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: 10 GOOD HABITS OF A NATURAL SALESPERSON FOR YOUR BUSINESS

In this article:

• Why Customer Loyalty is Important
• 14 Ways to Win Back Lost Customers

1. 1. Decide if you want your lost customer back
   2. Ask why they left
   3. Take responsibility
   4. Engage with your customers
   5. Encourage their contribution
   6. Measure customer satisfaction
   7. Create a customer service-centric environment
   8. Personalize communication
   9. Inform customers
   10. Use social media
   11. Reward customers
   12. Don’t let them leave in the first place
   13. Promote your product
   14. Build more rapport

Win Back Lost Customers: Tips

Why Customer Loyalty is Important

Loyal customers are profitable. Customer loyalty improves profits by: –

• encouraging repeat business
• generating referrals
• establishing a favorable price premium
• reducing the operating costs for a business

It’s important for companies to find new customers, but a business’s existing customer base can determine the foundation of their future success.

Focussing on providing a good customer experience is key to increased revenue. Whether great customer experience becomes more important to driving sales than product or price is yet to be seen, but many industry experts believe so, and the following statistics back this up.

Each year, $136.8 billion is lost by U.S. companies due to avoidable consumer switching. (CallMiner)

Over half of Americans have canceled a transaction due to bad service. (American Express)

A third of Americans say they will leave a company and switch to another after just one incident of bad service. (American Express)

Also, one in three customers will pay more money to receive a better level of service. (Genesys)

15 Ways to Win Back Lost Customers

Decide if you want your lost customer back

First of all, decide whether you want your lost customer back? Not every customer is ideal and depending on your relationship the best decision could be to let them leave happy, so they continue to refer to you.

Ask why they left

Ask your customers why they left. Let your former customer know they are valued and that you’re interested in knowing why the business was lost, and of course, what you can do to win them back.

Targeting common pain points will also increase retention across the board. Gaining feedback will help you understand your customers, but you will have to take action if you want to win back lost customers.

Take responsibility

Admit that you could have done better, and what you will do to make changes. Work on the basis that there are logical solutions to fixing any previous problems and don’t make it sound like you’re following rigid guidelines that can’t be changed to help your customer.

Assuming responsibility could win back lost customers but getting hold of your ex-customers will be more difficult once they’ve left. After poor customer service, a customer is likely to avoid contact with you.

Engage with your customers

Your main goal should be to fulfill all their needs and deliver full satisfaction. Ask your customers for feedback regularly while they are still customers. Engaging with them will show you want to make a difference. There are many surveys available, and through different media, asking questions like “would you recommend our business to others”?

Encourage their contribution

Encourage customers to express their concerns and share feedback, possibly by offering rewards. Make it apparent that you value their contribution.

Measure customer satisfaction

Measure customer expectations and set goals for your sales and service teams. Metrics reflect how your customers are feeling, but only generically. Integrate surveys within your sales platforms.

Create a customer service-centric environment

Don’t just incentivize staff for sales but also reward them for providing excellent service. Not all bonuses should be based on sales figures and service and sales should go hand in hand. Build a customer service-centric environment and share good news stories. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to fake a good relationship with your customers and as a leader, you should devote resources and strategy to better customer experience.

Personalize communication

Personalize your communication with your former customer and tell them they have been missed. A generic email will not work as they will want to know they are special. Provide your undivided attention.

Inform customers

Provide any information about new products or services since they left. Offer discounts or promotions.

Use social media

Social media marketing is important for businesses to connect with their customers and build relationships. Use this tool to improve customer service, develop public relations, and increase customer acquisition. If your previous customers take to social media to complain, they must be responded to, preferably in a private conversation.

Reward customers

Other than service, most exiting customers will be trying to save money and reduce costs. New customer deals make existing customers feel less valued, so ensure they are rewarded enough.

Don’t let them leave in the first place

Don’t let your customers leave in the first instance. Have a well-developed customer retention department to specifically work with customers intending to walk away. Try to assure your customers that things will change.

Promote your product

Believe in your product or service and tell your customers the positive aspects that made them ‘sign up’ the first time. Your product is the reason they connected in the first place so add value through your products and services. Offering high-quality products/services, that are keeping up with expectations, will drive customer loyalty.

Build more rapport

Build more rapport. Ask or remind your customer what was good during the relationship. Cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship and let your customer feel invested in the future of your business.

Increasing customer loyalty is a business tactic that advantages an organization now and helps to ensure its survival in the future. Combating churn and boosting customer retention will help your organization grow; it’s rational to think keeping an existing customer is cheaper than acquiring a new one.

What are the main reasons your business sees churn? What other tips can you provide on how to win back lost customers? Please comment in the section below.

