Author: Admin

A sales email signature is essential, but figuring out what to put in them can be tricky.

Your email signature should show off a bit of personality, for both you and your company. You have to grab your prospect’s attention, but not for the wrong reasons.

You can easily increase your sales productivity by making your email signature informative without overloading it with too many details. Crafting a professional email signature is a tough balancing act and we’re going to teach you how to walk the tightrope.

What should be in your sales email signature:

The Basics

Let’s start with the basics and we can build out from there. Including your name is essential along with your title. Your title helps prospects understand your intentions and role within your company.

Contact information

Only include contact information that you think will be helpful for your prospects (this is especially true of phone numbers). For example, do you really need your full HQ address or fax number? Adding contact info that you don’t use is overkill (scroll below to see an example). And while it may seem obvious, don’t include the email address you’re sending from to avoid redundancy.

If you’re an avid social media user, add your profiles to your signature to further expand your networks (and improve social selling). Consider using hyperlinked images for social media channels to help break up text but still get the job done.

Your Company

Add your company website (as a hyperlink for easy accessibility) and logo to help drive traffic to the site and get your brand recognized.

Length

Don’t try to stuff everything into your signature — it’s not a mini-biography. Only include information that’s relevant to you. If you don’t use social media very often it’s probably best not to include those links; if you don’t typically use the fax machine you can take that number off as well. You may also consider removing the legal disclaimer; no one reads it and takes up a ton of space.

How to design your sales email signature:

Color Scheme

Choose only a few colors for your email signature, because the more you have the more likely they are to clash. If you’re having trouble picking a color(s), it’s best to go with the colors of your company logo. Make sure that your font palette is also small. Typically one typeface is best, but if you find two that work together without clashing that’s also fine.

Adding a photo

While it’s not required, adding a photo of yourself to your professional sales emails can help put a face to your name and make your message more personal. When prospects know it’s a real person sending a unique email (instead of a bot or mass message) they’re a lot more likely to respond.

Other Imagery or CTA

Consider promoting hot marketing content by adding a CTA to an ebook or case study. Or, include a recent award that your company has received. This shows third-party validation that you guys are a rockstar in the space.

Optimize for mobile

Since people are always glued to their phones, it’s essential that your email signature is able to be viewed on a mobile device. Since up to 77 percent of emails are checked on cell phones it’s important that they can clearly read it without any hassle.

You may also want to set up a specific email signature for your phone. Switch up the “Sent from my iPhone” text and add a little bit of flair (and to excuse any missed typos). Here are some ideas:

• Typed with big thumbs on small phone.
• iPhone. iTypos. iApologize.
• Sent from my iPhone; spelling might vary because I have fat fingers.
• Sent from my iPhone, please embrace the typos.
• Sent from a magical device that lives in my pocket. Please excuse typos.
• *brevity and errors aided and abetted by my beloved iPhone*
• Sent from iPhone; kindly excuse tyops.

Setting up your sales email signature:

How to set up your email signature in Gmail

1. In the top right, click Settings Settings and then Settings.
2. In the “Signature” section, add your signature text in the box. If you want, you can format your message by adding an image or changing the text style.
3. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.

How to set up your email signature in Outlook

1. Open a new email message.
2. On the Message tab, in the Include group, choose Signature > Signatures.
3. Under Select signature to edit, choose New, and in the New Signature dialog box, type a name for the signature.
4. Under Edit signature, type the signature.

Best sales email signature tools

Here are some tools to help you build an email signature. If you’re looking to get more creative and add imagery, Canva allows you to create email signatures with a custom design.

• WiseStamp
• HubSpot Email Signature Generator
• Canva
• ByBrand

Bonus: Automation Hero’s AI sales assistant, Robin, can detect information in your prospect’s email signature like a new phone number, title, etc. and will suggest updating this in Salesforce for you if it’s missing. Helping keep your CRM contact list clean and up-to-date!

By Jessica Munday

Have you ever wondered where and how you get your leads? Marketing often offers them up, but what data points do they consider the most important? What impacts how their lead score?

Having a data-driven lead scoring process in place leads to higher conversion rates and can boost lead generation ROI by 77 percent, according to a study by Marketing Sherpa.

