If the Wolf of Wall Street, Glengarry GlenRoss or Jerry MaGuire are to be believed, salespeople are only motivated by money. Surely that’s why they’re in the profession in the first place - to hit the targets and bring in the big bucks?

They hunger for it. They would step on their grandmas for it. They want you to show them it.

And, yes, in a study of more than 2,000 salespeople conducted by Barnett Consulting (Money Motivation in Sales People), 74% said their primary career motivation is money, while less than 25% disagreed with the statement “my most important goal is to make lots of money”. The report goes on to say that companies that put less emphasis on money are likely to attract less money-motivated people, which sounds like the antithesis of a good sales rep whose primary goal is, after all, to generate revenue.

But it’s not the only motivator.

Read the full article at: salesenablementcollective.com

How are you doing at overcoming sales obstacles currently? There are always obstacles in sales, but in our pandemic filled world, the obstacles are greater. However, the rewards are greater, too.

I’m going to walk you through 10 sales obstacles that salespeople are facing right now in the pandemic and what you can do to overcome them.

1. Hard to Get Leads

Right now, it’s just plain hard to get leads because the traditional methods of finding them are off the table. No longer do we have conferences, trade shows, exhibitions, etc. This is why you have to be able to create partnerships with people. You have to do a better job of defining your ICP, since now you can’t just expect thousands of people to drop by your booth at a trade show. That’s not even an option.

Know precisely who your ICP is so you can target that person through alternative methods – for example, online through social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), or direct mail. It all starts by understanding your ICP; that’s your first step.

2. Zero Motivation

Wow. This one is crushing a lot of salespeople. You have to understand that nobody can motivate you, except yourself. A strategy that I’ve shared before but will share again is to make a list of all of the successful outcomes that you’ve helped your customers create. I want you to write this down and put it next to your phone, computer,  desk, wherever – just as long as it’s in a prominent place where you look often. If you have the ability to help someone, then it’s your obligation to reach out to them.

You have to believe one hundred percent in the outcome that you can create. You might not be successful every day, and that’s ok. Don’t worry. Hey, there’s a lot of baseball players who strike out far more often than they get on base. But you know what? Once they get on base, it suddenly makes all that hard work and effort worthwhile.

Don’t expect every day to be all roses. It won’t happen. However, stay focused on the outcomes you can create and believe that you can make a difference. In every one of your daily conversations, it must be your goal and desire to earn the right to privilege, honor and respect to be able to talk with that person again.

3. Everyone’s Confused

You’re right, everyone is bewildered, yet this is what makes your job even better and greater than before. Customers don’t know what they don’t know, because of all the information out there. The world has become noisier than ever, primarily due to the Internet. Everyone is confused. This is why you have to do your job of asking questions and engaging in conversations. Right now, the exchanges we have with people are more important than ever.

In addition, I want to go back to ICP, your ideal customer profile. The more you stay in your lane focused on your ICP, the more you’ll be seen as the expert and able to share insights to help bring clarity to your customers.

4. Nobody Wants to Buy

Well, that’s just a flat-out cheap excuse. There is still a lot of business happening out there. Yes, I get that it may vary by industry. However, customers want to buy and they will, if you give them the reason to buy.

It’s starts with your thinking. This is why the greatest obstacle to overcome is your own mind. Yes, it starts with you and your thoughts. When you hear that nobody wants to buy, that’s not true. People want to buy when given a reason to do so.

5. Prices are Too High

Price has always been an issue, but right now in a pandemic, price has become an even bigger issue. Again, you have to come back and ask yourself: are you creating the right value?

You may need to make some tweaks in how you’re offering your product like in how you present the product or the packages that you’re offering, but your prices are not too high if you’re providing outcomes. Remember, there are two types of meat out there – hamburger and the New York strip steak. They’re both meat, but they sell for different prices and deliver different outcomes.

Know the outcome. You create the market in which you go after. Your price is not too high.

6. Bad Customers, Bad Leads

You’re right that these two go together. You see, salespeople become so desperate that they begin having conversations with anybody and everybody. They begin to listen to that person, talk to that person, and so on and so forth. In doing so, they end up opening themselves up to bad customers.

Bad customers do come in all kinds of shapes, flavors, sizes and types; however, basically, they are customers that will never understand your value or how you can help them. Bad customers never value and appreciate you for who you are. That’s how bad customers come from bad leads. It comes back to remaining focused on your ICP. I can’t stress that enough.

7. Customers have Options

Yes, they do have options and they always have. The change that has come in relation to customer’s options has to do with geographic boundaries. Because of the pandemic, the geographic boundaries have significantly shifted. You used to be able to call this customer because you knew that you could physically go to them. Now, you can’t physically go see them. Suddenly, this means that the best person is not the person who walks to the door but the person who can be reached on the Internet.