Up Next: 

• THE CYCLE OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY: 8 TIPS TO LIVE BY
• Face-to-Face Closes 2.5x Better, But Inside Sales Makes 7x More Calls
• 6 FORECASTING STRATEGIES FOR MORE ACCURATE SALES [INFOGRAPHIC]

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

RELATED: 3 TIPS FOR MANAGERS AND REPS TO KEEP MOMENTUM IN PLACE DURING COVID19

In this article:

1. Lead from the Front
2. Be Supportive
3. Check Targets are Fair
4. Coach
5. Make Human Connections
6. Remind Them of Their Value to Society
7. Be Consistent

Remote Sales Team Motivation Tips

Lead from the Front sales team motivation

Your teams are very much aware of the situation we all face, and so ignoring that could have a negative effect. Continue to communicate in real-time with employees, but get a real insight into what challenges your team faces, and offer ways to support them.

Be Supportive

Your team members might be dealing with things you can’t see, so check in on them regularly and be straight up. You will need to be available via video conferencing where you can get visual clues from them when asking questions.

Check Targets are Fair

KPIs might need adjusting to suit the change in work. If this is the case, use it as a tool to motivate your team from a level playing field. If you had employees who were facing challenges, focus on what adds value to your business now, and get their buy-in.

Coach sales team motivation

Continue to take the opportunity to make improvements and make improvement plans. Teams will be wanting a regular, steady routine, and so carry on doing what you always did in terms of coaching, you just have to be more creative about how to get the data. 

Be specific about what you want from your team and take action if that is not happening. Check they are maintaining activity and managing customer relationships.

Document coaching sessions, so employees know your expectations. Provide templates, examples, walk-throughs, etc. A good way for your team to monitor progress is to have them ghost-write notes from clients to add to your 1:1 coaching meeting. This way, they can pick up good habits from you and stay motivated to try something different.

Make Human Connections

Ensure your team knows that they need to be authentic when it comes to having conversations with customers. In a home working environment, every interaction with a customer is more special because of the situation, and it is more valuable because it was harder for the customer to share their time and speak with you or your team. Remind your team this as it is likely to motivate them to have more substantial conversations with their clients, ones that really count. One way to implement this is to have your team call every client (where possible) and just ask them how they are doing?

Remind Them of Their Value to Society

Ensure your team knows that they are contributing to the economy in a very powerful way. They are essentially keeping the wheels of their industry turning. If your team can still deliver your product as a valuable item now, then continue selling, but it has to have meaning to customers; otherwise, responses from clients can demotivate staff.

Be Consistent sales team motivation

The things that don’t change calm people, so stay consistent in your management approach to.

Key Tips

• • Lead from the front
  • Don’t neglect the coaching and support
  • Check that people are ok
  • Be a steady rudder
  • Be in front of your teams (via video link)
  • Maintain your schedule
  • Give guidance

What top tips do you have to keep your sales team motivated? What’s worked, what’s not working remotely? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• • 7 WAYS TO STRUCTURE YOUR SALES TEAM FOR GROWTH AND PERFORMANCE
  • THE 7 LEVELS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MASTERY
  • HOW TO MANAGE A SALES TEAM WHILE WORKING FROM HOME

RELATED: PRACTICAL ADJUSTMENTS TO REMOTE SELLING IN A COVID AND POST-COVID WORLD

In this article:

1. Meet the Speakers
2. The Current Situation
3. Tips
4. Key Points
5. Be a Community

Tips for Leaders During Coronavirus

Meet the Speakers

Chris Harrington was CEO of Omniture and Domo. In 2002 he became the President of Omniture and built revenue from $3.5m to $500m. He rose the company to the number one business in web analytics, went public, and then sold to Adobe. From there, he went on to be President and on the board of Domo, which was also sold in 2018. Chris is now the CEO of Xant.

Lindsey Armstrong, Board of Directors at Oracle and Salesforce, is one of the world’s most accomplished B2B revenue leaders. She has been running global organizations for over 30 years. While at Symantec, she ran the EMEA division and grew sales from $10m to $2b under her leadership. After that, Lindsey moved to Salesforce and now advises Xant.

Both speakers are influential leaders who’ve managed through economic downturns.

The Current Situation

We are currently in week three of quarantine, which is the first of its kind, particularly in the internet age, so we’ve never experienced this before, and we are still working things out, and learning how to lead from home.

As we scramble to make sense of the new normal, home offices are set up, and we’ve been practicing remote working for a few weeks. However, we now move on to the harder questions like – how do we lead from home?

