Are client testimonials helping your team sell even more?

Testimonial statements from past clients talking about the great job you do has always been an important part of selling and winning new business. But, surprisingly, most sales teams have gotten away from this great sales tool.

How many testimonials have your people collected this past month? Any of those testimonials in video form?

The reality of selling today is most buyers are risk-averse. Before they’ll feel comfortable doing business with you and your team, they’re likely going to want to hear what your other clients have said about doing business with you.

The really excited thing today about testimonials is how easy it is to capture brief satisfied customer testimonials on your cell phone. Most everyone has video recording capabilities on their cell phones today, so asking a customer to record a brief video for you is really not going to take a lot of effort on their part.

Want to run a test to see if collecting video testimonials for your website and marketing materials is as easy as I’m promising?

Here’s a simple test for you to try. At your next sales meeting ask your reps to go out and ask at least three of their best customers if they’re happy with the job you are doing and if they’d record a sixty-second message sharing why they do business with you. Each rep should be able to get at least one video from one of their clients. Usually, about a third of the videos collected are good enough to make it to your website. But you only need a few good testimonials for your website to have them start having an impact on your prospects.

Testimonials are still a critical tool to validating why a prospect wants to do business with you. Think collecting brief satisfied customer videos could help your team sell even more?

Call me (Cell 952-913-8998)…I’d love to offer an opinion or answer your sales & sales leadership questions or concerns, especially in how you can successfully take advantage of my free posted videos…all aimed at helping you and your team to sell even more!

In case you missed it…my most recent posts this past week:

Tuesday 10/15

“Are you a predictive problem solver?”

To be a great sales team leader requires you to be a great problem solver. There are four levels of problem solving. Which level are you currently functioning?

The first level of problem solving is being REACTIVE. These managers are always saying “My door is always open if you have a problem.” Or “Call me when you need me.”

The second level is more of a PREVENTATIVE problem solver. They hold regular meetings with their teams identifying where there might be problems and what can be done to maintain things so you can delay the development of a problem.

The third level is more PREDICTIVE as a problem solver. Predictive leadership is listening to your team talking about their plans for the week and being able to predict or guess where they might have surprises or new challenges.

The fourth, and ultimate level of problem solving is making decisions (and solving problems) based on CONDITION-BASED MONITORING. These problem-solving managers are monitoring their rep’s CRM system data and weekly selling plans, identifying opportunities reps can adjust, or even avoid efforts that might cause a future problem.?

Today’s video talks about the four levels of leadership problem solving, to help you become an even stronger coach and leader of your sales team…so they can sell even more!

Thursday 10/17

“Are you building your next generation of sales strategists & leaders?”

One of the best ways to gain stability in a sales team is to make sure you’re continuing to build your future leaders. Who will follow you in leading your sales team, coaching reps in selling skills and account strategies so they think and plan more moves ahead?

What can you do to begin identifying who within your sales team has the attributes of thinking more moves ahead, has strong competitive awareness and understands your markets and what your customers need? Who best understands your team’s selling processes and can explain them to others?

If you haven’t started succession planning yet, this could be a great time to have your identified future leaders start learning and proving themselves now, before you promote them. Have them coach one or two junior salespeople to see how they do and what improvements they’re able to help generate. You really don’t want to wait until you need those people to begin training and coaching them.?

Think this is something you need to start giving them a chance to learn now, so when you do need them, they have as many leadership skills as possible?

Today’s video shares the need to have solid succession plans in place. Training your future leaders now is a great way to prepare your sales team for the future…so they can sell even more!?

Saturday 10/19

“Could changing your approach to sales leadership strengthen your team’s competitive selling advantage?”?

Are you applying the latest sales leadership philosophy by becoming more of a coach and advisor, offering direction and focus by helping your reps think and plan more moves ahead?

How much time are you spending working with your team on their strategic messaging and positioning of why a prospect would want to buy from you?

In the past, most sales managers provided reps with more support How much time are you spending on support responsibilities like special pricing, expediting, problem solving and customer thank you calls??

Today you have to have increased sales levels just to stay current and competitive. Most are also dealing with hyper-competitive challenges. And buyers today have higher awareness of all their competitive choices because of Google and the other search engines.

These are challenging times for salespeople and they need your help. Your reps need more coaching help than they do territory support from their manager.?

What can you do to fulfill the definition of sales coaching…helping your reps discover for themselves what you already know.

Today’s video discusses this evolution in sales leadership and the importance of becoming more of a coach, leader and strategist to your team…so they can sell even more!

Interested in video-based learning to help improve the selling skills of your team??– Check out my two video training programs at?www.advancedsalesuniversity.com .

Ready to have a conversation about how I could be of help to you and your sales team? We can conduct on-site training, interactive video account planning, sales or sales leadership coaching and training to help your team increase their competitive edge…especially with the changes in selling today! Ready to talk about how I might help with your team’s challenges?

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Jim Pancero

“Helping you and your team become even more effective in sales.”?

[email protected] ?- (952) 913-8998