A Life You Love: Sales Tips with Jennifer Fisher

Episode 63 - Crucial Elements of a Sale

The field of sales may use multiple mediums to achieve the same results. Sales processes both share crucial features that allow them to be successful. Closing the deal requires the salesperson to know how to interact with the buyer and determine what they want and how their product or service provides it. A viable sales process uses this to show the potential buyer what he or she is getting in terms of benefits or usability.

However, crafting a sales process that converts isn't simple. In this episode, I’m going to showcase the crucial elements of sales.

As a good reminder, and we’ve all heard this before: If we want to sell, we should listen more than we talk.

Some sales trainers say customers should do 80% of the talking, some say 70%. This leaves 20% to 30% of the talking to the salesperson. Stick within these percentages to allow ample time for prospects and customers to say what they want or need to say.

One of the most crucial elements of sales is prospecting

Before you can sell anything, you need to identify your ideal customer profile, do outreach to this customer persona to learn about their challenges and goals - knowing what to look for and where to dig is key. This process involves identifying potential leads through social media, existing networks, customer referrals, and outbound calls and emails.  There is no “easy button” to prospecting. You have to put in the work. Prospecting is key to a healthy pipeline, opportunities, and wins. You always have to be filling the top of the funnel to succeed.

Documented Discovery process is another crucial element.

Discovery is a critical part of the sales process, whereby the sales rep is asking questions and documenting the answers from the prospect. This information should be referred to throughout the sales process. As the sales cycle proceeds or even gets off track, the rep can refer back to those details to show their true understanding of the prospect and their end goals. 

 As I wrap up this week’s podcast, here are my 3 tips to focus on the crucial elements of a sale:

1.       Prospecting. I will argue this is the most crucial element in your sales process. If you don’t keep the top of your funnel full of qualified prospects, you’ll have a hard time winning business.

2.       Documented Discovery: you cannot skip this step. You have to understand where your prospect is at right now. Why did they choose to take your call? What are their pain points? And many other areas to dig deep.

3.       Selling is a passion to help solve problems for your prospects and clients 

I’m going to leave you with a quote from saleshacker.com:

“The questions you ask are more important than the things you could ever say.”

Thank you so much for listening to, A Life You Love: Sales Tips with Jennifer Fisher – I look forward to continuing the conversation next week.

Now go LIVE, the sales life you love!

Let's connect on LinkedIn!

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Episode #62 - Effective Sales Presentations

An effective sales presentation tells a compelling story, highlights your value proposition, and aligns with your audience's needs and desires. It ends with a strong call-to-action and leads prospects to your differentiators instead of leading with them.

When it comes to building an effective sales presentation, no one-size-fits-all sales deck exists.

Every sales presentation you deliver to a prospect should be personalized and tailored just for them. Successful selling today is about establishing yourself as a trusted advisor. Cookie-cutter messages won’t do that. So how should you get started?

Hate the thought of doing sales presentations? You’re not alone. But the best reps have sales presentations down pat, even if it’s not their favorite activity.

The best sales reps know that when done right, sales presentations are a high-earning skill.

Preparation and practice are key to successful sales presentations. But there’s so much more to a great presentation than well-designed slides or new research. The heart of a great sales presentation is the relationship between you and your customer, and that’s built on unique insights focused on your potential customer’s challenges and needs.

When you focus on helping, rather than pitching, your sales presentation is more likely to be a hit. That’s a win-win for you and your customer.

As I wrap up this week’s podcast, here are my 3 tips to effective sales presentations:

1.       Know ahead of time what your prospect wants or needs. 

2.       Use “insight selling” during your presentation to showcase trends in the industry.

3.       Ask questions during the presentations to engage with your prospect and keep the presentation conversational.

An effective sales presentation tells a compelling story, highlights your value proposition, and aligns with your audience’s needs and desires. 

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Harvey Mackay, a 7-time New York Times best-selling author of over 15 books, including Swim with the Sharks with Being Eaten Alive.

“You don’t need a big close, as many sales reps believe. You risk losing your customer when you save all the good stuff for the end. Keep the customer actively involved throughout your presentation, and watch your results improve.”

Thank you so much for listening to, A Life You Love: Sales Tips with Jennifer Fisher – I look forward to continuing the conversation next week.

Now go LIVE, the sales life you love!

Let's connect on LinkedIn and let me know other topics you'd like to hear.

