Trends & Insights

14 Feb, 2024
Reclaim control of your day with three high-impact sales strategies: strategic planning, pipeline nurturing, and valuable facetime. Prioritize effectively for increased sales and streamlined success. Elevate your performance with these actionable insights!
Recharge your battery work-life balance
21 Nov, 2023
The truth is, work-life balance is not just something reserved for weekends and vacations; it's a fundamental requirement for our physical and mental health, our relationships, and our ability to find empowerment and true fulfillment.
Tech Savvy Sales Teams
14 Sep, 2023
What's one thing that high-performing sales teams do differently than everyone else? They use technology better than their competitors! We're sharing 6 benefits to using technology to help you win more sales.
Building Modern Learning into Your Sales Culture
26 Jul, 2023
Traditional ways of learning are falling short with today’s modern workforce. As technology and digital-first thinking continues to accelerate changes to how we do business, our approach to learning must also catch up.  This visual, originally created by our learning partner, Allego, highlights the evolution of modern learning by showing us the old way versus the new way.
Price Increase
20 Jun, 2023
When a customer asks why your price has increased on a particular item or category, what do you say? In a recent Dish Network Commercial, a gentleman walks up to two young girls at a lemonade stand and one of the girls says, “Would you like some lemonade?” He says; “I’d love some lemonade!” The two adorable little girls say, “That will be five dollars, please.” The gentleman reacts to the price and says, “Five…what?!” One after another the girls volley back and forth sharing their reasons for the increase. Supply chain issues. There’s a lemon shortage. Have you seen the price of cups these days? This commercial truly captures the typical response to, “Why the increase?”
Sales Pipeline and Performance Management
18 May, 2023
Did you know that companies with a defined sales process won 53% of their forecasted deals compared to only 43% of their peers with ‘ad hoc’ processes, according CSO Insights. That’s 23% more output with a defined sales process. As Executive Sales Leaders, it’s up to us to define a common sales process and language that is shared across the organization. However, despite our best efforts, pipeline problems and performance challenges can still pop up. These challenges often come from getting caught up in managing the pipeline from the back-end vs. managing from the front-end. As a result, sales teams experience ups and downs. Good month. Bad month. Good quarter. Bad quarter. And so on. If this sounds familiar, here’s a quick challenge for you to try today: Pull up the pipeline for one person in your sales organization and think about these questions: What is the criteria for each sales stage that you see? Is there a common language across all departments/areas as to what a 50% opportunity looks like? Do all opportunities need to have a confirmed next appointment with the prospect to stay active? How many first appointments are scheduled for the next two weeks for this person? These questions apply no matter how you’re managing your pipeline, whether that’s a robust CRM you’ve used for years, are just rolling out a CRM for the first time, or you’re using some form of home-grown system. Now, let’s look at three common problems we’ve heard a variety of companies say are most troubling and tips for what you can do to fix them: #1. Lack of a common language and criteria for each stage of the pipeline. If you had a probability to close stage of 50%, would every person on your sales and leadership team define a “50%” probability the same way? Even across business units there can truly be a common language for what your team considers the halfway point to getting to yes. Without a common language and shared criteria for each stage, Sales Leaders and the Sales Team get tricked into thinking we are further along in the sales process than we really are. If we do guess wrong, it can negatively impact a busy Sales Leader’s ability to make timely decisions and forecast with accuracy. One way to fix this: Clarify the criteria for each sales stage and what it takes to move from stage 1 to 2, stage 2 to 3, and so on. Create a simple cheat sheet with the definitions of each stage and share it with your team. #2. Inflated pipelines and “hopium” are a result of counting opportunities as active that should not be active. When we assume we have more opportunities than we do or that we’re further along in the sales process than we really are, it results in a lack of urgency to prospect, a decline in overall activity, and missed steps within the sales process. For Sales Professionals, it’s important to be optimistic; however, hope can cloud reality. The result of hopium is overestimating pipeline values, over-forecasting and unintentionally allowing time to kill deals. One way to fix this: For every opportunity in the pipeline, ask your rep: when are you meeting again? This simple question can help determine whether an opportunity should be active or not active. (We like to call this type of opportunity “parked”). Opportunities that are not tied to mutually agreed appointments can’t be counted on for income and forecasts. Note: For Salesforce users out there, a task is a “to do'' and not a mutually agreed upon appointment. “Events Scheduled” will be tied more closely to appointments depending on the definitions for events in your company. #3. Sales Managers leading ineffective 1 on 1’s and team meetings. When done right, 1 on 1s and team meetings make your team stronger and help you build better relationships. However, the challenge Sales Managers have to overcome is establishing a regular cadence and running meetings that deliver better outcomes. There is tremendous value in having a regular cadence of scheduled 1 on 1s. This is even if you talk all the time or can easily walk into their office or call to ask a question. Having regular 1 on 1s communicate, by evidence of your time, that the person on your team is important to you. Relationships, whether personal or professional, take intentionality. The same is true for team pipeline meetings. Managers must be intentional by having a framework for a clearly defined pipeline meeting. This means leading the conversation with key questions and building accountability by following up on what was covered during the meeting. What challenge or actions did you give your team last time and how did you follow up on that? One way to fix this: Always include agenda items in the body of the invite. This will give your team members an idea of what you want to talk about, the questions you’ll ask, and will serve as a reminder for you about what you promised to follow up on. Bring a Common Language & Criteria to Your Team’s Pipeline Now, you may be thinking about some people on your team who are process adverse but are brilliant conversationalists and natural at selling. Or, vice versa. Process will out-sell just personality every time. It’s process plus a dynamic personality that will kill it in the field and on the phones time after time. Strike the right balance between process and art form (personality) to keep your Dealership on track for growth now and in the future. If you’re not sure how or where to start, one of our core strengths is helping Sales Leaders and Sales Teams create criteria so everyone shares the same pipeline view. Let us know if we can help and good selling out there!
11 Apr, 2023
5 Takeaways We've Learned with the Power of AI for Sales Coaching
21 Mar, 2023
Picture this: It’s the last day of the month and you just realized you’re not going to hit your monthly quota. What happened? Less demand for your product or service? Continued slow to see businesses come back to the office? Seasonal dip in business? We’ve all been there, missing our Sales goals can happen for a variety of reasons, but it doesn’t have to be a mystery if you know your numbers. Knowing your numbers means you have a clear understanding of how all of the individual activities in your sales process (calls, videos, appointments, proposals, etc.) affect your overall sales results. Knowing your numbers allows you to break down your larger sales goal into smaller steps that feel less daunting and more doable. For example, if you know, on average, it takes 6 calls to get 1 appointment, you won’t feel so overwhelmed as you work towards your goal because you’ll know exactly how much time and effort you need to put in to get one appointment. Knowing your numbers also helps you catch very quickly if you’re off track. Using the same example as above, if you typically have a 6:1 call to appointment ratio but all of sudden you hit a three-week stint where it’s taking you sixteen calls to get one appointment, then you know something is off. With a clear understanding of your numbers, you’re able to spot patterns in your sales performance, for better or worse, so you can more accurately determine what could be influencing the changes and what you need to do to adjust. What numbers should you be tracking? Here are 5 numbers you need to know to consistently hit your sales goals and set yourself up for ongoing success:
Powering your inside sales engine
15 Mar, 2023
What makes a great inside sales professional? These are the top 5 traits that set apart the best from the rest.
Sales Manager One on One
10 Mar, 2023
As a sales manager, you need to find ways to save time. Having regular one-on-one with your team members will help you do that for these three reasons.
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