To better align the sales and marketing teams, it’s important for both teams to understand the data points that constitute a qualified lead. Here are seven ways many marketing teams are scoring leads.

Share this article on social media and let us know what data points are most important to you!

1. Demographic

Starting with the basics, many teams first consider location. Does the business target a certain part of the country, like the east coast? Does the company focus on city dwellers or rural residents? Does the product need to be delivered or installed? Leads within an organization’s geographic parameters get higher scores.

The type of person may also be considered. Does the product or service appeal more to retirees or families with young children? People that fit the ideal buying persona are scored higher. The last thing you as a salesperson wants to do is spend time following up on a lead outside your region!

2. Company and Role

If it is a B2B company, the marketing team is definitely considering industry type, company size and whether they are B2B or B2C. Those outside of that niche get lower scores, while those within the parameters are given a higher score.

And as far as the lead or contact goes, those that are farther away from the decision-maker will typically be scored lower than those who are close to (or are) the decision-maker.

Automation Hero BONUS: As your sales AI tool, Robin can help find out information like industry, headquarter address, and company size using its database of over 45 million global company records. Robin can also search and mine sales reps’ emails and pull the lead’s title or phone number and update it in Salesforce.

3. Website Behavior or Early Buying Signals

How a prospect behaves on your company website shows their level of interest in the product and the pages they visit to determine what stage in the buying process they are. If they visit the “About” or “How it works” page then they are likely in the awareness stage, but they may be in the consideration stage if they’re visiting the pricing page. Each behavior sends very different messages about how ready they are; the prospects that are farther along in the process should be scored higher.

Marketing also sees how often each lead downloads gated content or engages further with the company website. Those that downloaded an ebook or signed up for a newsletter show much higher levels of interest than those that just read various blog posts and poke around the site.

4. Email Engagement

The marketing team is checking how often a prospect opens, reads, and engages with sales emails. Individuals with high open and click-through rates are usually more likely to be interested in the product and will be scored higher.

Email content is also a factor. They hike up that score for people that interact with high-value emails (like demos or free trials).

Helpful Tip: It typically takes five follow-ups to reach a prospect. However, if you send them five emails and none of them are opened, the prospect’s interest level is low and should have a corresponding lead score (what we’re trying to say is stop wasting time on bad leads!).

5. Social Engagement

How often a prospect interacts with social content can also tell a lot about their interest levels. This is one method most marketing teams use to score the social engagement for leads:

• Low lead score: People that follow the company page
• Medium lead score: People that like company posts
• High leads score: People that share or retweet company content

6. Data Scoring

Now that many of the important metrics have been laid out, how does the marketing team weight the different data points? Marketing typically looks at past closed deals and the buyer journey of successful deals. If the path that leads from a blog post to ebook download to email nurture is the most successful buying path, then leads following that path will be scored higher. Perhaps people that engage with the company’s social sites but not the website tend not to buy as often, then those leads will get a lower score.

This is where marketing can lean on sales for further insight and direction. Sales knows what worked and what hasn’t and can help marketing decide which data points should be weighed heavier than others. This is where alignment and open communication is key.

7. Automated lead scoring

Many marketing teams have already turned to automation to collect and analyze all of the leads and their corresponding data. The marketing team weighs the score for each data point and the lead scoring tool calculates the score. Now the sales reps know immediately who to go after.

By Jessica Munday

Only 10 percent of organizations use the traditional BANT sales process to qualify leads and are now turning to other sales methods.

But why are they moving away from the BANT sales process when it was arguably the most common way to sell?

It’s possible that it’s simply outdated. IBM introduced BANT in the 1960’s as a way to standardize the qualification process, and it became a tried-and-true sales method that reps latched onto for years.

Much has changed since the 60’s: the internet, the addition of the CRM, organizational structure, and most importantly, the buying behavior of customers. Back then, the only product information customers had was what the sales reps gave them. Buyers today are much more independent and do most of their product research on their own.

This change in information gathering has drastically altered how people want to buy and be sold to. Customers now expect personalized sales conversations, speedier responses, faster turnaround, convenience, and above all, their business problems to be top priority. Recently, sales leaders have criticized the BANT sales process for no longer meeting those demands.

