Tag: sales training sydney

3 Big Questions for Sales Leaders in Difficult Times

Posted on | by Sienna
the thinker statue posing, also wearing a surgical pandemic mask for covid safety It has been just over 12 months since the powers that be declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic. And even a year on, despite Australia’s pandemic position compared to the rest of the world, we are still feeling the shock waves. Whether your company is large or small, whether you have experienced serious disruptions in your business or managed to avoid them, if you are a company leader, it is likely that the last year has taken a lot out of you. And, it is okay to acknowledge that. It is also okay to congratulate your team – and yourself – for still being in the game. Once you have acknowledged reality and issued those congratulations, take the time to address three powerful questions. These three questions are inspiring, motivating, and transforming. We know this because they are the same questions we have asked a multitude of teams we work with delivering tailored Sales training across APAC. Consequently, it is these three questions that have resulted in a mindset shift in Sales teams, and in turn smashing their KPIs. The answers you give to the three questions will help you maintain momentum as you emerge from these challenging times. Doers Vs Thinkers and how that affects Efficiency

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

Stay Ahead of Your Competition with Tailored Sales Training

 
Question 1: How Healthy are Your Pipelines, and What Can You Do to Make Them Healthier?
Because of the pandemic, many Sales teams are still finding online lead-generation efforts difficult. As a result, teams are struggling to strengthen their prospecting muscle. Consequently, the skill of maintaining customer rapport has diminished. Never has it been so important to teach your Salespeople how to develop stronger relationship-creation behaviours. This performance gap may have emerged after a long period of time when the prospecting process was minimal or even dormant. Alternatively, they may have gone unnoticed while the pipeline was still plentiful. However, the longer the problem remains unaddressed, the more serious the consequences for your team’s KPI – and yours!

Image of a clipart man and woman standing above a sales pipeline funnel with coins and arrows flowing in

 
Question 2: Has Your Organisation Turned the Corner on Remote Selling?
Is your Sales team still struggling to maintain mojo? Are they struggling to sell on a virtual platform still? Or worse yet, are they falling victim to work from home distractions? 5 Questions to Assess Sales Pipeline Health Virtual and digital selling are here to stay. However, many Salespeople are not equipped to succeed in this new environment. Without the right training, reinforcement, and tools, they are finding that access and engagement with buyers is more and more challenging. If there are skill gaps in this area you are in trouble. Moreover, if the resources and strategies you are sharing with your Sales team are basically the same as the ones you had at the start of 2019, then you are officially at a competitive disadvantage. A lot of Sales has moved to online platforms, is your team up-to-date?  

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

Stay Ahead of Your Competition with Tailored Sales Training

 
Question 3: What are you, Personally, Doing to Help Protect Key Customer Relationships?
Pay close attention. Your key customers are seeing more of your competitors these days! And your competitors, in the current environment, are pulling out all the stops to secure their business. Contact with key relationships needs to be nurtured and secured. And ultimately, a C-level to C-level contact is one of the best ways to secure them. You personally need to be close to your most precious accounts. It should be a top priority to work with your Sales team’s pipeline. Also, consider taking part in regular business-review meetings with key relationships. 6 Techniques To Improve How You Sell To C-Level Executives | C-Level

Put simply, keep working on that emotional connection with your client – you know your competition is!

  To Stay Ahead of Your Competition and Update Your Team’s Selling Behaviour contact KONA for Tailored Sales Training on 1300 611 288 for a confidential conversation, or email info@kona.com.au anytime.   LAURETTE WITH HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY ON IT FOR KONA GROUP SALES TRAINING SALES HEALTH CHECK

Does Your Sales Team Need an Update? Top 8 Sales Competencies.

Posted on | by Sienna

UPDATING YOUR SALES TEAM IMAGE WITH UPDATE SPINNING WHEEL ICON FOR KONA GROUP SALES COMPTENTCIES

Had an update lately? Apple updates its operating systems on a regular basis. As does Samsung, Office 365 and so on and so on. Why? Basically, to fix something that is dated, to add new information, or to simply make for a superior product. Most of these updates occur automatically and without fanfare. But, when an update advances to the next level – from 14.0 to 15.0 – it is a big deal. Moreover, it also means significant advances in features, stability, security, and usability. This leaves you – the customer – excited, satisfied, and wanting more!

