Trends in the Market as a Result of the Pandemic

Organizations

Most organizations continue to work off their internal sales process and have not considered the buyer journey, and the steps in which their buyers take to purchase. Typically, it is 3 phases: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. Our goal is to meet them where they're at. Create content under the Awareness phase to educate them, invite them to see, articulate their challenge, Consideration, share case studies, customer stories and Decisions, look at Trial, Demo.

Organizations that are not agile, or pivoting are being left behind. Both with tech stacks as well as supporting their team.

Are you DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, this is a big one? Compliance is one thing, your team and customers and your brand should demonstrate this, feel it.

Culture, what type of culture are you creating, is everyone embodying it? Living it or is it simply words on the wall?

Hire well and fire fast. If someone is not working out, we want to get rid of them quickly and prevent them from influencing the rest of the team.

Sales Leader

Most Sales Leaders struggle to connect and motivate their team remotely, many are unwilling or unaware of how to disarm and show their vulnerabilities, and weaknesses and they don't have all the answers. When we can do this, we become relatable to our team. It disarms them, builds trust, and invites them to lean in, ask questions & connect.

Sales Leaders' role is to create a safe, inclusive, collaborative space to learn and grow and to invite all voices to be heard. Encourage those less likely to speak up.

Are you checking in with your team? via survey, individually to see what is working well, and what they would like to change? The survey is anonymous, which might yield more honest responses. Our Perception and reality are not always aligned.

74% of leading companies cite sales coaching and mentoring as the most important role of a sales leader

Create a coaching culture, empower your team, avoid giving them the answers, heighten their self-awareness by asking them the questions, and letting them come up with the answer. This builds critical thinking skills and confidence and belief in their ability. This needs to be done regularly, weekly, or bi-weekly. Hold them accountable

Coach the A B and C players. Most leaders leave the A players alone, they too need coaching, a sounding board. Left alone for too long, they will leave. Their needs are different, but they still need support. 5% growth in an A player is like 20% growth in a B player, coach to their individual goals and strengths.?

Invite your team to share knowledge, content, and past successes. Schedule Account plan Reviews, invite each rep to present a situation within an account and brainstorm together, the strategy/approach, DM's, resources required, chances are there are similarities within all accounts. Where is the overlap, find common ground?

Ways to Empower Your Team, Give Them The Tools To Stand Out With Your Prospects:

Create a problem and solution matrix board. Empower your team to select a persona, what are the top 3 challenges they face, that impact them and your solution.?

Practice this, role play so when you are in front of clients or prospecting for new, you are demonstrating your awareness of their business and the challenges they are facing, speak their language and show them you understand them. Do something similar for objection handling, how can you acknowledge the objection and train your team to look for the question behind the question, what is their motivation? Why are they asking this??

Do you have a data drive culture? what metrics are you looking at KPIs? Are you considering both leading and lagging indicators? Regular coaching conversations allow you to discuss the next steps while still in the deal. Exercise the opportunity to course-correct vs waiting until the end and learning from our mistakes.

Are your monthly/ quarterly targets realistic, are we setting our teams up for success? If you have training for a week/ sales meeting? Are you adjusting the targets from time out of territory? Strategize together how you will achieve this goal, daily consistent habits/ activities, and CRM expectations. Develop Strong territory management skills, and encourage time blocking.

Sales Rep

SB2B Sales Reps typically in the tech space are prepared to move companies quickly when their needs and demands are not met, typically it is for as low as $5k on salary. They are referring to this as "the Great Resignation" leaving it difficult to get good talent. It is important to hire good talent, equally important to retain them.

Not all generations of sales reps are chasing the almighty dollar, the younger generations want to be part of a community, something bigger than themselves, know that what they are doing matters, and they also want to be developed.

60% of sales reps are more likely to leave their job if their manager is a poor coach.

They expect a standardized onboarding process, most are remote. Connect the dots for them and create a safe space, they most likely are already struggling with the impacts of the pandemic.

Sales Reps expect to be coached, deal coaching, pipeline coaching and getting beneath the surface, what is holding them back, what are their motivations, and why do their goals matter? Coach to the individual, not the team.

They are encouraged to build a personal brand that supports their company, are they posting regularly on LinkedIn, connect with their audience, join associations with their clients belong to, and start developing a point of view. Writing, sharing content to be seen as a Trusted Advisor in their space

Understand what your top reps are doing to drive consistent results, can they share this with the team, empower them to find their voice but also invite others to emulate their efforts.

Many sales reps are taking control of their continuous learning journey. They are reading sales, and business books, listening to podcasts, attending webinars to learn best practices, and using LinkedIn sales navigator. If the company is not supporting their growth some might leave, but if the culture is there the good ones will invest in themselves.

Buyer Trends

92% of B2B buyers prefer virtual interactions

Buyers are demanding purposeful interactions; time is their currency.

They expect the sales rep to control the meeting, send an agenda, confirm the time, stick to it and be the one to suggest the next steps.

They expect salespeople to educate them, be transparent and not avoid pricing conversations

If they are not getting what they are looking for, they have become very transactional and will move to the next viable option a lot quicker than they would have in the past.