every minute, and you need to always catch up to these changes.

9. Social Media Skills and Social Selling

Social selling is more important now more than ever. In this technological age, social media is becoming an important tool that reps can utilize.

Social Selling Definition: The use of social media to engage with prospects frequently.

Social selling can be a good tool to find prospects. But, beyond that, socially savvy reps can also use it to understand their prospects more and build better relationships with them.

This doesn’t mean bombarding prospects with messages on their social media.

10. Technological Adaptability

These days, new technology seemingly pops up every day. While adapting to new technologies involves time to overcome a learning curve, the benefits are worth it since they can make a salesperson’s job more manageable.

From using CRMs to sales automation tools, one must be adept at using technology and adaptable to new ones. It’s essential to have the basic tech skills locked down and to possess or develop the ability to adjust to the rapid technological shifts these days.

11. Research Skills

Research is one of the most important, if not the most important, sales representative skills. Without research, you’ll have a hard time going through the entire sales cycle faster and more efficiently.

Research allows you to work with relevant and accurate information about prospects, so you’re coming in as someone who wants to help and not just someone who wants to sell them something. Learning more about the prospect and their needs can also help you tailor your offers to those that can help the prospect.

Bonus Tip: Product Knowledge

Know your product like the back of your hand.

Product knowledge is not the most crucial skill for a salesperson to have; however, it is a requirement for closing deals. Whether you are selling products or services, make sure you know the features like the back of your hand.

The best sales leaders specialize in giving industry-related solutions to their prospects. You can’t gain the ability to solve problems if you don’t memorize your products by heart.

Besides, product knowledge should be a fundamental skill all companies and sales associates should know. Without it, your product is in big trouble.

“Before you sell/serve anyone, you must know every detail and history of your products,” said Dave Ramsey, author and sales trainer.

Don’t forget to download, save, or share this handy sales skills list infographic for reference:

Develop a sales strategy maximizing effective sales techniques for your sales team to refer to. If you do so, every sales representative in your company becomes a key player in helping your business reach success.

Which sales skills do sales reps need to work on for long-term success? What are your most effective salesperson skills? What’s at the top of your sales skills list? Let us know in the comments section below:

We hope this guide helps you learn more about the essential sales skills that propel the performance of sales representatives and turn them into top performers.

Which sales skills do sales reps need to work on for long-term success? Let us know in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• Jamie Shanks Reveals 5 Must-Have Skills Of Modern Sales Pros
• 6 Effective Time Management Strategies From Sales Experts
• Sales Metrics Smackdown: Are These 3 Inside Sales Metrics Overrated?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Dec. 14, 2017, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

Here are a few expert-level tips and a few methods for dealing with no’s to help you fall into the latter category.

RELATED: How to Win Back Lost Customers (14 Ways)

Up Next:

1. Tips About How To Deal With Negative Pushback
   1. Validate
   2. Correct Only Misunderstandings
   3. Avoid Yes/No Questions
   4. Determine the Reason For the No
2. Methods for How to Deal with Negative Pushback
   1. Negative Reverse Selling
   2. The LOC Method

Tips about How to Deal With Negative Pushback

Validate

When making a sale, always keep this point in the back of your mind: the customer’s positions are always good ones. You should never invalidate their point or opinion by saying something that amounts to “no, you’re wrong.”

In fact, 90% of the time (the exceptions are explained in the “correct only misunderstandings” section below), you should agree with them wholeheartedly with something like “absolutely, that’s a great point, and it’s precisely why [insert your sales pitch here].”

Constant validations of the customer’s thoughts and opinions will put them in a good mood, which makes them more likely to buy. It will also make them feel in control of the sale, which is a good thing for any sales pitch.

Correct Only Misunderstandings

The only time you should correct a customer during your sales pitch is when the views they are expressing are the clear result of a misunderstanding. If they are talking about your market and are obviously misinformed, for example, it’s okay to explain the reality to them.

Even in this case, you need to be very gentle not to appear you are lecturing the customer; no one wants to be talked down to. Try something like, “that’s actually what we thought for a long time too, but eventually, we realized that [insert sales pitch].”

Never correct a customer just because you disagree with them.

Avoid Yes/No Questions

Customers are naturally wary of sales pitches, and a yes/no question is very likely to result in a straight-up “no.” That will completely close the door in your face, which you obviously want to avoid. Instead, ask open-ended questions that let you find out more about the customer’s needs and desires.

This tip is especially useful when you’re experiencing pushback because asking questions about why the customer is concerned about a product or service is an excellent way to make them feel in control of the situation. It’s also a good way to find out what you need to do to course-correct your pitch.

RELATED: Why Asking Questions in Sales is Important

Determine the Reason For the No

If, after you deliver your sales pitch, the customer is still not interested, it’s your job to determine why not right then and there. DO NOT let them get away with “I’ll think about it and get back to you later.” It’s just an excuse that wastes a lot of your time.