Excited, satisfied and wanting more? And all it took was an update?!

Well then, does it not stand to reason, if we updated our Sales Competencies our customers too will be excited, satisfied, and wanting more?

EXCITED, SATISFIED AND WANTING MORE
Excellent Salespeople will have a specific set of core Sales Competencies. And it is their Leader’s job to ensure these Sales Competencies are refined and renewed. How? By regularly updating their skills, performance methods and top of the list Sales Competencies. These competencies are both inherent traits to their behaviours as well as skills that can be trained, practiced, and once again, updated. Understanding what these select proficiencies are, how they contribute to a Salesperson’s success, and how to recognise them in your team will make a significant difference. Namely, pumping up their pipeline and boosting overall ROI.
BUT EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT
Whether they are converting inbound sales calls, fighting it out in the field or managing from behind the front-lines, Sales professionals need a particular set of foundational skills. Below is a list of the Top 8 Sales Competencies your Sales Team should be receiving regular updates in.

SALES COMPETENCIES WHEEL LISTING TOP 8

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

TO UPDATE YOUR TEAM’S SALES COMPETENCIES

 

Top 8 Sales Competencies

1. Prospecting
Finding a customer’s pain points and needs in the marketplace keeps the pipeline full of potential customers for new business. It’s essential to update your Prospecting Style. This can be from how you research your customers, how to uncover their desires, as well as new was to define the ideal customer profile.

customer pain points clipart mosaic

 
2. Upselling
Strong Salespeople are able to identify opportunities for expansion revenue. For Sales Managers, this means observing their Sales team under a microscope. That is, updating their account management processes, active listening skills, quality questioning techniques and customer rapport strategies. trolley with bar graph and arrow going up in it for sales competencies  
3. Time Management
Self-management is a significant factor influencing success in Sales. This has never been more so than in this current work from home environment. Do your Salespeople know how to maintain their mojo and time management skills while working from home? It is crucial for both the Salesperson and their Manager to have a Sales Process in place, keep to task and stay on a schedule. Equally as important, is ensuring these attributes are regularly measured and – updated!

man with head in his hands at computer with two post it notes with eye sketch drawings overing his eyes

 
4. Proper Planning
An update for planning skills is essential. This is because it shows how your Sales team intends to accomplish their goals. Effective Planners know the end goal and plan around achieving those goals. But even plans need updating. Does your Sales team know how to:
  • Breakdown their time?
  • Reverse Plan?
  • Record progress and results?
  • Calculate Time Spent on Quality Conversations?

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

TO UPDATE YOUR TEAM’S SALES COMPETENCIES

 
5. Accountability
When it comes to Sales Competency, the tools to use to measure your Salespeople’s actions and results is a huge predictor of success. Salespeople who make it second nature to “own it”, that is take responsibility for their actions, grow both their skills as well as the organisation’s value and productivity. honesty is an expensive gift don't expect it from cheap people warren buffet quote  
6. Build the Emotional Contract
Updating how your Salespeople and Managers emotionally engage with their customers is vital. Do your Salespeople know how to:
  • Help their customers through the buying process?
  • Understand how to ease their customer into a comfortable conversation?
  • Communicate effectively, and efficiently?
  • Establish trust and gain a commitment?
  • Know when to speak and when to stay quiet?
clipart customer service man with headset at desk and laptop with a heart shape in his hand  
7. Drive Decisions
Sales is about getting people to buy, so knowing how to encourage people to make a purchase is crucial. But first, your Salespeople need to know why people buy. And this “why” changes overtime. How will your Sales team know why their customers buy, without regular updates into their customer’s needs? Does your Sales Team need to update its Why Statement? kona group why statement model  
8. Emotional Intelligence
A vital Sales Competency of successful Salespeople is possessing a high Emotional Intelligence. That is, knowing how to manage their feelings as well as the feelings of other people. Controlling emotions requires clear self-awareness as well as self-confidence. But it also requires the skill of knowing how to “read” their customer’s behaviour. Updating your Salespeople’s understanding of others teaches them how to look for crucial cues. Ultimately, it provides them with a tool kit to “read” the behaviour of their customer throughout the entire sales relationship. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE A CORE SALES COMPTENTECIES   To UPDATE YOUR TEAM’S SALES COMPETENCIES Call KONA on 1300 611 288 for a conversation, or email info@kona.com.au anytime.   hope is not a business strategy hbb group kona sales training

What Is Your Selling Style?

