What’s Working? Top Tips from Sales Leaders

My third post in a series following our “Friends of Factor 8 Open Bar” with top leaders across multiple industries, this post will share the top tip that they brought to share of what’s working for them with their colleagues. The advice flows into four key areas: My team, My talk track, My training, and My strategy. Here’s the summary of what leaders shared:

1. My team:

Focusing on sales team morale: daily “stand ups” / 1:1 check in’s / WFH productivity tips / increased coaching / more communication / metrics and goal changes 

2. My talk track:

Everyone is leading with empathy: longer conversations with customers about COVID effects on their business / more listening / more human connection and deeper learning

3. My training:

Using professional outside trainers for new ideas and motivation / mindset training / objection handling / resilience and persistence training and book clubs

4. My strategy:

Focusing on growing existing accounts / focusing on customer retention / focusing on long term partnerships and future opportunity / focusing on selling to different buyers (finance)

I like that we see more focus than ever on team morale and health. And I also love that folks are having more human connections with their customers. I hope we see overall consumer trust of sales people climbing fast into double digits.

My two favorite: 

1. We now have to sell to finance and that means we need some new sales tools, talk tracks, questions, proof points…
2. Our people need new skills. Folks, I sell training for a living so of COURSE I love this one, but I love the topics discussed. Got a field team or a very new inside team? You need the phone skills we sell right now to help them work phones better and faster so they don’t die on their own out there. But things we ALL need (including me) are skills around resilience. YES! Mindset. Duh. Objection handling. HELL YEAH! 

I hope you find these insights as helpful as I do. These conversations help me keep the pulse on public opinion, the health of sales and sellers, and the voice of the collective customer out there. Now is the time to share openly with each other and help us all get there.