Instead, try something like “when someone tells me they’re not sure, it usually means one of two things: they genuinely need more information in order to decide, or they’re not interested. Which is it for you?” This should be the only time in your pitch you pose a binary question like this.

Methods for How to Deal With Negative Pushback

Next, let’s look at two advanced techniques for dealing with pushback. These methods are tough to pull off well and require practice to master.

Negative Reverse Selling

Some customers just don’t trust salespeople, and so they’ll disagree with the pitch at all costs. If you sense this is true with a customer you’re talking to, you can shepherd them towards the sale by using reverse psychology and steering the pitch in a direction opposite where you want them to go.

By saying things like “you’re probably right, it doesn’t seem like you’re ready for this kind of product,” you’ll drive a resistant customer into defending why they are ready. In essence, you can get them to sell to themselves.

Keep in mind that negative reverse selling should only be used as a last resort, once you see that a prospect just won’t buy under normal circumstances. It’s very risky and will often result in a “no,” but it’s certainly worth a try.

The LOC Method

One of the hardest types of pushback to deal with is the kind fueled by previous negative experiences with your company. The LOC method (listen, own, choose) is a method for handling prior negative experience pushback. It’s an extremely delicate procedure, though, and should be dealt with the same care as defusing a bomb.

First, you need to listen to everything negative your customer has to say about their prior experience. Do not interrupt them. Let them vent until all their grievances are aired.

Next, own your company’s mistakes as if they were your own. Do not defer blame. This step is essential to make the customer feel vindicated and to show them they have been heard.

Last, let the customer choose if they want to continue with your company. Assure them you understand their objections and are ready to right your wrongs, but make it clear the choice is up to them and them alone. Make sure not to come off as pushy or needy.

The sales pitch is a delicate art. And knowing how to deal with negative pushback is an important component of it. Let this quick overview guide you, and your performance when you deal with negative pushback is sure to improve.

Up Next:

• Email Prospecting vs Cold Calling: What’s Best?
• 5 Best Practices to Deal with Phone Anxiety As a Sales Rep
• Top 3 Things You Need to Perfect Your Sales Cadence

RELATED: How to Train New Salespeople When You’re Not in the Office

In This Article:

1. Make Sure It’s a Slump
2. Stay Up-to-Date
3. Revisit Positive Reviews
4. Listen to Motivational Podcasts
5. Micromanage Your Process
6. Be a Helper, Not a Closer
7. Teach Less Experienced Salespeople
8. Open Up to Your Peers

Make Sure It’s a Slump

Before you try addressing a slump, make sure it’s actually a slump and not just a decrease in performance due to a totally different reason!

Keep in mind, for example, that adjustments require you to go through a brief period of decreased performance. Are you trying a new sales technique that you think will improve your performance in the long run? Then it will probably cause a lull that you might mistake for a slump in the short term.

There is a myriad of reasons for performance dip that might look like slumps but are actually not. Before you can start working on a cure for bad performance, you need to determine the cause.

Stay Up-to-Dateavoid sales slumps

Being out of touch with current trends is not a good position for a salesperson. If a salesperson loses touch with what their customers want at the moment, they may find they are suddenly unable to sell as efficiently.

To avoid sales slumps, be sure to stay up-to-date on what’s going on in pop culture and the wider world around it, especially if there are changes directly related to your target market.

Revisit Positive Reviews

To be the best salesperson you can be, you need to remain passionate about the product. Perhaps the best way to do that is by revisiting positive testimonials from your satisfied customers.

The other benefit of this practice is that you learn exactly what customers love about your product. That knowledge will improve your sales pitches since you will have a better feel for what consumers want.

Listen to Motivational Podcasts

It’s not easy to stay motivated in a profession where the vast majority of prospects give you a hard “no.” But salespeople need to find ways to keep motivated anyway because losing motivation will result in decreased job performance.

To avoid sales slumps, you need to surround yourself with encouragement. One of the best ways to do that is by listening to motivational podcasts. You can consume them while commuting, doing chores, walking the dog, or cooking, and audio is a fantastic medium to lift spirits if the host knows how to be inspirational.

There are lots of great motivational podcasts specifically about sales.

Micromanage Your Process

Sales is a very temperamental business. It’s very easy to throw off your sales rhythm with even a small change in your routine. Sometimes, the change can be so small that you don’t even know you made it unless you take some time to think about it!

To avoid sales slumps, try to maintain your work-related schedule as militantly as possible. If you do find yourself in a slump, systematically pick apart your plan to see what you are doing differently.

Be a Helper, Not a Closer

Sales slumps are usually preceded by periods of sales fatigue. If you deal with the fatigue correctly, you can often avert the slump from happening at all!