Posted on | by Sienna
what is your selling style?

Your Selling Style has a massive impact on your Sales outcomes. A Selling Style is how you connect with the customer. Basically, how your actions impact and influence the customer’s decision making.

It is important to know the type of Salesperson you are. The primary reason for this is, once you step outside your comfort zone you are no longer in control. In other words, when you divert away from your natural operating style you become uncomfortable and therefore less efficient in your sales.

Bearing in mind we all have our own Selling Style, the question is, should Salespeople use the same approach with all their customers?

No! In our experience, the best Salespeople vary their “Selling Style” depending on the other person and the situation. Yes, questioning and listening, asking for the order, and product knowledge are all important. But equally, is knowing when to use each of these skills and techniques. That is what is known as Selling Style Flexibility.

Which of the 4 Selling Styles are You?

1. Repair Person

The Repairperson is technical by nature. These people won’t sell but they will talk “technical”.

The repairperson loves to help people and may end up making a sale, but with one caveat. The people they are dealing with have to be technical in nature, just like them. This is because they tend to be at their best when talking with someone in their same discipline. That is customers who are often engineers, accountants, computer analysts, or other technical professionals. Speaking with someone like-minded gives them a chance to demonstrate their excellent technical abilities and “repair” the other person’s problem.

The Repairperson Sales Style is technical by nature. These people won’t sell but they will talk “technical”.

Do you know how to manage the different selling styles of your salespeople?

Find out your Salespeople’s Selling Style with a KONA Group Team Assessment!

2. Hunter

Hunters thrive on seeking out new opportunities, opening new doors, and looking for the next opportunity. Their eyes and minds are always on the horizon looking for the neat kill. They are the best type to have around when your sales funnel is empty because of their “go and get ‘em” mentality.

When times are tight and Sales opportunities are at a low, the Hunter will forge into new Sales territories and find new opportunities. In good times, Hunters need to learn how to harness their drive and energy, so they farm their accounts and opportunities rather than always seeking out new prey. Hunters are decisive, bold, and blunt in their efforts to close a Sale.

person with binoculars clipart for selling styles hunter

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO MANAGE THE DIFFERENT SELLING STYLES OF YOUR SALESPEOPLE?

Find out your Salespeople’s Selling Style with a KONA Group Team Assessment. Contact Us Today.

3. Shopkeeper

The Shopkeeper has a pleasant personality and delights in helping people. These people like to be of service and helping others is their strong suit. The can often be found in retail, catalogue sales, or inbound tele-marketing. Shopkeepers feel they must be liked and respected by their prospects and may come across as being overly friendly. Shopkeepers are best suited for inside sales and putting them on the road is usually a mistake.

When it comes to sales techniques, the Shopkeeper does not like to be perceived as being pushy or aggressive and would prefer to make friends with customers than jeopardise the relationship by assertively moving the sale along to a conclusion. Shopkeepers don’t make a Sale – they wait for the customer to buy. Because of this, closing doesn’t come easy for the Shopkeeper.

CLIPART MALE AND FEMALE SALES PEOPLE FOR SELLING STYLES

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO MANAGE THE DIFFERENT SELLING STYLES OF YOUR SALESPEOPLE?

Find out your Salespeople’s Selling Style with a KONA Group Team Assessment.

4. Farmer

Farmers thrive on nurturing and maintaining accounts or opportunities. Once given a Sales lead, these people spring into action, make contacts, burrow their way into the account, and work it.

Farmers often go out of their way to help customers because they believe in the value of maintaining an ongoing relationship with the customer.

