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Writer's pictureMatt J - Founder & CEO

2 Common Denominators of Top Performing Sales people

Updated: Jul 2, 2020

Are you frustrated with sales people delivering inconsistent revenue numbers?
Is your company struggling to stand out from your competition, because your sales team don’t communicate your value proposition concisely?

I’ve hired and trained several successful sales teams in the UAE and early on I faced similar frustrations, until I discovered the two common denominators that connected each of my top performing sales people. Once I figured these two differentiators out, it laser focused my hiring and sales training strategy and enabled me to consistently have the majority of sales people delivering at or above their sales targets. It also resulted in much happier customers and an increase in repeat business and account growth.


Common denominator #1 - their ability to invite their customers into a story


A lot of sales people do a reasonable job of telling their company story, how they have helped other companies and how great their product or service is… But, a lot of sales people also fail to beat their sales targets each month. The consistent difference with top sales people, is they recognize that customers are not interested in your company story, how many years you have been around or the latest award your company has won. These sales people know that customers are looking for someone to be their guide and help them solve a specific problem that’s causing them frustration – its about the customer, not your company.


So, how are they doing it?


They seek out 3 key pieces of information about their key stakeholders:


a. What the customer wants

b. What’s getting in the way of what the customer wants

c. And how that’s causing the customer to feel frustrated


They validate what their customers are looking to achieve:


a. What will life look like if this customer engages with the product or service?

b. What does success look like for the individual stakeholders within the customers business?


They validate what their customers are looking to avoid:


a. What are the consequences of not taking action and engaging with the product or service?

b. What’s at risk for the customer contact personally if they don’t resolve the problem they are facing?


With this information, these Top Sales people are able to connect the product / solution back to the customers specific needs and, more specifically, describe how the customer can resolve the internal frustration being caused by this problem. Finally, they are able to remind the customer what’s at risk if they don’t engage with you and how great life could be if they do. This is all a delicate balancing act, but with the write messaging in each sales conversation, sales e-mail and proposal, the results are astounding.


Common denominator #2 - their ability to challenge their customers thinking.


As opposed to being too focused on maintaining the status quo with the relationship with that customer.


What does that look like in real terms? Well, on one hand we have the sales person that every customer likes, enjoys spending time in meetings with but rarely challenges a customers thinking because they are too busy worrying that they might not like hearing the kind truth.


On the other hand, we have the sales person that challenges the prevailing assumptions in their customers business, challenges the stakeholders to take action and trust the company to solve their problem, enabling them to move faster, innovate quicker, save time or whatever value it is your company adds.


Whilst the first type of sales person is well liked, they will consistently close less business and under-perform against the sales person who isn’t afraid to challenge.


What can you do about it?




 

Check out our 5 strategies to get your sales teams closing more sales and make sure you finish 2019 strong and kick off 2020 with your sales team on top form.


 

If you need help building sales capability, sales tools, sales scripts or a sales enablement strategy, click here to schedule a discovery call with One Zebra and we’ll talk through your challenges and discuss how we might leverage the power of storytelling and artificial intelligence to get your sales team consistently beating your competition.


In the meantime, click here to check out this customer testimonial video from Tyler (CEO of Turner Adjusting), sharing his experience of working with One Zebra.

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