Possibly the best way to deal with sales fatigue is by focusing on helping your customers rather than closing. Give it a try: during your next few sales pitches, focus on helping the prospect understand your product and your market better. Don’t even mention the sale. If you take away the possibility of closing, you’ll be able to de-stress and focus on the other parts of your sales pitch. It’s a valuable exercise for every sales rep to go through every now and then in order to avoid sales slumps.

RELATED: The #1 Mistake Sales Reps are Making Right Now

Teach Less Experienced Salespeople

Teaching is actually an extremely effective method of learning; imparting some of the things you’ve learned about sales to less experienced salespeople is an effective way to cement them in your mind. It’s also a nice ego boost because it reminds you that you actually know a lot about your industry.

Remembering that you know a lot about sales is a self-fulfilling prophecy; the added confidence will help you perform better and avoid sales slumps.

Open Up to Your Peers

Salespeople are generally a pretty proud bunch, and they are hesitant to ask anyone — especially each other — for feedback on their technique. If you want to avoid sales slumps, you need to overcome that hesitancy.

Although sales can feel like a very competitive world, the truth is that it’s also a kind of family and people in it want to help each other out.

Avoiding sales slumps is an essential skill for sales professionals, right up there with knowing how to close. Everyone is different and is bound to have their own “treatments” to help them avoid sales slumps, but these nine tips should get you started.

TRY AS YOU MAY TO AVOID SALES SLUMPS, YOU WILL PROBABLY FALL INTO THEM FROM TIME TO TIME. CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO FOR HOW TO GET OUT OF A SLUMP IF THAT’S WHERE YOU FIND YOURSELF.

Up Next:

• 6 Mind-Blowing Sales Acceleration Videos on Youtube
• 9 Disruptive Sales Trends
• The Best Words That Sell Every Sales Team Should Know

In the 9 tips below, we’ve organized some ground rules that will help you do just that.

RELATED: How to Lead from Home

In This Article:

1. Determine a Meeting Schedule
2. Let Your Team Focus on Specializations
3. Judge by Results, Not Performance
4. Let Your Team Know You’re Tracking KPIs
5. Acknowledge Success
6. Listen to Ideas
7. Set Realistic Goals
8. Admit Your Flaws, Help With Theirs
9. Be Hands-Off

Work Team Ground Rules

Determine a Meeting Schedule

At the start of each month, draw up a schedule that dictates when you’re going to have every meeting during that month. Doing so will make scheduling easier for everyone. It will also make people more comfortable saving their questions about projects until the next meeting.

It might seem that very frequent team meetings is the best strategy, but it isn’t! Some companies meet at the beginning of every day, and it’s a massive time-suck that doesn’t add much at all to actual functionality. Usually, a meeting or maybe two every week will be enough.

Let Your Team Focus on Specializations

Good teams are composed of people who have diverse work specializations. A tech specialist, for instance, a PR rep, a writer, an event organizer. As a team leader, it’s your primary job to make sure each specialist gets to focus on his or her area. If they are continually doing each other’s jobs, their workflow will become muddied and confused.

Make it easy for team members to communicate with each other and ask for help from each other when needed.

Judge by Results, Not Hours ground rules

As a ground rule, make sure never to judge your team members’ performances based on the amount of time they put into their work. Because ultimately, those hours don’t matter at all if they are not producing results.

Instead of hours, judge purely based on performance. If you can view results without reminding yourself how many hours it took to produce them, that’s even better.

Let Your Team Know You’re Tracking KPIs

Make sure your team knows you’re paying attention to their performance. Not in a “you better watch your back” sort of way, but in more of a “your work is valued, and I’m keeping track attentively” kind of way. There is nothing worse for productivity than an employee feeling their work (or lack thereof) goes unnoticed, and you need to avoid that situation at all costs.

RELATED: 7 Ways to Increase Visibility for a Sales Organization

Acknowledge Success

When someone accomplishes something especially commendable, let them know they’re doing a great job! As we said, people love being acknowledged for their work.

You don’t need to throw a company party every time someone does something good — they’re another way to waste time if held too often. A pat on the back and an expression of appreciation should suffice.

Listen to Ideas

Make sure team members know they can suggest ideas. Set up an anonymous portal for employees to propose changes they think the company should implement, and publicize it.

Once the ideas start pouring in, show you are listening! Let employees know the workplace is a democracy through the policies you implement.

Set Realistic Goals ground rules

Don’t be over-enthusiastic about your goals. It’s very hard for team members to give their all when they know they’re going to come up short anyway.

In fact, it’s a good idea to let team members help suggest deadlines. When you receive a client’s project, tell them you’ll talk to your team and ask them when they think they can have it done by. Then, bring it up at your next meeting.

Here are a few more ideas on what to cover during office meetings as a team leader.

