Tag: business tips

4 Reasons Why Sales Training Should Be A Component Of Your Recruitment Strategy

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
When recruiting new team members for your business, there are many considerable factors to ensure your offer is most appealing to your target recruit. Generally, companies will hire established salespeople with the assumption that they won’t need further training. In doing so, you could be missing out on the opportunity to grow and develop the next top salesperson.

Here are 4 reasons why you should implement an offer of sales training into your recruitment process:

1. You Are More Likely To Retain Staff When You Offer Ongoing Training


Offering ongoing training to employees will make them feel valued. It attracts the right type of person to the role, someone who is eager to enhance their skills and wants career progression. Going into a new job knowing you will have opportunities to learn and develop new skills naturally boosts enthusiasm. Not to mention your business’ recruitment costs will reduce when you have a high staff retention rate.

2. Be Proactive, Not Reactive


It is common for businesses to only consider training their sales team when there are problems emerging. A more effective strategy is to offer staff training regularly. This will prevent problems before they occur and ensures any issues are stamped out early on. Incorporating Sales Training into your recruitment process will ensure any new staff that come on board are trained in the same way as your current salespeople.

3. Attract A Quality Candidate To The Position


Proposing a training program in your employment offer is attractive to prospective employees as it eases tension related to taking on a new job. It opens the doors to people who may not have a lot of experience in the field, but they are eager to learn and with the right training, could be the next best salesperson on your team.

4. Promotes An Encouraging And Supportive Work Environment

Sales Training has a positive influence on staff enthusiasm, engagement, and fulfilment. Offering training opportunities at the recruitment stage promotes your business as being supportive. It shows you have intent for employee growth within the company. Offering sales training from the beginning of a salesperson’s career demonstrates that your company is willing to invest in their team.

You can achieve these benefits and more by offering effective training as part of your recruitment process.

Find out how you can incorporate Sales Training into your recruitment strategy by contacting KONA!

Phone 1300 611 288 or email info@kona.com.au

Contact Us

9 Important Tips For Setting Appointments

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

How to start a sales call the right way - CrankWheel

Business owners and salespeople often use phone calls to book appointments with clients and prospective customers.

To do this successfully you need confidence in the relationship-building aspect of telemarketing.

You have the responsibility of displaying your product or service in an honest and professional way and you are aware of the value of what it means to exceed the expectations of your customer.

What steps can you take to guarantee your best chance of securing an appointment?

1. Have A Plan

Preparation is vital. When you go into a conversation prepared with what you want to say, you can be confident that you are covering all important matters. You will be able to keep control of the conversation and bring it back if it drifts off-topic.

2. Make Your Offer Early

It is important to spark interest early on and to combat objections promptly with an offer that is full of benefits. You need to be quick to ensure negativity does not affect the customer’s decision.

3. Conversation Is Key

Ask short, open questions to gage as much information as possible from the customer. Your questions should be relevant to ensure you keep their attention and you should repeat their answers back to them when suitable. Talking for too long and confusing the client with your questions can lead to them tuning out of the conversation.

4. Handle Objections

Show the customer that you understand their situation by recognising their objections. Use phrases like ‘I understand how you feel.’ Let them know that you have had other customers that had similar objections when they first came onboard. This will demonstrate that you are experienced. Clarify that the purpose of the appointment is to understand their position and then suggest an appointment time.

Competitive Objection Handling 101: Your Guide to Knocking Competitors out of Deals and Earning the Trust of Your Buyers - Klue

5. Don’t Give In The First Time

Objections are inevitable and when they happen, it is important not to repeat the objection back to the customer or go too much into it. Don’t take any objections personally and ask the right questions to better understand their answer. It is common for it to take a number of conversations with the prospective customer before they accept your offer of an appointment, so don’t get disheartened if they do not accept the first time around.

6. Don’t Be Afraid Of Uncertainty

Admitting when you don’t know the answer to something or needing to check with someone else is not a bad thing. Building a foundation of trust with your customer is so important and if you bluff your way around their questions, it is likely they will find out and that relationship will be damaged. If you have uncertainty around an objection or question, tell them that, and get back to them with the right information.

