8+ Critical Things Sales and Enablement Leaders Need to Know About AI [Webinar Recording]
8+ Critical Things Sales And Enablement Leaders Need To Know About AI
[Video Recording]
Sales Manager Lifesavers
Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance
Let’s dive deep into a phenomenon that’s rearing its head in the world of sales: call reluctance. Having chatted with senior sales leaders this month, it’s clear this isn’t just an isolated challenge; it’s a widespread issue. But why is it happening, and more importantly, how do we tackle it?
DOWNLOAD: 20 Value-Add Reasons to Call Your Customers
The Reason for Sales Call Reluctance
When you have reps dodging calls and taking refuge behind emails or DMs, you’re witnessing call reluctance in action. So, why are our once-confident reps hesitating? A few reasons…
The COVID Comfort Zone: The pandemic changed buying patterns. Many sellers shifted to a laid-back, order-taking mode. Now, as the world returns to some semblance of its pre-pandemic self, we need to dust off our sales hats and get back into the game.
A Crisis of Confidence: A few factors are at play here:
- The lack of immediate success can chip away at confidence and motivation.
- The absence of a clear purpose or compelling reason for calling.
- The pandemic brought easy sales, which meant we didn’t flex those traditional sales muscles. Now, they’re feeling a bit stiff.
Demoralized Frontline Leaders: These folks are the backbone of our teams. When they’re down, the whole ship can veer off course.
READ: Sales Is A Confidence Sport
Rebuilding Rep Confidence to Overcome Sales Call Reluctance
So, how do we turn the tide? How do we help reps build confidence and get back on the phones?
Rediscover the ‘Why’: Tap into what truly drives our reps and managers. Align their goals and motivations with their roles and rewards. It’s all about the personal connection.
Celebrate Small Wins: Start small. Take, for instance, a client of mine: once struggling with a mere 100 dials a month across a team, they shifted focus to small victories. Now? They’re rocking 90 discovery calls a week!
Skill Refresher: It’s time to retrain and remind our reps about the art of tactical sales. Equip them with the tools they need to navigate this new landscape.
Invest in Your Leaders: Here’s the golden nugget: support your frontline sales managers. I can’t emphasize this enough. Whether it’s training, resources, or just a chat over coffee, check in with them. And hey, if you’re looking for training, I might know someone. 😉 But jokes aside, these leaders are pivotal. Ensure they have the right support, tools, and motivation to steer the ship.
READ: Why You Need Training for Sales Managers
Best Practices to Remember
Embrace Technology: Virtual sales tools aren’t just about tracking; they can offer insights, refine strategies, and enhance client relationships.
Regular Check-ins: In the world of virtual sales, regular team check-ins can bridge the gap, ensuring everyone’s aligned and motivated.
Client Engagement: Beyond the sale, focus on building and nurturing relationships. Virtual doesn’t mean impersonal.
The sales landscape is ever-evolving, and while challenges like call reluctance arise, with the right strategies and support, we can not only overcome them but thrive. It’s about reconnection, retraining, and relentless support.
Do your reps need help overcoming sales call reluctance?
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales rep training programs
to help rebuild rep phone confidence.
Why You Need Training for Sales Managers
Sales is an ever-evolving landscape, with tools, techniques, and targets shifting regularly. Yet, while we often focus on training our frontline sales reps, there’s a critical group that’s frequently overlooked: sales managers.
In fact, 60% of new managers fail within the first 24 months in their role. Why? Lack of training and development. Oftentimes, companies will promote reps into management without providing critical leadership skills to prepare them for their new role.
DOWNLOAD: Critical New Manager Skills to Master
Let’s dive into why training for sales managers is paramount and the benefits that come with it.
Why Do We Neglect Sales Manager Training?
Often, organizations operate under the assumption that a stellar sales rep will naturally transition into a stellar sales manager. However, the skills required for each role differ significantly. Managing a team, strategizing, forecasting and coaching demand a unique skill set that isn’t always innate.