Unlike the Hunter, Farmers are not galvanised into action by a sales slump. Once someone opens the door and the Sale, the Farmer will take it over and run with it. Smart Farmers realise this and will seek out assistance when their sales fields go barren.

male and female farmers

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO MANAGE THE DIFFERENT SELLING STYLES OF YOUR SALESPEOPLE?

Find out your Salespeople’s Selling Style today with a KONA Group Team Assessment.

Call 1300 611 288 for a confidential conversation.

Alternatively, you can email info@kona.com.au anytime!

Contact Us
kona sales training laureatte heritage TRANSPARENT

5 Hidden Problems in Your Sales Team

Posted on | by Sienna

back of salesman with fingers crossed and speech bubble saying "who am I trying to convince?"

The Importance of Sales Team Independent Reports

The challenge faced by many Sales Leaders and Managers today is how do you measure your Salespeople’s capabilities? Moreover, how do you get objective feedback about your Sales team’s performance? And ultimately, how do you create a learning program based upon this information?

A successful Sales team must be able to be independently measured. That is, facts that help provide information on your team’s strengths and weaknesses. This objective feedback is achieved through Sales Team Independent Reports.

Ultimately, detailed data from Independent Reports allows us to get direct feedback right away. That is, without collecting information from customers or having to conduct questionnaires.

thumbs up thumbs down icons for blog on Sales Team Independent Reports

 

Sales Team Independent Reports

Sales Team Independent Reports extract valuable information and insights from your Sales team. As well, it defines how they operate. Most importantly, the findings result in increased:

  • Productivity and ROI
  • KPIs and Hitting Target
  • Customer Loyalty and Retention
  • Business Value
  • Performance and Profit

Sales Team Independent Reports can uncover challenges within your team. Consequently, if these challenges are not addressed, they can result in decreased performance and profit. Listed below are 5 Hidden Problems in Your Sales Teams. Subsequently, these are just a few core issues we have discovered in recent Sales Team Independent Reports.

DO YOU KNOW WHO IS DOING WHAT IN YOUR COMPANY AT THE MOMENT?

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

FOR YOUR SALES TEAM INDEPENDENT REPORT

 

1. VAGUE ON VALUE

Many salespeople excel at highlighting product features and benefits. But many also often fail to communicate the value, which is equally, if not more, important.

Salespeople need to be taught how to put themselves in the position of their prospect.

Here is a start: can your Sales team answer these three crucial questions when interacting with their prospects:

  1. Why should this product or service matter?
  2. How will it help prospects do their jobs better?
  3. What Is In It For Them (the prospect)?
what's in it for them image with WIIFT and KONA Group logo

 

If your salespeople can not unpack complex and competitive product and solution information, into concise and articulate value propositions, they will not be effective.

 

2. USE OF NEGATIVE LANGUAGE

Effective Sales means having the ability to make minor changes in your conversational patterns. This can truly go a long way in creating happy customers.

Language is a crucial part of persuasion. And people (especially customers) create perceptions about you and your company based on the language that we use.

Negative and Positive Language to use table when selling for Sales Team Independent Reports

 

3. CLOSED OFF BODY LANGUAGE

Body language provides incredible information on what people are thinking. Ultimately, it accounts for more than 60% of our communication. Subsequently, your body is saying a lot about you during a Sale. Consequently, cues arise from seemingly minor things like. That is, even down to the micro facial expressions you make.

two clipart men talking with crossed arm with shadow with devil horns

Therefore, body language influences how customers feel about your interaction with them. Crucially, your posture and eye contact play an important role in your Sales success. Ultimately, it affects whether your customers’ have a positive or negative impression of the business. But body language can be used to your advantage. Simply, this can be achieved by applying key techniques consciously to your interaction with customers. Some of these include:

  • Strong Eye Contact
  • Learn to Use your Voice Effectively
  • Do Not Cross Your Arms
  • Keep and Open Stance
  • Fidget.
  • SMILE (even on the phone!)

DO YOU KNOW WHO IS DOING WHAT IN YOUR COMPANY AT THE MOMENT?