7. Research Before You Call

The more you know before picking up the phone, the better. If you have just a name and a phone number, you can still make an effective sales appointment. If all else fails, you can always turn to Google. Or, if you’d rather, you can reach out to your connections on LinkedIn. You can even check with your network contacts to see if you know anyone who knows the prospect. You may be able to get a referral from a mutual contact.

The 18 Best Places for Sales Reps to Research Prospects [Expert Tips]

8. Create A Good Opener

Once you get the prospect on the phone, you have about 10-20 seconds before they’re ready to hang up on you. Most people automatically reject you as soon as you start trying to sell them. If you want to get past a potential customer’s rejection filter, you’ll need an opener that surprises or intrigues them. Something that will make them sit up and take notice. Once you have their attention, you can set up an appointment or at least get them to listen to what you have to say.

9. Pick A Benefit That Most Interests Your Prospect

When you have done your research and know more about your prospect, you can better customise your pitch to fit their needs or pain points. This way, you are more likely to get their business. Pick a benefit of your product or service that you think will most appeal to your prospective customer. Explain how that product or service provides this benefit to them. Our billing system helps give you peace of mind.

7 Essential Tips to Set Sales Appointments Geared for Success • Bookafy

Timeless Advice Is The Best Advice. Sell the benefits and value, not features. Come prepared, find out what the customer’s concerns are and present them with solutions. When you offer them the chance to find out more about something that they may have a hard time saying no to, offer an appointment.

Is your team following these appointment setting tips?

Contact KONA today for customised training for your business!

click here to contact the KONA Group red button or call 1300 611 288

6 Signs Your Sales Manager Is Failing As A Sales Coach

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Sales Coaching versus Sales Training - Adroit Insights

When you notice your sales team are struggling, it can be hard to pinpoint the source of the problem. Could it be that your sales manager is failing as a sales coach? If this is the case, it can lead to many problems in the business. How will you know if it is the sales manager or another factor affecting performance?

Here, we will tell you 6 signs that your sales manager could be failing as a sales coach.

6. They Are Not Motivational
Salespeople need inspiration and motivation to deliver exceptional results. There are countless ways a sales manager can motivate their team, they can offer incentives, create competitions or even verbal encouragement. If a sales manager is not motivating the team and getting them excited to sell, the team will quickly lose their drive and may even feel frustrated. 5. They Are Not Teaching Their Team About New Products A good sales manager will ensure they are setting aside time to teach their team about new products and services. If the team are not educated about a product, how will they sell it? Salespeople need to know not only what the product is, but also the benefits and features, in order to be able to sell it.
4. They Are Focusing On The Wrong Salespeople
Typically, sales managers will focus their attention on their highest and lowest performing team members, when in fact it is those in between that need the most time. Your best salespeople are already doing well and if your underperforming salespeople are consistently underperforming, this may not be the role for them. The salespeople in the middle of the spectrum can go either way. If the middle salespeople are not given the right tools and training, they will drop to the bottom. With the right coaching however, they will likely rise to the top.
3. They Are Results-Focused, Not People-Focused
If your sales manager’s only concern is successful sales and not helping the sales team, this is a problem. Sales coaching encompasses observations, uncovering strengths and weaknesses within the team and helping the team through them. A successful sales coach will focus on improving each salesperson’s performance, rather than just their mistakes.
2. They Are Not Coaching Regularly
Studies show that 65% of employees say the training and learning opportunities provided to them positively impacts their engagement in the workplace. When team members are engaged, they are more likely to take on more and ultimately become better at what they do. In order to improve skills and learn new techniques sales coaching needs to be used consistently, not just when a new salesperson joins the team.
1. Your Salespeople Do The Following:
  • Miss their KPI’s often
  • Business only comes from existing “friendly” customers or clients
  • Don’t prospect or generate enough fresh leads
  • They don’t do enough Quality Sales Activity
  • Are uncomfortable speaking with decision makers in Leadership or Senior Management positions
  • Are only comfortable talking about problems, price, and product specs
  • Miss opportunities in their Pipeline due to not chasing or revisiting leads consistently
  • Have a low Lead to Sale Conversion Ratio
  • Don’t generate enough repeat business from clients
  • Blame the market, products or services, customers, accounts, their managers, or the price of petrol when they miss target, as “It’s not my fault.”

