Sales Training Buyers Guide

This sales training buyers guide has been written to assist in designing a sales training courses alongside the sales skills salespeople need to compete in the digital economy.  Due to the evolving nature of buyer interactions across multiple channels, sales teams need to be equipped with a deeper understanding of the company’s target customer profiles.

Also, insight into the buyer’s journey has become important in determining the level of success when salespeople try to engage a prospects and potential customers. When implemented correctly, a sales training buyers guide will impact the effectiveness of the sales strategy and boost the skill levels of the entire sales force.

The impact of social media and the digital channels in providing buyers with self-service levels of knowledge has somewhat diminished a salespersons role in the buyer-seller relationship. Buyers can be as much as 60% through the sales process before they ever engage with a salesperson. So, as part of the sales training buyers guide, we need to ask the question, “If a buyer can access large volumes of quality information online when considering a purchase, what role do we expect salespeople to fulfil?

Sales management and leaders should reflect on questions such as, where does business development, sales prospecting and customer acquisition fit into the modern sales process.

 Understand the buyer’s journey has become critical to sales success 

Understanding the social media influenced B2B buyers journey is now a key component in any sales training buyers guide.  Salespeople need to both understand “what is it” and “how it is conducted” as it relates to the reality of the digital era.  In the past few years the process a buyer goes through to becoming aware of a certain challenge, to considering before deciding to purchase has altered most of what sales training once taught.

The sales training buyers guide has to pay far more attention to the buyer’s journey. That for salespeople, it is not about having sales conversations but getting conversations started in the 1^st place. From a skills perspective, the biggest change in selling skills is engaging buyers in the “awareness’ and “consideration” stages. Because in these stages, the reality is social media now plays a bigger part than more traditional forms of sales engagement. Sales training needs to address these skills by providing better social selling and digital selling skills or else accept that the earlier parts of the buyer’s journey has been ceded to the influence of social media.

Create a sales training buyers guide

Creating a sales training buyers guide will ensure that salespeople are skilled at using both offline and online channels to nurture both existing and potential customers throughout the buying process.  Every sales team needs to sales training on what customers expect at every stage within the buying process. The responsibility to provide the training, coaching and guidance to help salespeople interact with potential customers at every stage falls to sales leadership, maybe as part of a digital sales transformation plan.

The good news is there is no mystery to the social media influenced buyers journey. The key to successfully engaging customers on their buyer’s journey is constant engagement using content and relevant conversations. The latest sales training techniques are showing salespeople how to skilfully engage with prospects throughout each stage of their journey across multiple channels. Sales training that teaches the goal is not just about selling, but to build longer term trust and rapport between the business and the prospect. The future of successful selling could be about getting a prospects trust to engage further. Sales training needs to focus on showing salespeople how to build credibility, usefulness and trust above the competition in the quest to win over customers.

Sales Training that reflects the Buyers Journey

Sales training needs to accurately reflect the modern buyers journey. For brevity, we have condensed the buyers journey into a three-step process.

The 1^st being “The Awareness Stage” – The buyer realizes they may have a problem.

The 2^nd being the “Consideration Stage” – The buyer defines their problem and researches options to solve it

The 3^rd being the “Decision Stage” The buyer chooses a solution.

The Buyer Awareness Stage.

In this stage, buyers will identify issues or challenges they should be addressed. During this stage they will decide the priority level the issue or challenge should be. Sales training for this stage would include topics such as:

How do buyers describe their challenges as they relate to your product?

How does the buyer educate themselves on the challenges and trends facing their industry?

What would be the compelling reasons for a buyer to decide whether or not this should be prioritized?

The Buyer Consideration Stage. 

During this stage the buyer will have defined the issue or challenge facing them and then shared this internally. A buying committee may be formed with a mandate to dealing with it. Now they will self-educated, read whitepapers, review information and start to evaluate the different options available in order to resolve the challenge. Again, sales training needs to address:

What categories of solutions do buyers investigate?

How do buyers educate and inform themselves on the various options or solutions?

How do buyers perceive the pros and cons of the available solutions?

How do buyers decide which option is right for them and how can salespeople influence this?