The question now is: can BANT be brought into the modern selling era or should companies abandon it for other methodologies?

If you want to stick with BANT, there are a few tweaks you can make to ensure you’re meeting customer demands. We’ve also listed alternatives below that may better help you navigate through the evolving buying process.

What is BANT?

The BANT sales process is a method of qualifying a lead based on that lead meeting three of the four criteria: Budget, Authority, Need, and Time.

According to IBM, a prospect is considered qualified if they meet three out of four BANT criteria. If they don’t, sales reps need to decide if they want to nurture them for future engagement.

It’s also important for the sales organization to decide as a team if they want to follow BANT tightly or loosely so that what the company defines as “qualified” is consistent across the board.

BANT stands for:

Budget = What is the prospect’s budget?

Authority = Do they have decision-making authority or are they an influencer?

Need = What are their business needs?

Time Frame = In what time frame are they expecting to implement a solution?

According to critics, if you follow BANT as is, it doesn’t fit in with the modern buying process. We’ll review some of the most prominent concerns with this selling process and some suggestions on how to modify it.

Concerns over BANT:

1. It puts the sales organization’s needs above the customer’s needs.

The BANT sales process makes budget and authority top priority, which are primary concerns for the sales rep (not the prospect). In 2016, TOPO found that budget had nearly been eliminated as a qualifier, having decreased in use by 62 percent. That same study found that need and authority were the most essential to qualifying a lead.

In most cases, budget and authority will not be immediately available. It is up to you to empower a “champion” within the organization to campaign for budget and authority after you’ve made them aware of the severity of their pain point.

To solve this, talk about the customer’s needs and concerns first and then empower your contact to advocate on your behalf to find budget and authority.

2. It assumes the customer is already aware of the problem and how big that problem is.

Many prospects understand their business problems, but may not understand the consequences of maintaining the status quo. Because BANT doesn’t address education, it inherently assumes the prospect is already aware of what will happen if the company stays on its course. Sales reps need to educate their prospects on the economic impact of their problem if it goes unsolved.

Innovation is constant so the technology ecosystem is always moving quickly. While customers can access information online, you also need to educate them on elements of your product that they may not understand. Tell them what innovations set your solution apart.

3. It assumes the prospect is already interested and is able to buy once contact is made.

Whether a lead is inbound or outbound, you can never assume their level of interest. By starting out of the gate with budget and authority, the BANT sales process assumes that the prospect is interested and ready to buy. Many customers today do a lot of research on their own and then develop a short list. These people are now looking to narrow down these options to an *even shorter list.*

Sixty percent of buyers want to wait to connect with a sales rep until they’ve researched the product and are in the consideration stage. Only 20 percent want to talk once they’ve already decided which product they want to buy. So, assume that your prospect is still undecided, connect with them on their needs and dive into education.

4. It can make the sales conversation feel like an interrogation.

If you use the suggested questions listed on IBM’s website as-is, BANT can be very intimidating. Instead, aim to create a conversation by using BANT as a fluid guideline. Gong.io found that the most successful discovery calls have 77 percent more “speaker switches per minute” than bad cold calls. Use open-ended questions and weave in the other BANT criteria throughout the conversation as appropriate.

While the BANT sales process has been one of the most popular sales methodologies, it is not the only one out there. Check out a few others below that may fit better with your sales process and qualification needs. You may want to try A/B testing which methods work the best.

CHAMP

This is a lead-qualification tactic developed by InsightSquared to address customer pain points first. It views authority as an opportunity to map out the decision-making process within the organization.

CHallenges = Identify business problems and challenges.

Authority = Ask questions that help map out the company’s organizational structure.

Money = Determine how much budget they are willing to spend to solve their business problems.

Prioritization = See where this problem falls in terms of priorities.

Challenger Sales

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson wrote, “The Challenger Sale” in 2011 as a methodology that encourages sales reps to challenge what prospects know and teach them something they don’t know. It was made to replace SPIN Selling, which became popular in the late 1980’s.