As leaders, our people are counting on us for direction, so how do we give them what they need to succeed? In this crisis, what’s our responsibility as leaders during and after this crisis?

We know our economy is going to be a remote economy at least for several more weeks, so we need to lead our teams into a future where businesses are intact, our customers are succeeding, and our people have jobs.

RELATED: HOW TO LEAD FROM HOME

Tips

Build Relationships

Being able to have eye-to-eye contact and the ability to read a room are powerful factors that we don’t have anymore. The interpersonal relationship is critical and a powerful asset. It’s, therefore, especially important to build adapted ‘in-person’ experiences to keep teams motivated.

Maintain Reliability

It’s essential for people to understand that you’re reliable, for example, keeping up with 1:1s and calls. Try to keep habits the same, like meeting times. Try and follow protocol to be more productive.

Set Expectations
Set out a clear expectation of your employees and verify practices through written confirmation. Actions should still be taking place; they are just in a different format and in a more challenging setting. Lay down the new protocols, and if people operate outside of those, make sure they understand the parameters, correct any bad behaviors, and hold firm to agreed practices.

Be Available

Have discipline and respond to queries and emails quickly, ideally within the day. Let your team know you are available for them.

Communicate

These unprecedented times call for lots of communication; there’s no such thing as over-communication. Communicate via email and share insights, for example, sharing about how to deal with childcare, will bring the community together. If someone calls you, try and push that to a video call to maintain digital face to face contact.

Reach Out

Continue to reach out and have empathy for your team and customers. Find a way to align your product with what people need at the moment, and ensure services are practical. Be sensitive to people’s situations; sales still need to happen in an economic downturn, but balance that with the appropriate level of communication that’s required. Empathy, rather than sympathy, is what matters.

Listen

Make sure people are being listened to and heard. As a leader, gather your own bearings, rally your team around your customers, for example, ask how they are doing, and ensure a customer-first environment. Keep your mission the same, and pay attention to your customers.

Leverage Tools

Leverage tools that will help you to close the gap. Some things remain the same, and some things we can do to compensate and bridge gaps, given the current scenario.

Targets

Look at how you are measuring your people and make sure quotas and targets are adjusted to suit the environment.

Coach

Take the opportunity to make improvements and continue with improvement plans. Let your team know you’re still interested in them and don’t neglect the coaching and continuous improvement; coach them because they need this now more than ever.

Key Points how to avoid distraction

• • • Lead from the front
    • Give practical advice
    • Be authentic
    • Keep a steady rudder
    • Take advantage of tools to help you stay in contact with your teams (see free options below)
    • Set and monitor protocols
    • Be empathetic
    • Maintain coaching activities
    • Value customer interactions

Be a Community

Be part of a community to survive the coronavirus crisis; share best practices, and support each other. Care for your teams and come out stronger.

XANT is offering Playbook software for free during the pandemic crisis to help people while they figure out how to work better remotely; head to XANT Cares.

Other software providers who are providing 100% free services include Winning by Design, Qualtrics, Showpad, Tiled, PandaDoc, Muck Rack, and SalesIntel.

You can also head to our website to find out further advice on how to work from home better.

RELATED: HOW TO START YOUR DAY TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE AND MOTIVATED

How are you leading your B2B teams? What positives will you take away from this situation? Share your ideas in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• • 3 TIPS FOR MANAGERS AND REPS TO KEEP MOMENTUM IN PLACE DURING COVID19
  • HOW TO FIND DIRECT DIAL PHONE NUMBERS WHEN PROSPECTING
  • 10 BENEFITS OF ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING

RELATED: 14 HELPFUL TIPS FOR WORKING FROM HOME WHILE SOCIAL DISTANCING

In this article:

1. Likely Distractions at Work
2. How to Avoid Distractions When Working from Home
   • Set Yourself Up
   • Childcare
   • Work Pattern
   • Technology and Equipment
3. Key Points

Work from Home Tips how to avoid distraction

The current global coronavirus pandemic has forced many businesses to move their workforce to a remote set-up.

Distractions are inevitable, whether you work in an office or from home, but knowing how to avoid distractions could be the key to remote work success.

Likely Distractions at Work

• • Uncomfortable workspace.
  • Lack of equipment.
  • Loud noise from outside your homes, such as building works or traffic.
  • Technology or equipment failure, specifically slow Wi-Fi.
  • Interruptions from other members of your household, or pets.
  • Lack of platform access.
  • Security breaches.

How to Avoid Distractions When Working from Home

Set Yourself Up

You may not have a designated home office, but it’s crucial to find a space in your home that separates you from distractions is private and quiet. If you live alone, you’ll have an advantage, but living alone doesn’t always ensure your workspace is distraction-free. Having a separate area for work, away from personal spaces, will encourage you to distinguish your work life from home life.