Admit Your Flaws, Help With Theirs

It’s important the upper management at any company can bond with its team members, and one important part of that is showing humanity. In other words, you need to show you are just people rather than a soulless entity calling itself a company.

To help connect, admit your flaws. Letting employees know what their company could do better not only humanizes you but also gives them chances to help fill where you really need them.

Be Hands-Off

Once you establish ground rules, step away, and let your team work. Nearly everyone hates
micromanagement, and they actually love to do what they’re good at if they are allowed some free reign.

This is also an essential step in making team members feel respected, another important aspect of creating a productive work environment.

Establishing ground rules that will let your team thrive is not easy, but it is a huge part of the team leader’s job. These 9 tips are great places to start.

Up Next:

• 7 Steps to Gain Respect from Your Sales Team
• Are You a Leader or Manager of Your Sales Team?
• The 5 Characteristics of Great Leaders

RELATED: How to Lead from Home

In This Article:

1. What is a Sales Manager?
2. How Sales Manager Succeed
3. Why Some Sales Managers Fail
4. People Management
5. Management Styles
6. Benefits of a Successful Sales Manager

The Failures and Successes of Sales Management

What is a Sales Manager?

Sales managers have a broad range of responsibilities. You must manage and oversee the sales team, assign and monitor sales territories, and resolve client complaints.
You will also liaise with marketing, HR, and senior management.

The role requires a person who is analytical, flexible, and a good mentor.

Developing new and existing client relationships is an important part of the role of all sales managers.

How Sales Managers Succeed

A good sales manager knows the challenges that the role entails. You are the link between the sales team and management. Your position requires you to filter down the frequent and varied corporate decisions to the sales team.

It is your responsibility to ensure that your territories are gaining maximum returns. To achieve this, you must strategize and manage your team efficiently. You need to hold yourself accountable for your team’s poor performance as well as the successful ones.

If you are a good sales manager, you understand the importance of time management. In addition to your sales team, you have to distill marketing and accounts management into your working week.

It is vital to devote time to analyzing and tracking sales data from the sales team. This allows you to catch any shortcomings sooner rather than later.

Why Some Sales Managers Fail

Confusion is the hallmark of a bad sales manager. While you can advocate for your sales team in meetings with senior management, you are now part of the management structure of your company. Your job is to inform your team, not to ask them.

Mixed messages will negatively affect your team’s performance. You must resist sharing negative narratives such as ‘it’s us against the company’ with your team.

Another common error is fighting losing battles with senior management. You need to choose your fights to ensure you get a share of the marketing budget and training allowances for your team. If you are pushing too hard for changes you may lose the ear of your Manager. This will in turn result in losses for your sales team.

People Management

If you are promoted to manage your former colleagues you may find it difficult to navigate the world of corporate decision-making vs. personal relationships.

While you may enjoy the process of interviewing and building a new sales team, you must also be honest about the possible shortcomings of your existing team. If a sales rep. is continually not hitting achievable targets, or is not a team player, it may be time to let them go.

An exit interview is a worthwhile strategy to allow the former employee to air any grievances they may have, and allowing you to learn how to profile possible red flags with future employees.

Management Style sales managers fail

It is important not to micromanage your sales team. You need to track the top and lower end performers closely, but appreciate that you have to trust your team to do their jobs. You must manage the team, not the individual. Setting clear goals and targets will set clear parameters for your sales team to achieve.

In a large company, decisions are sent down from the top tiers of the company. You may personally view these changes negatively, but it is important to convey them to your team in a positive light. Rather than challenges, discuss opportunities.

Benefits of a Successful Sales Manager

At some point in your sales career, you will have encountered a ‘bad’ sales manager. These are the managers who disrupt rather than improve your working week.

In contrast, a good sales manager can guide and help a team achieve its targets and goals with minimum conflicts. This establishes trust and respect that creates a good working environment that will benefit your team and sales revenue.

Helping your team to grow the client base, and pursue new leads, will increase sales revenue. This will put you and your team in a good position with senior management.

A Sales Manager role is one of many facets.
A great Sales Manager will have opportunities to increase skills, progress in their career, and enjoy the satisfaction of managing and mentoring a successful sales team.

What have good or bad sales managers taught you? Comment below.

Up Next :

• THE #1 MISTAKE SALES REPS ARE MAKING RIGHT NOW
• THE BEST WORDS THAT SELL EVERY SALES TEAM SHOULD KNOW
• HOW TO WIN BACK LOST CUSTOMERS (14 WAYS)

RELATED: THE ULTIMATE LIST OF FOLLOW UP EMAIL SUBJECT LINE EXAMPLES

In this article:

1. Unclear Subject Line
2. Poor Spelling and Grammar
3. Not Using the Recipients Name
4. Not Using Greetings and Closings
5. Not Responding in a Timely Manner
6. Not Thinking Before Forwarding
7. Using Wacky Fonts and Formatting
8. Using the Wrong Recipient Name

Email Response Tips

Email prospecting is best when you want to reach a lot of people for lead generation. Of course, you have to make sure that the email isn’t an end in itself.

