Sales Intelligence Weekly

Sales confidence. Some reps have it. Some reps don’t. Some reps fake it. BUT all reps NEED it. As sales leaders, we must empower our reps to help them build confidence when selling. When a sales rep shows up ill-prepared for a meeting with a prospect, it shows. Reps must be able to confidently tell the right story, speak confidently to competitive claims, and build trust in order to win more. So how can we prepare our reps to show up to every meeting with confidence?

In most B2B organizations, the struggle to create alignment throughout your customer-centric departments is real. We see it all the time. Sales and marketing may get misaligned on process or messaging. Product may be developing features that don’t actually solve for a customer's need. CX may be delivering something different than what a customer was sold. Executives may be creating strategies and goals without real insight into your competitive position. Misalignment can occur everywhere. 

And when you don’t create alignment throughout your organization, you can struggle to hit revenue goals, fail to solve customer needs, and slow business growth. 

But, what if you could tap into the voice of your customer to get irrefutable insight into your market? Could this help to create alignment within your organization? 

Episodes & More: www.primary-intel.com/podcast/

As a sales rep, there’s nothing worse than when a deal you thought you had in the bag goes silent. When a customer says no, there’s some closure. But when a customer says, “I’ll think about it” or completely ghosts you as you follow up week after week – there’s nothing more frustrating. But it’s something that all sales reps experience. Customer indecision makes it hard to predict pipeline and revenue. But what if there was a way that you could better predict no decision deals and overcome customer indecision?

As salespeople, we must build trust with our customers. Whether we’re prospecting, conducting discovery calls, or deep into pitching to the buying committee, building trust is a vital piece to increasing win rates. But, building trust can be a struggle for sales reps and this directly impacts their pipeline and close rates. As the buyer’s journey shifts to a digital experience, sales reps are having to find new ways to build trust with prospects. So how can reps build those strong customer relationships throughout the sales process?

As sales leaders, we’re always trying to empower our reps. When they win as individuals, you win as an organization! But for B2B businesses, the time your reps spend with buyers is shrinking. We’ve mentioned this on previous episodes - As the B2B buyer’s journey shifts to a digital experience, it’s estimated that your rep’s only get 5% of that buyer’s journey. And in that shortened window of time, they’re still expected to build trust, differentiate from competitors, and demonstrate value to close deals at the same rate. This puts an increased pressure and responsibility on sales leaders and coaches to understand where reps are struggling and where to focus coaching efforts to make an impact, build sales rep confidence, and increase win rates.

C-Level executives are key players in the buying committee for a B2B purchase decision. However, it can be hard to compete for an executive’s time and attention as a sales rep. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Sales leaders can help their reps capture the attention of C-level executives, better demonstrate value, build trust, and differentiate from competitors – and ultimately, help your solution stand out in a sea of vendors. There’s an art and method to prospecting in the C-Suite.

We’ve heard it time and time again – it’s more expensive to get a customer than to keep a customer! The struggle to decrease churn and grow account revenue is an uphill battle for most B2B organizations. A recent study shows that 30% of SaaS companies reported a rise in churn rates in the past year. But what’s the root cause of this? Why are customers not renewing? And how can sales and customer experience work together to decrease churn and grow account revenue?

Sales and product must work together to ensure your customer’s needs are met. But in most B2B organizations, a strong, consistent feedback loop between sales and product is non-existent. Your sales reps are on the front line, and they have unique insight into how your product is perceived by your buyers, what features and benefits are most important to a buyer when making a purchase decision, and how your product is expected to solve for evolving client needs. Product leaders must also communicate with sales on things like product roadmap and product updates so that sales can speak confidently about your solution, better differentiate against competitors, and demonstrate product value. So how can you create a successful feedback loop that empowers both sales and product? How can you align sales and product in a way that helps you better serve your buyers?

Since the beginning of 2020, we've seen the shift that sales teams have experienced as more companies implement a work-from-home environment. Sales teams have had to adjust and learn to function within a virtual sales floor. Sales leaders have had to find better ways to communicate, coach and receive coaching, and continually discover better ways to build trust and camaraderie between employees. Join us as we discuss the things you can do as a sales leader to create a successful virtual team environment.

In some organizations, sales and marketing teams don’t play nicely together. When the end of the month approaches and numbers are in danger of falling short, fingers start pointing and blame starts shifting. Sales is frustrated with lead volume or quality. Marketing is frustrated by sales process or outreach. Neither team wants to take responsibility for missed targets. But, sales and marketing are always working towards the same goal – so why the animosity between them? In this episode, we’ll dive into why the battle between sales and marketing occurs and how leaders can eliminate this battle to create better alignment between teams.