Your top rep crushes quota and has a great conversion rate, but when you put them in a leadership role their success seems to stagnate. Our guest this week is someone who helps bridge the experience gap between sales rep, and sales leader. She’s frequently billed as a Top Coach and a Top Woman in Sales, and is the Founder of the sales bar, and #girlsclub. Welcome to the show, Founder and President of Factor 8, Lauren Bailey.

Lauren and Tim team up to talk about sales strategies. Lauren shares why skills as a rep don’t always transfer over to leadership, why video selling is a benefit, and how to better customize your demos.

Takeaways:

• On a video call, it seems intuitive to want to share your screen to review your slides. By doing so, you miss out on the major benefit of video, building human connections. Send them a link to your slides or demo, and spend the video call making those connections.
• If you’re doing the same demo over and over again, you’re doing it wrong. Demos should feel like a custom sample, rather than a product tour. Identify the three things your buyer will care most about, and highlight those.
• Instead of looking at video as something you need to do, look at it as a gift that allows you to better connect. Text, email, and phone don’t allow you to see the other person. When you have that visual element, you can give better cues that show you’re involved.
• 70% of people who get into sales, get out of sales. Instead of being taught to sell, they are being taught to hit send. To prevent attrition, focus on teaching your reps meaningful outreach and sales skills to make them feel less automated.
• If you want to teach sellers to be better, you need to start by teaching their manager. A leader needs to be primarily focused on developing their employees. If they don’t know how to develop themselves, they won’t get far.
• Avoiding the shiny new tool on the shelf can be tricky, and figuring out what to buy can be trickier. Sales leaders tend to buy solutions for their former selves that solve a problem they used to have, rather than one they have now.
• When looking internally for a sales leader, it’s intuitive to promote your top rep. But being a great rep doesn’t make you a good leader. Many of the top skills for reps are focused on the individual, and being a leader requires a team mentality.

Quote of the Show:

• “Don't think of it as a product tour, think of it as a custom sample.” - Lauren Bailey

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Factor8Sales
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/insidesalesadvisor/
• Website: https://factor8.com/
• Website: https://wearegirlsclub.com/

Ways to Tune In:

• Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b2b-eq/id1672326834
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1T2zlqNsSYATzXFPH1DquY
• Google Podcast - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mYXN0Lndpc3RpYS5jb20vY2hhbm5lbHMvajRuNnNjYmc2Ni9yc3M