Tag: sales training brisbane

5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE HEALTH OF YOUR SALES

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Is your team due for a Sales Health Check in preparation for a productive 2021?

A Sales Health Check is an objective review of your Sales team. It highlights potential weaknesses in your team and strategy, but also builds on your areas of strength and growth.

  • Do your Salespeople follow an Effective Pipeline Management procedure? That is, do they know the number of visits, contacts, leads, prospects and customers they need each month, every month, to hit KPI?
  • What online presence do you have? How effective and up to date is it?
  • Do you have a current corporate page for LinkedIn?
  • Do you share posts on your LinkedIn page weekly?
  • What message is your team’s individual LinkedIn Profiles saying about the brand?
  • Do you publish a blog regularly and directly on your site? (a minimum of once per week)
  • Is every blog optimised for keywords and features a compelling call to action? If not, then get your company to POP out online and contact the KONA Group 1300 833 574 | info@KONA.com.au to get your Powerful Online Presence Training ASAP.

laptop with words Powerful Online Presence with KONA logo and man dialling mobile number 1300 833 574

 

3. ENGAGING

  • Do your Salespeople know how to map the journey their prospects will take through the buying process?
  • Do they know how to have engaging conversations on the phone, as well as face to face?
  • Are they mastering the art of Effective Questioning to reach their customer’s pain points?
  • What are their listening skills like? Huh? Are they listening to their customers, or just hearing them?

llama clipart black and white image with sunglasses on saying I hear you I'm just not listening

 

 

4. CONVERTING & CLOSING

Think, are your Salespeople:

  • Struggling to meet KPIs?
  • Sticking to existing clients only and “scared” of finding new customers?
  • Unable to generate leads?
  • Not wanting to “annoy” current leads?
  • Unaware of the core processes of prospecting?
  • Lack skills to keep their Pipeline active?
  • Unclear of distinguishing features from benefits?
  • Awkward and uneasy talking to decision makers and leaders?
  • Failing to revisit old leads regularly?
  • Stuck in the mindset that ‘sales is evil’?
  • Have a poor sales conversion rate?
  • Do not know the techniques to gain repeat business and upsell?
  • Blame shift – excuses dominate poor performance and missing targets?

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

 

5. MEASURE

Measure the effectiveness of your Sales team and create productive, supported and balanced Salespeople.

  • Can you easily track conversion rates at each stage of the pipeline?
  • Can you easily work out the ROI for each customer targeted?
  • What system and processes do you have in place?
  • Do you know how satisfied your customers really are?

To get a Sales Health Check ASAP, contact the KONA Group 1300 833 574 or email info@KONA.com.au for a crucial conversation.

LAURETTE WITH HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY ON IT FOR KONA GROUP SALES TRAINING SALES HEALTH CHECK

  • Do you have a Sales strategy that outlines, applies and measures daily activities for your team?
  • Is your team’s current activity mapped to SMART goals with Effective Communication?
  • Does your Sales team make use of multiple channels to generate leads?
  • Do they have absolute clarity around the profile of their customer? Do they understand their Customer’s DNA Profile?
  • Have you clearly articulated to your team the company’s point of difference when compared to your competitors?
  • What is your company’s Value Proposition?

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

 

2. ATTRACTING

  • Do your Salespeople follow an Effective Pipeline Management procedure? That is, do they know the number of visits, contacts, leads, prospects and customers they need each month, every month, to hit KPI?
  • What online presence do you have? How effective and up to date is it?
  • Do you have a current corporate page for LinkedIn?
  • Do you share posts on your LinkedIn page weekly?
  • What message is your team’s individual LinkedIn Profiles saying about the brand?
  • Do you publish a blog regularly and directly on your site? (a minimum of once per week)
  • Is every blog optimised for keywords and features a compelling call to action? If not, then get your company to POP out online and contact the KONA Group 1300 833 574 | info@KONA.com.au to get your Powerful Online Presence Training ASAP.

laptop with words Powerful Online Presence with KONA logo and man dialling mobile number 1300 833 574

 

3. ENGAGING

  • Do your Salespeople know how to map the journey their prospects will take through the buying process?
  • Do they know how to have engaging conversations on the phone, as well as face to face?
  • Are they mastering the art of Effective Questioning to reach their customer’s pain points?
  • What are their listening skills like? Huh? Are they listening to their customers, or just hearing them?

llama clipart black and white image with sunglasses on saying I hear you I'm just not listening

 

 

4. CONVERTING & CLOSING

Think, are your Salespeople:

  • Struggling to meet KPIs?
  • Sticking to existing clients only and “scared” of finding new customers?
  • Unable to generate leads?
  • Not wanting to “annoy” current leads?
  • Unaware of the core processes of prospecting?
  • Lack skills to keep their Pipeline active?
  • Unclear of distinguishing features from benefits?
  • Awkward and uneasy talking to decision makers and leaders?
  • Failing to revisit old leads regularly?
  • Stuck in the mindset that ‘sales is evil’?
  • Have a poor sales conversion rate?
  • Do not know the techniques to gain repeat business and upsell?
  • Blame shift – excuses dominate poor performance and missing targets?