Initially, you’ll need to ensure you are set up with the right equipment so you can complete your job without being halted by IT or operational issues—for example, a laptop, high-speed internet, or video conferencing accounts. Check you have remote login access to all the platforms you use, and which have remote security. Log in to all your accounts and do trial runs to weed out any problems.

Childcare how to avoid distraction

One of the most significant issues that people face while working remotely is having to balance work with childcare responsibilities. If formal childcare isn’t an option, work out a schedule with a spouse, neighbor, family, or friends. Consider taking it in turns to mind small groups of kids on a roster style basis, so you have more time to work distraction-free. If you still struggle, talk to your employer about other possible options, for example, working evenings or getting funding for formal childcare.

Work Pattern how to avoid distraction

A workable schedule that can be adjusted to family needs: Figure out what your employer expects from you. If you worked a set 9-5 in the office, what hours do you have to work now, is your employer flexible or must you stick to your work pattern?

It is essential to get set up to be productive.

Where possible, and balancing your personal responsibilities, set your working hours, and maintain a work schedule. Don’t let others persuade you to shift from that and say make up some hours later because they need your time.

Personal boundaries will be pushed but ensure you strike a healthy balance. Explain to your spouse, kids, or housemates that you have to work said hours and set limits on whether they can disturb you.
Remember to take breaks to rest and remain focussed while you work.

RELATED: HOW TO START YOUR DAY TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE AND MOTIVATED

Technology and Equipment

Zoom, Facetime, Skype make it no longer necessary to be in an office environment, and many roles can be done remotely. A distributed workforce allows an organization to carry on operating if the office is closed for any reason, such as a health situation or disaster.

Your internet speed can be quickly diminished if other Wi-Fi users are taking up your bandwidth. If you have kids, you may need to limit their Wi-Fi or allocate times around your needs where they can go online. Move close to your Wi-Fi router or switch to Ethernet.

If you need to make calls as part of your role, make sure your employers have equipped you with a pre-paid phone or access to phone app accounts that enable Wi-Fi calling, such as Skype, Google Hangouts, or WhatsApp.

If you have kids, noisy animals, or noisy neighbors, then noise-canceling earphones will stop you from being distracted

Key Points how to avoid distraction

• • Have a workspace that is separate, quiet, and as distraction-free as possible.
  • Ensure you have the required technology needed to complete your job at home.
  • Plan a schedule and stick to it.
  • Maximize technology to help you work more efficiently.
  • Warn members of your household what their parameters are.

What distracts you when you work remotely, and how do you get around your distractions? Share your ideas in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• • HOW TO DO “CUSTOMER HEALTH CHECKS” DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
  • 7 Ways To Increase Sales Productivity
  • HOW TO SELL WELL WHILE YOU WORK FROM HOME

RELATED: WHY YOUR SALES TEAM SHOULD CARE MORE ABOUT POSITIVE PERSONAL INTERACTIONS THAN QUALIFYING LEADS DURING COVID-19

In this article:

1. 1. 1. Support Your B2B Team
      2. Practical Tips to Help Take Care of Your B2B Team
      3. KPIs
      4. Be a Community

Tips for Sales Leaders During Coronavirus

B2B sales thrive on events and face to face meetings to close deals. Since that has not been possible because of social distancing rules and shelter in place practices, there has been a significant impact on the way teams work.

This is a very topical subject right now, and salespeople around the world are figuring out what they can do, what they can’t do, what they can change, and what they can’t change. There are lots of theories as to what we should do right now.

Support Your B2B Team b2b sales coronavirus

Transitioning to remote practices has many benefits, and it’s an excellent opportunity to lead your teams in a positive direction and encroach positive characteristics on them.

Remind your teams that things will get better, and we will get through this by working as a community.

Some parts of the economy are still growing, and it’s a great opportunity to be more economically responsible and drive new revenue.

Encourage your team to talk to you about their concerns. The world is going through an unprecedented difficult time.

Understand what constraints your team has while working from home. What does their set up look like, what personal issue do they have, what are their stresses, and what physical barriers do they face?

Provide your team with the resources they need to do their jobs and appreciate where constraints lay.

Practical Tips to Help Take Care of Your B2B Team

Consider stopping your sequencer, pause sales engagement platforms, and rethink – do you have the right ‘verticals,’ is your customer base correct, rethink your target list. It’s a good time to pause and slow down in order to speed up later.

It would help if you were designing a cadence or a play that will help your teams engage with prospects and getting them into a dialogue phase so that they can ask for the Zoom later.