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

FOR YOUR SALES TEAM INDEPENDENT REPORT

 

 4. HEARING BUT NOT LISTENING

Sales is is based on listening to people and helping them with what they need. However, instead of listening, hearing has becoming increasingly prevalent.

Indeed, you might be wondering what difference there is between the two. Undoubtedly, we need to understand this to also realise the crucial importance of listening.

Importantly, listening is an active skill which involves the words spoken, but also the nuances beneath them. Furthermore, it is associated with emotions and tone. Basically, these traits are what a good listener observes, compared to just hearing the words.

quote saying do not listen with intent to reply but with the intent to understand

 

5. BRAND IGNORANCE

Brand knowledge is one of the core skills for Sales teams. It is the understanding of your company’s offerings that guarantees the success of the Sales. The more you know, the better you get at delivering Sales excellence. A lack of brand knowledge not only reflects on the employee’s ability, but also on the company overall. That means, the customer will assume that sufficient training hasn’t been provided.

salesperson in a suit with a question mark covering his face

Consequently, being able to spot the signs of when employees need to improve their brand knowledge is essential. Indicators include:

I) Poor Application of Knowledge

An obvious indicator is your Sales team not being able to apply their knowledge in real life situations. That is, there will be times when different types of customers are looking to buy the same product.  So, if a Salesperson is reeling off general features that the customer can’t relate to, they are unlikely to retain that customer.

II) Lack of Passion and Belief

Brand knowledge allows your Salespeople to become more confident and efficient. Additionally, it vastly improves communication skills. That is, customers are more likely to interact with Salespeople who are passionate about the brand. And as a result, customer approval will create a more trustworthy image of the company.

III) Lacking Confidence

Poor brand knowledge within your team could also lead to an increased number of customers seeking out “the competition”. If your Salespeople are not fully equipped with information about the brand, their customer will not feel confident in the purchase process. This lack of brand knowledge creates a bigger flow-on effect. The customer will “shop around” for better quality information and as a result this will not only see the customer leave your company, but also affect brand loyalty through the power of word-of-mouth. Basically, all of this could have been simply avoided with thorough brand knowledge and information.

 

DO YOU KNOW WHO IS DOING WHAT IN YOUR COMPANY AT THE MOMENT?

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

FOR YOUR SALES TEAM INDEPENDENT REPORT

 

“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”
– Albert Einstein

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

 

Book in your Sales Team Independent Reports Appointment today with KONA Group.

Call 1300 611 288. Alternatively, you can email info@kona.com.au for a confidential conversation.

Contact Us

 

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

Posted on | by Sienna

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.

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

5 Tips From Australian Sales Training Courses

Posted on | by Sienna

When your sales reps’ motivation and activity has started to flatline and plateau; and when their numbers are falling below targets and the next few weeks are forecasting no dramatic improvements, what is your plan to get them back on track?

What are you going to do to jolt your sales people out of their lethargy and to bring in the much needed sales figures?

Below are several excellent tips from Australian Sales Training and Sales Management Training courses for you to share and implement with your sales people.

Tips to Dramatically Improve Your Sales Figures

1) Don’t spend too much time on your products and sales pitches.

It’s not about you, it’s about your clients and customers. Listen to them more get to know more about their overall business.

Identify their real issues and consequences they are facing, rather than just where your product can be sold

They want to know how you can add value to them not just your products features and benefits so engage with them more and talk less about you and your company.

2) Focus on making what your customer wants to happen before they ask

Don’t over-complicate the process by focusing on what you need to happen just so you can hit your target

In any Australian call centre training or customer service training you will find the most successful people will always reinforce the ‘law of reciprocity’, and how – by giving a customer more than they expect they will be repaid in full

3) Create value for your customers and clients to build trust.

These are two key objectives you need to achieve with every interaction you have with clients.

You could create value by sharing a great idea but if there’s no trust because your company keeps letting the customer down, the customer will go elsewhere

All trust and no value added won’t work too well either.

The customer might think you’re terrific but won’t have a compelling reason to purchase anything from you.

4) Find a learning partner

This is where a colleague can coach you and you can coach them
Strive to learn something new every week as when you stop learning about the industry you are in, the growth of the business stops too.