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

 

5. MEASURE

Measure the effectiveness of your Sales team and create productive, supported and balanced Salespeople.

  • Can you easily track conversion rates at each stage of the pipeline?
  • Can you easily work out the ROI for each customer targeted?
  • What system and processes do you have in place?
  • Do you know how satisfied your customers really are?

To get a Sales Health Check ASAP, contact the KONA Group 1300 833 574 or email info@KONA.com.au for a crucial conversation.

LAURETTE WITH HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY ON IT FOR KONA GROUP SALES TRAINING SALES HEALTH CHECK

With the challenges faced by the pandemic , how healthy is your team’s Sales capability?  Let’s think of COVID as a pot of boiling water. Now think of the egg and potato analogy. The same boiling water that softens the potato, also hardens the egg. Who in your team has come out of the pandemic soft and who has come out hard? Surely having resilient employees would be of great benefit and value to any organisation?

Hard Egg Soft Potato Image for Resilience Training

 

  A Sales Health Check, like all health checks, is crucial for your business’ optimal growth. Strong Leaders conduct Sales Health Checks often and that is the difference between exponential growth and remaining stagnant. Consider these 5 Sales Health Check Factors:

 

1. PLANNING

  • Do you have a Sales strategy that outlines, applies and measures daily activities for your team?
  • Is your team’s current activity mapped to SMART goals with Effective Communication?
  • Does your Sales team make use of multiple channels to generate leads?
  • Do they have absolute clarity around the profile of their customer? Do they understand their Customer’s DNA Profile?
  • Have you clearly articulated to your team the company’s point of difference when compared to your competitors?
  • What is your company’s Value Proposition?

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

 

2. ATTRACTING

  • Do your Salespeople follow an Effective Pipeline Management procedure? That is, do they know the number of visits, contacts, leads, prospects and customers they need each month, every month, to hit KPI?
  • What online presence do you have? How effective and up to date is it?
  • Do you have a current corporate page for LinkedIn?
  • Do you share posts on your LinkedIn page weekly?
  • What message is your team’s individual LinkedIn Profiles saying about the brand?
  • Do you publish a blog regularly and directly on your site? (a minimum of once per week)
  • Is every blog optimised for keywords and features a compelling call to action? If not, then get your company to POP out online and contact the KONA Group 1300 833 574 | info@KONA.com.au to get your Powerful Online Presence Training ASAP.

laptop with words Powerful Online Presence with KONA logo and man dialling mobile number 1300 833 574

 

3. ENGAGING

  • Do your Salespeople know how to map the journey their prospects will take through the buying process?
  • Do they know how to have engaging conversations on the phone, as well as face to face?
  • Are they mastering the art of Effective Questioning to reach their customer’s pain points?
  • What are their listening skills like? Huh? Are they listening to their customers, or just hearing them?

llama clipart black and white image with sunglasses on saying I hear you I'm just not listening

 

 

4. CONVERTING & CLOSING

Think, are your Salespeople:

  • Struggling to meet KPIs?
  • Sticking to existing clients only and “scared” of finding new customers?
  • Unable to generate leads?
  • Not wanting to “annoy” current leads?
  • Unaware of the core processes of prospecting?
  • Lack skills to keep their Pipeline active?
  • Unclear of distinguishing features from benefits?
  • Awkward and uneasy talking to decision makers and leaders?
  • Failing to revisit old leads regularly?
  • Stuck in the mindset that ‘sales is evil’?
  • Have a poor sales conversion rate?
  • Do not know the techniques to gain repeat business and upsell?
  • Blame shift – excuses dominate poor performance and missing targets?

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

 

5. MEASURE

Measure the effectiveness of your Sales team and create productive, supported and balanced Salespeople.

  • Can you easily track conversion rates at each stage of the pipeline?
  • Can you easily work out the ROI for each customer targeted?
  • What system and processes do you have in place?
  • Do you know how satisfied your customers really are?

To get a Sales Health Check ASAP, contact the KONA Group 1300 833 574 or email info@KONA.com.au for a crucial conversation.

