Actually, the first question is, does your company have a sales model? From my experience it’s unlikely. Well, not a formalised one that’s followed by all the team.
MD of GrabOne and self described "hustler who gets stuff done", Ryan Watkins joined the Sales Syndicate social evening to candidly share his insights on Salesmanship, Sales Team Management and Innovation. Here's a brief synopsis of what we took out of his entertaining and engaging presentation.
With a livestock solutions business strongly leveraged to dairy, Tru-Test, has been challenged by the industry downturn as much as anyone. Shane Nolan, the company’s national Sales Manager for weighing, EID and fencing solutions, joined Sales Syndicate’s monthly support and development sessions about a year ago and says the benefits to date have been unquestionable.
Firstly, when over 50 Sales Managers were asked about it at our recent Indicator: Sales Syndicate meetings, everyone said there was a form of disruption going on in their businesses and industries. For most, it isn’t an Uber or AirBNB like disruption, but for some it’s close, for others its longer term – but it affects everyone.
That can’t be a real question can it? Doesn’t it apply to everything?
The days of hitting the phones trying to get sales meetings from cold prospects are not yet dead, but certainly, they seem to be dying. This will cause some sales people to breathe a little easier, as most hate the thought of cold calls, but others will be left wondering how to reach out to new sales prospects.
At Indicator's Sales Syndicate we were recently treated to a presentation from Bruce Rasmussen of Carpe Diem about disruptive selling, and why it is so important in today’s B2B sales world. The week before I was also lucky enough to hear Brent Adamson at Dreamforce. He was talking about what CEB (Corporate Executive Board) have found in recent research about two sales approach models – the responsive approach and the prescriptive approach. Both topics resonated strongly with me.
So the temptation is to get in front of a prospect, give them a pitch - any pitch - explain how it works and why they should buy it…and so on.