The Case for On-the-Job Training for Sales Managers
- Different Roles, Different Skills: A top-performing sales rep doesn’t automatically make a top-performing sales manager. Management requires understanding team dynamics, effective communication, and the ability to inspire and lead. On-the-job training equips new managers with these essential skills.
- Rapid Adaptation to Change: The sales environment is dynamic. According to a report by CSO Insights, organizations with a dynamic sales process, which includes regular training, reported a win rate of 49% for forecasted deals, compared to those with a random or informal process.
- Consistency in Approach: With proper training, sales managers can ensure consistency in sales strategies, team communication, and performance reviews, leading to a more cohesive and effective sales team.
DOWNLOAD: Leader Activities to Start & Stop Doing
Benefits of Training Sales Managers
Short-Term Benefits
- Increased Engagement: According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. Well-trained managers are more likely to engage and motivate their teams.
- Improved Performance: With better training, managers can effectively guide their teams, leading to increased sales and higher win rates. 84% of sales reps achieve their quotas when their employer incorporates a best-in-class sales enablement strategy.
- Reduced Turnover: A report by the Sales Management Association found that improved manager training reduced salesperson turnover by up to 19%.
Long-Term Benefits
- Consistent Growth: A well-trained sales management team can be a game-changer for revenue growth. According to research by the Sales Executive Council, sales teams led by supportive managers are 67% more effective at closing deals than those with managers who exert high levels of pressure. This shows that the right training can significantly influence managerial styles and, by extension, team performance.
- Increased Profitability: The Harvard Business Review highlighted that companies that invest in training see a 24% higher profit margin than those that spend less on training. While this encompasses all forms of training, the impact of upskilling managers – those responsible for driving and guiding the sales strategy – cannot be underestimated.
- Stronger Leadership Pipeline: On-the-job training prepares sales managers for higher leadership roles, ensuring a robust succession plan. This is crucial for organizational stability; a study by the Gartner for HR (formerly the Corporate Leadership Council) found that organizations with proper leadership training realized a 32% increase in leadership strength, which is directly tied to financial performance.
- Cultural Cohesiveness: Trained managers foster a positive, consistent culture, enhancing team collaboration and overall company morale. According to a Gallup study, companies with highly engaged teams report 20% higher sales and 21% higher profitability.
On-the-job training for sales managers isn’t just a “nice-to-have”; it’s a necessity. By investing in our sales leaders, we’re not only boosting current performance but setting the stage for sustained success in the future. It’s high time we prioritize sales manager training for those at the helm, guiding our sales teams to victory.
Are you looking for training for sales managers?
Contact us today to learn about our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps and managers.
Tips for Managing a Remote Sales Team
Sales Management is a tough gig. Virtual sales management is tougher. Like our sales teams struggle to sell “with an arm and leg tied behind their back” with the exclusion of visual cues, difficulty reaching customers/prospects, and having drastically limited selling time, these same challenges (and more) affect managers. Especially newer leaders.
In my first few years of sales management, I relied heavily on the visual cues of how my colleagues managed their teams. I saw huddles happening (“Oh, I should do that.”) I overheard team meetings and coaching sessions (“Wow, I need to give that kind of advice”) and I picked up deal strategy and day management skills.
Until we’re tenured leaders of sales teams, we don’t have our management cadence locked in. The cadence is our management process – the series of meetings, touchpoints, and actions we take in a day, month, and quarter to keep our business on track. In fact, I dare say most sales managers spend their first year or two bouncing between requests, fires, and demands.
It’s natural to be reactive in our high-demand, fast-paced environment. There’s a line at our desk, in our email inbox, and in our assignments from above. Without these, we’d wander a bit aimlessly trying to figure out our jobs as we transition from individual contributor/seller to leader. It’s why so many leaders struggle to give up the deal, the customer base, the live sales calls – we know this world! We RULE this world!
And herein lies the rub. Now that we’re managing virtually, we need a proactive approach. We need to shortcut the learning curve and have a plan – one that includes the challenge of not seeing who’s in their seat, overhearing the calls, and picking up on the team dynamic. Rough.