LAURETTE WITH HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY ON IT FOR KONA GROUP SALES TRAINING SALES HEALTH CHECK

Are You Sales Match Fit? What We Know About Prospecting in 2021

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
For many, 2020 comes pretty close to a curse word. And while there appears to be a chance of a resurgence at the moment, the fact remains, we still have no clear certainty about the path the pandemic will take businesses on next year. But that does not mean we just sit back and wait. You will not survive. Start getting Match Fit and Sales Ready in these closing months of 2020, otherwise 2021 will be even bleaker for businesses than this year was. Companies that are still standing strong and successful today must be Sales Ready and prepare to adapt their approach on a strategic level in 2021. While we can’t predict the future, we can use what we’ve learned to shape our strategies and maximise prospecting potential for next year. Here is a list of what we have learnt so far from the pandemic experience, and how to be Sales Ready, prepare for prospecting and go hard. 2021 SALES READY AT A GLANCE For those of you that want to go straight to it click on the link of your choice:
  1. Adapt, Apply, Adapt Again
  2. Clean for Clarity
  3. Trust Your Gut But Act on Fact
  4. Measure to Manage
  5. Create a 2021 Sales Strategy
 
ADAPT, APPLY, ADAPT AGAIN
Digital change has been around for a while now. Suppliers, buyers and and consumers are already living the digital lifestyle. Online purchases with small, medium and big-name vendors are now part and parcel of B2B purchases. This sounds like it may mean sales prospecting is going to get harder. It doesn’t have to be the case. Your Salespeople need to be adaptable in all their approaches. To be Sales Ready and prepare for 2021, there are big changes to B2B prospecting. Train your sales team to:
  • Sell to remote buyers
  • Identify new opportunities
  • Come up with their own unique selling points to meet the needs of a changing market
  • Try to enforce on-site purchasing where possible
  • Completely take onboard digital channels
  • Get socials-savvy – enable more social platforms to reach a wider digital-first audience

 
CLEAN FOR CLARITY
While most people dislike the chore of cleaning, some find it soothing. Either way, it is a necessary activity to maintain order. The same applies to your business’ database. coloured clip art image of vacuum cleaner behind computer monitor and paperwork and a rubbish bin for sales ready cleaning your database training
  • Clean up your Sales database and CRM: correct typos, incomplete records, incorrect email addresses, and so forth.
  • Check you have the correct CRM fields in place – as well as, correctly filled in.
  • Sift through bounce-backs from your email marketing.
  • LINKEDIN: Clean Up YOUR PROFILE! KONA’s LINKEDIN WORKSHOP was one of the most demanded trainings this year. What are your employees’ profiles saying about your brand?

 
TRUST YOUR GUT BUT ACT ON FACT
It is crucial Salespeople prioritise their leads based on data analysis rather than just gut feeling. This is critical – to convert the most customers and deliver an extraordinary experience, data must play a significant part in your strategic decisions. Train your sales team to ANALYSE FOR PROFIT. Do they know how to:
  • Gain a deeper understanding of their customer?
  • Create Customer Profile accounts?
  • Research techniques to personalise responses?
  • Maintain a sense of urgency while building rapport?
  • Defend price based on fact and value?
  • Use behaviour profiling to engage effectively with different buyer behaviour styles?

 
MEASURE TO MANAGE
Track and analyse your business’ actions. Measuring your marketing, as well as individual and team performances, gives you insight into strengths and weakness, as well as revealing what is working and what is not. Take a measure of:
  • The company’s Google Analytics figures: how many people are visiting the site? Where are they from? What particular pages are they frequenting?
  • What the numbers of your social media platforms are. Is your business growing in followers and connections? Is your team actually engaging with the marketplace to generate leads, or is it just a page for presence not profit?
  • The efficiency and accuracy of your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System. Are your Salespeople adding new prospects to the pipeline? As a Leader, are you tracking movement through it? How about conversions, what is the bids versus wins ratio?
  • Measure it in many ways: Year-to-date versus Last-year-to-date. Year-to-date versus Goal, by service line and as well as by industry served.
The vital information from these measurements will form the foundation for your marketing, but also your Sales Strategy for 2021.

Do you and your Sales team require training on how to measure performance, and what to do with the results?