It seems the personal nature of calling is working well now, as opposed to emails, so this is a great time to encourage your teams to make some personal calls and be assertive. They can obtain phone numbers from LinkedIn and even ping their contacts to arrange a call. When they do connect, encourage them to make the connection meaningful in the first minutes.

You don’t need to grind to a halt or reduce speed too much – leverage technology and find a balance. Meet with your teams and dust off your tech stacks and start looking at incorporating humanized, personalized, and empathized methods. Ensure your team knows to personalize messages and make phone calls with added empathy.

Develop content that your teams can use to engage clients. This can take many formats, such as videos, blogs, graphic visuals, YouTube content, etc. This will encourage organic conversations with your clients and sales teams. If you can provide a free service for a temporary period, your team will be able to connect better and feel like they are supporting the industry.

KPIs b2b sales coronavirus

You may not need to change KPIs or performance reviews, just rethink them. For example, if you look at the statistics of conversation to meeting conversion year over year or reply rates, it’s an uphill battle for your team and your reps to be hitting the same marks as they were three to six weeks ago.

Instead, it’s a big win for your teams to be having warm dialogues with the right customers and to be planning for Q3 to ensure that quality conversations are happening with the right types of prospects.

If prospects are talking within LinkedIn, are responding to emails, or picking up the phone and chatting, any interactivity is like a new KPI that’s springing out of this situation. Whatever is happening, it isn’t very easy to measure, so there needs to be some leniency towards previous KPIs.

RELATED: HOW TO MANAGE A SALES TEAM WHILE YOU WORK FROM HOME

Be a Community

Be part of a community to survive the coronavirus crisis; share best practices, and support each other. b2b sales coronavirus
XANT is offering Playbook software for free during the pandemic crisis to help people while they figure out how to work better remotely; head to XANT Cares. 
You can also head to our website to find out further advice on how to work from home better.

How are you taking care of your B2B teams? What positives will you take away from this situation? Share your ideas in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• • HOW TO TRAIN NEW SALESPEOPLE WHEN YOU’RE NOT IN THE OFFICE
  • HOW TO COMP SALES TEAMS IN A CRISIS
  • HOW TO LEAD FROM HOME

Customer health checks are more important now than ever and due to the fragile current state, they need to be done with tact and compassion.

We have put together a list of five tips to ensure your customer health checks are valuable and well received, so you can be a trusted partner and not just another vendor.

Do a Monday Morning Check In

Start the week off with a quick email or Linkedin message to your customer’s primary contact for a quick check in. One of my favorite account managers for a vendor I was working with introduced me to this idea. I knew that every Monday morning, he was going to send me a quick email to ask how we were doing and if there were any product issues that we were having that he needed to address with his team internally. Most of the time, I would blow these emails off, however, any time there were small issues that weren’t urgent, I knew I could respond to his email with that list and he would jump in to help.

If this is done consistently, you will have an open window of communication on a weekly basis as an additional, pro-active point of contact to help beyond traditional customer support. Customers want to know that they are being heard and this is a great way to help support that.

Expand Your Customer Circle

Often times we tend to only communicate with our primary contact in an organization as a way to get a temperature check of the business. However, something to consider is that stakeholders, who were initially involved in the buying process of your product, eventually hand off the day-to-day admin work to someone else in the company who is typically on the front lines and more involved in the day-to-day. Don’t limit customer health check to just the primary contact, as they may possibly be too far removed from the actual day-to-day issues and we may get a false positive that everything is ok when challenges may exist.

Calls to their support or sales line is a great way to get feedback from the actual users of your product. You will learn a lot about your customer and their needs with this approach, so you can identify ways to tweak processes or help uncover other product features to increase customer satisfaction.

Don’t Be An Ambulance Chaser

During a time of Crisis, a well-intentioned email with a call-to-action at the end for some sort of up-sell or expansion opportunity can come across as predatory and ill timed.  Consistent contact helps to naturally solve this issue; however, we all have customers we have lost contact with and need to find a way to re-engage to offer sincere help during these challenging times.

Great companies today have figured this out. They are creating a no-strings attached offering as a way to lend a helping hand during a time of need for customers and partners that are struggling. Identify ways you can help without expecting any additional business in return. Karma will return the favor.

Share Best Practices

Every company has been affected by COVID-19 and this is a common thread we are all challenged with. What a great opportunity to share ideas and best practices around people and processes that you have found to be helpful and have nothing to do with your product.

At XANT, our sales team is often selling to other sales organizations and sales leaders who are experiencing the exact same challenges we are with this new environment. This gives us a great opportunity to commiserate together and talk about something other than the weather to build common ground. Take a little extra time to talk about some of those non-product related issues and ask for advice from your customer on how they might resolve them.