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Episode #61 - Communicating your Value Proposition

I just came back from attending one of my first client-focused conferences in 2 years – The Forum on Education Abroad. Oh, my goodness – such a good time. This was the first conference in 2 years for almost everyone and man was it great to see so many people! So many hugs and laughter. The conference was good for the soul on so many levels. It also made me think about my company’s value proposition and how it differs from so many of my competitors who were all at the conference.

In the age of the internet, your customers have more options than ever before. Long gone are the days when people visited the hardware store, grocery store, or insurance agent in town to buy what they need. Google now puts dozens of your competitors in the palm of your customer’s hand.

If you don’t make it clear why customers should choose you over those competitors, they’ll either buy from the competitor who best communicates their value or make a choice based on price alone. So how do you stand out from the competition? Capture your customers’ attention? And drive sales based on your value rather than your pricing? The answer is that you define and communicate your unique value proposition.

A value proposition is a short, memorable statement that quickly communicates why customers should buy from you instead of your competitor. An effective value proposition will highlight the benefit that most resonates with your customer. Ideally, this will also be a benefit your competitors aren’t advertising—which is what makes it a unique value proposition.

Communicating the right value proposition is critical if you want to advertise effectively, attract customers, and drive sales. 

Remember: Your value proposition has to actually speak to your customers’ goals or problems. This is critical, so don’t just guess what your target audience wants to hear—ask them! 

As I wrap up this week’s podcast, here are my 3 tips to successfully communicate your value:

1.       Identify your target audience and buyer personas

2.       Speak to the needs of your target audience

3.       Train your team to say and use your value proposition everywhere

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Neil Patel. Neil is a New York Times Bestselling author. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web and Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers – definitely someone we should pay attention to:

“Your value proposition is an answer to the question: ‘Why should I buy from you and not your competitor?’”

Thank you so much for listening to, A Life You Love: Sales Tips with Jennifer Fisher – I look forward to continuing the conversation next week.

Now go LIVE, the sales life you love!

Connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know how you communicate your unique value proposition!

Let's connect on LinkedIn

Episode #60 - Business Networking

In today’s episode, I’m going to discuss business networking: what it is and what it means. Business networking is the process of establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with other business people and potential clients or customers. Business networking benefits are the intangible gains made by communicating with other professionals in or relating to your industry.

To reap the rewards of a network, it is important to understand what business networking benefits you can gain and how they can help your business to boost sales, increase efficiency and morale, and build awareness of your brand.

So, What Is Business Networking?

Business networking is a term that refers to meeting other business people, potential suppliers, or other professionals who have business experiences—to help you grow your business. Networking gives you a pool of experts that range from competitors to clients and allows you to offer something to them, hopefully in exchange for their services, advice, knowledge, or contacts.

Developing relationships in a business setting and offering assistance to others does more than give you potential clients or generate referrals. Networking assists you in identifying opportunities for partnerships, joint ventures, or new areas of expansion for your business.

Here are my 3 tips to prosper at networking: 

1.       Just like in sales, it’s more important to “listen” than to be the one doing all the talking.

2.       Prepare ice breakers and conversational pieces ahead of time 

3.       Find professional networking events to attend (either in-person or virtually) that align with your goals and/or your industry.

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Bob Burg, Hall of Fame Speaker and Best Selling Author, “The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person's needs ahead of their own." 

Thank you so much for listening to, A Life You Love: Sales Tips with Jennifer Fisher – I look forward to continuing the conversation next week.

Now go LIVE, the sales life you love!

Let's connect on LinkedIn!

Let's connect on LinkedIn

Episode #59 - The Attitude of Success

What makes some people very successful in sales? What are their thought patterns which make them super successful? As the cliche holds successful people don’t do different things they just do things differently.

What attitudes do you have right now? How are they preventing you from being successful? Do you believe it’s possible for you to succeed in this world? Do you believe in yourself enough to bet on yourself? Do you have the grit and commitment to keep going when the world conspires against you? Do you have a dedication to hard work? Are you dedicated to a lifetime of personal growth and learning? These are the attitudes that form the foundation upon which success can be built. Without them, it won’t happen.

Where do you stand with each of these attitudes?

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Helen Keller:

“Your success and happiness lie within you.”