Customers do have options, but that means that you also have options. I like that. It’s not bad, and it means two things. First, you have to increase your level of presence on the internet. Second, you have to increase the trust you create when you increase your presence. In other words, increase your circle or your sphere of influence.

You will be exposed to more customers again and more customers who have options. You have to create a level of trust, because when you create a level of trust, it’s amazing how the customer starts to view you as the person they want to buy from, rather than just somebody else.

8. Customers Won’t Make a Decision

This is no different than any other time. It just seems really magnified right now during the pandemic.

Customers won’t make a decision, because you haven’t given them a receipt. The number one person you’re selling against is the person who doesn’t make a decision. It’s not the customer who says that they won’t buy from you but somebody else. It’s really the customer who says they’re just not going to make a decision.

Why is that? Because you have not taken the time to engage with them. You’ve neglected to help them understand their critical need or reason. This is why I don’t think it’s about the number of leads you have, but rather the quality of the leads. Your objective is to spend more time with fewer prospects. When you do that, you’ll be able to understand each of your customers on a deeper level.

9. Too Much Ghosting

Yeah, it happens. Sometimes you have one conversation and then you struggle to engage with them again. This happens because people are busy.

If you’re not seen by the prospect / customer as being their first or second priority, in other words, if the outcome you create isn’t their number one or number two, they don’t have time for you because they’re dealing with so many issues. Immediately upon engaging them, you have to understand how you can become their number one or number two priority. It’s not that they love you more than somebody else. It’s about the outcome that you create. In other words, the outcomes you can help create for them is so crucial that they see it as their number or number two priority if it doesn’t fit in that wheelhouse.

Again, this goes back to why I emphasize needing to stay in your lane and focusing on your ICP. Ghosting also occurs, because you just haven’t followed the message that appears on every bottle of shampoo. If you don’t know, stop and go take a look at the bottle of shampoo in your shower. That bottle of shampoo has a couple of key words: rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

You have to be able to rinse and that doesn’t mean putting the same shampoo back in your hair. Every time, you apply fresh shampoo to your hair and repeat the process.

You have to be able to deliver that prospect with enough value, enough meat, and enough reason for them to need to speak with you again. That’s how your status goes from number four, five, or six on their priority list to number one or number two.

Read the full article at: thesaleshunter.com

Succeeding in sales is 95-percent mental. If you don’t think you can succeed or land a deal, you will ultimately be right. But if you can remain positive you have a huge competitive advantage.

In this decade, sales is a very challenging profession. The way businesses sell is constantly changing, and many sales reps are facing impossible deadlines, strict accountability, dozens of curveballs with each deal, and pipeline scrutiny from all sides.

But there is a secret weapon — positivity. A positive outlook is essential for every sales performer and is one of the keys to my personal success. Wondering how you can you be positive when you and your team are at 48-percent to the plan with two days left in the month?

Or when you have to hit a high goal without any marketing support? Or when the deal you promised your manager and director you’d close this month just doesn’t happen?

It turns out staying positive in sales is all about your attitude. In 2008, Brian Halligan asked me to do a presentation at HubSpot called "Dan Tyre on Attitude". I was flattered but surprised that he wanted me to speak on that subject matter. So I asked my co-workers if they thought I was an authority on staying positive and they unanimously agreed.

It turns out, unbeknownst to me, that I had a very positive attitude about just about everything.

Based on experience I learned that staying positive had a big benefit to my sales performance, for my beautiful partner Amy, for my family (who complain periodically that my positivity is flat out annoying) as well as for my prospects, customers, co-workers and community.

So much of staying positive comes down to perspective and mindset. It’s all about the lens through which you see your job, your day to day tasks, and your career. As Wayne Dyer said, change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.

Here’s what Mike Noonan, Growth Specialist at HubSpot says about staying positive in sales:

"In order to stay positive, you have to focus on what you can control. If I can control or influence an outcome, then I will. If I have no control over something, by definition I can’t do anything about it, so what’s the benefit of worrying?

Understand what you could’ve done differently and move on. Of course this is easier said than done and it takes practice, but this mindset pays in the long run..

When it comes to staying positive in sales, a lot of it boils down to your 'why'. Why are you in sales? Why do you work at your company specifically?

If you know why you do what you do, it makes it easier to focus on your goals while being able to ride the ebbs and flows that come with any sales job. I love my job, I believe in our product and our vision, and I have awesome coworkers and team members, so that keeps me positive."