To speed this process, and alleviate some stress along the way, let me share a few key tips:
- Establish (and edit) your proactive management cadence immediately. We teach this in “Essential Manager Meetings” (a course in The Sales Bar) and it’s one of our first courses for all new managers. At a minimum, your cadence needs to include:
- Multiple weekly sales huddles to provide focus, inspiration, energy, and insight
- Monthly private 1:1 performance meetings with each team member
- Multiple 1:1 to 3:1 call/skill coaching sessions with each team member monthly
- Multiple team forecast meetings (frequency depending on sales cycle)
- Ad-hoc sales strategy meetings helping reps hit goal (deal, lead, account, and/or territory)
- Monthly team meetings for updates, development, communication, connection
Where do you find the time for all these meetings? By pushing the daily incoming demand to one of these meetings. Rep Slacking you with a “great call update?” Push it to your morning huddle or your next call coaching. Rep forecasting below goal? Schedule an ad-hoc sales strategy meeting to review deals. Getting lots of emails with company questions? Move forward the team meeting and address them together.
We set the process and then we daily teach our reps to operate within it by delegating, pushing, and scheduling “official” meeting time vs. reacting all day. That makes time management a critical management skill…
- Own Your Day (another course in The Sales Bar). Especially now that we’re at home, it’s way too easy to work 12 hour days (or the opposite for some). The line at your desk is now your chat. Email is center screen all day. It’s harder than ever to stay proactive and protect our rep-focused parts of the day. We have to schedule it, and then protect it. Our top priorities also get calendar time and we protect them like our most important meetings of the day.
We love the Eisenhower Matrix (everyone’s favorite part of this course) to help managers decide when to fire drill, when to delegate, when to schedule, and when to trash a request. When you’re in charge of your own day, you can help reps be in charge of theirs – so critical for virtual selling.
- Call Coaching. When we’re virtual, the tendency is to count heavily on the numbers. If we can’t hear the calls and watch the behavior, we watch what we can – the metrics. This is a mistake. Especially now that your reps are selling a new way, focus on quality over quantity. That means it’s time to get visibility. If you don’t have call recording capabilities, start lobbying for it now. ExecVision, Chorus, and Gong make it easy to be legal and to get the insight you need into rep conversations + the tools to coach them.
Scheduled call coaching using recordings or ride-along meetings are critical. It’s going to be tougher than ever to make it happen (hence the first two points), so give this to your reps. When your calendar is up to date, they know when you are free and it’s on them to invite you to 1-2 calls/week.
Sales skill feedback also has some new priorities right now. Field sellers gone virtual will need some help and focus on phone detective skills – working phone systems, making multiple attempts, capturing new contacts, qualifying accounts – honestly some of the basic skills covered for new BDRs. They may not LOVE the idea of getting entry-level phone skills training, but these are tools they need in their belt today – and tomorrow.
Phone sellers now struggle with video. They need your feedback on the basics like backgrounds, lighting, proper attire, and etiquette. We’ve all seen the fails – those are on us as their managers. Check out our course Running a Virtual Sales Meeting in The Sales Bar for basics on virtual meeting agendas, engagement, and online tools use.
The key is that they get the coaching and support regularly and you build it into a regularly scheduled meeting as part of your cadence.
My entire team – including the sales team – has been virtual since inception. Our BDR is new and get’s call coaching every Tuesday and Thursday for 45 minutes at 9 a.m. She brings the call recording to support what we coached last time and before it’s over there’s a commitment to what we’re coaching next time. The coaching is done over video so we can see faces and reactions and expressions – this is a personal development moment, and it helps us connect.
Remember, a connection to the boss is critical for every employee. Call coaching is about helping develop reps skills (not close deals) as much as it is about increasing our team’s engagement with us and with the company – and there is nothing more important for retention. Coaching is bonding 1:1 time and your team needs this attention from you, even more, when we’re virtual.
Ready to take your sales management skills to the next level?
We’ve got tons of manager courses available in our award-winning virtual sales training platform, The Sales Bar. Fill out the form below to request more information about manager training.
8 Sales Rep Onboarding Best Practices
By now you’ve heard that the sales rep onboarding experience is a major factor in how they ramp to quota and ultimately affects how they feel about your company.
