As your business expands, you will find yourself needing to establish relationships in new areas. As a sales leader, the responsibility of putting your sales team up to the task falls on you. What you decide to do, and how you decide to do it, will determine the degree of success, but what considerations should be taken into account? Do you move successful sales reps from an established region to a new one or hire for the new territory? How do you keep your team motivated through the change? In this episode we highlight the merits of different solutions we’ve implemented ourselves to better inform you, the sales leader, so that you may take the appropriate course of action for your organization and successfully launch your business into a new territory.

“Change is going to be inevitable.” - Taylor Barnes

A strong sales team stays focused through the highs and lows of sales, taking the lessons from missed opportunities and the energy from closed deals to continually improve. A grounded, resilient mental attitude doesn’t just happen, however. It is a result of guidance from purposeful and attentive leadership. The feedback you give your sales team is an integral part of cultivating a strong mindset, and is just as important during the successes as it is with the shortcomings. In this episode, we share our thoughts on the role of the sales leader in growing a mentally tough sales team and invite our listeners to ask themselves, how do you as a leader ensure that your team is staying mentally tough through the highs and lows of sales?

"We always stay humble, and we always stay hungry!" - Taylor Barnes

Throughout our Sales Leadership podcast series, we strived to bring helpful, insightful information to sales leaders in founder-led organizations. In each episode, we addressed a specific topic that can and does cause issues for sales growth and provided solutions to help overcome those challenges. This episode marks our official transition to our Purpose Driven Sales podcast, in which we will shift the structure of these podcasts to a challenge-solution format. In the coming episodes we will be highlighting common challenges sales leaders face, and provide the solutions that have helped us and other sales leaders break through those barriers. Tune in to the new Purpose Driven Sales podcast as we share these crucial lessons that will fast track your sales and grow your business.

“If you’re not pivoting in some form or fashion you’re going to get left in the dust.” – Taylor Barnes

It’s important that your clients feel the depth of the subject matter expertise that your organization has. In this episode, we discuss the different stages of the sales cycle and best practice on how and when to introduce key players on your team to a prospect.

“As you get further along, the importance of leaving the client with the impression that it’s more than a one-man shop is absolutely huge!” - Taylor Barnes

The energy you bring to a conversation has a substantial impact on how your message is received. In your relationships with your prospects, the passion you have (or lack thereof) for how your service or product can benefit your customers will come across in your communications, directly affecting how your prospect feels about what you’re selling. In this episode, we share some tips to help you and your sales team bring a consistently high level of energy and enthusiasm to every sales conversation, making you more memorable and increasing the likelihood of closing the deal.

“You’ve gotta have passion when you sell.” - Taylor Barnes

Ensuring your sales reps have the best chance of success starts with how you source your prospects. The time you invest in sourcing and preparing a quality prospect list on the front end pays dividends in the time your sales team puts into their communications. This episode focuses on the nuances of how to source a quality list of prospects and the pitfalls you may encounter so that you, as a sales leader, may better prepare your sales team for success.

“When you personalize, your response rates are going to go up.” - Josh Sweeney

For a sales team, the goal in communicating with a prospect is the sale. Though it sounds trivial, there is an art to closing the deal. When is the appropriate time in the deal lifecycle to ask for the sale? How should you adjust your approach to the decision maker’s personality? In this episode, we discuss the lessons learned in our cumulative experience that you and your sales team can adapt to your communication strategies and close more deals.

“Your job is getting the prospect to put pen to paper.” - Taylor Barnes

For founders, bringing in leads is paramount. As an organization grows, however, determining whether or not you will continue to drive for high volume or start to focus on higher quality leads is a decision that warrants careful consideration. What route is the best fit for your organization?

Find out in this episode as we talk through the pros and cons of each approach, real world examples of how different organizations have handled their leads, and pose questions for you to help discover which path best suits your team.

“Think about where you want to go based on where you are now, and how you can overcome those challenges.” - Josh Sweeney

Ultimately, to close a deal, a prospect needs to be able to afford your product or service, but, when is it appropriate to have the budget conversation with your prospect? How do you go about discovering whether a prospect is a good fit for your organization? In this episode we discuss the finer details and considerations of how to handle the budget conversation with prospects that you, as a sales leader, can bring to your team to more effectively qualify leads.

“You have to establish budgets on the front end as soon as possible, without scaring the prospect away.” - Taylor Barnes

In communications with clients and prospects, setting appropriate expectations and delivering on your promises are key behaviors that contribute to strong, positive relationships. Join Taylor Barnes and I as we discuss how to handle setting expectations with your clients, reigning in the desire to say yes to everything, and the value implementing these strategies will bring to your organization.

“Channel your internal project manager when you’re setting expectations.” - Taylor Barnes