The Decision Stage.

The last stage is the “Decision Stage”. The decision could be to do nothing, in fact over 60% of buyers go through the sales process with a no decision at the end. Some sales training buyers guide questions to be answered are:

What tools have you trained the sales team to use in closing the conversion gap?

Which criteria or other considerations will a buyer use to evaluate the available offerings?

When the buyers conduct research on you, business and your company’s offering, what do they like about what they see or read compared to the competition?

What are the concerns you will need to cover off on your solution?

How do salespeople go about engaging the buying committee or anyone else who needs to be involved in the decision? For each person involved, how does their perspective on the decision differ?

What is the buying process or will the buyer have expectations around sampling/trying your solution before they purchase it?

What are the major buyer hurdles or obstacles that will prevent a buyer deciding to progress to a signed order?

Do buyers need to make additional plans around implementation, IT or training and if so have the sales team been trained to cover this off earlier in the sales process?

Other Sales Training Insights 

Within your sales training buyers guide, it is important to break down each step in your sales process and then match the sales training to the buyer’s journey. Each individual sales training session should concentrate on a single step in the sales process, including what sales tools, assets, content and information to use.

The next generation of B2B buyers are digital natives. How they buy and interact with salespeople will put greater demands on sales training that matches this reality.  All sales training will become more dynamic, multi-channel and digitally driven, because that’s the way our buyers want it.

https://www.thedigitalsalesinstitute.com/sales-training-buyers-guide/

Tags : sales skills, sales training, sales training buyers guide, sales training courses, sales transformation, social selling

Sales Interview Questions

Sales interview questions should never come as a surprise to a salesperson. Being prepared to answer a broad range of social interview questions with great answers is about putting your best foot forward in selling yourself to the hiring manager.

This is a list of popular sales interview questions used by many leading sales organizations globally. We all know that selling is a producer’s role, so interviewers will have high expectations regarding your ability to communicate, to demonstrate your persuasive powers, to perform under pressure and leave them with an impression that you are the one!

So, you need to walk into the room prepared to sell yourself, your track record that qualifies you for the job, and show the prospective employer that you have the ability to close deals.

Remember the sales interview starts in the corridor.

An age-old trick of hiring managers is to break the ice with you as they walk towards the meeting area and to get a measure of you. They will be asking themselves if you have researched them and do you have initiative. So always a good idea to share information you have researched about them and break the ice – “I noticed you have been with Acme for six years, you must have interviewed lots of people:

Some Tips for Answering Sales Interview Questions

Much like a good story, your answers should have a beginning (you understand the question), a middle (the answer with concrete data or examples) and an ending (did I answer that OK or would you like more detail- closing). Come armed with information on how you can be an asset to the company and help them grow sales. Always have numbers (printed to handout is good) to support your statements. An example could be, “While at ABC company, I broke into [named account] which is now one of the most profitable customers. (maybe share a press release or email congratulating you on the win from your boss).

Ensure you get a few minutes to outline your best achievements to the interviewer. Be specific and passionate – “I take it as a badge of honour that I overachieved my annual sales target by 25% for the past two years, making me one of the top performers in the company.

Interviewers are always keen to hear and be convinced that you have the necessary skills to fulfil this role.

Always make sure to tailor your answers that matches the company’s products, services, and industry. Do your research on the company via their website, blog, press releases, Leadership team bio’s, analyst coverage and competitors. The more you know about the company, their industry and market, the better equipped you’ll be able to communicate your candidature.

Sales Interview Questions and Sample Answers

Q= Tell me a little bit about yourself.
A = “I grew up in Townville, My Dad was a [position]. From an early age I was always taught to set goals and then go after what I want, plus to never give up. I love sport, I was team captain for 2 years. In college, I worked to part-time to fund my studies (and repay some of the money to my parents). I studied business and finance because I’m fascinated how business works.”

 

Q= Why did you choose career in sales?
A = Well I chose a sales career because I see it as a stepping stone into management. Sales is one of the few professions where hard work, performance, research and preparation pays off. I want to use my sales success as proof that I can grow further with more responsibility. It’s also fun, challenging and rewarding.”
 