5) Don’t rely on the way you’ve always done things.

Most customers don’t need sales people to educate them on products and services anymore.
They typically get this knowledge from the internet and many customers know more about your products than you do as they are using them every day

Clients/customers want ideas on what they can do to improve their own businesses and they want sales managers and sales reps to challenge their thinking and provide insights that will push their own thinking further.

Selling has gone beyond just meeting a pre-existing demand, and is now about uncovering and creating a new demand where none existed before.

As sales managers, you’ll need to get your teams performance level consistently up and revenues on track.

So share these ideas with the team and get each of them to apply them as they interact with customers

To learn more about KONA’s Australian Sales Training, Call Centre Training, Customer Service Training and Sales Management Training and Coaching in Sydney and Melbourne, telephone Glenn Dobson on 1300 611 288, or email Glenn@KONA.com.au

Contact Us

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

Posted on | by Sienna
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

7 TIPS TO BUILD A POSITIVE SALES CULTURE

Posted on | by Sienna
Your Long-Term Strategy for Success with a Positive Sales Culture
As the old adage goes, choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life! To truly create a driven and positive work culture, you’ll need a long-term strategy of consistent, purposeful support for sales improvement. These techniques for good sales training can be used with a one-day conference, a workshop or short-term coaching.
1. CONTINUE WITH TRAINING:
Make training continuous with a series of workshops, online seminars, lunch-and-learns, and other sessions. Regular sales training should reinforce previously learned skills as well as help people learn new tips and techniques. Online learning and blended-model learning, a combination of online and in-person training, is an affordable and effective way to offer continuous support and education.

2. LISTEN AND LEARN:
Build a library of books, podcasts and other materials to provide your team with learning on the go. They can listen to sales training and motivational materials during transit to appointments or on their commute to and from the office. Some classics of sales include Garret Norris’s Build a Healthy Business, Brian Tracy’s The Psychology of Selling and many others. Don’t forget books on communication skills and, of course, a bank of product resources to help your salespeople increase their basic sales knowledge. The Kenan-Flagler Business School offers a list of the 10 best podcasts for building a positive sales culture. You can download Apple iTunes to your smartphone or iPhone and listen on the go and be well on track to building your own positive sales mindset.
3. DEVELOP A CASE STUDY LIBRARY:
Newcomers to the sales department may gain much from a bank of case studies your team has created. Although some sales skills are product – and company-agnostic, others seem to work best in specific situations and industries. Use this foundational knowledge to shorten the learning curve for new employees and to help everyone improve, in turn creating a unified and positive sales environment. Because salespeople are often on the go, written case studies may not work for your team. Instead, spend five minutes at your weekly sales meeting sharing case studies and record them with a small digital recorder. Upload them to the company intranet or share links via email. Staff can listen to them in the car, at home or if they have a few minutes at work.

4. PERSONAL COACHING AND MENTORING:
Partnering up skilled salespeople as observers and mentors with new or less-skilled sales members may also help in establishing a positive sales culture. Learning from peers in a safe, supportive environment is often an effective way to overcome personal blind spots. Because the information is coming from peers, it may be easier to understand or easier for participants to ask questions.
5. ALLOW TIME FOR A CHANGE:
It takes time to learn and apply new skills. It can take even longer to demonstrate results. While you shouldn’t have to wait forever to see positive improvement, demanding immediate change is counterproductive. Allow your employees time to learn, grow and change. Make sure they have enough structured time in their day for learning and training activities.
6. MEASURE RESULTS:
Hold people accountable for their sales goals. Use the goals they have self-identified in training to measure progress. Metrics to monitor include lead generation, sales calls, closing rate and revenues generated. Don’t forget to measure customer satisfaction, upsells and cross-sells, too. These, when taken together, can clearly show how much of an impact sales training has made.
7. PROVIDE FEEDBACK: 
Managers can accompany team members on sales calls and provide immediate feedback once the meeting has ended. Providing feedback immediately after a situation helps reinforce both what went right and what could be changed in the future. Just make sure this feedback is given in private and not in front of the client!
PLAN FOR SUCCESS
For long-term sales success, you need a plan. Begin your plan by analysing and measuring the current performance of your sales team. Get to know each team member as an individual. Each person contributes something unique to the team while having specific weaknesses in their work skills. Identifying strengths and weaknesses is the first step to planning effective sales training. This is where you start. Even before you begin to think of your marketing plan A clear road map for sales training includes both big-picture thinking and alignment to individual goals and KPIs. Aligning training activities to the company’s overarching key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals helps build executive buy-in, as well as necessary budget, for your proposed sales education program. With these methods, both phone and field sales team members can demonstrate improvement over time. Having the right sales training program means tailoring it toward your team, their goals and their needs, and the company’s needs overall. With this in place, you can dispel the myth of sales training issues and demonstrate its positive benefits instead.