Simple goals can also be achieved with an email: scheduling a meeting, answering one-off questions, and more.

But ultimately, when you’re communicating through email, it’s to get customers to talk to you and purchase your product, so email response is key to building that relationship and closing deals.

We’re only human, and blunders happen, but follow the below email etiquette tips to avoid any email response mistakes.

Unclear Subject Line

Getting people to click on your emails is key to increasing sales conversion rates. Catching your customer’s attention is half the battle, so the email subject line. However, a seemingly minor amount of work could be the difference between starting a great client relationship or saying goodbye to that person forever.

A clear subject line is crucial, so recipients understand why they’re making contact before they open the email. Most people scan their inbox for standout email subject lines, mainly via a mobile device, so a clever salesperson knows how to write clear subject lines that are catchy, customer-centric, use CTAs, and are personalized.

Subject lines must be informative, concise, and clear. Mastering this skill might take time, but getting the email open and responding to it’s essential.

Particularly when connecting with C-level executives, quite possibly because of time restrictions, they know how to communicate efficiently. Therefore, you’ll need to get to the point and respectfully not waste their precious time.

Poor Spelling and Grammar

We’re all accustomed to using shorthand and abbreviations when messaging colleagues, but it’s a different kettle of fish when speaking with customers, and not an appropriate format. You’ll likely not get taken seriously and present yourself as unprofessional and possibly even unintelligent.

Always check your spelling, punctuation, and grammar, even when using spell-check and grammar tools. Always proofread your writing before you send it, and if unsure, get a colleague to read over what you’ve done.

Not Using the Recipients Name

Not addressing the recipient by name is likely to get you nowhere, especially when prospecting. Take the time to personalize emails to show you respect that person and want to build a relationship.

Not Using Greetings and Closings

Even though you’re responding to an email, never go straight into a conversation. Greetings and closings are compulsory and shouldn’t be left out from any emails you send. Greetings don’t always have to be Dear [customer name], they can be less formal once the relationship is established.

Creating an email signature is a useful shortcut that also respects email etiquette. Include your name, job title, company name, and contact information at the very least.

Concluding in an appropriate way allows the recipient to have a better understanding of who you are and leaves a good impression.

Not Responding in a Timely Manner

You should always respond to your important emails within 24 hours. Even if you cannot respond fully, it is recommended to reply, respectfully showing that you received the email. Adding in a get-back-to-you date is a great way to manage customer expectations.

If you’re out of the office for more than 24 hours, you must use an out of office autoresponder. Some salespeople do this even while in daily meetings so that customers know they are important to them. Providing details of who to contact in your absence will make you look more professional.

Additionally, never respond to an email immediately, no matter how big the client is and how excited you are. Take time to digest the content and reply with a great email response.

Not Thinking Before Forwarding

You’ve possibly done this at least once in your career. Forwarding an email about someone, to them or sending sensitive information to the wrong person! It’s heart-stopping stuff and lacks all professionalism.

Using Wacky Fonts and Formatting

Using colors, emojis, and offbeat formatting might be appropriate for some businesses, but generally, it’s likely to hurt your recipient’s eyes and come across as unprofessional. Using bold or capital letters for more than a few words also goes against standard etiquette.

Using the Wrong Recipient Name

Always triple check you have the correct name, particularly when forwarding messages – using the name of the person who sent you an email sounds like a no brainer, but mistakes can be made in multiple-people emails. Mis-spelling is also crucial; check their signature as email addresses can be misconstrued. Only shorten names if that’s how your customer addresses themselves.

The quality of your email response will often determine if a client will purchase your product or hire your services. All responses should be professional and well thought out.

What other email response tips do you have? Do you have any funny stories about emailing incorrectly? Share your comments in the section below.

Up Next:

• EMAIL PROSPECTING VS COLD CALLING: WHAT’S BEST?
• COLD MESSAGING: HOW TO EMAIL SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW
• THE BEST WORDS THAT SELL EVERY SALES TEAM SHOULD KNOW

RELATED: Four Tips On Selling To C-Level Executives

In this article:

1. Engaging with C-Level Executives
   1. Start at the Top
   2. Forget the Features
   3. Understand their Priorities
   4. Level with Them
   5. Get Social
   6. Don’t Burn Bridges
   7. Be Pleasantly Persistent
2. The Challenges of Selling to C-Level Executives
   1. Senior Executives Are Constantly Being Offered Something
   2. Most C-Level Decision Makers Prefer Referrals
   3. Their Time Is Limited
3. C-Level Secrets: Copy the Things C-Level Executives do Daily
   1. Prioritize
   2. Get to the Point
   3. Able to Ask Great Questions
   4. Considers the Impact on the Organization
   5. Trust Others

How to Connect and Engage Better with the Top Brass and C-Level Executives

Engaging with C-Level Executives

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” This familiar adage comes from Norman Vincent Peale and has been used to inspire and motivate people around the world.