Can you recognise any of these traits in your sales manager? If so, it may be time to consider investing in a sales coaching for your team to help them reach their full potential.

  click here to contact the KONA Group red button or call 1300 611 288  
Manifest success

“That Which You Manifest Is Before You.”

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

This is one of the most profound statements I have ever heard.

It is in one of my favourite books – The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.

Such a simple concept, yet so true: “That which we manifest is before us”; we are the creators of our own destiny.

Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.

I think this is wonderful … and yet scary at the same time.

So all my successes I created?  Fabulous!  But wait a minute – if I’m not as successful as I want to be, then I created that too?  Horrors!  And my absolute failures, I created those too?  That’s a worry.

But let’s look at the positive.  We can create our own future.  It’s like The Secret. “What you think about and thank about, you bring about.” And other smart sayings: “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” And the classic Michael Jackson line “I’m starting with the man in the mirror…take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”

We all have that potential to be M.A.D. (to make a Difference).  It starts with deciding what you want, what will make you happy, what’s important to you – and then writing it down.

So that’s Step 1: Write it down, record it, post it, tell someone about your plans.  Commit your dreams to paper (or the world-wide web) and it will become reality.

Step 2: Create stepping stones to get you over the troubled waters and to the other side – break it down into bite-sized pieces, so that you can achieve (and celebrate) small goals along the way.  Measure the steps that you are taking.  I love To-Do lists where I can tick off the things that I have accomplished each day.

Step 3: Ensure that you make your dreams ARE achievable.  After all, you DO want to be able to applaud your effort and not finding that you are depressed by every little obstacle in the river of life that may come your way.

Step 4: Is it possible to be CEO of a company that you just started with within a year?  Probably not! (Although for some Gen Y and Gen Xs that’s exactly what they want … and expect.  But that’s another conversation altogether!) Be realistic about your wants and needs.

Step 5: Put a date on your dreams.  Goals are dreams with a timeline.

Hmmm, seems like I’ve just written down S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting.  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

Well then, let’s start to manifest our destiny!

Contact Us

Sales Performance & Sales Training

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

How to Boost More Revenue Through Strategic Sales Training

sales performance & sales training kona

Do you often perceive sales training as a cost-intensive event? Or that once-in-a-while opportunity where your organisation comes together to try and fix what’s broken?

Instead, what if you saw sales training as –

  • A strategic investment
  • And a proactive exercise that boosts faster and more sales?

Sales Training is a Revenue Generating Activity

If managers are able to make the connection between sales coaching and higher sales performance, then sales training becomes a revenue generating activity, not a ‘dreaded’ cost-intensive event.

Clearly, there is not one sales manager who wouldn’t then agree that sales training or coaching is crucial.

However, a recent survey carried out by Viddler revealed that 147 out of 150 sales executives agreed that “poor sales coaching” was a major weakness of most sales companies.

Another recent survey by Highspot reported that out of 79% of companies who engage in some form of strategic sales enablement process, 64% indicated ‘sales training must be improved.’

Engage in customised sales training to suit their business

Perhaps it’s time for sales managers to begin to reassess their sales enablement programs to ensure they are engaging in a more customised sales training suiting their unique business structure.

They need to take action, measure performance through good constructive feedback, and turn information into action.

Sales managers need to take action

Sales Managers should take inventory of the effectiveness and sales capability of their sales people so that the sales training can be customised to them, and not a generic ‘off the shelf’ course.

Measure performance through good constructive feedback

This can be done by assessing the gaps between where the business is right now and where you want it to be, or by benchmarking against competitors. A number of sales performance metrics can be used to measure as well as improve sales performance and grow revenue.

A few key performance metrics to focus on should include but not limited to:

  • Time spent selling, (to identify and eliminate possible sales blocks)
  • Lead response time (to ensure that your sales people are responding to leads quickly and efficiently).
  • In addition, standard size of a closed deal is also an important metric to help measure and eliminate deals that are not worth pursuing —sometimes sales people prefer to spend time pursuing small deals because they are easier to get.