If you need help designing a customised, fun and highly charged training program to help you win more customers and grow your market share, contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au for a confidential conversation.

TRAINING DOESN’T WORK

Posted on | by Sienna

An astonishing 85% of sales training falls short of delivering on its ROI. Additionally, approximately 80% of new skills are lost within one week of training if they are not used, and about 87% of skills are lost within a month of training if they are not used regularly.  Sales is the lifeblood of a company. Therefore, without steady sales, companies fail. Yet, some sales teams receive little, if any, training. Others receive inadequate one-hour seminars and are told they have just completed sales training. Is it any wonder why sales training doesn’t work?  The best salespeople in the world are akin to Olympic-level athletes. However, companies treat them as if they can simply hit the ground running and sell, sell, sell without any training at all. Consider how many hours go into training for the Olympics. Ultimately, an Olympic gymnast trains for years before hitting the mat with her teammates. So, we should do no less for our sales leaders! There are many reasons why sales training doesn’t work. The right sales training techniques, however, can help your sales team train for their own unique “Sales Olympics.” 

Sales Training Not Working? Here are Five Reasons Why Your Training Fails

A typical sales training scenario is a one-day, half-day or even shorter training session. That involves, an expert, consultant or high-producing salesperson to be invited into a company to speak to their sales team. The expert may hand out books or binders, encourage team members to participate in team-building exercises and listen to plenty of motivational speeches.  After a day of receiving exhaustive knowledge on communications, persuasion, prospecting and follow-up, the sales team is told they have successfully completed training. They return to their regular work the following day, and soon the old habits return.

There are many reasons why some sales training sessions fail and others succeed.  
Here are five common reasons why sales training often fails. 
1. Activities are not tailored to adults.  Considering the typical sales training model, it is unsurprising that companies fail to achieve their training ROI. KONA Group CEO Garret Norris, an expert in adult education, identified several key factors for best practices for adult learning. Adults need training that speaks to their learning needs, not training modelled after typical university classroom practices.

KONA Group CEO Garret Norris on Why Training Does Not Work

Adults engaged in learning activities need to: 
  • Know why they are participating in an activity.
  • Feel invested in the outcome — “What’s in this for me?”
  • Learn through doing. Newly learned activities must be practised to become second-nature. 
  • Solve problems. Solving problems helps place a new activity into an adult’s long-term memory.
  • Learn in a social setting. Adults, even more than children, prefer to learn while among peers.
  • Tap into their life experience. That is, so they forge connections between what they have just learned and real-life scenarios and situations they remember.
  • Integrate new knowledge with existing information. They like to see a connection between what they have just learned with things they have previously learned.

