How to make your sales projections more of a certainty
This one is about how to make your sales projections more of a certainty. So what this is is about is it's not just about selling harder. It's not about putting things in a position where you ask people to just do more it's about because that's not sustainable. This is about actually kind of putting things in a situation where even if somebody's having an off day even in the worst days a reasonably good sales person is still gonna get you a decent result.
That's it. Essentially. This is about the sales process. The single biggest conversion competitive advantage that you can have is the fact that you can just outsell your existing competition.
Obviously there are lots of moving parts. And selling in a way that meets their sales process needs not the actual product itself. But first here's a question: “How sure are you that your salespeople are going to hit Target?” 70%? 90%? 97%?
That's not a rhetorical thing either. Check your previous expectations versus how you performed. That's actually something that I'd like you to explore. How sure are your sales team will hit Target?
This is kind of the problem with kind of sales as an industry. There are so many intangibles and there are so many people who talk a really big game. So much so that sometimes it's really hard to objectively know the results.
Why customers say Yes
As part of our work we did an in-house study on kind of why customers said yes. It wasn't about price necessarily. It wasn't about value for money necessarily, or even showing how different they were. The main factor was about how all of those things collectively made them feel about the suitability to their needs.
This is the relevance and the context that wins. So this really is the key thing here. It's worth asking yourself about your previous sales. What is it that's usually makes a customer say yes to you over somebody else? Is it that you have the cheapest game in town or is it that you do something quite different or is it that your brand stands for something that really is quite notable.
Embracing a Process-Driven Approach for Sales Certainty
The hustle of traditional sales methods was no longer viable. Transitioning to a process-driven approach, map out each stage of your sales journey. Refine your strategy from simply pushing for more sales to understanding the intricacies of each step in your process.
This approach allows you to pinpoint where you could improve and where you're already succeeding, making your efforts more targeted and effective.
This not only offers insights into your performance, but it also ensures that even on the most challenging days, your team could maintain a level of productivity.
It's not an overnight transformation, but gradually, this method enables you to move towards a more predictable and steady sales performance. This mitigates the wild fluctuations in results. It's about moving from working harder to working smarter.
Role as a Sales Manager - Pay Attention to the Game
As a Sales Manager in this context, it’s not trying to tell your team to sell harder but by changing the rules of the game so that what they do is better in this particular game. This is usually different to what you learn in school, where you may imagine if a kid isn't winning, so they take the ball home.
What I’m saying is to pay close attention to the game you’re playing and if you’re not winning, invent a new game.
This is what we're looking to do essentially. We're looking to find out what the client is looking for and show them how you are a better fit.
A big part of this is about understanding that when you zoom out. Find out trends for your customers, find out where you tend to perform best and then offering your sales people training in a way to help them spot those key of moments of Truth.