Q= Are you comfortable making cold calls

A = Yes, I still believe cold outreach has its part to play. In fact one of my larger accounts was the result of a cold call. Someone I had connected to online but showed no interest in my product when I first interacted with them, so I picked up the phone.

 

Q = Have you consistently met your sales goals?

A = Yes, I have achieved or surpassed my sales targets and personal goals every quarter over the past three years in the business. In fact, last year I exceeded my sales target by 25% which helped the team target come in 10% above plan. I was thrilled with that result.

 

Q= What is your best memory of a sale you won?
A = “The one I remember most is a sale I won against all odds. I knew I was in competition with 3 other vendors. Each meeting I felt I was closing the gap (list some obstacles) and getting closer to the commitment and then suddenly they were hard to reach, it seemed like priorities were shifting and the sale was slipping away. I realized quickly I had to get more strategic in my approach so I [ went back to my other contacts, did the following…proposed the following…..]. After securing another meeting, we won the deal. This was just so rewarding as I never gave up.

 

Q = How would your people describe you?

A = As part of my self-development I had to ask three work colleagues that question recently. They have told me that I am organised, committed and passionate. During one sales team meeting, the team praised me helping training on a new product especially with the newer members of the team. Our sales manager won manager of the month for how quickly our team got selling the new product, which was great.

 

Q = What are you most proud of?
A = “I am most proud of earning enough money through my sales success to not only repay my parents for my college fees but also to have saved enough to purchase my own home.

There are many other sales interview questions, others to prepare for include:

What are your long-term goals?

What do believe are your strengths and weaknesses?

What do you find most challenging about selling?

Tell me what do you know about this company?

Why did you apply for this sales position?

What makes you a great sales person?

What motivates you the most?

What sales skills do you feel are important in selling today?

What is your understanding of a sales process?

What is your view on sales training?

So, there you have our sales interview questions and answers guide. Does it cover off every question you could be asked at a sales interview – No. However, we hope this article might help you in some small way in preparing for your next move in your sales career.

Tags : interview, sales, sales career, sales interview, sales interview questions, sales tips

7 Social Selling Tips

In this post, we want to share 7 social selling tips that can be used as part of a digital selling or social selling campaign. Used in a proper manner these 7 social selling tips can help salespeople to engage with more prospects or customers than ever before and help uncover sales opportunities better than the more traditional approaches.

Today’s buyers are far more empowered with information and insights to help them assess purchasing decisions. So rather than a salesperson who just provides details they can freely access online, they look for trusted advisers who can help them achieve their goals. The days of smile and dial for a quick sale are long passed.

So Here Is Our List Of Our 7 Social Selling Tips.

Cold pitches are not social selling.

Social selling is not about employing the social channels to replace cold calling or replacing the telephone with Twitter and LinkedIn. Simplistic bare faced cold sales pitches do not work (they have rarely worked via the phone, so social media is no different).

Remember, the most important activity in social selling is to bring VALUE. One of the biggest of the seven social selling tips we can share is to always provide VALUE to your potential customers and social network. So, you will need to find relevant information, content and conversations that people will value and allows you to build relationships with others.

Providing value on the social networks can be pinned to a series of tactics (sharing articles, quality content and informative research and engaging in conversations etc). In time, people come to acknowledge the sharer, which gives sales people a deeper understanding of the buyer’s profile. To build value you need to consistently offer really relevant information and insights, market trends, latest research or whitepapers.

Always keep in mind that the social networks allow us to interact with other human beings in meaningful ways online. Social Selling is an evolutionary step forward making the sales process more productive and meaningful. It is not about using social media to shout at, stalk, or spam people digitally.

 Build your personal brand.

Credibility and your level of value are critical aspects of social selling. We know that social media can boost the level of influence a salesperson or a business has within a market, and can even impact buyer decisions. Building your personal brand online is important because within the social networks “your reputation can determine your level of influence”.

Building your personal brand online will allow you to nurture relationships, to stay top-of-mind with the purpose of creating “sales time” with buyers at the right time. It is about positioning yourself to have influence and high levels of perceived value with prospects or potential customers. Remember, it’s not just about building up our own personal brand but also to support the company’s brand online.