Offer Training

Moving your company remote will introduce all sorts of new challenges that you had not realized before.  These challenges put an incredible amount of stress and pressure on leadership to provide solutions to your team members so you can continue to be effective while not in the office and find some path to normalcy.

Take some time to dig into your customers new normal and help to identify any of these new challenges that your product may help solve. Once identified, offer to provide one off training sessions to help their team adjust and get up to speed. Show your customer what metrics they should be tracking to measure success and failure so they can quickly identify areas that need improvement and make the necessary adjustments.

Using these 5 Tips on your health checks during this pandemic will help you be a better partner. They will also strengthen your business relationships as we are all in this together and need each other’s support to successfully come out the other side and hit the ground running.

Author
Daren Reschke
Head of Emerging Enterprise Sales | XANT

Working remote has been an interesting change for me as an inside sales leader who, for the last decade, has been running insides sales teams that sell digitally to now selling with a 100% remote sales team. I have to admit, I miss the personal interaction of being in the office with my co-workers and the mind share that happens working side by side every day. One of the biggest challenges I did not anticipate was; how do you train a new hire who is 100% remote? Like many companies out there, we had three new hires right around the time COVID-19 had forced everyone to work from home.

I had to work quickly and adjust not only for our inside sales team but also for these brand-new employees, who had committed this time in their career to XANT. Though there have been some bumps in the road, here are some of the things I have learned over the last four weeks:

Listen to Calls

Listening to live calls and past recorded calls is a must for both your senior account executives (AEs) as well as your newest AEs! New AEs need to not only know the value prop and message of the product you are asking them to sell, they also need to hear and understand the customers current state and some of the challenges your product can help solve.

Listening to calls alone will not be enough to ramp quickly. Post call sales training will allow you to dissect these calls and will help internalize correct processes. These calls will also highlight many of things they may have missed working on their own. A pro-tip is to create a basic rubric for them to score each call as they review. This will help everyone to gauge progress and understanding.

Virtual Role Play

During this work from home period, one of the activities I miss the most is live role playing with my sales team. In the past, our new employees would team up with another AE for daily role-playing sessions from discovery to demo to overcoming objections. A role play partner provides a great opportunity for reps to coach each other, as well as helps them to build camaraderie and more quickly integrate into the team culture.

Working from home should not detract from this practice. In fact, working from home is the perfect place to hone these skills as digital seller execute their discovery calls and most demos remotely. Roleplaying will also sharpen their virtual conferencing skills. Teaming up new hires with a seasoned partner really makes this type of training work and will speed up the time for a new hire to fully ramp.

Over Communicate

When your sales team is in an office together, you can identify all of the non-verbal communication skills to quickly gauge if your new hires are sinking or swimming. Not having in person interaction requires some over communication so you don’t assume everything is running smoothly when it most likely is not.

A key part of over communication is to hold morning and evening check-ins with your new hires to map out the plan for the day, talk through any questions or challenges they may have and measure their progress. Using video for these check-ins is a great way to have a more personal connection to your team members.

I asked my team what they have missed the most about being in the office and many responded that they missed the ease of mind sharing and being able to mimic what they see working for others. To help overcome this, we use a team chat channel (Teams or Slack) where our team can post questions, successes, and challenges for the group to respond to. We also will spend time at the end of the day on a Zoom meeting, sharing successes of the day both with work and non-work-related topics. These types of regular touch points help to keep the culture of the group healthy and engaged.

The final point on this topic I would like to recommend is to make sure your new hire has a “Bat” phone when they have questions. Showing urgency to their needs and questions helps to ease frustration and can mirror the in-office experience where they can just walk up to someone and get an answer. Don’t miss this key ingredient, it is a massive difference maker.  If you find they are pestering you that could mean. either you are doing a poor job of communicating or you have hired the wrong individual.

Metrics

Many of the questions a new hire will have for the first 30 days are, how am I doing, what should I be working on right now, and am I going to be successful here? Metrics and benchmarks will help to answer those questions for you as well as your new employees. Every morning, have your new hire develop a plan for the day, identifying what they want to accomplish and have them be specific for you to review and sign off.

A simple plan may look something like this:

• Role play first call discovery with Mike from 9:00 – 10:00
• Review two discovery calls
• Prospect for two hours
  • Enroll 20 new contacts into a cadence
  • Send 20 emails
  • Make 40 cold calls

At the end of the day, review with them what actually happened. Were they able to complete all of their daily tasks, if not, what stopped them and how can we adjust for tomorrow?

If you are in Sales, you want and expect to me measured. Defining the correct benchmarks and metrics will provide the necessary feedback to ensure they are on track and will ultimately ramp on time.

