Covid-19 took the world by surprise and shocked most people by the impact and consequences. The effects on people and business are continuing through 2021! Social distancing and lockdowns are the new norms for many countries. Some industries, like the travel and conference market, are suffering most, whereas others are thriving.
Through creativity and thinking out of the box, we also see markets where people can stabilize their business and even grow. Creativity in selling comes in many forms and today, I would like to share my sales toolbox, which can help ramp-up your sales team and help grow your business.
In my following postings, I will share some of the best practices that help organizations to thrive during challenging times.
Here they are:
Tools will only work when salespeople can adapt their mindset and try different approaches.
For that, they need the desire to achieve success and commitment to do all that is required ethically to achieve it. In times of crisis, some people react like rabbits blinded by headlights in the dark and freeze. When confronted with an emergency, you survive best by analyzing the situation and acting by using the best solutions available. Leadership is critical here.
Evaluate your Sales team’s DNA. People talk a lot about sales DNA, but what is it? Sales skills are not sufficient enough to be successful in sales. Sales DNA represents our way of thinking and our behaviour that impacts the way we use our sales skills. Sales DNA helps achieve the results needed during challenging times and difficult market conditions.
Embracing Technology is vital to be effective and efficient now and in the future. Remote selling has become a new standard during the pandemic for most professional salespeople. Still, more than 80% depend on the traditional way of selling. Embracing technology also means using a wide array of solutions that have a significant impact on results. Some examples:
Using CRM to manage sales processes, which includes customers, prospects and the whole sales process. And there is more: it helps you communicate with your markets effectively and efficiently. Your marketing efforts are made easy and the system will allow you to manage your whole work scope with much ease.
Many salespeople believe that CRM is meant for management to know what they are doing. That should not be the idea! CRM is used to help manage your processes and connect and communicate expertly with your market. One good example is the CRM by SAP, which we checked out recently.
Discover Membrain. On Tuesday the 24th of July 2012, I had my first contact with a Swedish organization by the name of Membrain. They claimed to have developed an advanced tool that would impact the way sales teams would work in the future. Membrain, now, is revolutionizing the way sales teams work and increase their performance.
We are a certified partner of Membrain. Click here to book a demo.
Virtual Selling. Stimulate video conferencing apps like ZOOM to have sales calls with prospects and customers and sell. ZOOM became one of the most popular video-conferencing tools during the pandemic. It is easy to use, communication is clear and the security has been upgraded to a high level.
LinkedIn connects business people from all over the world and at any level with each other. Spend at least 30 to 60 minutes a day analyzing the LinkedIn information to approach the right people who can be interesting to you. It is considered the number one Business Social Media.
Audionote 2 is an app that you download on your mobile phone or tablet. It has a linked index of your recordings that quickly provides invaluable audio context for your notes. Your recordings and notes can also be downloaded when working on your computer.
Calendly is a tool that makes it easy to set appointments. Calendly connects with outlook. By sending out a link to your contacts, they can schedule a meeting or call with you when you are available. Calendly avoids wasting time trying to set appointments. It is easy to use and people only see when you are available. It is entirely safe to use.
Microsoft To Do is a task list app that helps you focus and plan efficiently. You can set up different to-do lists for private and business. After Microsoft took over Wunderlist, it was integrated with the To-Do app. Integrated with Microsoft Onenote, you have at your disposal a powerful suite of tools to plan and take notes and increase your efficiency.
ConstantContact is one of the best direct-mail apps. ConstantContact comes with predesigned templates to use when you want to be in contact with your market. They provide tutorials, Webinars and a knowledge base to help you create the most impact-driven mailings and grow your business.
Birthday Alarm is an app that is used to congratulate your business contacts. Most people appreciate it when you remember and congratulate them on their birthday or other events. It brings added value to your relationship with them. The app reminds you on time when you need to congratulate people. It has a ton of different free e-cards for different occasions and the possibility to adapt the message you want to send.
A nice feature is that you can send a request to your contacts requesting to add their names and birthdates to your list. These are then uploaded automatically.
For Business and Sales Leaders wanting to increase sales team performance
Objective Management Group OMG has developed the only existing sales assessment with a predictive validity of 92%. With the data of more than 2.100.000 profiles, the test provides accurate insights that will tell you exactly what to do to develop your sales team and optimize revenue growth and increase efficiency. The OMG sales test is also instrumental when recruiting salespeople and sales leaders. One aspect that sticks out is the predictive validity, which tells you if salespeople will perform now and in the future.
There are many more useful tools available for sales teams. The above mentioned are some of the best which will deliver relatively fast results.
If you want to know more, please reach out to me here or call me at +31 (0)642713033.