There are about 3 million moving parts in an onboarding program since it happens across so many departments, mostly outside of sales. Because of this, it’s easy to lose our way during onboarding. One of the most important hindrances is the lack of investment — both in effort and money — in onboarding.
Insidesales.com did a study that found organizations spend an average of 3x more on rep tools than on rep development, with the average rep having between 5-10 tools. Similarly, Training Magazine found that organizations spend on average 25x more on recruiting than development.
Moreover, Training Magazine tells us that a good onboarding program can cut ramp time and attrition by 50%. If we focus more time on crafting an onboarding program that will help retain the reps we recruit, we save time, money, and energy down the line.
So let’s do this! Here are 8 best practices you can dive into fixing right now.
Integrate These 8 Best Practices Into Your Sales Rep Onboarding
- “Just-in-time” training
- Leverage sales (not HR) professionals
- Balance software and traditional training methods
- Continue onboarding long after the rep is “ready”
- Adopt the six critical components of a training program
- Use ample multimedia resources
- Create a formal, but flexible, rep training program
- Set realistic, data-based expectations
Let’s dive a little deeper into why and how to integrate these tips into your onboarding.
1. “Just-in-time” Training
When building an onboarding program, it’s tempting to start by listing all the things “Johnny” may ever need to know and start from the top. Instead, try slicing off only what Johnny needs to know in month one.
It can be tempting to dive deep into company waters with things like histories, organizational charts, and other detailed and specific areas. It’s more effective to shift this information to the backburner for the time being and focus only on what the new rep needs in the first month to be successful. After all, how often does a customer quiz your rep on key events in the company’s founding?
Onboarding training should mirror what a rep’s day-to-day activities will look like once training is finished during the first month on the job (and only that first month). This ensures reps don’t feel like a fish out of water when the time comes to execute the tactics taught in training.
Why stop at month one? Because we want our reps to come out of onboarding feeling confident! We want them ready to pound the phones and execute what they learned! If we start introducing them to all the sales process complexities, advanced products, and deep conversations, then we run the risk of scaring or overwhelming them.
This is a time when “you don’t know what you don’t know” is a good thing. If your reps will likely spend that first month talking to existing happy customers or cold calling and leaving a lot of voicemails, stop training there. Bring them back later for the rest.
2. Leverage Sales (Not HR) Professionals
Aberdeen reported that 85% of the sales teams considered “best-in-class” use professional sales trainers or curriculum. But the majority of us outsource our onboarding to HR.
This absolutely does not mean that your sales managers should be the trainers. It means that as a sales leader, you have sales managers and a sales training manager reporting to you (or at least attending your meetings). It could also mean that you have a sales manager who acts as a liaison to training.
But what it definitely means is that you and your sales team all know what is being taught, agree with the how, and are thrilled with what reps can do when they graduate from the onboarding training.
Some companies shy away from investing in an expert for new hires due to the high turnover rate. But, by investing in good sales training and following best practices, companies can reduce new hire turnover rate and save money in the long run.
3. Balance Online and Classroom Training
What we use to teach reps is another balancing act between digital learning and resources and traditional training methods.
Best practice? Use technology for about 30% of your overall curriculum. Much more and we’re missing the opportunity to engage new reps and ensure their first month is lonely and, let’s face it: boring.
Online learning is easiest to leverage for one of the following areas:
- Rote knowledge that isn’t likely to change. This includes policies, laws, company history, and unchanging products.
- Already-created, third-party curriculum. Commonly this is from technology vendors like Salesforce or basic Microsoft how-to assets
- Trusted adviser curriculum. If you’re working with social, sales, or marketing experts already and have adopted their methodologies, ask about online resources to onboard new reps.
Leverage your training department’s learning management system with whatever you’re doing. You’ll want to track what reps have and haven’t done and add a layer of accountability with reporting and testing.
4. Don’t Let It End! Continue Training Even After Onboarding
Rep development should be ongoing. Don’t ever fall into the trap of “They’re trained! My job here is done.” That’s akin to the NFL putting players in preseason camp and then stopping practice when the regular season begins.