Thank you for listening to A Life You Love: Sales Tips with Jennifer Fisher. Would love to hear your thoughts on the podcast. Please consider leaving a review here 

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Episode #58 - The Power of the Follow Up

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about the power of the follow-up. Most of your business’s prospective customers will not buy from you instantly. You cannot simply introduce someone to your products or services once and expect that they will go the rest of the way by themselves. Unfortunately, this simply isn’t true.

The first point of contact is important, of course. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. But many salespeople and marketers make the mistake of crafting a perfect sales email, holding a great meeting, running a fantastic product demo, and then sitting back and doing nothing.

If you’re guilty of this, you might need to perfect your sales follow-ups. Read on to learn how to do this, and why it matters.

What is a follow-up in sales?

A sales follow-up is what you do after your initial pitch to encourage the prospective customer to take action. Sales follow-ups can be conducted in a number of ways — the most common methods are telephone and email.

Mastering your sales follow-up is a critical skill for sales reps, however, many don’t follow up enough.

According to a study by Brevet, 80% of sales require an average of five follow-ups in order to close the deal. However, 44% of sales reps follow up with a prospect only once before giving up. After four follow-ups, 94% of salespeople have given up.

That’s an awful lot of potential sales that are never being closed, and potential revenue that is being left on the table.

Reticence over following up is understandable. Salespeople are very aware that their profession can carry a reputation for being pushy or aggressive. You don’t want to be seen as annoying or not taking the hint, so you simply stop following up.

However, do you know the number one reason why a prospect won’t get back to you? It’s not because they aren’t interested, it’s because they are busy. Decision-makers have a lot of conflicting priorities to juggle and many different demands on their time. According to Harvard Business Review, professionals have on average over 200 emails in their inbox at any one time.

In other words, they’re (probably) not ignoring you because they don’t want what you have to offer. You just need to be tenacious to get their attention because they have a lot going on. 

For Sales Follow-Up Techniques

1. Use a variety of follow-up methods.

2. Space it out.

3. Provide value with each follow-up.

4. Always define the next steps.

5. And when following up with emails, Subject lines matter.

6. Keep it brief.

7. Know when to stop.

Don’t Be Afraid of Follow-ups

Many salespeople are afraid of the follow-up stage of the sales process. This is because they fear annoying the prospect, being seen as a spammer, or even losing a potential sale due to following up too much.

So, as I close this week’s podcast, here are my 3 tips to follow up successfully:

1.       Think of unique ways of following up with your prospects

2.       Always add value with each and every follow-up

3.       Space out your follow-up – use the right cadence for your industry.

I’m going to leave you with a quote from Michelle Moore, author of Selling Simplified:

“Not following up with your prospects is the same as filling up your bathtub without first putting the stopper in the drain”.

Let's connect on LinkedIn and please leave a review here. 

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Episode 57 - Julie Hansen Using Video to Build Relationships

I have a special treat today for all my listeners – Julie Hansen!

Julie helps sales teams successfully present, connect, and communicate with customers in virtual or hybrid environments.  

Julie is the author Look Me In The Eye: Using Video to Build Relationships with Customers, Partners, & Teams, which was named the Top Sales Book of 2021, and the creator of the Selling On Video Master Class.

In addition to an award-winning sales career, Julie worked as a professional actor performing in over 75 plays, commercials, movies, and television shows, including HBO’s Sex & the City.

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn or through her website at https://juliehansen.live/

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Episode 56 - Tips for Prospecting

As we are halfway through February, most of us have already had our kickoffs, we’ve got quotas and budget numbers that we need to hit, and we need to be heads down prospecting!  And we all know how no one likes to prospect. Sales reps continue to dream of a world where new business just happens to find its way to each of us. Our phones are ringing off the hook with inbound new business – what a beautiful world. 

But then it’s time to wake up from that dream and get to work. It’s time to pick up the phone and make outbound prospecting calls. 

Outbound prospecting calls are a fast, cost-effective, and powerful part of the B2B sales process. A prospecting strategy is essential for B2B. 

You’ve probably heard that prospecting calls are dead. You’ve probably been told that in the age of outbound email, social selling, and other modern B2B lead generation techniques, there’s no place for it.

Outbound phone calls have been around for over 100 years and guess what? It’s not going anywhere. Most of the people who claim outbound calling doesn’t work aren’t doing it correctly or just plain don’t want to do it. If you put the effort in and get it right, it can be the most powerful weapon in your B2B sales arsenal. Outbound calling success comes down to the work you put in before you pick up the phone. The better you plan, the more likely you are to win. 