Their research divides sales reps into five personas: relationship builders, hard workers, lone wolves, reactive problem solvers and challengers, the latter of which they argue is the most successful. The challenger persona follows the below guidelines:

Teach = Give new insight to a prospect about their business and needs.

Tailor = Personalize communication.

Take control = Pursue goals in a direct way to overcome customer risk aversion.

GPCTBA/C&I

This is a qualification framework developed by HubSpot that is based on changes in buyer behavior.

Goals = Figure out a prospect’s quantitative goals.

Plans = Ask what they’ve already done to reach those goals.

Challenges = Identify their challenges and let them know that their current or past plans to fix them can be improved.

Timeline = Define how important this problem is and then move them up or down on your priorities list based on their response.

Budget = Ensure they understand the ROI of your product and that the funds they’re spending on other solutions are not working.

Authority = Ask for insight into the thought process of the decision maker and ask for them to be a champion for you within the organization.

Negative Consequences/Positive Implications = Find out what happens if the goals are, or are not, achieved.

N.E.A.T^TM

This qualification framework, developed by The Harris Consulting Group and Sales Hacker, was specifically designed to replace methodologies like BANT.

Need = Look at the prospect’s core needs and challenges instead of their surface-level pains.

Economic Impact = Help them understand their current economic situation compared to the resulting positive impact if they make a change.

Access to Authority = Find a champion to speak on your behalf.

Timeline = Create a compelling event that forces a decision in a timely manner.

MEDDIC

MEDDIC is a qualification process for complex enterprise sales created in the 90’s by Dick Dunkel and Jack Napoli.

Metrics = Provide measurable proof of the solution’s economic impact.

Economic Buyer = Find out who owns budget.

Decision Criteria = Determine what criteria they’re factoring into their decision.

Decision Process = Figure out the process they use to make a purchase.

Identify Pain = Identify challenges and the consequences of solving or not solving those problems.

Champion = Elect a champion to help you sell up to the decision maker.

In 2018, there’s no cookie-cutter way to sell. If you’re a manager or a rep who’s looking to shake up your BANT sales process, see if our suggestions suit your team or shop around for the sales methodology that’s best for your team.

By Jessica Munday

Sales productivity is the No. 1 challenge of B2B sales organizations. Kick your productivity into high gear with these 5 tips!

1. Starting with piping hot leads

Boost sales productivity immediately by starting off your deals with hot leads.

The general idea around leads is that the more you put in, the more you get out. But getting leads that are interested can take up a huge portion of your day. It’s a numbers game involving cold calling and emailing in the hopes that one will bite. Starting with hot leads is a good way to make sure you’re not wasting your time.

How do you get these hot leads? Start with referrals! Nearly 91 percent of clients say they’d be glad to give a referral, however, only 11 percent of sales reps actually ask for one. And people who are referred by a friend or colleague are four times more likely to make a purchase.

Another way to find hot leads is to find people who are already interested and familiar with the product; like those who’ve visited your company’s social media platforms. Salespeople that implement social selling are 79 percent more likely to hit their sales quota.

So what does social selling mean? It means connecting with people on your company’s sites, posting educational and relevant content to your own profile pages, and getting involved in the conversation by engaging with your potential prospects. That means joining LinkedIn Groups, tweeting at people who are interacting with your brand’s page and replying to comments on your company’s Facebook posts.

Another benefit to engaging on social media is that the demographics of the decision-makers have changed. Now, 46 percent of decision-makers are between the ages of 18 and 34, which is the largest social media user group. Which means social selling puts you directly in front of your audience.

2. Having a game plan

Now you know where to start with getting your leads, so now what? It’s time to make a game plan for them.

We know it’s frustrating to always log your interactions into your CRM, but this will help you keep track of your client during their sales process. This is where Salesforce (or another CRM system) can be your best friend.

Most sales require five follow-ups to go through, but 44 percent of salespeople give up after the first try. The best way to make it to magical number five is to track and plan. You know you talked to a contact on Tuesday, make a reminder on your phone or Google Calendar to contact them again on Friday. By not letting your leads fall through the crack, you’ll increase your sales productivity and less customers will fall through the cracks.

