Sales Shake TV – Episode #1 is now live

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Tom Lavery

I am excited to launch the very first episode of Sales Shake TV on YouTube. The format for the show is 4 questions each answered in just 1 minute so easy to watch on the go. It has been great to get so much feedback from you guys since I started the blog in February. A big shout out to David Sim, Tim Young, Tom Glason and Andre Butler for your questions. I hope you enjoy the show as much I did filming it.

Sales Shake TV needs your questions on all things sales to work, so if you would like to feature on the show please email your questions here or tweet them to @TomLavery7 with the #salesshake. You can also subscribe to the YouTube channel here.

Leadership, Sales Techniques

How to stay connected to your customer to increase sales

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Tom Lavery

How well are you connected to your customers? In today’s business environment it’s easy to lose touch with their needs, concerns, and business issues. Falling into the day to day routine of your job description. Getting caught up in internal meetings, 1- to-1’s, and pipeline reviews can distract you from the most important task of all…staying current with what is important to your customers and prospective customers. Having this valuable information can allow you to continually adapt your sales message to keep it relevant.

You need to spot trends in what’s supporting the buying decision. Understand how your customers want to be sold to. Which content on your company website, sales presentations, sales demo’s and throughout the sales process prospects find most engaging? How important were each of your company’s USP’s and what was the WOW factor in their buying decision? Understanding this, and more will help you find and sell to more customers. It will help you connect with customers and prospects on a better level giving you an advantage over your competition. Here are four things you can start doing now to stay connected with your customers and prospects.

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Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Productivity, Sales Training

Why your sales training needs to be like your exercise routine

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Tom Lavery

A classic mistake with sales training is to do it every so often like once a month or quarter. You’re too busy trying to hit your numbers and firefighting that training often gets pushed down the list of priorities until we have an urgent issue. Most sales training, when conducted this way, is often in the format of a whole day or half day of internal training, consultants or an external trainer. Problem is, training will not have an impact in isolation. Done this way it’s such a small part of your team’s work week, month or year.

Think about training like you would exercise

If you don’t work out regularly you get unfit, fat and out of shape. The same goes for sales training. You can’t just go do a 10k run or play a match without doing anything for weeks. Sales training needs to be like a successful exercise routine: have a good frequency, be varied and be the right length based on your goals.

To get fit you create a plan to do it. To train your team for peak performance, you need to do the same. Here are some simple tips you can use to introduce your new approach to sales training.

Create a training plan. Start somewhere and commit to it

You cannot wing it each week or it will not happen. Your plan should include scheduled group training as well as individual self-paced training. Create a plan so everyone knows where they stand for the week and the month. This way your team won’t book calls and other meetings in the slots you create for group training. You need to nail them down to the time and everyone needs to know it’s Monday at 10 am or Friday at 3 pm, that’s when we do this…or both. This may sound simple but just having it added to everyone’s calendars will make a huge difference.

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Motivation, Sales Techniques, Sales Training

How to #GETUNSTUCK when your hot sales prospect is about to go with a competitor

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Tom Lavery

There are times in sales when we get stuck every almost every day. The more we share and spread sales knowledge the more we can help each other develop and grow as sales professionals. I am delighted to part of the #getunstuck movement. Please see my 60-second story below for more of these tips and to share your own story check out www.getunstuck.club

You put in a lot of effort contacting your hot sales leads and getting their attention. What do you do when you finally get ahold of them and they tell you that they are about to sign up with one of your competitors? How do you work through this so it doesn’t stop you in your tracks? Here’s my tip to get unstuck and win the business.

Have complete empathy with your sales prospect

They’ve gone out to market. They’ve gone through a whole sales process and you’ve landed on their doorstep at the last possible minute. So you just need to show that you really care and that you understand that to get your foot in the door.

Completely forget about your sales process

They’re at the end of the buying cycle. You need to quickly understand what they love about those competitors and why they’re thinking of buying so you can really show them what makes your solution the best.

Focus on your competitive advantage

So how do you push home that competitive advantage? First of all, demo the product and demo the parts that they’re going to care about very, very quickly. Get them on a free trial and get them using your product as soon as possible. And make sure that you provide them with some sort of competitive analysis so they can clearly see how you can help and how you’re better.

I hope this helps next time you need to get unstuck!

Leadership, Sales Techniques, Sales Training

#GETUNSTUCK launches today: Help and guidance from top thought leaders in sales & business

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Tom Lavery

There are times in sales when we all get stuck every single day. The more we share and spread sales knowledge the more we can help each other develop and grow as sales professionals. #GETUNSTUCK is launching today and is a collection of 60 seconds of sales wisdom being shared daily by thought leaders in sales & business.

Check out this trailer to see a sneak preview..

I am delighted to be part of the #getunstuck movement and my #getunstuck story will be going live on April 18, Monday 11 am EST.

We hope this helps you to #getunstuck and we would love you to share your own story with us. To check out more sales stories and to share your own go to www.getunstuck.club or @getunstuckdaily

Sales Productivity

How to make procurement your best friend in the sales process

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Tom Lavery

You spend a huge amount of time building a strong relationship with key sales contacts in the enterprise sales process. Then when it comes down to crunch time and a buying decision you have to then also start dealing procurement as well.

Over the years, I have been on the end of huge wins and just as big losses. What has always been vital is the strength of the relationship and the trust that you build with procurement. Most people ignore this opportunity and just follow a process. Here are some simple ways to help make procurement your best friend in the sales process.

Understand their main objectives and how they measure success

Remember they have a manager and are part of a team just like you. They have objectives and a targets to achieve as well. You do not need to stop selling just because you are dealing with procurement. Ask them what their main objectives are. You need to very quickly find out what they are most focused on and how they will be measuring their success. Is it finding a vendor with the best service? Lowest price? Biggest return on investment? When you know this you can really work on showing them the value in that area first.