Why, then, do salespeople seem to shoot for the clouds and land among the trees? Why are so many calls made and emails sent that don’t even attempt to connect with the absolute highest decision-maker?

Cold calling the CEO is difficult, but not impossible — if you know how to structure your pitch and how to get past gatekeepers.

At Abstrakt, we’ve scheduled more than 100,000 B2B sales meetings in the last eight years, so we have unique insight and hundreds of thousands of hours put into mastering this skill. I’ve seen it in almost every new rep: fear of the owner, fear of the gatekeeper, fear of the 2nd gatekeeper (the dreaded executive assistant), and reluctance to even approach the challenge.

Some reps give in to this fear and go for the second best thing—mid-level managers.

Is it easier to get a mid-level manager on the phone? Absolutely.

Is it more productive? Definitely not.

A 2012 Harvard Business Review article reported a survey finding that more than 90% of C-level executives said they ‘never’ respond to cold calls or e-mail blasts.

What is a C-Level Executive? This is a high-ranking official in a company who usually makes decisions that affect the entire business. They are called such because they typically have a “C” in their job titles, such as:

• CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
• COO (Chief Operations Officer)
• CTO (Chief Technology Officer)
• CFO (Chief Financial Officer)
• CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)
• CIO (Chief Information Officer)
• CSO (Chief Strategy Officer)

During an earnings call on February 24th, 2016, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff credited their success to their ability to target the CEO.

“When I look at the largest transactions… every transaction was done with the CEO,” Benioff said. “I think it’s really unusual, and that’s why we’re really selling more enterprise software than Oracle or SAP.”

According to Anthony Parinello in the book Selling to Vito, targeting the CEO/President/Owner will result in:

• A shorter sales cycle
• Larger deal sizes
• More add-on business

But, I assume you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t already know you should be reaching higher.

So, with more decision-makers guarding their time and companies adding more layers of protection to keep them insulated from pesky salespeople, how do we get a conversation? How do we keep a conversation going with the top decision-maker?

Here are some tips on how to engage with high-ranking officers of a company:

Start at the Top of C-Level Management

CEOs will occasionally push you down, but mid-level managers will rarely connect you up. If you don’t start at the top, it’s a steep climb to get there that risks relationships you build along the way.

Getting to know a company’s employees, their ranks, and levels can prepare you when you start penetrating the business.

As a sales rep, you should know that you should try and get to your C-level decision-makers as soon as possible. That way, you don’t have to exert too much effort making your sales talk on someone who isn’t even part of the decision-making process.

Plus, it’s better to get a rejection straight from the C-level executives. If you get one from lower-level managers, you’ll always be stuck wondering if you could’ve gotten a yes from the higher-ups instead.

Forget the Features

Features are great for an operations person, but the higher you climb, the more your conversation should be tied to the benefits to their organization.

People in C-level positions constantly think of ways to improve their company as a whole. If you can address the company’s challenges and offer benefits, then these executives will be more accessible and might be more ideal to talk to.

C-suite executives look at their company issues from a more macro perspective, so you should focus on the macro solutions you can provide. When you list down your features one-by-one, it’s not as appealing to someone higher up the corporate ladder.

They’re always going to be much more discerning. Also, these business leaders are going to be thinking: “What’s in it for me?”

Thus, you should answer that question before they even ask it.

Understand the Priorities of C-Level Executives

A CEO’s performance is tied to driving revenue, improving margins, and increasing the bottom line. They will spend their time in conversations that will help them achieve these objectives.

Remember that you should modify your sales pitch to accommodate for the person you are talking to. Therefore, for people within the C-level management, you shouldn’t be asking basic questions about their company.

In fact, you should already know enough to get straight to the point. If you ask questions about their company goals and background, they’re likely not going to think much of you.

You should be armed and ready and able to show your understanding of their company goals and needs even before they have to say what it is to you.

RELATED: How To Close Sales: 6 Annoying Sales Tactics To Avoid

Level with Them

Yes, this can mean being straightforward. More importantly, in this context, however, it means to make sure that the senior executives perceive you as an equal.

People naturally like to have conversations with people they perceive as having similar characteristics, challenges, and experiences to them.

If you want to appear to be on equal footing with them, then you should strive to be someone that they think wants the best out of their company. Instead of focusing on closing a deal, concentrate on the goals of the organization.

For a lot of business leaders, they tend to be bombarded by messages wanting to get a sale out of them.