Development is an ongoing sport.
At Factor 8, we’re huge champions of sending new reps to the phones early and often. But that is with the assumption that they’ll come back to the classroom to address the gaps they find while out on the harsh streets of your sales floor. It’s also assuming that managers are closely keeping track of rep progress and development needs.
How do you facilitate this?
Try to organize the curriculum into three levels:
- Level 1 maps to onboarding – the foundational/month 1 skills.
- Level 2 is “just in time” after reps master level 1 and get 6-12 months under their belt. They’re ramped to quota, and it’s time for ongoing development to keep growing and do the whole job well.
- Level 3 maps to the mastery of the job in years 2 to 3 — more advanced skills to help them be superstars.
Between each level we add exercises, activities, assignments, and refreshers to keep the skills top of mind, show new ways to try certain tactics, and help managers engage reps in 1:1 and team skill development. The Sales Bar helps us make all of this accessible on-demand so teams can learn what they want to when they want to while still keeping track. We also drip new content monthly and use leaderboards to keep things fresh and different so users want to log back in.
Use this as an example of the microlearning and ongoing development young reps crave. Millennials expect a certain percentage of learning to be in the classroom and online, and they expect opportunities to develop themselves long after onboarding.
Offering blended learning, leveled learning, and ongoing learning checks all those boxes.
5. Adopt the 6 Critical Components of a Sales Training Program
If you’re just starting to build your program or you’re going in to assess yours, start by evaluating what’s being trained. It’s easy to go deep into systems and products, but those are just two of the six components of well-rounded onboarding training:
- Systems and tools — Your CRM, intranet, engagement tool, dialer, etc.
- Product and service — What you’re selling. Tip: Focus on “how to sell it” versus a full rundown of product history, speeds, and feeds. This harkens back to best practice #1 and maintaining training relevancy. If your product people are teaching this, chances are your reps don’t need half of it and are using this time to snooze.
- Sales — Even if you hire for experience, reps need to be taught how to sell your services to your customers in your industry over the phone. Haven’t met a new hire yet who doesn’t.
- Process — Think of how your leads and orders get processed internally and who a rep goes to for the top customer questions. In other words, how do you get stuff done at your company?
- Acumen — Sorry folks, they’re not coming out of school with business acumen and certainly not industry and customer acumen. This is a big gap, and filling it will drastically shorten ramp time.
- Manager integration — this is where tip #5 really comes to life, both during and after onboarding. Reps need to see their leaders often, and training needs input and oversight.
6. Utilize Ample Multimedia Resources
No two reps are identical when it comes to learning style. Make sure you’re meeting every new hire where they’re at by using a mix of helpful resources.
This includes but is not limited to:
- Interactive e-learning software
- Traditional books
- Instructor-led training – virtual or in-person
- Real-life practice
Mixing up these methods not only appeals to reps with different learning styles but also helps keep training exciting and fresh. Who wants to sit and listen to someone else make calls all day and slap a “training” label on it?
7. Create a Formal, but Flexible Rep Training Program
If you’re not putting all new hires through the same rep onboarding process, how can you ever tell if what you’re doing is working?
As we said: Different reps have different learning styles, so it is important to remain flexible to an extent. Just make sure you have some core pillars of onboarding training in place so all new hires are experiencing the same process.
This helps you measure KPIs and tweak your processes if weak spots surface.
8. Set Realistic, Data-Based Expectations for Your New Reps
How many times have your managers set sky-high call quotas for new reps? How many times have they failed to reach it? But, most importantly, how many times has this been documented?
The only thing more frustrating (for both rep and manager) than someone consistently underperforming on quotas, is for there to be nothing in place to fix it moving forward.
Make sure when you’re setting expectations and KPIs for new hire reps that they are based on data. Once you have a fleshed-out onboarding process, it will be easier than ever to keep track of this information.
Find a Tool That Works for Your Onboarding Needs
What if we told you there’s a tool that complements in-person sales training, allows managers to monitor new hire learning during onboarding, and offers a wide variety of inside sales resources?
