Tag: sales tip

Metrics—Which One is Most Important?

by mike
Benchmarks, Best Practices, Cold Calling, Effectiveness, Metrics, Performance, Productivity, Sales Skills, Techniques, Tips

Feeling a little overwhelmed by all the new technology that seems to come out every month (almost every week)?

If you’re like most companies, then you’ve probably got enough technology in place to measure just about everything: talk time, conversion rates, number of demos being given, lead flow and lead placement in the funnel—top end, middle, and end stage of leads.

And now with A.I., you can automate just about everything else—including phone calls, voice mails, email campaigns, etc.

While working with a new client last week, his management team was asking me which metrics they should focus on as they begin to adopt the new best practice approach we just introduced.

Should they look at the increase in leads (or decrease because the leads will now be more qualified) or the number of opportunities?

Should they drill down on length of presentations?

How about numbers of calls? Contacts? Length of the first call?

While all things are important, my suggestion was to focus on the one metric that drives all the others: How the rep is performing while on the call.

What I stressed is to use recordings to measure how well a rep handles each part of the phone call. For example, what does your team say then they are told to “Just email me something”?

How about: “We wouldn’t be interested right now?”

How well does your sales team respond to the objection given at the end of the demo: “Can you send me those slides and let me share this with a colleague?”

Measuring your team’s response to these crucial selling situations is what drives everything else, especially your bottom line: Sales.

So here are some questions for you (whether you’re an independent producer or a sales manager or V.P. or business owner): Are you consistently listening to your calls, grading them, and using the lessons learned to perform better each and every day?

If not, then there is a danger for you to think that if you just make more calls or get more leads or put schedule more demos, then you’ll improve your closing percentage and make more money.

You won’t.

What you will do is waste more time and resources and generate more frustration.

What you need to do is improve your skills sets and improve the way you deal with the common selling situations you get over and over again. And once you do that, you’ll finally move the needle on all the other metrics.

So begin paying attention to and measuring the most important metric of all: How you and your team respond to the recurring selling situations you get day in and day out.

If you’d like to know how to improve those skills, then sign up for my new online training course which begins today! See it here.

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

Join Our Next Training:

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then this live, interactive online B2B & B2C inside sales training is exactly what they need to get excited & confident about selling again! We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Who Should Attend?

Any sales reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Upcoming Schedule

Close More Sales with this One Training Tip

by mike

Do you want to be a top producer in sales?

If yes, then do what I did: Get the best training you can and use what you learn.

Enroll yourself or your team in next week’s 7-week online training program. See it here.

All sessions are recorded so you can watch—and re-watch them—at times that are convenient for you!

Here’s an example of a training tip that you’ll learn, and that I used, to handle a frustrating objection I used to get all the time: “The price is outside of our budget.”

If you get this objection—while closing or qualifying—then the worst thing you can do is try to answer it or overcome it. Why? Because 80% of the time this objection is just a smokescreen hiding something else. And until you find out what’s really holding your prospect back, you’ll just go around and around in circles.

Sound familiar?

So here’s what you need to do: Isolate the objection “before” you attempt to overcome it. Here’s a simple technique that will allow you to do just that:

Whenever your prospect says, “That price is outside of our budget,” simply respond with:

“And besides price, what else might hold you back today?”

And then hit your MUTE button and Listen very carefully for the real objection—or objections—that are holding your prospect back.

The reason this technique—among others—took my sales career to a new level is because by using it I avoided talking past the close and chasing what wasn’t even the real objection.

It forced me to listen rather than ad-lib poor sales technique.

And it taught me to identify what the real objection was so I could focus on that. And only when I understood what was really holding my prospect back did I begin to close more sales.

And you can, too. Use this technique the next time you get the price objection and watch as you get more control over the sales process and uncover the real reason(s) your prospect isn’t moving forward yet.

And if you’d like to learn even more proven techniques, including how to:

  • Eliminate call reluctance
  • Glide past gatekeepers
  • Prospect more effectively
  • Qualify prospects more easily
  • Deliver killer presentations that lead to more closed sales
  • Overcome objections
  • And much, much more!

Then enroll yourself or your team in next week’s training!

See our week by week curriculum here.

Just remember: The sooner you invest in yourself and your company, the sooner you close more sales and consistently make more money.

And isn’t that what you wake up in the morning trying to do 5 or 6 days a week?

Invest in yourself today!

Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?

Join Our Next Training:

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then this live, interactive online B2B & B2C inside sales training is exactly what they need to get excited & confident about selling again! We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Who Should Attend?

Any sales reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated
Upcoming Schedule