 Pick your Profiles

Who do you sell to? Who do you want to influence? Who do you want to connect to? These are important questions not just in social selling but in any sales activity. So, you need to create or select one or more “ideal customer profiles” to target with your activity. Your profiles will prioritise the individuals and companies that you know will get the most value out of your product, and will also provide the most value back to you.

By picking which profiles to engage with, it helps you find qualified prospects and protects you from selling to the wrong customers.

In social selling, your profile will give you a clear target to aim for, resulting in highly qualified leads. As you refine and connect, if they don’t match the criteria you have set then you’ll know to move on.

Simply put, an ideal customer profile helps you identify and engage with the type of people that will most benefit your business.

 Become a Content Champion

Content and conversations power social selling. In order to stand out from the 2 million blog posts published online every day, you will need to cut through the clutter.

Did you know that the top 3 content tactics are blog articles (65%); social media sharing (64%); and publishing case studies (64%).

How can I cut through the noise with my social selling? I hear you ask.

Well research shows you need to have “likeability” in your content, that is how much a post or piece of content is “likeable”?  In both the B2B and B2C (but especially content shared by sales people in B2B sales), the content being shared needs to have social reach, be liked and deemed to have value by people. The likeability of any content can be affected by crafting assets using the best practices for each individual social network (media, language, tone, topic, length, etc) matched to a buyer persona or ideal customer profile. Right Profile – Right Content – Right Context and Right Timing!

When it comes to learning more about these 7 social selling tips, salespeople are publishing to be seen, to create awareness and get expression of consideration to get buyers into the sales process. With the amount of content listed above, the challenge is how to stand out and turn social content into quality sales leads?

A formula for Content Likeability could be

Targeted Content + Situational Context + Buyer Stage + Timing

 Be a Conversation Channel

Position yourself to become a conversation channel. Gradually becoming a valuable connection, one worth listening to and engaging with. Once the quality of your conversation contributions have established yourself as a valuable connection, you can nurture and build a buyer/supplier relationship far more quickly.

Why not have a plan that on a daily basis you will review discussions on your groups in LinkedIn and give honest answers to questions people have without plugging your business. Also, conversations are not there to tell people how wonderful you are or how you can help solve their problems if they meet you. Spend time looking for articles, news and research you can use in conversations with people without interrupting them and that is on the money. This will help you throughout your sales career no matter what product or service you are selling.

Social selling should drive two-way conversations with your audience via social media. You need to engage them not just as your buyers, but as people and really help them achieve their goals whether it be answering a question or finding information for them.

 Avoid Connection Collecting

Look up Dunbar’s Number and see how it is relevant in social selling. Ask yourself, “Is there real value in connecting with 5,000 people”. Connections should be a bridge to lead you somewhere. You need to think more about the quality and relevance of your social network.” Building an engaged following takes time and effort, you need to sow, nurture before you can harvest. To make valuable and relevant connections, you must make sure you’re giving them distinct value that others are not.

 Have a Social Selling Strategy

The last of our 7 social selling tips is to have a strategy. A social selling strategy which acknowledges that the modern buyer needs education but they educate themselves. A strategy that helps guide people, one where audiences can expect meaningful insights from experts helping business not yours.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/222529482?color=ffffff&title=0&byline=0

Benefits of Social Selling from The Digital Sales Institute on Vimeo.

Modern sales strategy understands that the key to sustained success is to include social selling training and social media marketing alongside the more traditional sales tactics.  Due to the increasing amount of information available to buyers online these days, the time is fast approaching when the amount of trust buyers has in you as a sales professional will be the primary thing to influence their buying decision. Due to the power of social media and self-education, fewer and fewer salespeople are going to have the ear of their buyers on a constant basis. A social selling strategy can be a powerful way to build a higher level of trust with customers and prospects. The blending of digital selling and social selling is no longer a foreign approach to any salesperson wishing to succeed in the digital era.

A bonus 7 seven social selling tips is that when we talk about the next generation of buyers coming through, the digital natives, then social selling is going to be a natural path on their buying journey. Make sure you have your social selling strategy ready.