 
CREATE A 2021 SALES STRATEGY
At the very least, make notes about the business’ marketing and sales activities for the next 12 months. Address your team’s ability to commit to:
  • Investing in time and effort in their marketing and sales approaches
  • Setting, achieving and measuring individual KPIs, as well as team KPIs
  • Task Responsibilities for 2021 – most importantly, put all of these activities into a calendar-system, assign specific skill-based responsibilities, and then share the calendar with the team
kona group logo with Image of a clipart man and woman standing above a sales pipeline funnel with coins and arrows flowing in     Consider KONA’s ACTIVITY PLANNING Workshop to set your team’s goals for 2021. This needs to be done before 2021 arrives! For example:  as you think about your team’s goals for next year, do not just focus on the end result… set individual and team goals for the activities that will help you achieve the end result. This includes:
  • How many conversations to generate leads?
  • The number of Sales calls per week
  • The cost in time and money of prospecting properly
  • The Power of Power Hour – done right, done regularly
  • Maintaining Systems and Processes
  • Accountability Measures
  • Getting Geed-Up to Sell

    These are areas we need to focus on before 2021 gets here – to smash KPIs, skyrocket results and get back the company and team’s mojo. All these learnings are available to you and your team in KONA’s 2021 SALES READY WORKSHOP, addressing:
  1. Adaption and Resilience
  2. LINKEDIN Training | Employee Profiles and the Effect on the Brand
  3. Analyse for Profit
  4. Measure to Manage with Accountability
  5. Sales Strategies: Geed-Up to Sell in 2021
To Get Sales Match Fit for 2021 and learn more about KONA’s 2021 SALES READY WORKSHOP, contact KONA today on 1300611288 | info@kona.com.au for a conversation.   hope is not a business strategy kona hbb group garret norris

Sales Excuse # 3 – Our Price is too high!

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
high-price-road-sign

In Sales Excuse #1 we looked at the common excuse of “No One is Buying”. In Sales Excuse #2 we looked at ways for sales people to improve their time management

In Sales Excuse #3, how often do your sales team say they didn’t make the sale because “Our price is too high? We are too expensive”, “Our competition is cheaper than us!”, “If we were cheaper we could sell more!”?

This is just another excuse where sales people focus on their own ‘3Ps’ of Product, Price and Problems rather than on the value they can add to customers.  There are some simple things we can all do to have quality conversations with our customers, which in turn, leads to better quality sales and repeat business.

At The KONA Group we train and coach Sales Teams every day that are looking to improve their results and when price is a common excuse for underperformance we recommend the following 3 insights as a starting point.

1. Have the right conversations.

Quality Conversations start with Quality Questions.  Asking interesting ‘High Value’ open questions that encourage your prospects and customers to talk about themselves and their business is critical. You want customers to value having a conversation with you, not look for a reason to get rid of you as early as possible, so how do you have these conversations? It’s easy really, you ask the right questions based on your customers Business, Market, Competition and Future…. and then you shut up and listen.

In meetings with customers and prospects your salespeople should only be talking 20% of the time. Listening means really listen, not just be quiet whilst waiting for your turn to speak.

2. Adding value to your customers BUSINESS is the key to make selling easy.

Adding value to an existing or potential customer is not just about selling your product or service. Often during a quality conversation with a customer many opportunities to add value will emerge and while some of these will involve your products and services, if you look at the non-product related challenges they face from a Business perspective, you will find more opportunities to add value.

Most businesses are bombarded with salespeople trying to flog them a product or a service regardless of their need however your Sales Team will be amazed at what happens when they start to have quality conversations focused on the customer’s Business rather than the 3Ps. Think rapport building on steroids!

3. Make it about the customer, even when you want it to be about you…

It is easy to say ‘Put the customer at the centre of everything your do’ but salespeople rarely do. It is not about you but rather is always about the customer, even when it really is about you.  The moment a customer or a prospect believes that you are only in it for yourself then TRUST melts away and you are back to a price based haggle.

Put your own self-interest to one side and focus on the customer, their organisation, their issues, their strategy and allow the opportunities to add value with your products and services to emerge.  You may even find that you never have to actually close the deal, your prospect may do it for you! At the end of the day, all else being equal, most customers will make a price-based decision.  It a salespersons job to make sure that all things are not equal.  

They need to be the difference, the X factor, the point of differentiation, and then their customers will buy from them, regardless of price!

 

Going forward: If Quality ‘non-product’ conversations are a challenge for your team then customised sales training and coaching WILL help your people to become more successful. Constantly ‘sharpening the saw’, as Stephen Covey puts it, is a critical component of being a sales professional.

So to discuss how we can design a customised sales training and coaching program for your organisation please contact the KONA Sales Performance Specialists via email at info@kona.com.au or call 1300 611 288.

Because Hope Is NOT a Sales Strategy

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Author – Garret Norris – https://www.linkedin.com/in/garretnorris/