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How can I level-up my Sales game? If this is a question you find yourself asking, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we share three top tips to help elevate your sales game in 2023 and beyond.
Top Tip 1: Look Beyond The Sales Quota
This might be easier said than done. The reason being is that many companies have Sales quotas prioritised as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for their Sales teams. However, if you want to level-up your Sales game, it isn’t just about a need of hitting that Sales quota. More importantly, It’s about the actual value and quality of the service or product you bring to your Prospects and Customers in solving for their specific challenges. However, companies often fail to realise the impact of this statement… Especially in consideration of our new world, which is full of unknowns.
At The Blink Of An Eye
Let’s put some more context to this… World change is not a one-time thing. It’s also unpredictable and at the blink of an eye, it can significantly impact our lives on multiple levels. It’s also for this very reason that a business may thrive, just survive, or even fail as a consequence of this unpredictable change. The likelihood of any of these scenarios transpiring of course will depend on the relevancy of their products or services in solving for these new world challenges.
Irrespective of what industry, product or service you sell, one thing that would be helpful for you to keep in mind is that both the time and quality of engagement between the Sales individual and the buyer is extremely precious.
Gopesh Raichura, smoothmind
The consequence of Global unpredictability in this fast life we’re living, has put us all on a path of continuous re-evaluation and refinement of work-life balance. Subsequently, there’s a knock-on effect that directly relates to how we consume products and services, as well as the differing levels of importance that we place upon them.
New Found Realisation
Whether we’re making these decisions as Consumers or indeed as Business professionals, we all have a new found realisation for what is important in life. This impacts how we choose to connect and engage with one another, as well as how, when and what we choose to buy.
Irrespective of what industry, product or service you sell, one thing that would be helpful for you to keep in mind is that both the time and quality of engagement between the Sales individual and the buyer is extremely precious. If you don’t show empathy to your Prospects and Customers by respecting these in equal measure to provide for a meaningful, timely, high quality engagement that adds value in solving their challenge; your chances to earn their trust and loyalty moving forward will quickly diminish.
When you tailor your approach and offering to address the above, not only will it help you to get closer to your Sales quota, it will also help you increase customer lifetime value from repeat purchases over time.
Top Tip 2: Introduce Relevant Accountability Measures
Even if you’re not directly involved in the Selling of the Product or Service, it’s important to recognise that your contribution in support of the Sales goal is equally as vital to help address top tip one in this post. When we consider timeliness, quality, empathy and relevance of the service or product being sold, all departments need to provide a cohesive, timely and aligned experience that directly addresses the customer challenges in the way that they expect.
When a company places performance accountability solely on the results of the Sales people who are doing the physical selling, it may be a sign that the culture in the business is not conducive to stimulating a positive working environment
Gopesh RAichura, Smoothmind
This includes Product Development, Marketing, Sales, Fulfilment, Service and Support. This often requires a mindset shift for teams to consider how to improve internal ways of collaboration. It also requires relevant accountability measures for each team. This will help align them to support the goal of solving for the customer challenge.
You Are Not Solely Accountable
When a company places performance accountability solely on the results of the Sales people who are doing the physical selling, it may be a sign that the culture in the business is not conducive to stimulating a positive working environment. With relevant measures, it can allow your business to reward teams in pursuit of solving the customer challenge.
Top Tip 3: Be Mindful of Differences Between Product Marketing Messaging and The Actual Capabilities of the Products or Services Sold
If you work with a medium-sized or large scale organisation, be mindful of relying too heavily on polished Product Marketing decks. Let’s look at the Cloud sales sector for example. Here, Digital Transformation is a hot topic for all organisations.
Here there may be a multitude of different Cloud applications required to solve for the customer challenge. In this scenario, nice Product Marketing messages may imply ease of use, simplicity and one platform for example. Yet the reality could actually be somewhat different. When there’s a difference between Product Marketing Messaging and what the customer buys; it can lead to a bad experience. This wouldn’t be such a great start to forming a new customer relationship.
When it comes to Selling to your Prospects or Customers, it’s imperative you secure their trust. Effectively managing expectations as to how the solution will solve their challenge will result in greater customer satisfaction rates.
How Can I Level-Up My Sales Game?
In conclusion, we have covered three top tips for consideration here. This is to help you consider strategic perspectives to level-up your Sales game.
If you feel pressured to just hit a quota, but at a cost of selling your Prospects or Customers an inferior product or service; it’s likely to result in it becoming a one-time sale. In this world of unpredictability, people expect their time not to be wasted. After all, they have more important things to be worrying about then the need to purchase products and services. These needs are simply just a means to an end.
With new found priorities on what’s important in life, your Buyers expect to have meaningful engagements with Sales people. It’s important therefore for you to show genuine empathy for your customers challenges. This also needs to be backed by the full power of your company. When this can be achieved, it will help you on your path to levelling-up your Sales Game.
Just remember that you are not solely accountable for the results of your business. Relevant and accurate product messaging, high product quality, timely order fulfilment, fantastic service, and attentive support are all equally as important to win the trust of your customers.
Are you interested in exploring more on this topic? If so, come visit smoothmind’s Sales Leadership Development playlist on YouTube to help level-up your Sales game.
