Welcome to the Sales Playbook Word of The Day. We have a collection of meaningful words with explanation and examples that will help and empower sales professionals in the beginning and during their sales careers. These impactful words and their understanding are useful across all stages of a sales pipeline, will help to build trust, credibility and ultimately lead to closing more sales!
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A mission defines and upholds not just what you stand for as a company, but also as a department or even your individual role. It is important to unite brand and culture directly with your mission. If all employees or team members buy into your mission it will result in a higher level of engagement and positive work culture, which keeps everybody invested in the good work your company does as they about their day to day tasks.
Team members who understand their mission generally express a higher level of loyalty and as a result remain within a given organization longer, which ultimately costs companies less in the long term. Mission driven leaders are able to effectively establish the “why” and “how” their organization exists and are able to successfully align the team and individual tasks directly to the mission! Remember a mission drives, improves and builds engagement successfully, so be sure to tie your mission directly to your teams culture! – Ben James
Being determined is a key attribute of great salespeople which allows them to be successful where others might fail. If a salesperson is determined it will allow them to persist in their efforts to obtain new clients, achieve their goals and deliver the results they have forecasted. Here are a few actions that can set determined sales professionals apart from average ones and change the status-quo:
Mindset – Creating a successful mindset comes from the way you talk to yourself and from being focused on victory and achieving goals. Forget the negative and connect your mind to the positive!
Self-Awareness – Are you taking care of your needs, getting enough rest, centering your activities around your goals? Being organized is key to being self-aware!
Collaboration – Be sure to collaborate with groups who are solving similar problems. Can you reach out to or join communities who are involved in elevating the work you’re doing.
Experimentation – Try new approaches. Don’t get stuck trying to force what you have got used to doing if it is not taking you to the next level. Trying new things can open up potential opportunities that otherwise may not surface without experimenting. This is relevant in both your professional and personal life – Ben James
Simply put empathy is the ability to know or more importantly understand what someone is thinking or feeling. Empathy is the emotional intelligence skill that if a salesperson can master will enable them to build trust with a prospect or a lasting relationship with a customer. This is because people want to buy from salespeople that understand them. Examples of how having empathy can help:
The Pain – Salespeople that have an understanding of what the prospect feels can gain more extensive insights into a customer’s pain, they are more likely to open up and expand on their explanation if they feel they’re talking to someone that understands them!
Build Rapport – When salespeople show genuine empathy, prospects or customers can feel a greater connection to that person, they begin to trust that person and ultimately communicate on a more extensive level. Thus a relationship is born!
Your Solution – If a salesperson is clear about the prospect’s pains, needs, wants and desires they are in a much stronger position to fully understand what their solution actually brings to that person and can address this effectively!
Next Steps – Salespeople who master the skill of empathy can find it easier to arrange next steps. Whether this is arranging a meeting, closing the sale or achieving a referral. Prospects and customers who feel that someone fully understands them and their situation are less likely to move to a competitor and highly likely to refer you to people they know that you can help or support in the same way! – Ben James
Great salespeople have been using storytelling for years instead of just listing features and benefits when conversing with a prospect or customer. They know, often instinctively, that telling a story has the most powerful impact and paves the way for more closed deals in their pipelines. One of the best narratives to use for your brand storytelling approach is the client as the hero. When creating your story it is better to create this around how you can help and support the prospect or customer in achieving his or her goal(s)! By understanding that you’re supporting your hero’s success you automatically feel the need to learn and understand more about your prospect’s perspective, pains and their need(s).
The three main parts of your story will provide a compelling opening, then describe how working with your brand conquers obstacles, reduces their pain and ultimately increases their success. Your story should finish with a clear call to action, which could be a scheduled meeting, a signed contract or a referral. Reiterate how the partnership with your brand will feature your prospect or customer as an ever evolving and/or more powerful hero! – Ben James
Success in any endeavor cannot be achieved without some sacrifice! If you want to become a salesperson who consistently achieves target/quota and makes a good living, then you’ll need to sacrifice certain things in your life to make the time. Time to thoroughly learn your product, time to build and maintain your industry knowledge, time to know your prospects, their business and requirements, time to read books, listen to podcasts or watch/ attend training and the list goes on!
If you’re a leader you will need to find time to support your team, time to understand each member, time to simplify processes, time to invest in new tech and tools to them achieve their goals and this list goes on! You can’t magically conjure up additional time. So, if you want to succeed, if you want to be the best, earn more money, get a promotion… You will need to choose what to sacrifice to give you that time! – Ben James