Assuming adults who attend a one-day seminar will become exceptional salespeople the following day is an unreasonable expectation. Sales training issues aren’t problems with salespeople — they are problems with the model used to train adult learners, whose needs remain unmet by lecture-style workshops. 
2. Not enough time allowed for results.
Another factor often overlooked in why sales training doesn’t work is leadership. Companies may invest in sales training, but if the company’s leadership team doesn’t support the time required to learn new skills, sales training may fail.  Companies often seek immediate ROI for investing in sales training, but as we have seen, this is an unrealistic expectation. Failing to give the participants enough time to learn, practice and perfect new skills is like asking an out-of-shape adult to run a 10K next week — you can ask, but the person is likely to fail (never mind get hurt!).  To truly enact a culture of continuous learning in your organisation, you must “put your money where your mouth is” and pay more than lip service to sales training. Corporate leaders must be willing to allow salespeople to attend training. They must be patient while new skills are learned. Systems must be set up to monitor, measure and report on sales results, with the data used not to punish low performance, but instead to coach and train for improvement.
3. Lack of leadership buy-in and participation.
Can you imagine a NRL team coach who never attends practice? Or the captain of the AFL team telling his players he’s too busy practising his surfing to attend team practice? The same thing happens with many sales managers: they assign personnel to training without attending training themselves.  When sales managers fail to attend training, it leads to a big disconnect between “Do as I say” and “Do as I do.” They give mixed messages about the importance of training. Perhaps more importantly, they cannot model the appropriate behaviours because they haven’t learned alongside their staff what’s important. 

Managers must be willing to commit the time and effort to sales training alongside their team members. Actively participating in sales training not only encourages team members but demonstrates support for the key concepts being taught. Whether it’s participating in classroom activities alongside trainees or role playing along with them, when the manager participates, training is more effective. 
4. Start With the End in Sight: Set Goals 
The first step to creating an ideal sales training model is to begin with the end goal in mind. Establish key goals, metrics and measurements first, before creating your training. 

Identify what you would like the sales team to learn, know and do after the training is completed. The goals for product knowledge sales training may be quite different from the goals for sales skills training. Identifying which skills to focus on first, and the desired outcomes, will have the most impact.  Additionally, practising in a safe, supportive training environment takes much of the risk out of trying new activities. A supportive and encouraging coach ensures people know when they have demonstrated a new skill successfully.

To GET YOUR TEAM INVOLVED IN ACTIVE LEARNING AND ENGAGED IN THE ART OF SALES contact 

KONA 1300 611 288 | info@kona.com.au for a confidential conversation today.

SALES EXCUSE 2: THERE’S NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY

Posted on | by Sienna

Let’s start by saying that busy doesn’t necessarily mean effective.

One of the most common complaints from sales teams doing poorly is that there’s not enough hours in the day to make phone calls, follow up leads, source new leads, or create effective pitches.

In our experience, more often than not, this is just an excuse masking laziness and poor time management.

The difference between success and failure can be influenced by how effectively time is used. We all get the same 24 hours, so if your sales people are telling you that there’s not enough time then it’s time to identify the real issues and sift through the drainers within the team.

Time management

In contrast, people with poor time management skills waste time on the unimportant things that ultimately will not contribute to converting a lead. These same people are prone to procrastination – a killer of performance. Charles Dickens and David Copperfield summed it up by saying  “Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him”.

So, if a member of your sales team complains that they don’t have enough time to convert their leads into sales, “collar them” – look at how they are utilising their time and if the business is actually benefiting, or is simply being drained by a dead resource. Chances are that there are bigger underlying issues that need to be addressed.

Sharpen the focus

There are so many distractions floating around that it can be hard to sit down and focus, and importantly keep your team focused. However, this is not an excuse for deflated sales results. The great sales performers and leaders focus on the target and concentrate on how best to achieve it.

How long does it take your team to perform their daily admin tasks? Are they focused on the end goal or distracted by surrounding interferences?

Ongoing evaluation and reinforcement of daily targets should be established to keep the team on track.

Priorities and delegation

Are your sales people typing reports, filing, responding to unnecessary emails and taking long meetings rather than being on the phone following up leads? The number one priority for the sales team is to generate leads and convert them to sales.

Other tasks can be delegated to the administration or management team so the sales team can focus on what they are there to do – sell!

Sales management training and coaching

At the end of the day, when sales teams blame poor sales on not having enough time in the day, it is usually a case of lacking focus, poor sales management or poor time management, or perhaps they are just not the right person for the role.

Focused, driven and passionate salespeople achieve goals. Time is money so don’t let it be drained by underperforming team members.

KONA Group specialises in a wide range of services that address sales performance and sales management, executive and leadership coaching, and performance and time management. These customised training and coaching programs drill down to the core of the issue and drive solutions through proven methodologies.

For more information, please email info@kona.com.au or call 1300 611 288.

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