Turn information into action

The ability to transform information into action that can add value to your business is the crux of business intelligence (BI). The secret to getting actions such as boosting sales, improving customer service skills, and making intelligent decisions, is having the right information.

All the information that you’ve amassed from constructive feedbacks, customer insights, sales training programs and more should be put into action.

This quote from biomedical informatics and biotechnology entrepreneur, Atul Butte, just about sums it: “Hiding within those mounds of data is knowledge that could change the life of a patient, [business] or change the world.”

KONA Group runs a series of different training programs:  sales training, sales management training; call centre training; customer service training and more — all customised to YOUR strategy, YOUR industry, YOUR people, YOUR customers, YOUR outcomes and results.

Contact KONA Group on 1300 611 288 or email info@kona.com.au to discuss how you can improve your business results.

Contact Us

What are the Considerations When Hiring Sales People?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Hiring the best sales professionals for your company is not a task that anyone can administer.

What most executives don’t know is that hiring salespeople can be expensive, considering that they have to be trained first before they can be deployed in the field.

Companies typically spend more on hiring in sales than they do anywhere else in their business.

So how do you improve the returns on this investment in hiring salespeople?

Developing criteria of what you are looking for, such as experience, industry contacts, and knowledge of your product and the market will help you dissect the eligibility of a prospect sales professional. Ideally, this person would be good at building a sales force, so they should be a player-coach as well.

If you are ready to hire a professional salesperson, you need to develop criteria and a list of questions to ask. In this post, we will give you different tips on how you can start hiring a sales professional. Here are a few considerations:

Visible Sales Professional Experience

One good way of knowing if one is legitimately appropriate at being a sales professional in your company is with their experience in this field.

Your recruitment team should develop a process wherein sales experience will be readily seen and evaluated during application; casual questions that uncover their level of sales expertise during the initial interview and written exams that have actual sales situations that can show how effective they are in making sales decisions are just ones of the techniques that you can integrate.

Clear Understanding of Sales Process

Once you’ve determined if their previous sales experiences is sufficient enough to match your company needs, it is now the time to know if they have proper knowledge about the intricacies sales process. You may ask during the interview the methods they go through when engaging a potential customer, such as:

  • Do they use a database of contacts and write to prospects and then follow up with a phone call?
  • How many calls do they believe it takes before they get a meeting, and how many sessions until they get a sale?

Another way to gauge the capability of a budding salesperson to close sales is to give them an object or concept and see if they can get you to buy.

Thorough Personality Assessment

It might be complicated to assess the personality of an individual at the first interview. But, if your company keeps up with the ever-growing profiling of professional salespeople in the business industry, assessing will be an easy task for you.

Research based upon thousands of exit interviews shows that a primary cause of poor performance and turnover is poor job fit. People, especially salespeople with a variable pay component, become frustrated when they hire for tasks that are a poor fit with their skills and preferences. That is why nowadays, assessing first the personality of an individual plays a huge part in how they are capable of handling the position as a part of your sales team.

Search for Growth Potential

If your goal in recruiting sales staff is to build a high calibre sales team, you need individuals who are equipped to scale the career ladder. These individuals will fill leadership roles on your sales team and eventually work their way to positions in sales management and beyond.

The sales industry is continuously adapting with different techniques that most consumers prefer when closing a deal, so it is only wise to hire an individual that is willing to grow with you as a company that provides great service and experience to its customers.

Contact KONA Customised Training and Consulting today and let us help you assemble of professional salespeople that deliver results for your company through our Sales and Management Training. Contact us today to learn more about our services. 

Contact Us

Asking Questions Shows You Care. But Why?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Most companies aspire to build a brand that potential buyers will support for the long haul. But, as salespeople look at the potential needs of their customers, they will realise that building customer relationship is imperative for their customers to trust and support their brand.

Building relationships is vital to understanding and addressing your customers behaviour, needs, complaints, etc.

Business to customer relationships are the reason why specific products are made, and why some services are integrated. In such more precise definition, sustaining a good relationship with your existing customers and potential ones require a lot of communication.

One way of communicating effectively with your customers is by asking probing and useful sales questions to them when presenting your products and services.