It’s not magic — it’s The Sales Bar. Fill out the form below to learn more.
Want more information on our sales rep onboarding programs?
Contact us today to request information on our customizable virtual sales training programs
available for reps (and managers).
5 Time Management Tips for Sales Reps
Being in sales is the busiest job in the world – hands down.
If you’re a leader, you’ve got a ton on your shoulders between leading your team and establishing a strong company culture. Managers – you’re constantly battling fire drills and balancing your own daily tasks, all while coaching your reps. And reps – say no more! You’re on the phone for hours at a time, making hundreds of calls a week in between various other tasks.
Unfortunately, 66% of those ‘other tasks’ are statistically useless. Meaning, that time is devoted to non-revenue-generating activities.
But the good news is: you can gain back hours of your day by following at least one of these time management tips. Lucky for you, I’ve got 5!
READ: Top 8 Sales Management Productivity Hacks
Protect Your Time
Guess what: YOU own your time. You get to make the choice what to prioritize and how to handle what comes your way. The best thing you can do is PROTECT IT!
Block your calendar, get comfortable saying ‘no’ to things that interrupt your workflow or cut into call time. Set boundaries and stick to them. Guard your time, communicate expectations, and get to work.
The other day I had a rep reach out for a meeting and she wanted to give up her time block to schedule our meeting. You know what I said? NO! BIG MISTAKE! I made sure she honored her calendar and let her fit me in somewhere else.
Remember: there are lots of things in the day as a rep that you just can’t control. You can’t force someone to pick up the phone, you can’t make a lengthy conversation go faster to hop onto your next call, you can’t control if you get a call back.
But what can you do? Stick to your schedule!
READ: 4 Time-Saving Prospecting Strategies
Create A Master Plan
Sounds simple, but think about the calls you’re making and what your schedule looks like. Does Client A work night shift? Do they work on the east coast and you’re west? Are they in another country altogether?
Mapping out your day is going to SAVE you time down the line. You’ll want to categorize your to-do list by the following:
- Morning Only Tasks
- Afternoon Only Tasks
- Both (can be done either morning and afternoon)
- Anytime (can be done morning, noon, or late)
(Note: Don’t forget to plan around time zones!)
DOWNLOAD: Virtual Selling Cheat Sheet
Set 1 Daily Goal
Set it and actually DO it. Make that your main mission, your top priority, the thing you sit down to do first and accomplish. Consistency is key here to make sure it actually sticks! Do this every day and it REALLY helps.
Don’t go on autopilot and sit down to check your Slacks, emails, or get into your morning routine. And while you’re at it…
Silence Notifications
Remember what I said about 80% of your day being wasted on non-sales items? That’s probably because your phone is blowing up with a phone call from mom, texts from your college buddy, social media notifications, Slack messages, etc. etc.
Put your phone on silent, turn off notifications, and focus on what’s in front of you. The ONLY thing you should be working off of is your calendar (or task list) – it will dictate who you need to talk to and when.
This is going to help you make sure you’re getting to all those calls in a day without the distractions.
Touch It Once
If you’ve been pushing the same email to the bottom of the pile for the last two weeks, chances are it isn’t that much of a priority. When you’ve got a task at hand – DO something with it. Either respond and finish it so you can put it away, schedule it to a time you can actually take care of it, or delete it if it’s unimportant.
Whatever you do – don’t just leave it and keep pushing it off. You’re wasting time revisiting the same old piece 3x instead of just touching it once.
READ MORE: 10 Tips for Sales Success from A High Performer
Don’t overcomplicate it. You’ve got a busy enough day, but by adding in a little bit of effort and strategy, you can take back that 19% and get to what you do best: selling!