Consider using a sales AI automation platform that gives you “next-step” recommendations for each lead so that you’re augmenting your processes in a smart and efficent way.

Making notes in your CRM of what you and your customer talked about can help you make sure that you’re not repeating yourself and that you’re providing them with new information about your product or sales logistics each time you speak with them.

Only 10 percent of marketing materials are used by salespeople, meaning that 90 percent of that valuable content goes to waste. Use this material and take note of which pieces you’ve sent over to your clients in your CRM, then the next time you interact with them you can send over a different piece. This gives them even more knowledge on the product and helps you customize their experience and address multiple pain points.

3. Sales productivity tools you can use

Sales reps spend two-thirds of their time on tasks that aren’t related to selling. And research shows that those who use Salesforce on average spend four hours a week on data-entry alone.

Not only are these tasks wasting time and costing businesses money, but these tasks also take away from the job satisfaction of sales reps (not to mention, they’re just plain boring).

There are various tools that can actually save you time by automating those small tasks that come with a sales job (yes, you’re on the website of one of them, right now). These tools use augmented or artificial intelligence to perform duties like creating a calendar event, logging emails into your CRM, or generating new leads.

Doing less busy work will free up your time and allow you to focus on your productive sales tasks, like calling, engaging, and following-up with your clients. Automation is going to become the way of the sales world in the coming years and with these tools, you’ll be ahead of the competition instead of being behind. You’ll reach your sales quota easier while working smarter and faster.

4. Prioritizing and not procrastinating

Sales productivity and time management go hand in hand.

Nobody is ever going to be productive 100 percent of every workday. It’s estimated that people spend two hours each day procrastinating (which is 25 percent of your day). Nobody is perfect and that’s okay. But too much procrastination could leave you with stress and the need to stuff all your sales into the last few weeks of the quarter.

One of the best ways to kick this habit is to set small goals to help you reach your larger goals. Say you have a very daunting and hard-to-reach quota. Break up that goal and make small strides toward it each day. Make a goal of closing one deal each week, or make a goal to add five new qualifying leads into your pipeline each day. Those small goals are much more attainable and easier to grasp than trying to meet your quota all at once.

To keep you from procrastinating, you can take control of your time by blocking out an hour or another increment of time that you will dedicate to one task. An example would be to call five people or respond to 12 emails within an hour, then work on a different task with another block of time.

Another way to take control of your time is to optimize your calendar. You don’t always need to schedule meetings for a full hour or half hour. If you need only 10 or 15 minutes just schedule it for that amount of time. This allows you to optimize every minute of your day by scheduling other meetings or focusing on different tasks with that extra time.

5. Getting to know your prospect

Finally, while it may seem like a customer service tip, you boost your sales productivity when you get to know and listen to your prospects. In many ways, this benefits both you and your client by creating a bond that promotes trust (which will also promote sales).

When interacting with a client, ask them about their pain points and see what struggles they go through on a daily basis. Your clients will tell you what they need; all you need to do is connect the dots and offer solutions based on what they’re telling you. Your product could be the solution to those pain points, however, you can’t articulate that to them if you never take the time to listen to what those pain points are.

On the other hand, this also saves you from wasting your own time. Listening allows you to make sure that the potential customer is qualified and interested. This way you’re not following-up and pushing a product on a client who may not need or want whatever you’re selling. With the power of listening you can save your time to pursue hotter leads and close more deals.

Not only does this increase your sales productivity, but it also promotes a healthy customer relationship, which will make you a better salesperson. Selling is less about closing deals and more about being a resource to your client as they attempt to solve their current and ongoing problems.

By Jessica Munday

In psychology, there’s a phenomenon called the Bystander effect. It’s when individuals in a group are less likely to help someone in need. Why? Often because everyone thinks someone else will take action.

The same effect occurs in team situations.

Take amateur volleyball, for example, when the players of the same team all assume someone else will dive for the ball and it ends up falling to the floor.

Or, if you send a group text to several of your friends asking them to help you move and no one responds because they all assume someone else will step up (at least we hope that’s the case and they’re not just bad friends…).

The more people there are to share the responsibility, the less likely they are to take action.

