Four Signs You’re Out of Touch with Modern Sales Strategy

Technology is shaking the foundation of sales. Remember when outbound sales used to be the state of affairs? When salespeople drove numbers with cold calls, door knocks, and hard closes?

A-B-C.

Always.

Be.

Closing.

Put that coffee down! Coffee is for closers only.

"Judging by these droppings, we can deduce a closer is nearby."

Well, it was. Now, not so much. I walked past three coffee shops this morning, with a lot of people in them. And they weren’t closers. They were students, business people, and mothers and fathers and sons and daughters. Some with complicated and specific orders. Some with simple ones. All very clear on what they wanted.

Welcome to the world of immediate information. By the time your leads come to you, they know exactly what they want, and exactly why they want it. From the very first moment you speak to them, they know more about you and your products than ever before.

The future of sales strategy is centered on inbound strategy. And salespeople are transforming to meet the future head on. Once cold-calling closers, they’re turning into conversational consultants.

If you’re a sales manager, you probably feel the pressure to transform. However, are you up to speed with the changing landscape?

Four Signs You Might Be Out of Touch

1. You can’t tell where your salespeople need training. Salespeople need a different set of skills than they did ten years ago. How do you know what your team needs to be trained on? Or similarly, when you pay for training, how do you know what’s sticking and what isn’t?

2. You don’t know where your salespeople are excelling. You can’t be on every call and in every meeting. So how do you know when your team is doing well? If you’re relying on anecdotes and month-end numbers to determine success, maybe it’s time to rethink your strategy.

3. You can’t get an accurate assessment of pipeline. You can’t be in every sales meeting nor follow up with every prospect personally and yet, sometimes it feels like you need to be to more accurately predict the likelihood of a deal closing. How can you better predict the chances of a deal moving ahead?

4. Your salespeople waste too much time chasing unicorn sales. Time is of the essence. Every minute your sales team chases a going-nowhere sale is a minute they’re not spending with someone else. So how can you help them get to “No” quicker, so they can move on?

If you’re showing any of these four signs, it might be in your best interest to check out the PeopleMetrics Voice of the Prospect solution. It’s a simple SaaS-based solution that allows you to get feedback from your prospects after every sales touchpoint and take action as necessary.

"Which one of you is Steve?"  "No one is Steve, sir."

Fixing the Four Signs with Voice of the Prospect

1. You can’t tell where your salespeople need training. Feedback from prospects can give you a better perspective of where your salespeople need help. That way you can train for specific skills requested by the customers that show up at your doorstep.

2. You don’t know where your salespeople are excelling. Voice of the Prospect can also tell you what your salespeople are doing right. This has two benefits. You’ll be able to avoid unnecessary training, and you’ll also be able to determine which team members are good at which skills, so you can better coordinate their efforts.

3. You can’t get an accurate assessment of pipeline. Prospect feedback can also give you more accurate predictions over the outcome of a deal. You’ll have the ability review specific feedback and intervene as necessary. It can transform your sales funnel into one where you have more line of sight and control over the outcomes.

4. Your salespeople waste too much time chasing unicorn sales. Voice of the Prospect can help you get to “No” quicker, so your team can move on to better leads. If a prospect doesn’t respond to a feedback invitation to tell you how valuable the meeting with your rep was, it’s a pretty good sign that they’re not going to buy.

The demands of your customers are changing. They’re a different breed, so the traditional approaches and skill sets are evolving to keep up. If you’re truly interested in meeting the needs of your prospects, then consider asking them to weigh in on the value of your sales meetings and touchpoints. They’ll know from the start that you’re interested in their happiness, and you’ll have a lot more information to help you improve your sales and close more deals.

Sound interesting? Call us to talk about how Voice of the Prospect can help your business, or download our Voice of the Prospect one-pager:

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