A common question I ask myself during my commute to work: “How do I continue to drive value within our company and maintain existing momentum during the sales process?”
Some might ask, “Why do you talk to yourself about sales stuff while driving?” Great question.
First off, I need to pass time.
Second, I love sales, and I genuinely want our customers and company to be hyper-successful.
But most importantly, organizations do not make buying decisions when value has not been identified, communicated and continuously added throughout the entire sales process. Organizations don’t buy facts, features or speeds/feeds. Most don’t care about your product or how visually appealing the user interface is (well, not enough to make a purchasing decision based solely on that). Organizations are focused on solving critical business problems.
We’ve all participated in engaging conversations, rocking on-site visits and bulls-eye discovery meetings. These are important sales inputs to drive meaningful revenue outputs.
I know it sounds like an amateur thing to say, but adding value to maintain momentum continues to be a major miss with many sales organizations, teams and reps. Here are some tips to help:
10 Tips to Maintain Sales Momentum
- Be resourceful. Build custom business cases. I prepare personalized business cases for prospects based on their needs and objectives.
- Develop ROI documents. Do the math for prospects so they can see how much value your product will add
- Identify & gain SOE (sequence of events) commitment. Propose next steps for your prospect.
- Build rapport. Make them laugh. Send unique emails that stand out from the hundreds of other messages in their inbox.
- Be a thought leader. Bring insightful information and discussions to prospects on topics relevant to their company, industry or career.
- Avoid Low-value touches. Don’t ever say “I wanted to check-in to discuss how your conversation went internally” or “I just wanted to touch base.”
- Listen more, talk less. Talking too much will 100% negatively impact your sales process. As we say at LevelEleven, you have two ears and one mouth – use them in proportion. Be humble, ask questions and don’t talk so much!
- Don’t be reactive. The worst thing you can do is let an opportunity fade away by waiting for them to respond instead of starting a conversation yourself with a high-value touch.
- Do research. Master personalized outreach.
- Be a customer advocate. More than anything, the modern sales rep is an educator and advisor for their prospects. Let them know that helping them with their main objectives is your goal.
This is a daily exercise that should be part of your ongoing sales schedule. Keep this in mind, and start asking yourself a few of these questions this week. You’ll be on your way to maintaining serious sales momentum.