This happens to be a part of sales psychology sales too. Your team has a quota to hit and while each rep has their own metric, it’s easy for them to feel less responsible for meeting it each quarter. Because (in the mind of your sales reps) if they don’t hit their quota the rest of the team will pick up the slack or share the blame.

But, if every member of your sales team has the same mindset and falls victim to the Bystander effect, your annual quota will almost never be met.

How do you kick this habit to the curb? The answer is having one-on-one relationships with each of your sales reps.

Remove Bystander effects with rep responsibility

Sales reps are naturally competitive with each other and each hopes to come out as the top seller on their team. This often means they tend not to help each other out. Each rep is working toward a common goal but has their own motivations.

It’s time to step away from the “team” mentality and start treating them as individuals.

Setting individual goals

Each rep has his or her own personality and has likely modified the sales process you have in place to better fit their persona. It’s time to stop trying to get everyone on the same page and work toward getting your goals aligned with each individual on your team.

You’ll be wasting your time and energy trying to get each rep to follow the process down to a T. Having a one-on-one relationship with each sales rep allows you to guide and mentor them in a more productive and impactful way.

A Towers Watson survey shows that half of managers don’t set effective employee goals. Every member of your team has their own strengths and weaknesses so setting a single objective or “working goal” for your entire team is ineffective.

For example, if 70 percent of your team isn’t making enough calls and you set that as your working goal, you’re not improving or challenging the other 30 percent.

By having one-on-one meetings you can set individual goals based on the strengths and weaknesses of each rep. While reps work on developing different areas they’re effectively improving the overall efficiency of your entire team.

And this makes your employees feel valued too, as 93 percent of employees said they were most invested in jobs where their unique skills and experience were utilized.

Keep everyone accountable

Not to alarm you, but one in two managers are bad at holding their employees accountable. Harvard Business Review found that holding people accountable is the biggest workplace conflict managers avoid.

By giving each rep their own goal, you hold them accountable for delivering on it.

It’s very easy for a group of people to nod their head in agreement when you set a team goal in a group meeting. There’s much more responsibility when you have one-on-one meetings and they verbally agree to make specific improvements.

Grouping together team metrics allows under-performing reps to blend into the background. Holding them accountable for each call, email and meeting metric will transform your sales team into a data-driven machine.

Stay close to your customers

Your sales reps are your front line. They are the ones talking to your customers regularly, if not daily, so they know your customers better than anyone. Each day they hear from customers about what got them to buy the product or what hindered the sale.

This is some of your most valuable information if you’re looking to scale a company and see serious growth. These one-on-one discussions will help you get that information and put it to use.

Yes, CRM data is important and is your friend when looking to improve processes, but nothing will ever be more valuable than direct interaction that focuses on customer needs.

Your customers are your company’s source of wealth and the conversations they have with your reps are your source of truth.

Improve the process

Reduce meetings and save selling time

For a sales manager, this one may be a tough pill to swallow. The content you present and discuss in your sales meetings is important for the growth of your team, but does your team know that?

According to InsideSales.com, reps reported that time spent on Facebook and catching up with colleagues is more effective than internal meetings.

And what are your reps doing during those meetings? More than 90 percent are daydreaming, almost 40 percent have fallen asleep and 73 percent spend that time doing completely unrelated work.

This is an inefficient use of their time; this is time that could be better spent working on deals and interacting with customers. This is also an inefficient way for you to present information since no one is genuinely listening to what you’re saying.

Internal meetings take up about 10 percent of a sales rep’s week. But you can cut that time in half (or more) when you replace group meetings with a one-on-one since you can tailor your agenda. And your rep is on the spot to pay attention.

Mind you that it’s not likely that you’ll replace every one of your group meetings. As a manager, you need to be pragmatic about when and what you speak to your team about in group settings versus individual meetings. But, both types of meetings will be highly focused and much more effective.

This will be more time consuming for you, but your meetings will be more productive and it will give back valuable selling time to each rep.

As the average sales manager is in charge of seven reps, carving out time each week to speak to each of them is manageable. If you have a larger sales force, then maybe cut these down to monthly one-on-one meetings.