Read on as we discuss in this post how formulating different sales questions can help you build a healthy relationship with your clients.

1. It Helps Build Trust 

Trust can be a difficult thing to achieve, especially if you have clients that are sensitive and have high expectations with your brand. Trust is the foundation of a great client, to gain this kind of relationship, salespeople should focus on what your company promotes rather than pleasing clients with false information about your company as well as being complicated.

A clear and genuine motive behind every probing question you will ask can help you better understand your customer’s situation, and thus allowing you to provide a more tailored solution for their needs.

In order to build trust, you must show respect and assurance when asking a question to your clients. This includes being polite when asking if they are comfortable for some changes with the service they want, or if they are satisfied with the service that your company had given, etc.

2. It Shows That You’re Proactive

Asking the right questions can also help you respond to your customer’s concerns as quickly as possible, helping you build the reputation for speed of response and a reliable source of information in the process as well.

By asking questions, you will be able to address any concerns and objections from customers that may arise during product presentations. An effective method to know the concerns of your customers is to ask them about their perception of your products or service.

3. It Can Help You Exceed Expectations

Sales questions will not only provide you with the information you need to offer the right solution but valuable insights on how you can provide them with a service delivery experience that exceeds their expectation as well.

At times, some of our clients might have a variety of comments about our business. Looking through these different comments and understanding what they all imply can allow you to adjust service level with each type of client, ensuring that each one of them receives a service that matches their preference and needs.

4. It Keeps Your Customer Engaged with Your Brand

With technology, there are more ways to begin conversations with your customers than ever before. There are many online tools and social media outlets you can use to reach customers. Use your resources wisely; this predicts how well you manage your priorities in creating a good relationship with your clients.

Questioning is essential to building a good and healthy relationship with your clients; this enables you to provide the right product and service, establish a good reputation among your prospective clients, and ultimately retain more loyal customers in the long run.

Contact us today to learn more about how our Custom Sales Training program can help you build a good relationship with your clients.

Contact Us

Do Your Team’s Presentations Turn Off Your Customers?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
In business, some problems are more peculiar than others, and often the cause of such issues is easily fixed, but not always easy to detect. At least this was what one of our sales training specialists found with a client we worked with last year A leading national consumer goods distributor was able to open-up an unfocused problem that a company suffers from their sales team. Their sales team seemed to have success with small clients but were unable to win many big accounts. As a result, most of their sales were from small clients, and their cost of sales was rising. The senior management had completed a cause and effect analysis, but the root cause still eluded them. Based on this they asked our sales training specialists for an ‘outsider’s eye’ to review their whole sales process to get to the root of the problem. This assessment made things crystal clear, and we found that apart from inferior questioning skills, they had missed something elementary: poor presentation skills. As was the norm of this industry, big clients were given a presentation as part of the initial sales pitch. A good impression meant an opportunity to take the bid further; a poor presentation prematurely ended the chance.    With this experience of having dilemmas acquiring sales, we have come up with the prominent outcomes that a company can suffer from.

What happens when this is the case?

  •    Full potentialities cannot be realised – Even if they are 100% loyal to your business, small clients can provide you with only so much activity. If your portfolio doesn’t include a mix of large and small clients, your costs of sales and supply will continue to escalate, and profits diminish.
  •    Poor presentation skills lead to poor conversion rates – Hard as your sales team tries, if they fail to break into big accounts, slowly but surely their confidence starts to erode. So much so that they lose hope of converting a more significant opportunity and continue to spend their time with smaller accounts. This, in turn, becomes a decreasing spiral of missed sales opportunities and declining margins.   
  •    Fewer opportunities to grow – Employees fail to move ahead professionally as career opportunities in a stagnant or slow-growing company become few and far between.
In doing this in-depth study about how sales team acquires sales, detecting the problem is not only the remedy that we can get but also, how to avoid and solve sales problems when they arise.

How to solve this issue?