To stand out, you should do some serious strategic planning on your positioning ideals.

Do you want to be a guide, a partner, or an advisor for the executive team?

Planning ahead is a smart and strategic way of establishing a better footing in your relationship with these business executives.

Get Social

According to a white paper published by IDC, “75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level/vice president (VP) executives surveyed use social media to make purchasing decisions.”

If 90% of C-level executives are ignoring your cold efforts, warm them up by sharing relevant information and engaging their content and industry on LinkedIn and other social platforms.

A blog post from LinkedIn selling provides the following statistics:

• 92% of buyers engage if the professional is a known industry thought leader.
• 88% of buyers accept connections through someone in their existing professional network.
• 86% of buyers will listen if sales professionals provide insights about their business.
• 46% of buyers will engage in the professionals has a complete LinkedIn profile.

In your C-level executive search, social media is a big help. Not only will it help you develop your target executives list, but you already find a way to connect and communicate with them in some way.

Don’t Burn Bridges With C-Level Connections

Speaking of getting social, try not to burn any bridges between you and anyone in leadership positions. You never know who is connected to who.

The funny thing about CEOs is, they tend to hang around other CEOs. This means that when you get a little overzealous in one of your conversations, you run the risk of hurting your reputation with multiple potential partners.

People in authority keep in contact with other people with the same status. Be confident in your message and confident in the value you bring.

However, you should also be respectful of their timelines and their priorities.

Be Pleasantly Persistent

Depending on the product you sell, you may already know that sales can mostly be a timing game. If the time isn’t right now, gain agreement to follow-up down the road at a time that makes sense and never miss a follow-up.

These C-level executives don’t want you calling and bugging their team. They don’t want you talking to their executive assistant every day while they’re in meetings any more than you want to do it.

It will save both parties time to agree to a follow-up and stick to it.

Add value in every interaction! Commit to never touch a base again (unless you’re in a softball league).

The Challenges of Selling to C-Level Executives

Senior Executives Are Constantly Being Offered Something

C-level executives are continuously bombarded with messages. Most of these are cold messages, all with offers and sometimes vague promises.

Being a part of any leadership team means that these senior execs have a say in the decision-making process, which is why sales representatives always try to target them. Your challenge is how to stand out among this sea of offers and promises.

Most C-Level Decision Makers Prefer Referrals

Since they’re receiving offers upon offers, they need a simple way of filtering these offers. One way to do that is by prioritizing referrals over cold calls or emails.

Just remember higher-ups like working with companies that already have a stamp of approval from their peers. Thus, be at your best when talking to any C-level executive because their word holds a lot of weight with other business leaders in their circle.

Their Time Is Limited

Given the fact that people within C-level management have a lot on their plates, their time is precious to them. Therefore, it requires quite a bit of incentive on a sales rep’s parts to be able to get a small chunk of their extra time.

Although it’s obviously much more challenging to do prospecting to CEOs, as long as you have the skills and you follow the tips listed above, it should come easier.

It’s not easy to catch the attention of top brass executives, but closing a deal with one is not impossible. You just need persistence and a little bit of planning as you pursue C-level executives.

Plan ahead and prepare for whatever issues the chief operating officer may raise when addressing your product or service.

C-Level Secrets: Copy the Things C-Level Executives do Daily

Another way to connect with senior executives is to understand what they do and how they do it. Using simple tricks, you can learn these C-level secrets, adopt behaviors to make your selling life much easier, and which are applicable even if you’re not in a C-level role.

Prioritize

Any successful C-level executive has to nail the skill of prioritizing. Having the responsibility of managing billion-dollar accounts and sometimes hundreds of associates C-level executives have many demands thrust upon them. Their time and attention are divided but they still manage their tasks and monitor those of their managers and teams.

Get to the Point

Quite possibly because of time restrictions, C-level execs know how to communicate efficiently. Therefore, they know how to get to the point and will respect anyone who is not wasting their precious time.

Able to Ask Great Questions

C-level executives ask powerful and thoughtful questions despite not always knowing, or being involved with, the day to day work. Their techniques allow them to stay up to speed on subjects to yield helpful information.

Considers the Impact on the Organization

All decisions a C-level executive makes will be in the best interest of the business. They will always consider how decisions will impact performance and run a risk analysis to weigh up positive and negative outcomes. This C-level secret is something we can all adopt and improve our decision-making process.

Trust Others

C-level employees need strong teams which they can trust to get the job done. They promote this culture through empowering others, strong leadership, training, coaching, and succession planning.

