This is part of our series covering the best of Dreamforce 2016. Click here to read more.
Sales productivity is always a focus at Dreamforce. But sometimes, there’s so much information that it’s hard to determine what’s important for you, as a sales leader.
That’s why we’re putting together a series on the best ideas, strategies and technology that came from the conference. First, we looked at the “Top Trends In Sales” panel, moderated by Salesforce product marketing director Tim Clarke. The panel also featured:
- Maria Valdivieso, Director of Knowledge for Marketing and Sales, McKinsey & Company (@M_Valdivieso1)
- Will Anastas, SVP of Enterprise Corporate Sales, Salesforce (@salesforce)
- Walter Rogers, CEO, CCI Global Holdings (@walterrogers)
These sales leaders discussed how to leverage new trends for increasing sales productivity from your sales team and technology, all while keeping in touch with the modern buyer.
Watch the full broadcast here.
If you don’t have time to watch the whole recording now, check out our highlights:
Expert sales productivity tips from ‘Top Trends In Sales’
- “Stand out from the herd of salespeople that are showing up with the same information that [you] have … Provide that point of view that is authentic, genuine and empathetic that will help you break through and separate yourself from everyone else who’s trying to sell to this individual.” – Will Anastas (@salesforce)
- “You’d be amazed at what difference it can make in getting an email response when you take the words ‘me,’ ‘I,’ and ‘we’ out of your email completely and focus them all on the word ‘you’ and what’s important to the other person. Your response rates will go up probably about 50 percent.” – Walter Rogers (@walterrogers)
- “Vision is critical. It needs to be a top-down vision. It needs to be aligned. But at the same time, you need to have the frontline buy-in, and they need to understand what’s in it for them … Beyond that, you have to think about how you’re going to provide them with role models; how you’re going to provide them the tools, training and coaching for them to be able to successfully move through this transformation.”- Maria Valdivieso (@M_Valdivieso1)
- “Curiosity is probably one of the single most important traits and values that a salesperson should have. And that comes to self-development around your own personal sales curiosity about your customer – -about your customer’s customer — because if you don’t take the time to study and read and get better, yourself, there is no way you’re going to help your customer. And there’s no way the customer is going to have trust in you.” – Walter Rogers (@walterrogers)
- “Start with the customer. Hear what your customer has to tell you. Understand what their problems are and how you can help them build their solutions. Make sure you always stay with a customer-centric strategy.” – Maria Valdivieso (@M_Valdivieso1)
- “Look at your account base and if you’ve got a lot of accounts, pick your top ten [accounts] and focus and double down on those. Really, really study and understand their corporate initiatives and imperatives … It’s all publicly available information for the most part, and try to make your own mental connection on how you can help with those imperatives.” – Walter Rogers (@walterrogers)
- “Go and be your customer. Go out and have an authentic experience around the customer – prospect – and actually feel what it’s like to be a customer of that brand. And take those insights that you gained, and play them back to your customer prospect. And you’ll be amazing at how quickly you can get to some high-level meetings.” – Will Anastas (@salesforce)
- “When I look across many organizations I work with, too many sales reps are spending too little time with customers. And spending time with customers is absolutely critical. And I think what sales organizations need to do is free up the time. They need to free up time for them to be with customers. And also, they need to free up the time for them to be trained and coached.” – Maria Valdivieso (@M_Valdivieso1)
Don’t forget to watch the full panel session for more useful information. Are there any top trends in modern sales that you think these leaders missed? Let us know in the comments below!