Define your outbound call objectives. Unfortunately, “smile and dial” isn’t a proper cold calling strategy. Before you pick up that phone, you need to sit down and plan. What do you want to achieve from your cold calls? Are you looking to book a meeting? Invite the prospect to attend a webinar? Persuade them to view a live demo of your product?

And also take some time to define your call-to-action or CTA before each call. Outbound calls are just phase one of a multi-stage sales process. Your goal might just be to move the prospect onto the next stage – and that’s ok! Once you understand where you want the conversation to go, the route becomes much clearer. 

Next, build a highly targeted prospect list: Being generic will get you nowhere. You need to build a laser-targeted prospect list, focusing on an extremely narrow slice of the market.

And in order to do this, identify your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

This is the single most important thing when creating an outbound call strategy. If you’re speaking to the wrong people, everything else will fall to pieces. 
 
 The benefits of a precise ideal customer profile are high-quality leads, better outbound targets, greater efficiency, and consequently, more revenue - this all results in a more motivated, confident sales team. So, take your time and get it right!

Provide value and resources

Resources to help provide support to your prospect, resources to help solve a challenge, etc. This is a great way to become a trusted advisor. The focus should always be on your prospect. It’s not about you. If you continue to share valuable resources with them and ask for nothing in return at this moment, you are building credibility – which will go a long way when they are ready to move forward.

And as you share valuable resources, use what I like to call, your “client voice”. You don’t want to say how amazing you and your products are, but if you use your client voice, you’re sharing that your clients like these resources and find them valuable. An example of this is “many of my clients in this industry find these data trends helpful when building out their strategic plans”. As you can see, it’s about the client and the prospect – not about me!

3x3 Research

Once you have your list, use the 3x3 methodology to research your client. 3 things in 3 minutes. You don’t want to go down a rabbit hole

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Episode 55 - Megan Scott on Authenticity

I am excited to share this week’s podcast with all of you. My guest today is a former colleague and passionate sales professional with a focus on helping others through authenticity in the sales process.

Megan Scott is a Growth Specialist at HubSpot where her focus is helping businesses create delightful customer experiences.

Megan is passionate about authenticity in a human-centric sales process. Over 10 years, she has sold into industries including international education, video software, and CRM tech. Megan’s not afraid to make moves – whether across the US to cities, sight unseen, or around the world for study and adventure, she leaps into learning and believes that excellent communication grows from an excellent understanding of oneself and the people at the core of every decision.

Megan would love to connect with you on LinkedIn Please reach out!

As always, I love hearing feedback and topic suggestions from you. Please reach out to me via LinkedIn to continue the conversation.

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Episode 54 - Adaptability Intelligence (AQ)

Over the last 2 years, people will tell you that they have adapted to change in how we live our lives now, especially with covid. People have made lifestyle changes to help protect themselves and keep their families safe. On a macro level, this makes sense. Covid forced us into these lifestyle changes. But on a micro-level, how do you handle change? What if your company is implementing a new CRM system? What if your sales process is changing and you have to learn a new methodology? Many people may say that they can handle change well, they’ll even say this in job interviews. But are you really adaptable to change?

This is where the adaptability quotient comes in, or AQ for short. The way we work, live, and relate to one another is fundamentally shifting. Extraordinary technological advancements in automation and artificial intelligence, disruptive innovation, and globalization have resulted in an unprecedented rate of change. In the business world, leaders are constantly having to rethink how their organizations create value and stay relevant in an uncertain environment. In addition, the future of work is rapidly changing. The expiration date of employee skills is being shortened by technological advancements, so much so that a typical business competency is relevant for approximately 4 years, which is down from 30 years in 1984 – wow! The World Economic Forum estimates 65% of jobs that currently exist will no longer exist by the time today’s grade school children enter the workforce. Crazy, right?

So, what is the adaptability quotient? AQ is the ability to determine what’s relevant, to forget obsolete knowledge, overcome challenges, and adjust to change in real-time. Those with a high AQ demonstrate the following behaviors:

·       Open-mindedness: they actively work on managing their unconscious biases to remain open to possibilities.

·       They actively seek to view situations from the perspectives of others.

·       They prioritize developing new skills and continually invest in their own learning to better prepare themselves for an uncertain future.

From IQ to EQ to now AQ

Thank you for listening to A Life You Love! Connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know how you strengthen your AQ.

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