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10 Tips for Sales Success from a High-Performer

I’ve been to a lot of places, sold a number of different products, and won quite a few awards. Along the way I have found a rhythm for my sales success. While everyone’s rhythm is different, there are certain keys to sales success that I have found ring true for all. 

Here are my top 10 tips for becoming a high-performer:

  1. Persistence – On average, it takes 18 calls to get someone on the phone. Don’t give up, and be sure to have a voicemail and email cadence.
  2. Consistent Prospecting – A salesperson should always be busy. If you’re not closing, you should be opening (aka prospecting).
  3. Trust, but Verify – The information we receive, whether from online resources or a mutual acquaintance, is not always accurate. Verify your contacts, titles, needs, etc., directly. 
  4. Track Your Cadence – Be sure to switch up the voicemails you are leaving and emails you are sending. Also, be sure to show Salesforce (or your CRM) some love. Tracking which voicemails and emails you use, when you use them, and which ones work can help in fine-tuning your cadence. 
  5. Have a Conversation – Open with your SWIIFT℠ Pitch (So What’s In It For Them), then ask the prospect a question. Relationships are built on two-way conversations.
  6. Let Them Tell You What They Want – Yes, you’ve researched a lot. Once you find out what their challenges are, you can show them everything you know. 
  7. Penetrate Your Accounts – The truth is people leave. So, the more people that know you, the more likely you’ll keep the account when turnover happens.
  8. Objections are Good – You’ve engaged the prospect and they are seriously considering your solution. If they agree with everything you say, ask an unexpected question (called a pattern interrupt). Don’t be scared of objections, it means they are listening. 
  9. Closing With Flexibility – Set upfront contracts and let prospects know it’s okay to say no and choose another solution. While we want to win every deal, that’s not entirely realistic. The easier you make it for the prospect to say no, the less time you’ll spend chasing dead deals. You can use that extra time to prospect new accounts that will cross the finish line.
  10. Feedback is Gold – Get feedback on every deal, if you can. No matter if you win or lose, the reasons behind the client’s decision are invaluable. It will help you close future deals and it will make you better. I promise. 

Finally, winning the deal is only the beginning. Now you need to deliver on the trust they put in you. Exceed expectations and create those win/win situations. 

It’s up to each of us to develop mutually beneficial relationships with our customers. To be the people they know, like, and trust.

About the Author:

Victoria Brooks is a Protégé in Generation 4 of #GirlsClub and a Technical Sales Representative at Dell.  She moved into sales to better support her daughter as a single parent and found her confidence by creating win/win situations. She’s passionate about diversity, technology, and animal rescue.  She’s usually roaming around Austin, Texas taking pictures to post on social and sharing sales “war” stories to anyone who will listen.

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How To Remove Friction From Inside Sales Team's Call Flow

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How to Remove Friction from Your Inside Sales Team’s Call Flow [Conversature Guest Post]

Some of us call them a “call flow,” some call them a “score card,” others may have a different name.

In any case, a “call flow” is usually defined as the conversation process your sales reps should follow from beginning a call, all the way to bringing it to a successful end.

That typically includes a sequenced list of well-designed sales behaviors reps should execute. These are our “performance drivers.”

It often also includes a list of “negative” behaviors you want to ensure your reps are not doing. These are drivers of underperformance, such as using too many “filler words,” talking 51% of the time, or heaven-forbid, cursing.

While most of us are on the same page as to what a call flow is, the majority of us are still designing them backwards, leading to a ton of unnecessary friction between your reps, and your buyers.

What do I mean by “backwards?”

Well, as sales leaders, when we design a “call flow,” we typically list out a sequenced list of sales behaviors, from start to finish, based on what we think is most effective.

Starting your call flow design by listing sales-side behaviors first, is backwards.

Designing a call flow the frictionless way requires you to start on the other side of the coin: What emotional experiences do we want our customers to have over the course of a call?

It requires you to “reverse-engineer” your call flow, by first starting with the customer’s emotional journey.

We outline this in detail, before ever defining the sales-side call flow.

Then – and only then – do we design a sequenced list of sales behaviors designed to trigger and create the customer-side emotional experience we have laid out.

Let me give you an example.

The typical sales leader is going to design a call flow from the sales perspective, and it may look something like this:

  • State your full name, and company name from the outset
  • State the reason you’re calling
  • Deliver a compelling benefit
  • Ask permission to ask them questions
  • Execute our 7-part line of questioning
  • Make the recommendation for a demo-appointment

Simple enough. But designed backwards. It’s designed with “sales lenses” on rather than “customer lenses.”

What I’m suggesting is this: first – before you do anything else – create a “list” of the emotional experiences you want your buyer to “travel through” over the course of a call.

Here’s an example:

  • Instant clarity as to who this person is, and why they are calling me
  • A self-interested, mildly compelling desire to engage in a short conversation
  • Relieved resistance, and a sense of comfort, knowing this person isn’t going to pressure me into anything
  • The relief associated with expressing a nagging, relevant frustration
  • The feeling of being understood
  • A piqued level of interest in solving the problem they just expressed
  • A compelling desire to learn more about a potential solution to the problem
  • A sense of ease and effortlessness in taking the next step (i.e. don’t make me think too much)

Ok, now we’ve started on the right foot (the customer’s).

Once we have this “call journey” outlined, we can now reverse-engineer our call flow in a way that triggers that customer emotional experience we’ve just designed.

Here’s what that would look like:

The final resulting call flow is subtly different from the original “backwards” one, but incredibly more powerful, because it starts with the buyer’s experience, and reverse engineers the sales process.

Doing this removes unnatural friction from sales calls.

For a more detailed guide on how to design call flows in this way, check out my free guide: The Call Flow Blueprints.

Chris Orlob is the CEO at Conversature – the leading Conversation Insights Platform for inside sales teams. Conversature is like an “X-Ray” into your inside sales team’s conversations, helping you coach, understand, and analyze your team’s calls, even at scale. In past lives, Chris was a regional sales manager at insidesales.com, as well as a professional metalcore drummer (seriously).

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