The keys to successfully on-boarding and training a new employee are consistent role-plays, call reviews, and training, as well as keeping an open channel of communication to replicate the in-office experience. Finally, provide a plan to help measure progress and success beyond just a revenue target so both parties can quickly gauge where weaknesses may reside and identify a solution.

Author
Daren Reschke
Head of Emerging Enterprise Sales | XANT

When a macro event like COVID-19, or a significant economic downturn occurs, we have to adjust to a new reality.

Part of that reality in sales is compensation – it’s the clearest signal we can possibly give to  our teams to indicate what the company believes is important and what we want them to do. If the macro environment changes so that the comp plan no longer reflects our priorities, or becomes unattainable due to circumstances beyond our control, we need to adjust it.

That’s where many of us are right now.

There are many unknowns about how this will play out – so try to adjust the plan in fairly small increments – months or a quarter …. If you try to re-cast the whole year, there’s a strong likelihood you are going to have to do it again as more information becomes known.

Here’s a framework I’ve used before to try and organise compensation under pressure:

1. Start with your data – honestly – and I mean honestly – assess where you are right now.
2. Then assess the impact of the crisis on your particular business, by region, by industry, by segment.
3. List what you can do to mitigate the impact – what do you stop doing? What do you double down on? What do you start doing?
4. Identify the business gaps after the impact of your mitigation tactics.
5. Focus comp adjustments on closing those gaps.

For example, it may lead you to a framework that looks like this:

1. Data shows that I need 3x pipe on new business (NB), and 1.5x pipe on add-on business. NB closes in 180 days; add-on closes in 90. I am entering the crisis with total pipeline coverage of about 75% of what I would need in normal circumstances. My gap is 25% in normal times.
2. Assessment in my business is that the crisis will delay new business by approximately 90 days, but will have a lesser effect on my add-on business in the business segments which can or will survive. The majority of my business is in USA and Europe; our strongest segments have been in transportation and leisure, but we have seeded business in new segments like hi-tech and security which we were intending on expanding into.
3. Mitigation could look like this:
   1. Stop short term demand generation for net new business in transportation and leisure
   2. Double down on short term demand generation for hi-tech and security – it may end up taking a longer deal cycle to close, but will be important in 6-9 months time
   3. Double down on contacting and listening to all your customers – you want to keep the ones you already have in troubled industries, and look for expansion in those industries less affected.
   4. Build specific package offerings to bridge customers through this period – this may include 12 for the price of 10 month contracts; or contract suspensions; or payment terms you’d normally prefer not to take – whatever these are, don’t fall for the ‘we’ll do this ad hoc as needed’ – put some framework in place so, that in trying to be flexible, you don’t actually put extra sand in the gears.
4. The business impact even after mitigation may be harsh: pipeline coverage will likely fall to 50% of what is needed to hit near term numbers due to a combination of longer deal cycles and fewer deals in pipe likely to close.
5. You make a comp adjustment to drive the behaviour you need, which could include:
   1. Next quarter targets reduced by 50%
   2. Spiffs on target industry deals
   3. Spiff on pipeline creation (I normally hate paying on pipe, but there are ways you can accommodate this … say by increasing commission on deals created in this quarter which close in the year…)
   4. MBO’s around retention/renewal – in a crisis, your existing customers are inevitably the ones who keep you in business

The most important thing is to recognise that a comp adjustment is needed – burying your head in the sand while your troops wonder how you got so out of touch is not the way to go. Value speed over internal shenanigans which involve folks who are not at the pointy end of revenue trying to boil the ocean, and create fully scoped risk free plans – they don’t exist in a crisis! Only bite-sized increments of forward momentum, which you can build on, to retain the spirit and camaraderie which is so critical in any successful sales team.

Author
Lindsey Armstrong
Board of Directors | XANT

RELATED: 7 Ways To Increase Sales Productivity

In this article:

1. 1. 1. Create Your Own Routine
      2. Lower Your Stress Levels
      3. Reflect on Your Day and Week
      4. Take a Break
      5. Add Value
         
      6. Factor in Essential Tasks
      7. Work Around Peak Times
      8. Make the Most of Mornings
      9. Plan Realistic Timeframes
      10. Don’t Get Interrupted
      11. Prioritize Tasks
      12. Automate
      13. Template
      14. Snippets
      15. Embrace Change

RELATED: 7 WAYS TO INCREASE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

Consider the Following Tips on How to Be More Productive

Create Your Own Routine

Create your own habits and find your own routine. What works for the best entrepreneur in the world may not be what works for you. Being more productive will make you doubt yourself less and deliver more – there is a perpetual cycle.