A turnaround is possible, mainly if you use professional and experienced sales training specialists to guide you. In this case, solving the issue was more comfortable than finding it. We introduced a customised sales training course in Sydney and Melbourne, tailored to their business, customers and products, (not an off the shelf, by the standard course’). These ‘In-house’ professional sales training courses helped their team to learn and master the necessary presentation skills to improve sales, which, while not difficult to determine and master, their importance had been taken far too lightly. Excellent presentation skills not only position your team professionally but also show your customers what you can do for them, relative to their specific needs Contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or Glenn@KONA.com.au to discuss how Hearts and Minds™ Selling will help your sales team achieve their KPIs.

Is “Always Be Closing” Strategy Still Relevant for Your Business?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Some industry experts believe that the mantra of using ‘Always Be Closing’ concept is becoming unfit to use for sales strategy. ‘Always Be Closing’, or ‘ABC’ is a familiar phrase to salespeople, made iconic by Alec Baldwin in the 1992 film, Glengarry.

Its since become the go-to line for two camps: Those who firmly believe in its power to drive action, and those who feel that it takes sales back to the dark ages.

Today, as fast as how technology can get different consumers, it is genuinely a norm that different unique sales techniques are being made and some old techniques come to old.

Is “ABC” strategy still relevant for your business today?

A study by CSO Insights indicates successful salespeople spend at most, 35% of their time selling or “closing.” In this article, we will review certain points on how relevant “Always Be Closing” can be for different businesses:

  • Confirms Buyer Commitment – Regardless of which stage you are currently in the sales process, continually and respectfully confirming your prospect’s commitment is smart and proactive. The “ABC” strategy starts from setting your first meeting with prospective buyers that gives an interest with your products and services. Even though it is just the first meeting, confirming their interest and willingness to know more about your products and services early on will allow you to determine whether they are actually serious in making business with you. If they show otherwise, then you will be able to move on to your next prospect and start selling again.
  • Mobility to Adapt – Always be closing may seem to deteriorate and become old for some salespeople, but, the idea of “ABC” can take on a new meaning in today’s hyper-connected mobile world. Work is no longer a place, and salespeople no longer have to physically be in their prospect’s office to build, nurture and develop relationships. Mobility for sales is bringing new meaning to “Always Be Closing,” where you can further the sales on any device.
  • Influences Social Selling – With the active use of consumers with different social media platforms in their everyday activity, it seems that “ABC” has its way of bringing a new flair for acquiring more sales. Social media enables sales professionals to build and execute their own variation of ABC but in a more engaging and meaningful way. As such, one salesperson may still consider using “ABC” as a linearised step in creating a new sales strategy for their campaigns.
  • Creates an Interactive Mode of Communication – As mentioned earlier, it is no doubt that modern technology is gradually taking its course to change the view of most salespeople with their strategies. Still, “ABC” serves as the foundation of the new age of interactive sales in which both the customer and salesperson can engage more efficiently and easily. ‘Always Be Closing’ comes to a new way of the collaborative and modern view of what it promotes from the later years; leaving no physical, emotional, and technological barriers to closing deals.

It is truly alarming that change seems to act fast and change the views of every consumer that is loyal to your service; but, always remember that sales are not a flash card game that everyone can efficiently perform. It is still about how you close a deal with assurance and effectiveness of your sales strategy.

‘Always Be Closing’ may seem to wash all down its great skin, but today, salespeople still rely on the effective and sharp usage of this strategy. This strategy did not fade, nor come to the grave of use; rather “ABC” adapts to the modernized needs of today’s consumers.

If you want to learn the modern application of “Always Be Closing” strategy in sales, you may contact KONA Customised Training and Consulting to let your sales team be trained and exposed to different effective plan to close the sale.

Contact Us

Reasons Why Your Sales Team is Not Hitting Their Target (Infographic)

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Setting a sales target is one of the most important steps for measuring the sales performance of a business.

In establishing an efficient sales team, being crystal clear about your goals keeps you growing through the years, which keeps your company on track, and drives your future success.

Hitting your Sales Target

Setting a realistic sales target is one thing, but actually hitting them is another.

Increasing competition, changing customers preferences, advancing technology, along with the strategies and tactics you implement – can all affect whether your salespeople achieve the sales goals you’ve set, or not.

Reasons Why Sales Team is Not Hitting Target - Infographic

If your sales team is having a rough time hitting their targets lately – contact KONA to discuss sales training.

Contact Us