Manage up

Individual meetings also give your reps the opportunity to manage up and help you identify the holes in the sales process so you can adjust accordingly.

You spend thousands of dollars each year on sales tools that are meant to simplify the sales process but you rarely use them yourself. This gives you the chance to hear candidly what each of your reps thinks of these tools and if they are helping or hindering their productivity.

Seeing which reps give input and work to improve the sales process also gives you a better idea which reps truly understands the workings of the sales org, are aligned with company goals and are candidates for promotion. You’ll also get insight into who may need extra training.

Lead with impact

And at the end of the day, you’re building better relationships with your employees. These meetings can open up a door to help you intimately understand how each of your reps works and position yourself as an influential leader and mentor in their lives.

During these meetings, you can coach them on tough sales situations and give them the tools and advice they need to reach their goals. According to a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Report, less than half of companies said they measured employee progress toward a goal.

During these meeting not only do you see their progress and give them incremental improvements to focus on, but you are also one of the reasons they’re able to succeed. This is a prime opportunity to set a precedence of good managerial skills in case they too want to take that path someday.

One-on-one sales meetings ensure that you’ve aligned every single member of your sales team with your goals and objectives. The shared social responsibility of not meeting those goals is eliminated and each rep is held accountable for their overall contribution. You are now training your sales reps to be independent rather than dependent.

By Jessica Munday

Every single sales rep has lost a deal. And unless you’re one of the lucky few, you’ve got dozens of lost deals under your belt.

It’s easy to blame the loss on outside influences. Could be problems with timing or the product, maybe the customer was too stubborn or their contact information changed, they picked the competition, they ghosted you — you name it, you’ve probably used it as an excuse during a Monday morning sales meeting.

There are a million and one factors you can blame the loss on. But it’s important to recognize the (sometimes) ugly truth and reflect on the sales mistakes you might’ve made to drop the ball.

Yes, I know this may be hard to believe, but you may be the problem!

According to Salesforce research, 76 percent of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations.

However, 45 percent of B2B buyers say most companies fall short of their expectations for providing a great experience and 44 percent think the companies they’re buying from don’t have their best interest in mind.

Prospects have done their research and know what they want. When a rep doesn’t give them a good experience or understand their business problems, the customer will find someone else who does.

So what is it that sales reps are doing that falls below customer expectations? A survey by the Harvard Business Review reveals the top sales mistakes reps make that cause their B2B prospects to take their business elsewhere.

Here are the top sales mistakes and how to avoid them:

Sales Mistake #1. Not following a prospect’s buying process

Each company has their own set of guidelines, requirements and processes when buying a product, often with multiple people needing to sign off.

On average there are 6.8 decision makers. That’s more than six people who you have to convince that you, your company and your product are the right fit.

You may have found a very supportive champion, but at the end of the day, they would rather say ‘no’ to you than piss off their boss by not following purchasing protocol.

Sales reps need to be flexible, adaptable and fully understand the inner workings of the buying process or else they risk losing the deal.

Take the proper steps to educate yourself on your prospect’s purchasing process. Get information upfront about how many decision makers there are and what role they play in the buying center. Have your contact map out the steps you’ll need to take to get each decision maker on board and how long the process usually takes.

Sales Mistake #2. Not listening to a prospect’s needs

I would argue that having a clear understanding of the customer’s problem is the most important aspect of any sales conversation.

By 2020, 75 percent of buyers expect companies to anticipate their needs and have valuable suggestions before contact is even made. The importance of understanding customer needs is only going to increase, so sales reps need to listen now.

Start by first understanding possible problems; this can be based off industry, role or another factor specific to your product. Once contact is made, listen to what your customers are experiencing and offer solutions that show you’re working for their best interest. Scan their social media channels and follow other best practices for getting to know a customer’s pain points and general concerns.

Sales Mistake #3. Not properly explaining your product

Almost as vital as understanding their needs is understanding how your product is the solution to their problem.

Buyers say only 54 percent of salespeople they talk to clearly explain how their solution will impact their business.

A sales rep’s job is to be an expert on their product and an advocate for it. If you don’t properly explain all the features and benefits how can you expect someone to open up their wallet and pay for something you didn’t communicate the value of?