Lower Your Stress Levels

Increased productivity will reduce stress and allow you to be in control. Stress will often be relieved, and productivity will increase through strategic planning. Having little uncertainty as to what your day will look like and prioritizing tasks is an excellent place to start.

Reflect on Your Day and Week

Try to spend at least 10 minutes at the end of the day, or a week, to reflect on what you have achieved. If you feel satisfied that you have accomplished something or can review what you think could have been improved, your future tasks can be modified and carried out more productively.

Take a Break

Stay well-rested and take breaks. Working through your lunch break to catch up will often have more adverse effects. Studies show that regular breaks will make you more productive.

Add Value

Consider whether the task adds value to your day. I’m not suggesting you should avoid the team meeting because you’d rather be selling but consider whether you can delegate tasks or have colleagues report back on your behalf.

Factor in Essential Tasks

Add in all your essential tasks such as meeting, appointments, training sessions, etc. If specific repetitive duties need completing daily or weekly, these can also be scheduled at the best times. For example, any development plans, HR documents, health, and safety forms. Although these types of tasks don’t add value to sales, they do add value to the organization and the department or person requiring your assistance.

If you are a supervisor or manager, succession planning often gets forgotten about until notice periods are being served. As soon as a successor or choice of a few

You have limited time at work, so you must get organized.

RELATED: How To Manage A Sales Team While You Work From Home

Work Around Peak Times

Organize meetings for times when customers’ calls are low or when phone lines are close, where possible.

Consider whether you or your organization is more productive when you have whole days selling or if you are more productive in shorter bursts up to 90 minutes. A combination of both can also be successful. Consider having ‘sales days’ or competitions that span at least a day to drive sales.

Make the Most of Mornings

Most people are more energetic in the morning, which can be a great time to complete the most critical tasks, the ones that require the most brainpower, or to get the sales calls complete. Your added energy and enthusiasm will likely be heard in your tone.

Plan Realistic Timeframes

Be realistic about how long tasks take. There’s no point scheduling to complete a task when it won’t get done or have to cancel other essential duties from overrunning. On the flip side, sometimes unforeseen circumstances mean a job may take longer than planned. Try to factor in free time throughout the day, so any tasks that overrun won’t impact the whole day’s schedule.

Don’t Get Interrupted

Dedicate your time to important tasks and set aside time to support others. Saying no to colleagues is difficult, especially when they are your senior. Having this ability to complete tasks in a timely way will no doubt make you more productive, be aware that if you can’t support others immediately, their productivity may go down as a result. Regaining focus, once interrupted, can set you back.

Prioritize Tasks

There are different models to follow to prioritize tasks. Some people prefer to plan the night before, some when they arrive at work, and some for the following week on a Friday.

Do what suits you and your organization best and try different methods occasionally to see if you have changed your viewpoint.

The Eisenhower Matrix (based on Dwight D Eisenhower’s remarkable capability to organize his schedule) follows two fundamental principles: – how urgent the nature of the task is and the importance of the task. Another factor to consider is how difficult the given assignment is or how long it’s likely to take.

RELATED: Mapping The Sales Process: 7 Steps For Success

Automate become more productive

Many sales tasks can be made easier by removing the mundane tasks and activities that take away from a salesperson’s goal of closing business and driving organizational revenue. Systemize as much of your sales process as possible.

Template become more productive

According to experts, salespeople spend around 20% of their day sending emails.

Salespeople will often write the same emails over and over. If you don’t have a CRM which templates emails for you, ensure you have your own folder which you can refer to. Copy, paste, and simply adjust each email to fit your specific client.

You could go one step further, though, and use software to template emails for you. Much of the email, content, signature, organization names, etc. will be prepopulated, reducing the time it takes to compose an email by several minutes each time. Multiply the number of emails you send in a day or week, and that’s a lot of time saved.

Snippets become more productive

If you frequently send emails or letters but have specific phrases that aren’t so common in a template, consider capturing the blurb as snippets. They can be a few sentences or a paragraph that can be formatted to suit the situation.

You could even have a few versions or add in a link. Examples can include greeting you use, frequently asked questions (and answers), alternative email closing statements, holiday time changes, etc.

Embrace Change

Regardless of how much you plan, improve techniques, or automate, there will be days when you will feel overwhelmed. But by embracing change and adopting a few tried and tested skills, you can increase productivity, and essentially perform better in your job.

Share your success on how you became more productive in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• • • The Seven Rules of Cold Calling [Infographic]
    • XANT Is Here: Inside The Rebrand
    • How To Start Your Day To Be More Productive And Motivated [Infographic]