Staying positive also means remembering you are not your number. Jill Fratianne, HubSpot North American Channel Account Manager, frequently reminds me that your quota is not an indication of your effort, your thoughtfulness, or your values. "If you worry a little bit every day in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years," she jokes.

"If something is wrong, fix it if you can, but train yourself to not worry, Worry never fixes anything."

That also means cutting yourself a break and recognizing that you are going to be faced with some trying times. When the going gets tough, implement the following strategies to help you stay positive.

How to Stay Positive in Sales

1. Write out your annual goals and make them visible.

Goal setting is one of the best reinforcements you can have for staying positive in sales. According to Dr. Heidi Halvorson, author of the book Succeed, goals can be one of the biggest factors that impact your attitude because you focus on the positive outcomes rather than the nitty gritty problems. It also helps if you break down those goals into an annual plan for attainment.

Marlon De Assis-Fernandez, HubSpot SMB Growth Specialist in North America has the best spreadsheet for attainment staying positive I have ever seen. It breaks out everything he has to do for the year, with quota relief, number of deals, and deal size so he knows every day where he stands.

Where most sales people are worried about their standing for the month or quarter, Marlon has the data updated daily so he can avoid the emotional turmoil and stay positive because he always knows exactly where he stands, and how much progress he’s made towards his goals. He says:

"By planning, and visualizing their goals, salespeople are able to visualize worse case scenarios in detail. Especially those that give them fear or prevent them from taking action.

Through visualizing it and playing out the worst case you’ll find yourself able to come up with a better game plan to get out of that difficult situation and take action and by definition stay more grounded and positive."

Essentially, keeping your goals front and center and preparing for challenges before they arise are helpful best practices for salespeople of all levels.

2. Create a vision board.

This is a fun way to remind yourself of your key priorities. A vision board is a digital or physical compilation of pictures of what you want and desire for your career and/or personal life. This can include major purchases, travel destinations or big milestones.

Looking at your vision board should help you feel motivated to not sweat the details and keep you moving in the right direction.

3. Have a strong foundation.

Good health is not something to take for granted. According to Harvard Health, the three pillars of performance are eating right, getting enough sleep and exercising. In a demanding field such as sales, these are critical activities that can help you keep a positive mindset.

When salespeople get cranky or are experiencing burnout, it could mean it is time to take a step back and focus on self-care.

4. Incorporate more humor into your day.

Find a good joke, pun, haiku or sales phrase that makes you, and people you engage with happy. The ability to laugh at yourself or break the ice with appropriate humor can help you feel more positive.

If you aren’t comfortable bringing the jokes, you can try adding stand-up from your favorite comedian to your playlist to get through the day with a bit more positivity.

5. Turn on your favorite playlist.

A good playlist is essential. Nothing gets me smiling and ready for my next sales call more than a great playlist of motivational tunes. Some of my favorite artists to listen to when I need to pump myself up are Aerosmith, Tool, and Government Mule. I have several motivating playlists to lift my spirits when I need it most.

6. Look at all your mistakes, even the big ones as learning experiences.

Though making mistakes can be painful and costly, they are one of our experiences to learn from. I sometimes ask reps to make a list of the three mistakes they make most often so they recognize and remember them, don’t obsess over them, and realize making mistakes is part of the learning process of becoming a better salesperson.

7. Create a shameless self promotion folder for future reference.

I learned this tip from Katharine Fischer, HubSpot CAM NA. She mentioned if I sent her a nice email she was going to save it in her SSP folder. "What is an SSP folder? " I asked. She explained that SSP stood for "shameless self promotion," and she looked at her SSP folder when she needed a reminder of how good she was most of the time.

Now, every time I receive a message complimenting my work I save it to my SSP folder. I have hundreds of emails from people, so when I verge into negative territory, I know just where to look.

8. Prioritize positive connections.

There are always three people in your network who make you feel great. Identify those three people in your network and when you are having a bad day, check in with them. I usually call them and say "Remind me why I am a good person, again?" They should be able to tell you your best attributes which can give you a boost when you need one.

Taking a critical look at your network, you can likely also identify three individuals who skew you towards the negative. Be mindful of when and how you contact these folks, especially if you’re working your way out of a rut.

9. Focus on relationship-building.

Kathleen Rush, North American Channel Account Manager for HubSpot is one of the most positive people I know and is a big believer in building relationships to stay positive. She says:

"When you work in sales, every call or meeting is a fresh start. Whether this is your first call with a particular prospect or the tenth, you have the power to make incremental changes to better your chances at closing or at least better your approach.

If a call doesn’t go your way, there is hope in the next call. The same is true of your quota. If you didn’t hit your quota, there is some small change you can make to better your chances the next month or quarter."