Take some extra time to fully understand the ins and outs of your product (check out marketing material or ask your boss for help) and map the benefits of your product to the pains of your customers. Verbalize this value and provide your prospect with materials that will help further prove that your product is worth buying.

Sales Mistake #4. Inaccurate claims and exaggerations

Nobody likes to be lied to. And even if that’s not what you mean to do, your customers feel lied to when you make promises you can’t keep.

Nearly 80 percent of B2B buyers say it’s vital that the sales reps they work with are a trusted advisor. If you lie (or stretch the truth) you are not seen as a trusted ally, but rather someone who is just looking to close a quick deal.

Whether it’s the ROI of your product, a price you can’t keep, or features that aren’t completely up-to-par yet, if you say something to a customer it’s important that you can deliver fully.

Be sure you’re fully aware of your product capabilities and dive into former customer testimonials to make sure you’re not promising anything you can’t deliver on. It’s better to exceed expectations rather falling short.

Sales Mistake #5. Lack of industry knowledge

Nearly every sales rep has read the Challenger Sale (and if you haven’t we highly recommend it) and one of the most important elements it touches on is having valuable industry knowledge to share with your prospects and customers.

Thirty-nine percent of top performing sales reps are Challengers — and a large part of their success comes from their knowledge.

It’s important to be an expert in your field. Whether you sell to marketers, teachers, doctors, plumbers or everything in between, you need to understand their workday, problems and motivations.

Position yourself as an advocate by giving new insight into their industry and how your product is a solution. If you fail to understand their industry, you risk looking like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Sales Mistake #6. Lack of knowledge about the competition

The two biggest process challenges sales organizations face are: 1) meeting customer expectations and 2) dealing with concerns regarding the competition.

At one point in nearly every sales conversation, a competitive product is brought up. Be sure you’re able to differentiate your product (ie: what makes your product better).

It’s important to be properly prepared for when (not if) these conversations arise. Do your own research on the competition; know their features, benefits and setbacks just as well as you know your own. Tap you colleagues and marketing team for additional resources.

You will look ill-prepared and the competition will have an edge over you in the eyes of your prospect if you don’t have an answer for them, “How are you different than XX company?” question.

Sales Mistake #7. Not following up or being slow to respond

Prospects are busy, just like you. They may be interested, but emailing or calling you back is not their job, it’s yours!

Most sales take five follow-ups after initial contact to close, however, most sales reps give up after one. The key here is consistency and persistence (in a non-annoying way).

When it comes to inbound leads, having a quick response time is essential. Between 35 to 50 percent of sales go to the vendor that gets back to a prospect first and most want a response within the hour (if not the first five minutes).

Stay on top of your inbox and respond quickly. Set up a follow-up cadence (something as simple as a calendar reminder will work). Prevent deals from falling through the cracks by being organized and timely.

Sales Mistake #8. Being pushy, aggressive or disrespectful

B2B buyers ranked being “pushy” as the number one reason they didn’t make a personal connection with a sales rep. Forty-four percent say the main reason they don’t meet with salespeople is that they feel pressured by the rep’s agenda to sell.

When a sales rep is too pushy, the customer feels like their needs are being put second and that the rep is pushing their own agenda instead.

This is behavior that’s hard to correct, but there are small steps you can take to check yourself. Try recording your sales calls or having someone shadow your meetings to make sure you’re not falling into the habit of being overly eager to close the deal.

Build rapport with your customers and be a trusted advocate for them. This will gain their trust and gain their buy-in in the long term.

Sales Mistake #9. Acting too friendly

It’s also a turn-off when a sales reps act too friendly toward a prospect they hardly know. Customers perceive this behavior as insincere.

Sales reps are often looking to build relationships, but many B2B buyers simply don’t have time for that.

Only 10 percent said they have close relationship with the sales reps they do business with, while 74 percent have cordial relationships and 16 percent try to keep interactions with reps to a minimum.

Authenticity is key. Put their needs first, but don’t do this in a way that appears fake. Understand these people are busy and that their time is valuable. If they don’t want to build a relationship with you, try not to take it personally.

By Jessica Munday