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8+ Hacks For Sellers And Managers To Get More Done Today [“Sales Shot” Workshop]
8+ Hacks For Sellers And Managers To Get More Done Today
[“Sales Shot” Workshop]
How to Create a Coaching Culture [“Sales Shot” Workshop]
How to Create a Coaching Culture
[“Sales Shot” Workshop]
5 Things to Do Immediately After Being Laid off in Sales
Layoffs, Recessions, and RIFs (Ooooooh, my)
It’s a crap situation folks, no way around that. But if you’re in a revenue role and you smell it coming, or just got your notice, here are our top 5 tips to help you recover from a sales layoff:
- Attitude is everything. I don’t mean to not FEEL angry, sad, betrayed, and revenge-fueled! I just mean don’t show it. You’re in a fishbowl right now and everyone you rant to may actually be a prospective employer or referrer. And let’s face it, they’re all wondering if it was the company or it was you. We’ve heard that companies use uncertain economies to trim the fat, and telling the story of your betrayal may tip things in the direction of you being the problem.
- Try a re-frame. Perhaps you were cut because you were the most expensive! It’s the most efficient way to cut costs, right? You may have not been as aligned with the new leadership or go-to-market strategy. It’s probably time to refresh your skills, sharpen the saw, and expand your horizons! What I’m talking about here is your internal self-talk AND your “packaging.” Are you a dejected, rejected, dime-a-dozen AE on the hunt? Or are you a senior-level, uber-expensive, in-demand revenue professional!? I thought so. 🙂
- Get clear on what you want. For decades I’ve made a hobby of helping great people find great companies, and every time I get an email requesting help, I reply asking them to detail their dream job. I don’t mean title and income (you DID think that didn’t you!?). I mean what industry, working with what kinds of customers? What will you be learning? What kind of product or service would make you proud? How will your boss treat you, how do sell, and how will you be led and fed? Go nuts on the wish list and ask questions about past peeves like work hours, development opportunities, bosses and mentors, facilities, friends at work, tools, and more! When we know exactly what we want, we can describe that for people and INSTANTLY get better referrals than a generic, “anything in SaaS.”
Try this: When I ask if you know someone who leads a new or growing sales team in the banking industry, runs an insurance house, or manages a team that sells into government, did your brain find someone? Could you feel it scanning deeper than, “Know anyone hiring?” When you help people picture someone they know, you’re more than halfway to a referral.I’m also a believer that putting it out there in the universe is necessary step #1 in bringing what we want to us!
- Brag a little. No, strike that. Brag a LOT. Your resume needs to be packed with results!
Numbers Are The Love Language Of All Sales Leaders!Get yours in order! What percent did you increase market share? Was there a spike in metrics under your leadership? How many quarters did you exceed quota? How about your team? Did you win any records? Awards? Listen, if the very best thing you did was reach quota consistently realize that is a WIN! If you’re still there, start running reports to shore up your data.
What else did you do? Customer satisfaction? Product development? Process documentation? Testimonial acquisition? New customer types? Lead with numbers and close with some voice of the customer. They’ll be lining up to talk to you!
- Call in the favors (by offering to help!) If you fear it’s coming but haven’t left yet, NOW is the time to work your network. Funny how our colleagues, customers, and friends lose our numbers when we leave (and listen, some actually do only know your work email). But a call from an employed friend calling to catch up and see how I am and how they can help me gets 10x the callbacks than my newly laid off buddy who wants to give me the Telenovela version of their unfair termination. So do as many favors as you can before you’re gone, so it’s easy to call up for the payback when you need it. Start your re-frame marketing campaign about where you’re headed and your desire to leave to move up or move on! Then find out how you can help THEM and do it. Reciprocity is real (and everyone will like you better.)
In short, approach this well-deserved break like the freaking diamond you are. There’s an international shortage of professional sellers – especially virtual sellers. Find an industry and company that’s thriving and package yourself as a FIND! I’m confident that YOU are something you can sell.
Good luck out there! If we can help you brush up on your selling skills at Factor 8 with free virtual sales BDR, AE, or Account Management training, please email us at info@factor8.com and mention this blog.
If you’re a woman in revenue leadership, please apply to join the #GirlsClub Sales Leadership Certification Program as a Protégé (new or aspiring manager) or Mentor (5+ years of leadership experience). Our amazing sponsors will help foot the bill.
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Human-Centered Communication [Digital Book]
Human-Centered Communication
[Digital Book]