These are all strategies we’ve used to great effect—are there any that I missed? Have you experienced success using similar tactics? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Up Next: 

• Three Steps For Breaking Through The Fear And Doing The Hard Things 
• Face-to-Face Closes 2.5x Better, But Inside Sales Makes 7x More Calls
• 10 Secrets of Successful Business Development Leader

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 16, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

In this article:

Productivity Tools

1. Know Who to Target
2. Identify Good Customers
3. Attention to Detail
4. Communication
5. Email
6. Phone Calls
7. Questioning Ability
8. Listening Skills
9. Customization
10. Product Expert
11. Process Driven
12. Tech Savvy
13. Social Media
14. Coachable and Keen to Learn

RELATED: WHAT 3 TOP SDR LEADERS ARE DOING RIGHT NOW

Essential SDR Skills

A Sales Development Representative, or SDR, is one of the primary roles within a sales and marketing team. They are inside reps who are focussed more on inbound lead qualification and channeling those leads into qualified appointments.

This vital sales role is not for everyone, and good SDRs need to stay ahead of the game, and on top of the minds of the prospects and clients they work with. SDRs have to master specific SDR skills that play an essential job within a healthy sales procedure.

Know Who to Target

The decision-maker isn’t always the target, and SDRs should be skilled to know whom to target within an organization. Influencers, direct and indirect, often help SDRs get the appointment booked, and regular conversations with various prospects within an organization are likely to become a primary prospect.

Identify Good Customers

An SDR should be able to notice any ‘defects’ and determine if a given (or found) lead is fit for the product being sold. While there are plenty of systems that automate this process using AI technology, an SDR should integrate their own skills with sales outreach tools.

Attention to Detail

In a hectic environment, there is a fair amount that can go wrong when writing and sending emails, such as duplication, incorrect, or out of date information.

SDRs must be able to master their CRM system and check all information is correct and fix things when they go wrong.

Communication

An SDRs job is to have conversations with the right people by reaching out and starting conversations with leads. These early stages of the sales process are crucial to finding out if the prospect can be processed through the ‘sales pipeline’ to a sales closer.

Email

Email outreach skills must be excellent to succeed as an SDR since sending cold or warm emails is a primary function. Sending emails must be met with a good amount of responses from leads and second stage prospects. SDRs should be able to mix up their copywriting styles and make emails personalized, punchy, relevant, and accurate.

Phone Calls

Calls should be perfected to qualify leads and find out data of target accounts. Calls should be made quickly but efficiently to get the highest number of conversions while providing the best customer service. SDRs should know how to get the right person on the phone, talk about needs/solutions, and be able to ask people the right questions. The best SDRs will earn good commission from sales qualified appointments or SQAs.

Questioning Ability

Good SDRs will be able to ask questions that are out of the comfort zone of many. They can push customers to the limit without being too ‘salesy’ by asking the right questions. Being able to understand an organization’s goal through questioning is a master skill.

Listening Skills

Selling is not so much about talking, but actually about active listening. Good SDRs ask fantastic questions then listen to their customers’ responses to gain more insight and determine customer needs. The conversation should be weighted, so the customer talks freely with the SDR, only interjecting to point out product value.

Customization

To get good response rates, SDRs must master the skill of customizing each contact they make with prospects and customers. It’s not enough anymore to send out a standardized email or read from a script. Although quantity matters, relevant quality contact catches the eye of the prospect to win appointments.

Product Expert

An SDR should be prepared for any question from a client and live and breathe the organization’s product or products. If they don’t believe in the product or have limited knowledge, then it will be more difficult to prospect or be confident explaining things.

Process Driven

Sales development is a repetitive process, and reps can spend their days doing the same functions. Having a killer process and strategy is essential to increase efficiency and remove wasted or monotonous steps from the sales cycle. Many CRMs and other AI tools can support an SDR in their role, but these tools still need to be properly understood and utilized to the max.

Tech Savvy

Much of the process within sales can be automated, and SDRs have to be technologically savvy and continually learning new tech. SDRs spend hours on importing lists, calling, emailing, and booking demos. Some SDRs do much more and follow the sales process until a sale is made. All steps use sales and CRM software.

Social Media

Social media is a vital tool in the B2B world, and SDRs need to know how to navigate and become an expert on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. They will need to set themselves up as experts in their field or industry leaders and convey their knowledge. All information posted should be highly valuable and relevant to interact with more prospects and build rapport.

Coachable and Keen to Learn

A good SDR should be open to continuously improving their performance, listening to their peers for suggestions, and implementing new strategies. Sales is an ever-evolving process, and so it makes sense to adapt and change with ever-evolving models or systems. An excellent SDR will seek out feedback, learn new skills, and proactively better themselves through training opportunities or online tutorials, for example.

What other SDR skills can you share with us? Please comment in the section below.

Up Next:

• 10 GOOD HABITS OF A NATURAL SALESPERSON FOR YOUR BUSINESS
• WHY EMAIL MARKETING IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR SALES PROCESS
• 3 STEPS TO BUILD A GREAT SALES TEAM