10. Find inspiration in your co-workers.

This is another best practice from Kathleen Rush. She is constantly looking to her colleagues for inspiration and knowledge. Here’s her advice:

"Everyone on your team brings something unique to their roles and they understand exactly what you are going through. Learn from them."

Sales professionals are approaching the coming year with a sense of guarded optimism because the next months are an opportunity to return to normalcy. As a result, more sales teams are gaining the confidence to finally start making long-term plans again. For most, these plans include developing new selling skills to capitalizing on a global recovery.

As the recovery takes shape, selling organizations will need to become:

1. More agile to track changing customer needs
2. More influential to guide the customer’s thinking
3. More adept in virtual outreach

These three skills will be critical for success in the environment that awaits in 2021. Customers change direction faster than ever, more factors shape their thinking, and their expectations for streamlined virtual engagement are high.

Read the full article at: www.richardson.com

This puts sales leaders in a precarious position. With limited resources and mounting pressure, how can you build a strategy that’s sure to succeed? Luckily, the trends that will come to define the future of business-to-business sales are already taking shape.

From the death of traditional sales team structures to the accelerating adoption of revenue team enablement strategies, here are five trends that are defining the future of B2B sales, with insight from new Forrester research.

GOING ALL-IN ON DIGITAL ENGAGEMENTS

Don’t spend too long mourning the loss of on-site meetings and events — they’ve been on the downward trend for some time now.

In fact, Forrester reported that buyers have long turned a skeptical eye towards in-person engagements: “As early as 2017, business buyers were disillusioned with the onsite sales meeting, as one in five buyers stated they preferred not to meet with a sales rep in person. In a May 2020 Forrester Analytics Business Technographics® study evaluating the efficacy of various B2B sales and marketing methods and routes post-COVID-19, 38% of respondents said the in-person sales meeting had decreased in value.” (The Democratization of B2B Sales, Forrester Research, Inc., August 3, 2020).

This means that while the occasional deal may have been cinched by a face-to-face meeting, sellers can — and should — effectively engage buyers virtually. Boost your digital interactions with simple behavioral changes: instead of sharing slide decks via web conferences, encourage sellers to keep their video front-and-center to maintain eye contact and keep buyers focused. Additionally, push sellers to observe buyer reactions during calls and use them to draw them deeper into the conversation — validate ideas, offer tailored insights, and ask tactical questions.

With a strategic re-thinking of your sales tactics, you can ensure that regardless of the medium your sellers are making customer conversations count.

SHIFTING SALES STRUCTURES

Businesses leveraging entirely remote or hybrid teams are also seeing the opportunity to shake up traditional, hierarchical sales organization structures. This shift reflects a convergence of digital-native sellers and buyers in one place: as buyers increasingly engage online, the typical digital prospecting activities of ADRs and SDRs suddenly seem perfectly suited to closing deals, rather than just qualifying accounts.

As a result, leaders are rethinking the siloed sales approach. Forrester found that “sales leaders can use relationship analytics to identify the account manager who has the best and deepest relationships with an account or key contacts within the account, buyer behavioral data to match account- and contact-level preferred buying motions with sellers who can deliver those experiences, and pod structures to deepen an account team’s expertise and increase overall buyer responsiveness” (The Democratization of B2B Sales, Forrester Research, Inc., August 3, 2020).

In short, don’t hold back a deal because the person most likely to close it isn’t an account executive. Breaking free of the traditional hierarchies that have long defined sales organization structure can be an effective method of maximizing your sales output per head.

RESKILLING AND UPSKILLING EXISTING SALESPEOPLE

Closely related to the above is a trend toward a renewed focus on sales training and coaching efforts. This is an area that can be quite expensive for businesses to maintain; as such, it is typically first to the chopping block whenever uncertainty looms.

But Forrester recommends doubling down instead: “Training is typically one of the first budget items to be cut in tough times, but that’s a mistake in this setting. If you don’t have the funds, reallocate them from elsewhere” (The Democratization of B2B Sales, Forrester Research, Inc., August 3, 2020). Considering the conversational techniques sellers will need to master to thrive in all-digital sales scenarios, combined with new responsibilities due to shifting organizational structures, this recommendation comes as no surprise.

Make your renewed investment count by focusing on reskilling and upskilling sellers to deliver flawless omnichannel interactions. Think about the tactical behavior shifts that sellers will need to close deals and build training around those changes. Some solutions may be as simple as refreshing your sales guidance; others may require a larger initiative to implement. In both cases, investing in your sellers’ skills now will ensure they are prepared to meet every challenge in a shifting sales landscape.

Read the full article at: www.highspot.com